Childhood Memories: September 4, 1971 . Fifty Years Ago

I was a senior in high school.

As I sit down to write this post, my heart is filled with so many memories from this day. We didn't have TV and only had a small black battery operated radio on the homestead.

I was listening to the radio station KFQD, and the news came on. Alaska Airlines, Flight 1866 crashed into a mountain near Juneau, Alaska. It was a 727-100 carrying 111 souls on board. All on board perished.

Onboard was a classmate that had just graduated from Homer High School that May, and he was on his way to Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka.

I would like to remember Kelly Sutherland tonight. We weren't close, but our high school was close knit. He was only one grade above mine. I remember his smile and black hair with those black glasses. He was a friend with a lot of my friends. I also have a close friend who could of been on that flight with Kelly but circumstances intervened and he took another path in life.

Fifty years is a long time and yet, to those who have left us, no matter how long ago, may we never forget their lives and the impact they have had on each of us. Their lives mattered. Kelly, your life mattered. I remember you and will never forget.