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» Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi

Mark, left, Kathy and Jeanne Marie Suhmann enjoy their first white Christmas as they play in the snow at the base housing area on Kodiak Island, Alaska, in 1972.

We hid Christmas from the kids and moved to Kodiak Island

While not part of the Christmas essay competition, we felt readers would enjoy this article by Jeannie A. Suhmann, the newsroom administrative assistant for the Lodi News-Sentinel.

— Editor

Once upon a time, in 1971, on the island of Kodiak, Alaska, a bureacratic snafu delayed Christmas for my family.

Does that sounds like a government conspiracy?

Who would do this to three unsuspecting, sweet and innocent children.

Well, it was not the green wicked old Grinch. I knew who the villain was. It was red, white, and blue Uncle Sam.

The following circumstances led to my belief that there was a conspiracy brewing.

My husband was on active duty in the U.S. Navy at the time and he was stationed at Point Mugu just outside of Oxnard.

We were sort of living the California dream in a house, courtesy of the Navy, when our dreamin’ was interrupted by orders for my husband to be transferred.

He had to report to the Naval Air Station in Kodiak, Alaska, in December 1971. We were going with him. I woke up from dreamin’ real fast and day dreams of igloos, mukluks, blubber and whale oil kept interrupting the days I had left in California. The children were 4 years, 2 years and six months old.

We passed the house cleaning inspection, we drove to Seattle, shipped our car, didn’t forget any of the kids as we boarded the plane, and no one got airsick.

Upon landing in Kodiak airport, we were met by our military sponsor and he drove us to our second floor, three bedroom four-plex apartment on the base. It was fully furnished. Kitchen items and linens were on loan to us from the Enlisted Wives Club until our shipment would arrive.

The refrigerator was stocked with groceries which we paid our sponsor for. All the windows had dark green shades. (I wondered why they were green.)

The commissary and hospital were close enough for us to walk to, so we could survive without a car until ours arrived. If it didn’t snow.

When my husband accepted his orders to Alaska, the Housing Office guaranteed him that our express shipment would arrive before Christmas. Everything went as planned, so far.

On Dec. 24, we were notified that our express shipment was in the warehouse. My husband was told to get there by 2:00 p.m. to pick up his boxes. It contained our Christmas tree, presents and necessary household items. He got there by 12:30 p.m. only to find out that all the warehouse personnel decided to leave work at noon for the Christmas holiday and completely forgot about him. So much for guarantees.

My husband explained that the children’s Christmas presents were in those boxes. The officer on watch was very obliging. He said if my husband could identify the crate that the boxes were in he could have the sailor on duty open it. But of course he couldn’t.

The workers in the warehouse were all non-military federal workers and my husband would just have to wait until the next working day, which would be Monday, Dec. 28, to pick up his shipment.

We didn’t have the money to buy new presents, a Christmas tree or decorations. So after a short discussion, my husband and I decided Christmas would have to wait until after we got our boxes with its precious cargo.

So the big conspiracy began.

I hid all the calendars.

Then it was Christmas morning, 1971.

Our daughters, Jeanne Marie and Kathy, could hear the neighbor’s children downstairs and next door running around and laughing very early in the morning. They wondered what was going on.

I quickly found them something to do.

Our son, Mark, joined in the commotion by standing up in his crib and rocking it halfway across his bedroom. I lifted him out of the crib and made him join his sisters,

I told the children they could not go outside to play because it was too cold. My husband told his co-workers not to visit until after we had our Christmas. I had to go and explain our situation to the mother of the little girl next door so that she would stop knocking on our door and asking the girls to go out and play.

My husband and I pretended like it was just another day.

I was so worried that the children might accidentally find out. I was a nervous wreck. Luckily, there was only one TV channel available and they were three weeks behind schedule.

When we finally got our shipment and put up the Christmas tree, it was Dec. 28. The children went to bed that night with their new pajamas and nightgowns that I traditionally sewed for them to wear on Christmas eve.

The next morning, Dec. 29, when the children opened their presents, there was snow on the ground.

The children were so happy that Santa found them. While the children were busy opening their presents, my husband and I sighed with relief, looked at each other and went into the kitchen. We hugged each other and I felt like crying.

Then the children came and broke us apart and told us to go and open our presents.

The children never suspected a thing.

We didn’t celebrate the New Year.

After the New Year, my husband told me that the Navy was being transferred out of Kodiak because the Coast Guard would be taking over the base. All Navy personnel must be gone by January 1973.

What? We just got here, I hadn’t even unpacked all the boxes yet.

Apparently, when my husband checked out of his command at

Point Mugu, they had offered him new orders , but everything was already on its way to Alaska, including us.

Aha, the co-conspirator confessed.

I decided to make the best of a no win situation and enjoy Alaska until it was time for us to leave.

One thing that I liked about Alaska was the tap water. It was the sweetest water I ever tasted. I wanted to take gallons of it with me when we left.

During winter everything was very white and very cold.

Quite often the wind chill factor was 80 degrees below zero and the Navy would shut down the base, with only essential personnel going to work, which included my husband because he was a weather observer at that time.

During winter, daylight would last for only two to three hours a day. I sewed a lot, learned how to knit and kept busy with the children.

There was a hill next to our housing area on the base where we took the children sledding.

Summer was absolutely gorgeous on Kodiak, the whole island turned green. There would be herds of cows eating grass in the meadows where colorful displays of wild flowers bloomed in profusion.

We had to take a can of insect repellant when we went outside with the children because the flies and mosquitoes were quite pesky.

We also took the children fishing. The American and Buskin Rivers were literally swarming with salmon when they returned home to spawn. We witnessed several bears catching salmon for their dinner, quite a safe distance from where we stood.

Our youngest daughter Kathy, hooked a large salmon that weighed almost as much as she did and was pulling her away from us along the riverbank. She had to be rescued by her father and he helped her land the fish.

My husband went crabbing at the pier on the base several times and caught a few king crabs. We ate our fill of crab-meat, salmon and shrimp while on the island.

During summer there were days when the sun shone all day and night. That’s when the dark green shades came in handy-to keep out the light.

A lot of teenagers would still be playing outside at midnight. They were quite rowdy until the shore patrol made them go home.

We went into the town of Kodiak and attended the crab festival and watched the king crab races. The crabs were placed on a slanted wet surface and the first one to reach the bottom would be declared the winner.

When the temperature was 58 degrees and the sun was shining, my neighbors and I would sit on the back porch in our sleeveless shirts and soak up some sun while the children played.

When my husband received orders to a ship home ported in San Diego, we transferred after being in Kodiak for just 13 months.

I can’t recall when I eventually told the children about that Christmas in Kodiak, but they were already grown up by then.

To this day, my two daughters now each with a child of their own, and my son, still tease me that they were traumatized because I had conspired with their father to keep Christmas from them when they were young, trusting and innocent children.

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» Christmas on Kodiak Island