by Peter Twitchell
Luther Oscar was my friend and he always acknowledged me. He was my best friend, Samuel Oscar’s oldest brother. He treated me no different than he would a brother and I really appreciated that.
He was always kind, never failing to greet me with a smile and, “How are you Peter?” and then he’d laugh and relate some story he was tickled about when we were all growing up in Bethel.
I will miss you dear friend, but I know, just as there is a heaven, you are there with your family and angels. No longer in pain, but happy and joyful in God’s pure light.
You reminded me again, not too long ago to sing your song “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and His Comets recorded in 1954. The first rock and roll record heard by millions around the world, including Alaska. You always told me to sing it at your funeral.
I remember our lunch at the “Mud Hut” restaurant in Bethel and having your favorite “Mongolian Beef” dish and how you laughed when I told you what I told the first Korean when they arrived in Bethel, “What took you so long?” Since us Yup’iks were supposedly descendants from Mongolia sometime after the Ice Age!!!
I will miss your laughter dear friend, but it echoes still in the chambers of my mind: “One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock rock. Five, six, seven, eight o’clock rock…”
