Читать книгу Racing Toward Recovery. The Extraordinary Story of Alaska Musher Mike Williams Sr. онлайн

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When I think back to early in my life I think of a lot of good times. One thing we did when it was break-up and the ice was melting was go swimming. It wasn’t in the river, but in these giant puddles. I remember playing with friends every day, going hunting and fishing. Sometimes we chopped wood for the Elders and just hung out.

John Egoak was one of my best friends. He was the oldest one and he knew more things. We were actually three best friends, me, John, and Willie Lake, but John showed us things. He showed how they made the log cabins and how they filled in the cracks with moss from the tundra. He also showed us how he built his strength. He was really strong. He teased us, I guess. He took some of the moss and rolled it up into a cigarette. Then he lit it up and smoked that moss and said, “This is the reason I am so strong. What I am smoking makes me strong. If you smoke this, you will become strong, too.” And we believed him. So we tried it and coughed like heck. It did not make us strong. We got very sick.