25 June 2007Today we arrived in Skagway, Alaska. I had an early excursion, which was a walking tour of the town called "Ghosts and Goodtime Girls".
Jinx was supposed to be on this tour as well, but decided apparently that she didn't want to do it (though she didn't tell me, so we stood around waiting for her to show up for about 10 minutes or so after we were supposed to leave).
It was an interesting tour, because it told the story of the town from the perspective of the local prostitutes. There were three kinds--the streetwalkers were the lowest rung and only got a dollar per customer, those with "cribs" (which were extremely small buildings, literally just big enough for a bed and room to stand up and go out the door) and pimps were paid $2 a customer, and the highest rung were those who worked out of the saloons and the like, who had madams and bouncers, were paid $5 per customer. Though of course, part of that money went to the madam and the bouncer so the girl actually got less than $2 for each customer out of that $5.
The guide also explained the origin of the term "red-light district"--pretty much it had to do with the railroad workers. It seemed when they took off to have a good time, and then it came time for the train to leave, the workers couldn't be found, so they made it so that the workers had to leave their red lanterns outside of wherever they were at, so they could be gathered up and the trains could depart. And that's how the term came about.
She also went into the sadder aspects of the life of a prostitute--how, for example, they took care of unwanted pregnancies (which often resulted in death) or syphillis (cracking open mercury thermometers to swallow the mercury to cure it, having only heard part of what the doctors in the lower 48 states were actually doing to treat it, and thereby poisoning themselves to death). Or about the poor Asian girls who were forced to work as prostitutes at the age of 10, who were sold for less than a penny apiece, and were chained to their beds, unable to clean themselves up between customers, and being made to service over a 100 customers a day... very, very sad.
![Sad Sad](./images/smilies/sad.gif)
But overall it was an interesting way to learn about the town's history and not one that you usually get. The ghosts part of the tour had to do with a couple of different places we stopped--one was where a hotel used to be (though only the chimney remains now) in a wooded area, which is supposed to be haunted at night by the sound of a child crying, and the other was in the brothel museum at the end of the tour, where people have reported the image of a lady hanging herself above one of the beds in their developed photos, even though you don't see anything when you're in the room. I didn't get a photo of the ghost, maybe she doesn't like digital cameras. Though it might be on the videotape, I haven't watched that closely yet.
![Laughing Laughing](./images/smilies/lol.gif)
But after the tour was over (and I did a bit of shopping), I headed back to the pier for the main event of the day... namely, the train trip with Connor and the rest of the stars. I was thrilled when
Hoshissis and I ended out with Connor and his brother Matt sitting directly in front of us, for which we have to give thanks to Sue, one of the ladies at our dinner table, who volunteered to give up her seat there so that Connor and his brother could sit together. So, after discussing my earlier tour with Connor before the train left to start the trip (during which he was teasing me about the existence of ghosts), we left him alone for the most part going up the mountain until we were about half an hour or so from the top I'd say. We'd started talking to his brother, and then Connor joined in, and after we switched seats for the trip back down (so the people on the right side of the train could see the sights as we headed back down), we (
Hoshissis,
NX-Oner and I) talked the entire time back down the mountain with Connor and Matt.
We talked about all sorts of things--Harry Potter (everyone in their family are fans of Harry Potter), the new Doctor Who (and which Doctor we liked best--Eccleston or Tennant), Britian's new interim PM Gordon Brown, etc. Connor recommends the book,
The Golden Spruce. And while I was sitting there, I suddenly remembered the 1886 Morgan dollar I'd had stowed in my belt pouch, so I gave Connor that, for which he was very grateful, and he told us how when he was a kid and had learned that all these old dimes and quarters from before 1964 were made of silver that he'd search and search for some but could never find one. This was also when Connor looked about the train car and said "I've been warned" to us, and one of us said, "About what?" and he gave us this look and said, "I think you already know." I made the connection and said "Yes," and then we left it at that (he was referring to the crazy cat lady).
At the end of the trip, Connor told us how much he appreciated us talking to him about the world at large, because that's his hobby and what he was interested in, "the world at large." I think he also liked the fact that we didn't sit there and pepper him with questions about Enterprise and Atlantis, which I have little doubt that he was afraid was what was going to happen on the trip... We told Connor that we'd see him the next night, when the table switch took place, and he left the train with his brother.
Was this the army that invaded your country, ma'am? No, officer, they were taller than that...
How about this one? I'm not sure--get them to march up and down a bit...
(From Terry Pratchett's Jingo)