Chapter 1, Stop Stop the Church Moose

Once upon a long time ago, not that long ago, in a place far, far away to the North, though you can drive there in a regular automobile, there lived a little girl, named Willy, which was short for Wilhelmina, and her Mom and Dad, Charlie and Pat. They lived in a little town, nestled in a valley between the Chugiak and Matanuska Mountains.
It was a beautiful place in the summer, it was always light, since the sun never set, and the temperature was very mild, not too hot, and too cold. In the winter-time, the sun never rose, so it was always dark, and it got very cold. Many places in the town had outside lights that shown during the winter so the little boys and girls could go out and play.
Besides people, there were plenty of Moose. Now, I don’t know if you have ever seen a Moose, but they are something like a deer, but very , very big. The boy Moose get huge antlers that fall off every year, but they also grow back, bigger than they were before, every year. Moose like to eat all kinds of plants, but they really, really like the grasses and plants that grow in and along lakes, ponds, and small streams. Many times you can see a Moose standing in a lake or pond, sticking their heads underwater to nibble on the plants under water. Sometimes the water is so deep that only the Moose’s head sticks out, and when it bends down to eat , it seems to disappear. There were plenty of lakes, ponds and streams, and plants In the valley where Willy and her parents, that’s why there were so many Moose.
There is a plant way up there called fireweed, that has a flower that is long, and green when it first grows, but as the weather gets warmer, its petals start turning red, from the bottom up. When it’s the middle of summer the whole flower is red. It can turn large part of the countryside red, so it almost looks like fire. Fireweed really goes into overdrive, after a forest fire, and is the first plant to come back after a fire. As winter approaches, the flower withers from the bottom up. Usually by the time of the first snowfall, the red is all gone. That’s one way the animals and people can tell what time of year it is.
On the edge of the little town, stood a little church The little church sat off in the woods, with a little road running from the main road to it. It had a picture window right at the back, behind where the Pastor stood, that looked out over a small back yard, and a small spring fed pond, although this was partially hidden by all the trees. It had a lighted playground so it could be used all the time. Willy’s Mom, Pat, worked as the Church secretary.
Willy’s Dad worked for the State Highway department, in the summer time repairing the roads that had been damaged during the long cold winters. During the Winter, he helped keep the roads clear of snow so that people could get to and from school, work, grocery stores, and the other places that people need to go to and from, like home, and grandmas. During the winter, he kept the snowplow at home, so he could get out to clear the snow from the roads.

Willy would come to the Church after School in the Winter, and spent a lot of time at the church in the Summer, Now, Willy didn’t spend all her time in the summer at the church. The little town had its own lake, where kids could go to swim, have picnics, play, go fishing, go boating, etc. and there was a library, some museums, including one that had a little miniature steam engine that pulled a train to give kids rides. There were lots of woods, that she could pretend to be a child of the First Nations (Native Americans), or a pioneer, a gold prospector, or whatever she felt like. She also had lots of friends, although in the winter it could be very hard to get together to play, other than at school, because of the cold and snow.