Every time I travel somewhere,I make a point of reading about places I visit.This time around I happened to be in Alaska and in the heart of "last frontier" where "odds are good but goods are odd" I have found several cute little bookshops in Juneau.My favourite was bookshop called "Rainy Day Books" with cute little old lady inside and I liked the place & atmosphere & name of the shop so much that I returned again and again.
"Good Time Girls" is a excelent book about first wave of gold-miners in Alaska and good time girls who followed them,searching for their own fortune and husbands.Lael Morgan did excellent research and somehow obtained old black & white photographs that illustrate towns without women,frilly dressed prostitutes and some of the most famous "girls".Many of these ladies later became succesful enterpreneurs,wealthy property owners and wives of prominent citizens (one former prostite even married the mayor of Fairbanks).Some stories are sad,some are funny but all of them have quality of real-life story that makes them unforgettable.My favourite story is how goverment decided to fine prostitues arriving in Alaska,but obviously this was not something visible upon entrance,so officials would ask any woman :"Are you lady or whore? If you are lady,pass on,if you are whore,pay 18 dollars first!"
No comments:
Post a Comment