Saturday, May 28, 2016

Rescued By an Alaskan

Note: This happened around 1980 or 1981. There were no cell phones then. Today you might actualy get someone at this location now or not on your cell phone. Reception is still often hit or miss in this location even today.


I was living with my family 10 miles from the nearest town (McCloud) Gas Station, phone or small town or store and presently I was at least 5 miles from the nearest home or house which may or may not have been occupied that time of day. My fan belt had broken on my 1976 VW Rabbit. My wife and I were capable of jogging back to our house to warm up because it was about 20 degrees out in a 20 mile per hour wind. We were starting to get scared because the car couldn't run without a fan belt without destroying the engine before we got to safety and we didn't have a lot of money then just cars and property with an A-Frame on it that we lived in with a spring running on the land. So, my wife and I were worried because I didn't have a replacement fan belt on board even though I had tools to fix my car in emergencies. So, this pickup truck drives up and the guy says, "What's wrong?"

I told him the fan belt broke and the car couldn't be driven without destroying it presently. He said, "I think I have a fan belt that would fit that behind my truck seat. (And he did). He replaced the fan belt and I offered to pay him for his time and the fan belt.

He said "I'm from Alaska where we all would die if we didn't help each other. Just help the next person that needs help out here that you see."

And I did.

So, I thanked him profusely for saving the 5 of us that day because we were pretty worried for our kids even though my wife and I by ourselves could have jogged back to our cabin several miles, the kids were too little to make it. So, he literally saved our lives and saved us or our kids from frostbite.

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