IDareToHope

Today is my 6th Nome-iversary, marking 6 years since I stepped off the plane and walked down the wet stairs in cold sideways rain, all the while wondering what I had gotten myself into. Within 30minutes I had collected my luggage and the dear Hobbs family had collected me and driven away from the airport, only to find out the Nome Police Department was already looking for me! My new coworker had apparently planned to pick me up instead, and she was married to a trooper… so after not finding me at the airport, she had her trooper husband call the Nome Police Department, who called another soon-to-be dear friend RuthAnn, who called Carlee Hobbs, my only other known Nome contact. 🙂 It was a funny welcome to this sub-arctic wildwest place.

I recall my biggest misconception about Nome being that I was moving to a “Hub village.” I later realized that thanks to a city council, mayor, schoolboard, paved streets, 2.5 grocery stores, 9+churches, 2 gas stations, 8+ restaurants, numerous alcohol-serving establishments, a Subway/1 screen movie theatre combo… I had really just moved to a very small, zero-stoplight town.

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I went through Facebook and started pulling off photos that I thought were good representations of this place… and realized I have hundreds. 🤷‍♀️
Below are my “first impression photos”

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I recall a fitting description I gave of Nome to some friends as we were driving around town those first few months. I told her “everything in Nome seems tiny and scrappy.” Houses are small, often very weatherworn thanks to the salty storms that come in from the Norton Sound/Bering Sea. Sidewalks, if present, are well worn and very uneven thanks to permafrost [Bering Street is getting a beautiful makeover as I write this, though!].

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“It’s a Nome car,” we say, as we excuse the mud-coated automotive paint, gas tank covers that require a pen/tire pressure gauge to be forced open, multiple blinking lights on the dashboard, low-but-terrible mileage on the odometer after 1000 one-mile trips, and thick layers of dust inside acquired from our dusty wind tunnels down the unpaved street.

My mom visited me once and asked, after making a grocery store stop, if we had enough time to drop the groceries off before driving out to a friends. I smiled at her and replied, “Mom, everything in Nome less than 5minutes from everything else. Of course we have plenty of time.”

Half our church congregation arrives after the official start time [myself often included], and our mayor emcees all the street games during the Fourth Of July celebrations and personally greets the winner of the Iditarod, regardless of arrival time. The pastor of the Nome Nazarene church plays Santa Claus every year at the Nome Christmas Extravaganza, and the UPS office is a table at the Nome Polar Cub restaurant, open from 12-1pm. 😂

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There is never any shortage of social media drama on Facebook’s NomePost and Nome Chatter [the group formerly known as NomeRant]. Folks use it to buy/sell items, post announcements about events, hiring, rentals, and FYIs about the presence of wildlife in town [bears, muskoxen, juveniles spray painting random cars].

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One of my favorite things about Nome (likely shared many times previously on this blog) is the easy access to The Great Outdoors. I know very few folks with trailers, and dozens of people with ATVs. It’s a unique treat to be able to hop on my fourwheeler from my front door and zip out onto the tundra, down the beach, or up a mountain* in a couple minutes.
*The highest point in a twenty-mile radius is about 2000ft.

Does Nome have snow on the ground in town for about 8months of the year? Yup.
Does Nome have epic spring and fall storms that blow away atv covers, roofing sheets, sleds, trash cans, small children? Yup, joking on the last part😉.
Does Nome get winter blizzards that shut down the entire town and sometimes the power? At least once a year.
Does Nome get snow drifts larger than our vehicles, and sometimes our houses? Sure does.
Does Nome have streets with potholes that can pop a tire, wake up a drunk driver, swallow a washing machine, and make you swerve like you’re a racecar driver going through S-curves? Yup.
Does Nome have hardy people that will shovel you out of your house, tow your vehicle, pick up a random stranger 20miles of town, cheer in every last Iditarod finisher, lament with you over the price of Oreos in the dairy/cracker/sandwich meat/soda/eggs/chip/cookie aisle, hold the door open at the post office during lunch break for 6 random folks, lecture a neighbor’s kids for doing something dumb, and send out a BOLO when a fox is seen in town? Yup.

I love this town and even on this cold and blustery day, I am so grateful to call Nome “Home.”