We fled the East Coast

This Saturday marks the 56th anniversary of the day my wife and I promised we would hang around together for the rest of our lives.

That has worked out pretty well, at least as far as I am concerned. And I think she kind of feels the same way. If she didn’t I’m sure I would have had my bachelorhood handed back to me a long time ago.

We were living in Massachusetts then, where we were both born. I was a reporter for The Worcester Telegram and presumed that I would continue typing out articles there for the rest of my working life.

Little did I know that my lovely bride had a sense of adventure that outshined mine by a few megawatts. A year later, quite near our first anniversary, she broached the idea of moving to Alaska.

Actually we got scared after putting a down-payment on a house in Massachusetts. That made us think we would be tying ourselves down before we had ever been anywhere. I had spent time in New Jersey and Georgia, attending Army basic training and signal school, and got to New York occasionally. But never really got off the East Coast.

We decided we should move to either Alaska or Australia, the two most distant and exciting destinations we could imagine.

I applied for a job at The Anchorage Times and got an offer, so we quit our jobs in the Bay State and took off cross-country. We got here 55 years ago next August. And I am so glad we did.

If we hadn’t bolted from New England I would probably have spent my career in either Boston or New York, which some of my friends did. The pay would have been better and we would have been close to the big-city entertainment venues but within an easy drive of the New England beaches.

Those would have been attractive benefits but Alaska was then, and still is, a place of great adventure. Like Alaska, New England has great scenery and recreational opportunities, but it doesn’t have the sense of adventure that our state does. And that makes all the difference.

We have two sons and four grandchildren (three boys and a girl) all living in Alaska and the State of Washington. For grandparents these days, that’s a nice compact geographic range.

We got here when the State of Alaska was a relatively new state, just eight years old, and have lived here during those robust years when it was maturing into a place with a strong economy, a magnificent environment and ever-growing potential.

Things can go haywire here and occasionally do, but what Alaska has to offer is essentially unchanging. And those who come here, either by choice or by assignment by a company or the military, often decide to stay.

As you can tell by reading this I am still writing, which remains my favorite preoccupation. And I am very happy that my bride once suggested that we come here. She has had jobs that paid far more than mine, and had commensurate benefits, but I have enjoyed my work.

So my decision to ask for her hand back in 1966 has proved to be a very good one.

Tom Brennan is an Anchorage columnist and author of six books. He was a reporter/columnist for The Anchorage Times and an editor and columnist at The Voice of The Times.