The school children run outside as the bell for recess rings. It’s dark outside and the temperature is nearing -1 degrees.  The children strap on their ice skates and race to the frozen pond, their laughter audible from the schoolhouse. It’s a typical day at North Pole Elementary School.

  Mrs. Christy Milam taught students at Fairbanks, Alaska while her husband was stationed there in his position in the Army. North Pole Elementary was about a 20 minute distance from Fairbanks, located in the interior of Alaska; the coldest area of the state.

“It was always cold,” Milam said. “We were always bundled up and the children had recess every day unless the temperature reached below -20 degrees, then they were forced to stay inside.”

Milam said her experience in Alaska is one she will never forget.

“It’s just a regular place, but we did get festive,” Milam said. “We wore Santa hats and decorated. All of my kids were neat, and the whole experience was very interesting.”

The coldest temperature Milam had experienced was -76 degrees.

“We went to school no matter what,” Milam said. “But if it reached -50 degrees it was the parents’ choice to let their children go or not.”

Milam looked back with amusement at Alaska’s replacement for a weather report.

“We had a Moose Report instead of a weather report,” Milam said. “Because if they showed up with their calves they’d charge you down.”

Fairbanks and the area around it were rarely populated with families.

“In all the years I lived there I only saw one who was born and raised there, so families weren’t common,” Milam said. “Your friends were your family.”