How I Learned to Hitch Hike – Clint Chron

by Clint Chron (grandson of Virgil Chron)

I graduated from Chugiak High School in May of 1965.  There was a member (Goldie Klein) of our church (First Baptist Church of Eagle River), that worked on the Army base for the Corp of Engineers.   She knew that I needed a summer job so that I could save money to go to Texas Tech College in the fall.  Her employer was doing a lot of surveys around the state to study the impact of the 1964 earthquake.  I filled out the employment form and was hired as a GS-3 ax man on a survey crew.  The pay was about $3.50/hour and there would be lots of overtime.  That was about twice the amount that I would have been making if I had gone back to my old grocery bagging job in Eagle River.   I was able to ride with Goldie to work.  It was about a 16 mile drive to the Army base.  Sometimes I would ride to work with Harry Hoerter.  He was the head guy of the cadastral survey crews.  Sometimes, Dad would let me drive the Scout into work.  I went through Anchorage, Government Hill, and went through the Elmendorf entry gate.  Any civilian could easily get on the Ft Richardson Army Base and the Elmendorf Air Base.  They just had to tell the gate guard where they were going and they would let you pass through.  I used to go on the base from Anchorage and drive to a far exit near Eagle River.  That was much quicker than driving through Anchorage and unto the Glenn Highway.

Here was my driving path through Anchorage to the Elmendorf gate:

 

IAll was good for about one month.  Then one afternoon while at work, I got word that Goldie’s husband (Joe) had suffered a heart attack.  She had left work early to be with him.

I had a dilemma – how was I going to get home.  I sure did not want to call my Dad to come pick me up.  I decided that I would hitch hike home.  How hard could that be – I saw lots of people doing it all the time.

I had a friend in high school – Sam Cotton, that regularly hitch-hiked back and forth between Eagle River and Anchorage.  My Dad picked up Sam one time and gave him a ride to Eagle River.

Hitch hiking was not allowed on the base.  So I had to get off the base to a main street in Anchorage.  I knew that Post Road was the closest main road.  That was a familiar road – I remember seeing all of the strip clubs when my family drove down the road when driving to Eagle River.

I started walking south from the Corp Of Engineers building.

I went across a number of vacant lots, some lots with trees on it, and I waded across Ship Creek, jumping from rock to rock.  I never did get very wet.  I don’t recall having to climb over any fences that separated military land from private/public land.  Hmm – so much for base security.  I think that the boundary was actually Ship Creek and they probably figured that no one would be trying to cross.

 

 

Once I was on Post Road, I stuck out my thumb and quickly got a ride – I don’t remember which way I went, but I ended up on the Glenn Highway.  From there, I had to hitch another ride.  The entire process was pretty quick, considering the alternatives.

I only had to hitch hike home.  For the morning trips, I was always able to get a ride from someone going to the base and I was never late for work.

I don’t recall that Goldie ever came back to work that summer.  The hitch-hiking must have been a non-event in my memory, because I only remember the first time and two other instances.  On the second instance, my old high school principal (Barney Sabo and his wife) picked me up in their pickup.  For the third instance, a guy picked me up on the outskirts of Anchorage.  He did not talk much and seemed to be very nervous.  He turned right onto Muldoon Road.  I asked him what he was doing.  He said that he had to check on something.  He kept driving down streets off of Muldoon and looking around the neighborhoods.  I was getting scared and angry (is that possible??).  I told him to stop the car and let me out.  He would not.  I then told him that I was going to get violent if he did not get back on the main road.  He took me back to the Muldoon/Glenn Highway intersection and let me out.  I sure dodged the bullet on that one.  God is good.

I never did any more hitch-hiking after than summer.