Hazel Apok: Interview Outline: Section 11 Trapping rabbits, eating favorite foods, treats, and keeping busy Tape Reference Number: H2002-09-13 Hazel spoke with Bill Burke in Fairbanks, Alaska on April 3, 2002.

Hazel Apok: I remember having my own rabbit snares and going out after school, going. My mom would help me go set them and after that, you know, they were my -- my snares. I'd have to go check on 'em and bring them home.

My -- my papa would make me -- my favorite treat was for him to cook macaroni and put a can of vegetable beef soup mixed with it and then Pilot Bread cracker with butter. I mean, he -- they took so good care of me. They knew I was out in the cold for a long time and I had lunch who knows how long ago, but they would feed me when I got back. But that was my favorite food. My other favorite food was mom's rice with raisins and cinnamon, and milk. You know, I mean, these were -- were delicacies for us because all we had were all Eskimo food. I mean, now I love that Eskimo food, you know, but growing up, that was all that we would have.

When the barge came in the summertime I could practically smell the apples and oranges on that barge, you know, that were coming in. And we lived just below Kiana, so the planes would fly out -- the float planes would fly out. The mail plane would fly out right in front of our house there and the barge would pass right in front of our house. And I used to make orange juice with orange peeling. And the trick was to have it sit for three days in a glass and then taking the peelings out and then putting in sugar. And that was a treat having orange juice that way. Of course, today our kids just, you know, open a carton and it's there. It's not something you took pride in making, you know, it was something for yourself as a treat.

Richard Glover used to come with a packet of Kool-Aid, those unsweetened kinds, those little packets, and a can of milk. I used to have -- or my sister had one of those handmade whippers or blenders, a manual blender. And I would spend probably a good 40 minutes trying to whip up that milk, get tired, switch hands. And then after that milk got all whipped up I would put the Kool-Aid in it, and that was a treat.

What else can I remember as treats? What we -- you know, all of these things that we did took manual labor. I mean, they kept us busy from morning until night. And today we just continually see our kids being bored, and that's because we don't keep them busy from the time they wake up 'til -- 'til they go to sleep. So we have to get creative and find ways to keep them busy. And basketball is one. Tournaments. We have -- basketball is huge, I think, all over in rural Alaska. I'm not one of 'em, but maybe because my kids weren't -- weren't into basketball. But we -- I'll go to a game occasionally. But I know it is huge in our community.

I love to watch sports on -- on TV. One time when I was living in -- in Kotzebue with my first husband I had the TV on and I heard a familiar name on TV, on NFL, and I looked up and that's when I got hooked on NFL. I used to go to school with a Russ Francis, not -- not as somebody who I knew, but somebody whose name, you know, I knew. He went to school in Hawaii and he played for the New England Patriots. But that just because I went to the same school he did, you know, I got into football on TV. And just maybe within the last five years I've gotten into March Madness -- college basketball -- only because we have some Alaskans at Duke University. Trajon Langdon some years back. Now Carlos Boozer. But you know, you feel like a kinship to these people. Mark McGuire used to play -- play baseball. I don't really watch baseball, but because you have some kind of kinship with these different people who are famous, I get into it. You know, I like watching sports on TV.

Bill Burke: Well, I think you gave us some good insight to your life.

Hazel Apok: Uh-hum.

Bill Burke: It's going to be a good addition to the -- to the project that we are doing.

Hazel Apok: Uh-hum. A real exciting part of it.

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