Central is a small community in the interior of Alaska that covers a lot of area. We lived at one end of the road eight and half miles from Central proper. From that point, people stretched along the highway ten miles in either direction.
One of my fondest memories was when we would go Christmas caroling. Nearly two dozen people would pile into trucks and ride snow machines up and down the roads, stopping at houses and caroling. It was announced when we would be out doing this and sometimes we were met with darkness, but often people would come out and listen to us sing and offer us cocoa or cider and cookies.
Then, after a couple of hours of caroling, we would make our way back to Central and Crabb’s Corner where we would end our caroling and the community gathered for a spaghetti feed. People would continue to sing and sometimes even Santa would make an appearance.
This little act of joy impacted our community and drew people together. It didn’t matter how poorly we sang or how cold it got, people opened their doors with smiles as they sang along with us, remembering family and friends far away.
Matthew Lasley 