Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
We adjourned to the Cordova Classic B-ball Tourney at the Bidarki Gymnasium. The
word “classic” in this case does not refer to the style of play. You must be thirty-five or
older to participate and the most important piece of equipment is the knee brace. The
Green Team, sponsored by Guido's Pizza, was eating everyone's lunch; they had won the
game I watched the day before 104-61. They were very tall. After a few minutes, Rhonda
said thoughtfully, “Hmmmm. So any of you guys going to be out tonight?” which only
goes to show that high school is never very far away from any of us.
“The refs are from Anchorage,” people told me, seeming to think that explained why
the two referees weren't calling any fouls. I think the refs took one look and agreed
between themselves not to call anything less than a fistfight; if they had the games would
have lasted eight and a half hours, each. Experienced spectators referred to it as “rat ball.”
Rhonda said, even more thoughtfully, “Maybe they should think about having a medic on
standby next year.”
For the culinarily inclined, it is entirely possible to eat your way right through the Cor-
dova Iceworm Festival. Saturday began with breakfast at St. Joseph's Parish, where five
bucks bought a plateful of scrambled eggs, reindeer sausage fried with potatoes and green
peppers, pancakes, coffee, and orange juice. At parade time the Elks Lodge dispensed
cups of free chili and the Pioneer Igloo free ice cream. At three o'clock there was a clam
chowder cook-off at the Coho Bar, then back to the Elks Lodge for burgers, nachos, more
chili, and French dip sandwiches from 5 to 9 p.m. That is if you can tear yourself away
from the steak and shrimp feed at the Powder House. On Sunday you can waddle over to
the Food Faire at the Cordova High School gymnasium for twenty different kinds of
cheesecake, if you don't get bogged down in the deep-fried halibut.
The evenings belong to music. At seven o'clock the Air Force Band of the Pacific
broke out the brass at the Cordova High School gymnasium. Guy Hunt was at the Coho
Bar, and at the Powder House Hobo Jim played old favorites like “I Did the Iditarod
Trail” and “Honey Let Me In” and “The Mom Song” and “The Heart Has a Say In It,
Too,” and then he started in on some blues slide guitar with an empty beer bottle.
It was one o'clock when Hobo packed it in but my cousin Hank and I were still awake
so we cruised on up to the Alaskan Bar where Joe Fender and the 55s were doing their
best imitation of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. At three o'clock a couple of very buff young
