Before my recent trip flying out to Port Protection, I emailed a grocery order to Hammer and Wikan in Petersburg.
When I arrived at Pacific Wing to board their 185 for my flight to Port Protection, the pilot showed me my load of groceries. It looked like more than I had ordered. I thought maybe a neighbor had ordered some stuff too, as I had alerted a couple people about my incoming flight from town. Instead of opening some boxes to see what was there, we loaded all the boxes and took off. I enjoyed the half hour flight down Wrangell Narrows, across Duncan Canal and over Sumner Straits. The pilot landed the plane gracefully and pulled up to my small dock. After tying up the plane, we pushed my skiff into the water and unloaded the plane.
Out came all my groceries and luggage. The pilot took off for his next charter up Rocky Pass to Kake. I loaded my skiff and unloaded the freight at the beach, then hauled everything up to the house.
As I unpacked the many grocery boxes, I found, much to my surprise, instead of one 30-pack of corn tortillas and one 30-pack of small flour tortillas, 53 packs of tortillas! What the heck? There were packs of 8, 10, 20, 30 and 80 tortillas. Wow! I’m home alone for a few weeks and there is no way I’m gonna eat all that, and now that I’m in Port Protection, it will be a real challenge getting them back to town for a refund.
That night I reviewed my email to Hammer and Wikan. My intention was clear in my mind about what I wanted. As for the staff who shopped my order, the 30 pack of corn tortillas and 30 pack of flour tortillas was taken literally. I was overwhelmed with tortillas. $250 worth.
The next day I skiffed two miles over to Point Baker to get my mail from our floating post office. I took along two boxes of my largess and visited many neighbors. I felt like Cinco de Mayo was coming and we all needed some tortillas. Thus an early gifting among friends transpired. I enjoyed sharing the bounty, which we do here from time to time. More often I share some fresh fish when I have a bit more than I can eat fresh. That day though, folks were going to have to provide their own fish if they wanted fish tacos.
I’m still eating tortillas every day, though my stash has been greatly reduced. I am grateful for the opportunity to live here and have life create stories, some might be worth telling.
Michael Nichols,
Port Protection
• My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire.