In 1971 Chuck, Sara and the
girls moved to Cottonwood, a BIA school on the Navajo reservation near
Chinle, Arizona. Edna and Gleason visited that year, and a half-German
Shepherd pup named Snoopy joined the family. The next year brought the
Hukills, their station wagon and their dog to Pueblo Pintado, a
boarding school in northwestern New Mexico, where Traci began
kindergarten. Pintado was hard on Gretchen, who was basically terrified
of the older kids every minute of the daily 40-mile bus ride to school
(one way!). In 1974 the family moved to Wide Ruins, Arizona, where they
settled for the next three years. Many stray animals were adopted, many
trips were made between Wide Ruins and Albuquerque, and many wonderful
friendships were forged.
One of the most precious was with Dennis
and Anne Harris, fellow BIA
teachers who had also taught in Alaska and who lived some 40 miles away
at Hunter's Point with their sons Kent, Joel and Andrew. The families
had many good times together, as Dennis and Anne recall in an
anniversary message to their old friends.
Chuck and
Sara, if you only knew how often
we've thought of you in
recent years, wondering where you are and how you are! What a wealth of
memories we have! The fun Title 1 get-togethers, the funny
incidents and horror stories told by Sara and Dennis concerning Joe
Ramey, J.C. Post, Walt Kelly and a host of others, the frazzled nerves
before a monitoring visit are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
No doubt the
best times, however, were the weekends our families spent
together at the Four Seasons in Albuquerque. Such fun! You introduced
us to the place and also to Roberto, who still cuts Anne's hair. By the
way, he's married again, and seems to be very content and happy.
The pictures
here were taken in August during our inside passage cruise
in Alaska. Sara and Chuck, we wish you the very best and congratulate
you on your 50th anniversary!
Love,
Dennis and
Anne
Arrival back in the lower 48 also meant the opportunity to reconnect
with family including Sara's dear cousin Ann Fox, who lived with her
husband Norman and family in Bernalillo, just up the road from
Albuquerque. For years the Foxes and the Hukills had a standing date
for Thanksgiving, which always meant a bunch of rowdy fun for Leslie,
Tony, Gina, Laurie, Gretchen and Traci and probably a lot of headaches
for the grown-ups. There was one Thanksgiving in particular that Ann
recalls...
Norman, Laurie, Ann and
Virginia in 1988
I remember one
Thanksgiving with you out
at Wide Ruins we got snowed
in. and we watched all those slides until we thought we would die. We
brought our Costa Rica slides, and your neighbor had been in Colombia
or somewhere, and he brought his slides over, and y'all dug out Alaska
slides. We spent ALL DAY looking at slides, and I never wanted to see
another slide. We were all so bored!
I remember
that was a great snow. There were four inches on the top of
our car. I have a picture of it. I remember Sara kept going to stand in
the pantry and look at the food, going, "Oh, I hope we have enough!"
When we heard that storm was coming we said, maybe we should go, and
your folks said, well, stay if you want to and we said, well, we'll
have to stay until we can get out. It was a good visit.
I always
thought we had fun when we got together. I don't know why we
didn't do it more often.
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