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Nome, Sunday, January 7, 2007

“Nome?” said Beverly, the American Airlines ticket agent checking me into my outbound flight yesterday. “Nome, as in Alaska?”

“Yes,” I answered. “Am I the first one you’ve checked in to Nome today?”

“Honey,” she said peering over the top of her bifocals. “You’re the first person I’ve checked in to Nome ever – and I have been with the airlines for 41 years…”

This does not surprise me, after having spent 24 hours in Nome at 20 below zero. Nome, population 3950, is  best known as the finish line for the Iditarod sled dog race - it averages between zero and 10 below in January.  “Nome is home to the desperate, the disillusioned, the hollow-eyed, the surrendered,” wrote Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post (May 1, 2005) “The exiles, the castaways, the cutthroats, the half dead and the fully juiced - Nome is the end of the Earth.”

I was traveling to Nome as the staging area for my volunteer trip to Gambell, Alaska, a village of 649 Yup’ik Eskimos situated at the western most end of St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait. Gambell is the closest that the U.S. gets to Russia -  just 38 miles. In fact it is closer to Siberia than it is to any other town on U.S. soil.

Yup’iks are subsistence hunters and fishermen and they have populated this region for at least 2000 years. They were here well before Columbus “discovered” America and very possibly before the Indians populated the American southwest. This island was part of Russia until the U.S. purchased the territory (which would later become Alaska) in 1867. (The entire state region was purchased for about 2 cents per acre, and even at that price it was considered overpriced – “Russia has sold America a sucked orange….” was how the deal was reported in the press at the time.  In fact the purchase was known as "Seward’s Folly," for William Seward, the Secretary of State who made bought the territory.)

Yup’iks number around 20,000, scattered all over the western portion of Alaska (and far eastern Siberia) in villages of 150-700 individuals. (Yup’ik translates to “real person,” not unlike the Navajo word for themselves – “Dine” – which translates to “The People”)

Spoken Yup’ik sounds remarkably similar to spoken Navajo, characterized by guttural sounds and glottal stops. My quick evaluation shows that they do not use the following letters (except in proper names): B, D, F, H, J, M, N, O, or X. I wonder if there is a Scrabble tournament in the Yup’ik language – would be tough…

During the last ice age (from about 20,000 – 8000 years ago) much of the water in what is now the Bering Strait was locked up in glaciers, exposing a 200 mile wide land bridge between Russia and North America. Experts agree that humans traveled over this land in search of game. Some groups expanded to the east (northern Alaska and Canada) eventually becoming the Inupiats and Inuvialuits. Others traveled southward along the coast becoming Yup’iks and Inuits.

NOME observations: Everyone knows the sun rises in the East and sets in the West – but that’s not entirely true this far north. Sunrise here is preceded by a very slow lightening of the sky in the south east. After what seems waaaay too long, the sun eases above the frozen Bering Sea, sort of sliding along the horizon a bit to the left of south. It seems to roll along the ice before lifting off in a minor arch, winding up no higher than three fingers width (at arms length) above the horizon before slowly dropping back toward the ocean. The sunset is as slow as the sunrise, but the sun appears more like a bright orange cotton ball, surrounded by fuzz and when it finally sets, it is not far to the left of south.

The sign outside the Nome Nugget Hotel points “North Pole – 1759 miles.”

“People in Nome know each other by the truck they drive,” says Stephen Fetzer, Manager of the Dental Clinic. They usually leave them unlocked and running when they go in the Safeway, the town’s only grocery store. “I suppose if someone ever did steal someone truck, everyone would wonder ‘What was Jim doing driving Mark’s truck?’”  Most trucks are connected to the house at night by an electrical extension cord, almost like a dog chained to it doghouse by a leash. The cord keeps the engine block warm over the long night. The police department leaves one truck running all night long – just in case… And gas in Nome $3.95 per gallon.

I noticed that most of the homes in Nome have their drapes shut all the time – initially it seemed to me that if I lived in a place with so little sunshine, I would want the drapes open to let is as much light as possible. After just one day it became clear – the drapes are closed to keep the light in and the darkness out…

Gambell, Monday, January 8, 2007

 We caught the morning flight on Bering Air to Gambell – ok, it is the only flight to Gambell. We were met at the airstrip (it can’t really be called an airport) by a team of snowmobiles and ATVs for the one mile trip across the tundra to the clinic building. Although we landed at 11 am, it was dark as night – in fact it was still night. The sun will not come up for another hour or so.

The clinic building is a red trailer like building in the center of the village. I throw my gear in the tiny bunk room and the phone starts ringing. By noon, (one hour after we arrived) the entire week’s schedule is booked solid (4 eleven hour days) and there is already the wrangling for me to start earlier in the morning and stay later at night…..

St. Louis snow is a friendly snow, the sort of snow you might craft into a cute snowman. Gambell, Alaska, snow is mean. It makes fun of you, St. Louis snow and the whole world. It stings like a million needles on exposed skin and piles up and over the small frame houses that make up the village. It blocks out the moon and the streetlights (“streetlights” is used here to describe the bright lights atop poles here and there in the village. There are no streets at all so technically, I suppose, they are not “streetlights.”)

There is windstorm hammering at the windows and the snow seems hell bent on getting in here where it is warm … a least for now. I took off my glove to try to videotape the blizzard. I lasted exactly 30 seconds, and it then took 4 minutes for the feeling in my fingers to return completely.

My kids used to marvel at “See Your Breath” weather. Up here, you not only see your breath – you see it and your last two breaths. The steam does not disperse – it hangs around your head in thick white clouds as though waiting for permission to leave. The inhale on the other hand – ouch! I learned very quickly that, at this temperature (20 below zero…) it is more comfortable to inhale slowly in very shallow breaths. A deep breath caused me chest pain and a headache like the kind you get from sucking down a 32 ounce Slurpy in one gulp. (By the way, the temperature routinely gets down to 40 below zero, 2 degrees below the freezing point of mercury. There are surprisingly few thermometers around here for a place that has such remarkable temperatures, but they don’t care what the actual number is. They have to live through whatever nature dishes out, so why bother to check?)

Tonight the native artists started showing up – ivory, bone and baleen carvers and seal skin stitchers. Some of the work was fine, some haphazard, but all started at the price they could “not take less than,” and then went down from there. I noticed that the prices fell fastest if there was more than one artisan waiting to show his wares. One peculiar piece was an “Eskimo cube,” a 6-sided soft cube made of seal skin with attractive beadwork on each side. It was not immediately clear to me what it was used for and I asked - three people all said, almost at once, “It is for the top of your TV set!” (Does it improve reception? Do you use it to dust the screen?) Apparently it is merely a traditional TV set decoration, but since it still smelled a whole lot like dead seal, I passed.

There is a sign on the front door of the clinic building “People have disappeared during PFD – be careful – don’t carry cash – don’t travel alone.” PFD is the “Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend,” an amount of money paid by the Federal Government to Alaskans (not just native Alaskans but all state residents) in exchange for the state’s  mineral and petroleum reserves. The PFD can Range from a $800 to $1300 per person. It is not tied to property owned or age or length of time you’ve been a resident. Sounds like a great deal for Alaskans, right? Well, in Gambell anyway, gas runs $5:50 per gallon and an apple costs $1.25 (and cigarettes are more than $60 per carton).

Gambell, Tuesday Jan 9 2007

Here is a list of the names of the patients on the schedule for today:

Apangolook
Koningok
Boolown
Apossingok
Nowpowatuk
Apatiki
Uglowook
Slwooko

And yes, Bob Dylan fans, there is a “Quinn the Eskimo.” (I am aware of the HIPAA regulations preventing me from sharing detailed patient information, but these names are so common up here in Gambell that I have at least three patients with any of the above last names, so I don’t feel I have betrayed that professional trust…)

A blizzard is defined as “35 mile an hour winds with concurrent snow and temperature of zero or below.” A blizzard is raging outside, shaking the building and no one seems the slightest bit concerned. In fact, they tell me there is a silver lining. Temperatures are expected to “soar” to above zero as a result of the "warm front," which makes the walrus and seal hunters happy. I have arranged to take a short snowmobile tour with a native out on the pack ice at lunchtime, but I was warned that if seals or walrus should appear, the tour is definitely postponed. Hunting takes precedence over everything else in the village.

DENTAL NOTES: In the clinic we see far more women that men. I am told (by the women) that men are “afraid.” This is exceedingly hard for me to understand – these men hunt things with large teeth using harpoons and shotguns on ice of unknown thickness in weather that can kill people or at the very least cause body parts to fall off, and they are afraid of the dentist? I think it is more that just that – cultural or machismo or merely lack of interest. But one is certain – every single man I have met could benefit from our help.

I am impressed with how similar the Yup’ik anterior teeth are to those of the patients I see from China as well as the Navajos. Extremely thick enamel, exaggerated height of contour, pronounced lingual axial line angles and prominent cingulum. And don’t get me started on the length of the canine roots. Learned the hard way…))

When I was a boy, I learned  that Eskimos have 20 or so different words for snow. That seemed fantastic to me, but, of course, like most things we were taught in elementary school, it was wrong. This quaint notion was based on the fact that there are at least 20 different and distinct Eskimo languages and each has a single word for snow. It would be as if the World Book Encyclopedia in the 1950s included an entry which read "White people have more the 20 words for "water" - there would be French, English, German, Polish, etc.

Despite the blizzard I plan to take a walk after my breakfast of Power Bars and instant coffee – a brief walk, but a walk…

/X.CON.PAFG.BZ.W.0001.000000T0000Z-070110T1500Z/

...BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM AST WEDNESDAY... A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM AST WEDNESDAY. BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING. SOUTHEAST WINDS OF 30 TO 45 MPH ARE EXPECTED ALONG WITH A STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL OF 8 INCHES. A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS AND POOR VISIBILITIES WILL CAUSE WHITEOUT CONDITIONS AND MAKE ANY TRAVEL OR OUTDOOR ACTIVITY HAZARDOUS.

The walk was shorter than I imagined, despite long underwear, snow pants and Coast Guard foul weather gear. I made it about 20 yards from the clinic when I realized I could no longer see the building because of the ferocious blowing snow. I videoed for maybe 30 seconds, attempting to keep a light in the middle of the frame – the resulting film should be pretty clear. I couldn’t do it. The high winds blasting the clinic building sound like a Midwestern thunder storm – a guttural rumbling punctuated by deafening cracks (although here the cracks are not atmospheric in nature, but merely the 25 year old building’s joints).

Took a ride to the store on a four wheeler – no more than half a mile, but 6 minutes in 35 mile an hour winds and driving snow was more than enough. The driver, Dan Kanhok, has lived here all his life and even he had to pause halfway to the store to get his bearings. “I know every snow drift and bare patch in this village, but when it is blowing so hard, I can’t keep my eyes open.” By the time we got there, I was very ready for it to be over.

Charlene Apagalook, age 56, happily translated “One Fish Two Fish” Dr. Seuss into Yup'ik and then read it into my iPod for me to record. In the background of the recording you can clearly hear the wind pummeling the building. We had a couple of "no shows" this afternoon on account of the weather, but THIS is some serious weather. If I cannot personally walk a hundred feet in any weather, then my patients have no business attempting to make a dental appointment. That said, 17 of the 20 patients made it in.

NOTE TO SELF: Never, NEVER, touch the metal door knob of the clinic without wearing gloves, even the inside metal door knob.

Gambell, Wednesday Jan 10, 2007

HA,  everyone in St. Louis! It is 30 degrees here in Gambell, Alaska,  but just 27 degrees down there. We’re having a heat wave! There are news flashes in the rest of the state about the horrible storms in Anchorage, far far to the south east of here. (Those storms started out here in the Bering Sea. But it is like the old question “if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound?” There are so few humans here on St. Lawrence Island that the storm was not considered significant, but half the population of Alaska lives in Anchorage, hence the classification as a "Major Storm." (Major Storm would be a great name for an action figure if it isn't already in use....) Forty-eight hours ago it was 30 below zero here – today it is 60 degrees warmer. I have never experienced any temperature change like that in my life.

I can see the "streetlights" 50 yards from the clinic. That was not possible yesterday. The wind, which at full intensity sounded like a jet aircraft taking off in the backyard, is gone. I am planning to take my tour out on the pack ice at noon today. I am going with Mark Koonooka, a local ivory carver who has never left the island in his 45 years.

St. Lawrence is a crooked little island shaped sort of like a potato chip, about 175 miles in length. There is another village named Savoonga about 39 miles (as the Arctic Tern flies), but there are no roads on the island so the only way to get there (if you wanted to) is by boat (during the three months of summer), snowmobile or by air. You could walk too and that is not uncommon when the weather cooperates, which is infrequently. That village is about the same size as Gambell – about 700 people. It is one of only two Alaska native villages that still rely predominantly on dog sleds for transportation in the winter.

((Dental Notes: I did surgery on a 19th month old boy yesterday during the height of the storm – even thought the child was strapped to a “papoose board” he was still rather unhappy and only marginally cooperative. That combined with the fact that the building was being buffeted by 45 mile an hour winds made for a “challenging” dental visit. I hate the papoose board almost as much as the youngest patients do. It is used like a straightjacket to prevent movement and is always accompanied by horrible screaming. Up here I have to remind myself that the only alternative is a two hour, $175 airplane trip to Nome for the work to be done under anesthesia. This child was in serious shape and would have worsened if I had not completed the procedure yesterday as the airport was closed. The teenage and adult patients are remarkably non-communicative. Maybe it is me, but my assistant says it is not – they are not willing or able to articulate their concerns or complaints. They make an appointment for a “toothache,” but when I ask them about it, the answer is uniformly “I don’t know.” That is the same answer I get when I ask the younger patients if that could be anything in the world when they finish school, what would it be – “I don’t know….” The school principle remarked to me how frustrating it is to get his students to formulate a goal, dream or plan – “The answer is always ‘I don’t know.’”

I saw some men in clinic, but only because 1) they are in excruciating pain OR 2) they are physically dragged in by a woman (mother or wife). The incidence of Class III malocclusion (underbite) is about 60%, ten times higher than Caucasian population. I am wondering it that is in any way related to the fact that in the olden days (75-100 years) the teeth were used to soften the seal and walrus skin by chewing on fat beneath the underside of the pelt. That would be far easier in a class III jaw alignment. Also  #7 and #10 are very often in liguoversion. No clue what to make of that.))

Everyone here knows “The Flight” arrives at 10:39AM – Bering Air from Nome, Gambell's connection with the outside world. It carries the mail and “stuff” for the tiny store. At this point the store is limited to about 400 packages of hamburger and hot dog buns (although it has neither hot dogs or hamburger...), some decade’s old canned food and about 30 cases of Mountain Dew. They also carry an impressive array of hardware and often Mastodon teeth and walrus ivory for the local artists to carve. I was told yesterday by one carver that he did not have much art to show because “even the store is out of ivory.” Since 1972 and the passage of the Marine Mammal Act, only natives are permitted to hunt seal, walrus and whale and are the only ones permitted to carve ivory - non-native artists are restricted to carving bone and fossilized ivory.

There are two churches in Gambell, essentially trailers built (like almost every other structure here) on stilts - this serves 2 purposes. The space beneath the building aids in insulation and the pilings prevent sinking into the permafrost. The church denominations are Presbyterian and Seventh Day Adventist but no one I have asked has been able to tell me which is most popular..

Gambell is a “dry” settlement – alcohol is not officially sold here, which means there is a well organized black market. Home brew is widely available, but there are stiff penalties if caught making it or selling it. There are restrictions against bringing alcohol in from the states – the penalty for transporting a fifth of hard liquor in from Nome is around $500 – this results in a “value” for that same fifth here in Gambell of about $300.

Despite the omnipresent “Don’t Smoke” signs posted in the clinic, the school, the store and the post office, almost every adult (and by that I mean over 16 years of age) smokes. The posters which really caught my eye though are the ones that read “Suicide is not the answer…” The rate of suicide here is at least 200 times the national average. There are three or four every year most often teenagers.

Gambell Thurs Jan 11, 2007

Here are some examples of Yup’ik language:

White people =  Lu’uramka (pronounced Lull-oo-rum-ka)

Hello = Haay (yes, pronouced "hey!")

Tooth = Guta (pronounced who-ta)

Walrus = Ayveg (pronounced eye-vek)

Seal = Neghsaq (pronounced neh-sack)

Snow = Aniigu (pronounced a-knee-wu)

Ice = Siku (pronounced si-ko)

Dad = Ata

Mom = Naa

Grandpa = Apa

Yesterday’s “heat wave” was very short lived – the temperature held around 32 degrees for maybe 5 hours before dropping back down into the teens. The warm weather was accompanied by lots of activity outside – people zipping up and down the terrain in ATVs (they call these "Hondas" even if they are not Honda brand - sort of like we might call facial tissues "Kleenex") and snowmobiles (which they call “snowmachines”), many artists dropping by the clinic to share their wares. Then the sky let go of a massive amount of snow, visibility fell and the outside activity  dissipated. By the end of work today (8 pm) about a foot and a half of new snow had fallen, piling in drifts to my waist.

Here is something I learned about snow today – at 30 degrees, you will sink in to moderately packed snow but that same snow bank at 15 degrees will hold you just fine. Another thing – it is far easier to walk with the wind in a blizzard than against it – like a thousand times easier. Also, if there are no handles on the "Honda" when getting a ride on the back, hold on to the fenders or risk being tossed off in what might look to be a comical manner but is not funny in the slightest.

I purchased some ivory and bone carvings today from local natives (of course everyone "local" is a "native.” There only about 14 non-natives in all of Gambell – all the school teachers, two health care workers plus me, temporarily ), and saw some incredible dolls made from seal skin, polar bear fur, ivory, and baleen mounted on a fossilized whale vertebra.

It is hard for me to imagine living in a land in which nothing green grows above ankle height. I saw a 12 year old boy yesterday who loves to read encyclopedias - his favorite topic is "plants." His goal is to see a tree -that's it - any tree. I found it interesting that there were Christmas tree decorations in the school classrooms but there isn’t an actual pine tree for 500 miles.

Gambell is 230 miles from Nome, but it is still possible to order a pizza to be delivered. Airport Pizza (want to guess what it is adjacent to?) will send cooked pizzas on the daily Bering Air flight. I am told they are usually still warm when they arrive at the airport, but my guess is that in the winter they aren’t so warm after the half mile trek by snowmachine to the village. The cost, including the air shipping, is about $25, not including tip (and who, exactly, do you tip?). By the way, you have to call the order in the night before since the plane leaves Nome at 9:15am.

Speaking of food, I am eating most dehydrated “backpack” style meals – they are tasty but incredibly salty. So far the best one was the Chicken Stew, although it would have been better for dinner instead of breakfast. My case of Power Bars lasted just 3 days. Still have not had the chance to try walrus, seal or whale, but I have mentioned it to patients and staff who seem sort of interested in sharing (I have learned that the winter is when Yup’iks try to spend more time together- supposedly sharing food and gifts is an important part of their culture.)

The clinic building feels a bit like a submarine. The quarters are quite cramped, very efficiently laid out, making use of every space. During the day, all of my gear is in the closet-sized bedroom which I share with my assistant Sharon. After clinic hours, we move our gear into the operatory to make a narrow space to get to the bunk beds. Also like a submarine, it is very inconvenient to go outside, we only have what we brought with us, there is a constant noise of plumbing and compressors and we are usually out of communication with the rest of the world.

In Gambell there is a 10pm curfew for kids under 18 years of age - that is they must be in their own house by 10pm on school nights or the parents are fined. And kids are allowed to drive the Hondas and snowmachines at age 16 but most start around age 12 - it is hard to tell the age of a driver bundled in heavy winter gear.

((DENTAL NOTES: The patients seem remarkably sensitive to the minor bad taste of the dental materials we use, refusing to swallow even trace amounts of toothpaste. They moan and motion if any water or saliva collects in their mouth. This surprises me particularly because they eat things that my St. Louis patients would not put in their mouth voluntarily for any amount of money. Saw a woman yesterday who looked and acted remarkably different than the rest of the Yup'ik natives – her hair was dyed and she wore makeup, both highly unusual. She spoke with a much broader vocabulary than the other women I have treated, although her dentition was similar - a dozen or more cavities, many missing teeth. They tell me she is the wealthiest woman on the island, the result of a tragic medical mistake at the Indian Health Service in Nome - she collected a large settlement from the hospital and now lives far better than the rest of the village.))

Gambell Friday January 12, 2007

Eskimos were “discovered” by “civilized” man less than 200 years ago. Of course they had been living in the Arctic regions for thousands of years, but the first recorded contact by Western man was in 1818 when Scottish sea captain John Ross encountered them during his search for the Northwest Passage. Initially the Eskimos thought the British ships were from outer space, asking if they were” from the Sun or the moon.” Subsequent British expeditions considered the Eskimos “picturesque” and  “foolish” totally ignoring their success in the frozen world. Needless to say the British, who continued to function in typical stiff Brit fashion, failed in every attempt to explore the Polar region.

Robert Peary, who claimed to have reached the North Pole in 1909 (don’t believe it for a minute), learned from the Eskimos, adopting their style of dress and hunting techniques. His Polar expeditions were far more successful as a result. Even so, he considered the Eskimos as having been placed on Earth for his personal use in his quest to reach the Pole. The Eskimos mostly ignored the visits of the explorers, and it wasn’t until the Cold War that their lives were significantly impacted by the rest of the world. The construction of the Dew-Line radar installations in Greenland brought more money and people to the frozen Northern reaches, permanently changing the Eskimo life. More recently the arrival of satellite dishes and the Internet have had an even more profound impact Eskimo culture and lifestyle. (I am almost done sounding like the World Book Encyclopedia….)

Yesterday I had my first pair of teenage boys wearing baggy pants around the knees in a style mimicking the “slackers” down in the “Lower 48.” As silly as teenagers look with blue jeans hanging off their butt in the Galleria, it looks even MORE ridiculous when those baggy trousers are snow pants. And how “cool” is it to dress like that when you can literally freeze your ass off in 15 minutes?

Speaking of frostbite, about a third of the adult patients  I have seen have obvious sign of previous frostbite, usually on the forehead or cheek. One man had area the size of a CD on his elbow which had been surgically grafted several time. He explained that his snowmachine crashed and he was knocked out, and he wasn’t discovered for an hour. The only damage he had was “this little area,” indicating his frostbitten arm. Oh yeah, and the concussion. (speaking of head injuries, I have only seen one person wearing a helmet on these “Hondas” or snowmachines. I learned that the only reason he was wearing one was that he was still recovering from the “cracked skull” he got in a previous accident. I fully expect him to return the loaner helmet to the clinic the very minute he is permitted to do so. These vehicles criss-cross the village at top speed, day and night (some without lights). There are no traffic rules or right of way. I hope to get a photo of one of these 5 or 6 year olds at the controls while the dad is on the back trying to light a cigarette. The sight is almost funny. Almost.

Polar bears are common up here, but apparently not common enough for some natives. Polar bear meat is eaten whenever possible (but the liver is consumed only in small portions as it is extremely high in vitamin A which is toxic). It is often cooked in a stew, but is best “frozen then eaten raw,” or so I am told. No one has any to share right now. The Polar bear is the world’s largest predator, weighing up to 1,000 pounds. It has better eyesight and keener sense of smell than the brown bear or grizzly bear. The Gambell School basketball team is known as the Nanooks, which means Polar bear. They have the skin of an 11 foot Polar bear mounted on the gymnasium wall. It was a gift from the family of a student who hung herself. It was meant to represent strength and courage for the other students.

The school has about 165 students from pre-kindergarten – high school. The curriculum seems to be a couple of years behind what is covered in St. Louis. Exactly 2 of the 24 children I have treated have told me they have a “favorite class” (both science) but NONE can report anything specific they’d like to do when they finish school (ok, in general, about half have said they’d like to “get a job” but never anything specific like “teacher” “pilot” “fireman,” etc).

Basketball is a community event, and this weekend (and next) there are kids flying in from competing school’s on the mainland for a tournament. Tickets are $1 and going fast. Basketball has been THE sport at every Native American village I have visited. When missionaries arrived to save their souls, they brought with them bibles and basketballs.

A few more words about the Native Store: they carry a bizarre array of goods - incense, car air fresheners (there are no cars here…), underwear, Karaoke CDs (Brittney Spears…), cake mixes (but no eggs or mile to mix them with),  gallon jars of pickles, liquid propane fittings, bicycles (this sounds almost reasonable until you realize that the only time the ground is firm is when the temperature is below zero – otherwise the ground is made up of walnut sized smooth rocks which make even walking a chore), candy (and lots of it) – mostly the store has empty shelves, though. A miniature can of tuna fish cost $4.35.

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