Crazies In Alaska? (Fairbanks, Wasilla, Flat: how much, college, live in)

[warptman]

I have lots of issues...Dirt Bike, Photography, Playboy(for the articles).....

[warptman]

Oh, some of my best friends are white, African American, European...

[Glitch]

I'm not so sure colonelpoop moving to Alaska is a good thing. Anyone who picks a nick like that has to be crazy.

[blue_eyedgirl]

Live in Fbks for 6 years now and YES there are lots of crazies in AK. I think far more than in the rest of the states. I'm from the south and accustomed to "southern hospitality" trust me hospitality is not a trait that is readily available amongst most people here. Not that everyone is rude and mean because I have made a ton of great friends here but there are many more eccentrics. I don't know if its that eccentrics are drawn here or if the place draws the weirdness out of the people. Don't expect normal day to day nice-ities from Alaskans because you won't get it. Manners and hygeine are not common.

[Wrennie]

Originally Posted by blue_eyedgirl

Manners and hygeine are not common.

Ouch.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Originally Posted by blue_eyedgirl

Live in Fbks for 6 years now and YES there are lots of crazies in AK. I think far more than in the rest of the states. I'm from the south and accustomed to "southern hospitality" trust me hospitality is not a trait that is readily available amongst most people here. Not that everyone is rude and mean because I have made a ton of great friends here but there are many more eccentrics. I don't know if its that eccentrics are drawn here or if the place draws the weirdness out of the people. Don't expect normal day to day nice-ities from Alaskans because you won't get it. Manners and hygeine are not common.

I've lived in the South and have found "Southern Hospitality" to be a cover-up for being nosey and trying to figure out what you can get from someone. If you happen to be a person that has nothing to "give" that hospitality turns to hostility pretty darned quick. Of course, that might have been because I'm one of the introverted, eccentric types I think how a person experiences a place has a lot to do with what they're used to... I'm military and have lived all over, but my family is all from Philadelphia. Having "Yankee" parents and my own basic temperament goes well with the New England, and oft time Alaskan, ways of staying out of other people's business, not bothering them with useless small-talk and only offering help when someone asks for it. In these places, that's what we call manners. But, if you're from somewhere else where people are more social and interactive, such aloofness might be considered rude. Of course, Yanks and Alaskans might think that the southern perkiness is rude and respond accordingly... so there you go, it's all in your expectations.

I never had a problem with Alaskan's being inhospitable when I lived there before, and now that I'm moving back people are being very helpful with offers to show me the ropes or give me a place to stay temporarily. I did notice that *sometimes* hygiene seemed to be a problem... but that was usually someone coming back from a hunting/camping trip or someone coming in from their bush cabin... can't really fault someone for having a bit of a funky stank going on when they've been without running water for a while I never ran into anyone who was dangerously, unhealthily unhygenic though... not even in the most remote village.

[blue_eyedgirl]

MissingAll4Seasons, good luck with your time in AK. I think you'll fit in just fine.

[Rance]

There is no way near the crazy here I experienced in the lower 48. I lived in Arkansas on a couple occasions. Some of those hillbillies wrote the book on crazy. And I've seen stuff in Florida that convinced me some of those folks actually read the book!

[rotorhead]

There's really only two kinds of drunks in Alaska... the indoor type, and the outdoor type.

It's hard to rigidly define these groups since there's considerable motility between the classifications, it's highly variant depending on the season. Like many creatures native to the arctic regions, the Alaska drunk has several distinct color phases which help to maintain a low-key appearance with the changing seasons. While the overall activity level remains relatively constant throughout the year, much of the Alaska drunks distinctive behaviors occur indoors in winter and are therefore harder to observe. Survival rates among the outdoor type (while never particularly high) tend to decrease markedly in winter leading to poor reproductive rates.

Regardless of type, all Alaskan drunks can be tracked through the usual method of following their spoor. The most obvious of course is the everpresent trail of empty containers littering the landscape. If you watch closely, you'll also observe the presence of many of the following, more subtle traces: vehicular mayhem, chronic incarceration, frequent hospitalization, broken promises & families. You can also track them by the relative lack of certain signs, namely through lost lives, jobs and opportunities.

Don't make the beginners mistake of seeing the outdoor drunks and assuming that you're seeing the only ones. While the indoor drunk may have a slightly different outward appearance it's still the same species (the two subtypes do interbreed) and although more difficult to observe it's by far the more numerous of the two types.

[Classic Satch]

I guess I don't have enough experience to legitimately comment but I've had nothing but great experiences so far. The day the semi-trailer parked in our driveway and we started moving in, three neighbors stopped in to say hi. The following Sunday, 2 more stopped by, within 30 minutes of each other, bearing cookies and banana bread. Then we were invited to a dinner at the neighbor's last weekend where we met even more folks in our neighborhood.

This has never, ever, happened to my wife and I before. People where we live are so friendly and hospitable as to be frightening. We live in a horse-property subdivision where everyone has 4-10 acres of land and everyone shares hay, vets, and farriers. My wife and I couldn't be happier. Plus, if the word is put out ahead of time, any shenanigans towards one's house while away would be met by the aforesaid neighbor's gunfire. Gotta love that!!

Moving to Alaska is one of the best decisions that my wife and I have ever made and we couldn't be happier. And that's the God's honest truth.