Pam Laker and Brad Morris committed to each other and a life of
chopping, building, hauling, fishing and mushing.

JULIE EDGAR
News Editor

T

hey wouldn't mind getting
a food processor and pots
and pans, but Pam Laker
and Brad Morris could
really use dog food, firearms and 40-
below-zero sleeping bags.
As they enter their new life
together on a piece of land outside
Fairbanks, Alaska, the couple is
focusing on raising chickens and
turkeys, building a log cabin, train-
ing their 14 dogs to mush and
preparing for the long winter.
Orrefors crystal is not on a wish list
Laker faxed to her parents in South-
field.
Surrounded by family and friends,
Laker and Morris were wed under a
canopy of birch trees on their land in
the Alaskan woods on the longest
day of the year, June 21. In Alaska,
anybody can perform a wedding — a
holdover from goldmining days —
so they chose a friend who used a
ceremony that the couple had adapt-
ed from a book. Afterward, the pair
"hopped" on their quad runner and
headed to a potluck dinner at a
favorite tavern and a party that fea-
tured a famous athabaskan fiddler
and, later on in the evening, a tradi-
tional rock band.
"Our whole wedding came togeth-
er in two weeks," Laker confessed,
noting that she heard about the fid-
dler from her masseuse a week before
the event and booked him. Her par-
ents, Elaine and Jerry, and sisters
Jolie and Bonnie came with their
husbands and children. Morris's folks
also made the trip.
Laker, a graduate of Detroit
Country Day and the University of
Wisconsin, does not find it remark-
able that she met another Jew in the
Alaskan wilds; many of her friends
up there are Jewish, she noted, and
like her, they were "chosen" by Alas-
ka, not vice-versa.
She was acquainted with Morris, a

8/7
1998

52 Detroit Jewish News

Texan, but had-
n't gotten
around to talk-
ing to him
until they met
up in a bar 2
Left..
1/2 years ago.
Newlyweds Brad
He had been
Morris and Pam
working in the
Laker were wed in
fishing industry
the Alaskan wilds.
in Valdez off
and on for six
years. After
moving to Alaska four years ago,
Laker, 29, began working as an com-
mercial electrician, a job she does
today, along with training her dogs
to pull sleds. Morris, also 29, turned
out to be her first Jewish boyfriend.
While they finish their octagonal
log cabin on 40 acres of pr.operty
they acquired, the couple will con-
tinue to live in a geodesic dome
about 20 miles outside of Fairbanks.
It has electricity but no running
water, so they have to haul it in 5-
gallon containers from a holding
tank in town.
Next month, the couple is coming
to Detroit for a reception at Congre-
gation Shaarey Zedek. Laker is look-
ing forward to the visit but, she said,
"It's so hard to leave. We've got dogs
and chickens and work."

Above:
The happy couple
heads to their wed-
ding reception on a
quad runner.

❑

