11 Comments
Mar 14Liked by Michael R Dougherty

My family and I visited Anchorage in 1962 . It was part of an extensive vacation that year. Being that I was only ten at the time memories are faint but I do remember taking several trips to areas just outside of the town limits.(Farms,glaciers, etc.) However the best memory was having breakfast at the "Frisco Cafe"! What a breakfast. We were deeply saddened a few years later when the earthquake happen and we saw our favorite spot had sunken 10 plus feet below street level.(Picture was in Life mag or Saturday Evening Post)

My brother and I still talk about this and the great memories of this area.

Thanks, sincerely, Ron Wilder

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Ron - Great memories and thank you for sharing.

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Mar 13Liked by Michael R Dougherty

There is so much to learn and read about Soldotna, Great folk's work and live there!

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love the history nuggets for Soldotna. There have been a few histories of the communities on the Kenai by local historians. I have those. Was any ever written for Soldotna? Kasilof? etc.? Our weekend outings, of the mid-1950's and very early 1960's, were generally to Hidden Lake and Seward or all the way down in Homer.

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Randall - Yes, some folks from Soldotna and other peninsula communities should write about their local history. Fun memories.

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and valuable for this and next generations of Alaskans. I wish Chugiak, Peters Creek, and communities north to Butte, would do the same. I communicated with two individuals initially from Chugiak area with some hand drawn maps of their "memories" back when Jana Nelson had her site (prior to her death from cancer). Something I wish others from our "lost generation" of 40's and 50's would write about.

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Mar 10Liked by Michael R Dougherty

Love Soldotna, very beautiful. Great memories of our bowling teams from Bethel attending the Alaska State Bowling Tournament in Soldotna a couple of times at the Gold Strike Lanes and Sal's Klondike Diner which are both gone now. The very first 300 game in the State Tournament history was bowled there by Frank Fitka from Bethel...Great memories!

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Michael - Do you still bowl?

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We went to the Alaska State Tournament every year for 20 years or so until our bowling alley in Bethel closed. I didn't bowl again until I retired and moved from Bethel to Oregon. I started again 7 years ago and now bowl on two senior leagues every week during the Fall and Winter months.

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Mar 10Liked by Michael R Dougherty

In the late 1960s my Air Force buddies and I would spend a lot of summer days fishing the Kenai River at Soldotna, and also many other glorious fishing spots on the Kenai. I recall fondly the “combat fishing” for reds at the Kenai/Russian River confluence. Great memories.

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Jim - Yes, fishing on the Kenai peninsula was great.

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