BOOKMONGER
Chilling out at 50 below
Memoir tells the story of a teacher in Alaska
As preface to her new memoir, “Life at
Fifty Below Zero,” author Christina Reagle
provides this note: “50° degrees below zero
or minus 50 means it is 82° degrees below
freezing (Fahrenheit). That is damn cold.”
This is why I picked up this book one
recent sweltering afternoon, hoping it might
fool me into feeling cooler.
In spring 1972, Reagle and her husband
were a young Bay Area couple interested
in simplifying their lifestyle. Reagle was a
teacher and her husband, Jed, was complet-
ing his fi nal semester before getting his Cal-
ifornia teaching license.
On a whim, they met with recruiters who
had come to the Bay Area looking for teach-
ers to work in the Alaskan bush. The inter-
view included an unusual question: did they
12 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
and become positive,”
Reagle recalls.
They were assigned
to a school in a remote
know what a Honey Bucket was and how to
empty one?
They fi gured teaching
in Alaska for a year would
This Week’s Book
be fun. When they got the
call, they promptly boxed
‘Life at Fifty Below Zero’ by Christina Reagle
up their belongings, traded
Wild Eagle Publishing — 388 pp — $18
in their VolksWagen and
MGB for a Toyota Land
Cruiser, and headed up the
coast.
When they reached the Alaska A LCAN
village on the Yukon
highway, their trip was made memorable
River, where the
with beautiful scenery, hordes of mosqui-
only building that
toes, fl at tires and drenching rain.
had indoor plumb-
“Getting wetter and wetter by the minute, ing (of sorts) was the
made me realize I agreed to this adventure
schoolhouse. Hence
so it was time to put on my big girl pants
the H oney Bucket
question.
They threw them-
selves into village
life, participating in
local customs such
as berry-picking
and Slaviq (Russian
Orthodox Christ-
mas). They joined
in the excitement
of following Alas-
ka’s fi rst Iditarod
that winter. They
witnessed the fro-
zen Yukon River
break up and fl ow
free again in May.
Reagle was pregnant by the end of their
fi rst year. The couple signed on for another
year of teaching and transferred to another
village.
Reagle stayed in Alaska for 33 years.
Her
observations are chatty and direct.
ORIGINAL FINE ART
She covers the experiences of teaching in
schools all over Alaska while raising two
on the waterfront
sons, caring for a growing passel of sled
port of ilwaco, wa
dogs, then reinventing her life as an edu-
cational administrator in Juneau after her
divorce.
marie-powell.com
This memoir also discusses the important
360-244-0800
changes that were taking place in Alaska’s
education system and society over Reagle’s
time there. I ssues of equity came to the
forefront and missionary-style teaching
methods were phased out in favor of more
culturally and linguistically relevant meth-
ods and curricula. Reagle became deeply
involved in promoting this transition.
After her sons were grown, Reagle
moved to Oregon and was hired by Western
Oregon University.
“Live at Fifty Below Zero” refl ects on a
full life that has been as much about learn-
ing as about teaching. It’s a good book to
chill out with.
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
McMichael, who writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, authors and publish-
ers of the Pacifi c Northwest. Contact her at
bkmonger@nwlink.com.