A Refuge from Calamity
What Brought Me to Alaska (1962)
September 26, 2025—Update of earlier version of this story appeared in ECHO Magazine, March 15, 2018.
The notion of FAMILY was foreign to me as a child.
Not until I took an Anchorage Community College class in Sociology did I understand that family is the building block of society. I remember being struck by that notion when I first heard it.
The circumstance of my childhood determined my understanding of family as: Some people got it and some people don’t.
As a boy in Albuquerque, New Mexico I was raised primarily by babysitters. I had big blue eyes and a contagious smile. Some of these caregivers came from the Bernalillo County Correctional Center. I learned things I didn’t need to know at the age of 8-10 years old. For instance, I helped one of them tattoo the words “beer” over one breast and “wine” over the other. I still remember her name; Eloise.
She left an impression on me, too.
My grandmother, Alta Ticknor was principal at the Bernalillo Elementary School and provided plenty of athletic supplies and books for my use. My friends and I would place bases in a diamond around the Mescalero Road blacktop off Route 66. We took turns pitching, and batting, and shagging the ball when it was hit. We would throw the ball at the runner to get him out. I didn’t wear anything but a pair of shorts and tennis shoes beneath that hot New Mexican sun.
Modern School where Grandma Ticknor was Principal
[1] Bernalillo Elementary School today
Live Links i References
On one occasion one of the kid’s dad showed up and took the bat. He began to direct us to all get ready to go chase the ball for HIM! I marched up to him and took MY bat back. In no uncertain terms I told him we were playing this game OUR way. The manner in which I held that bat showed him I meant what I was saying. He took his son by the arm and left.
I Didn’t Take Adult Authority Too Seriously.
On another occasion I hit the ball through the picture window of the family home. Before my parents arrived I popped some popcorn and went around the neighborhood selling it by the bag. By the time they came home I had a good start on my disaster fund.
Poor People doing their Best
My paternal grandfather, Ray Liston was born in a sharecropper cabin in Oklahoma. When he got my grandmother pregnant out of wedlock, her family–including some strapping farm boys–persuaded him to do the right thing and marry my grandmother before my dad was born.
That’s How My Old South Family Worked Back Then
Grandpa seemed to be a bitter man, of slight build with a round bald head, and always wearing a hat. He lived for baseball, worked as a carpenter, and had lost the end of one of his fingers in a joiner. Grandpa rolled his cigarettes with that hand, using that shortened finger as if it had been especially cut for that purpose. I never got the feeling he liked me much, but I don’t really think he liked anybody much. He was like a cur dog that hung around the yard but didn’t want much to do with anybody.
My father had been born October 31, 1929—the week the stock market crash sparked The Great Depression. His unskilled parents could hardly feed themselves, so my father was passed around among family and friends through most of the years leading to his graduation from high school in Clovis, NM.
The Great Depression influenced everything my father did in his life until he died in 2014. He had a lot of his father’s indifference in him. I fear we now have a few generations of Americans who have no idea what this kind of economic turmoil can do to the spirit of people in an impacted country.
One uncle I heard about who cared for my father was Woody Witt. He died at age 106 and was a featured attraction at many local parades in his Oklahoma town.
I guess this was a kind of family, but these people simply did what they had to do–not necessarily what they wanted to do–to survive.
These paternal grandparents, with my father and his sister, could have played the Joads in the movie version of John Steinbeck’s book The Grapes of Wrath. They were simple people driven off the land by the great dustbowl, and they escaped with everything they owned to make it as far as New Mexico.
My mother’s story is similar; her father contracted tuberculosis and was isolated in a hospital for that disease. I never met him. Her mother, Alta Ticknor, was a school teacher who took her two daughters west. In New Mexico she was offered a job in an “Indian School” in Gallup, NM, but continuing to California anyway. When Grandma couldn’t find better employment opportunity, they returned to New Mexico. She had a long career in education in New Mexico and later in California.
Alta is reported to have helped establish the first Special Education program for the City of San Diego, CA.
Life for poor people, during this time in our history, was a thread pulled until something was found on the other end or it broke, leaving nothing. Families tended to be large to manage the farm, and everyone followed a certain code of mutual support through hell or high water.
When I was born in the early 1950s, my father was following a family tradition of taking whatever work he could find and making every penny count. But my parents were married too young and by the time they had three babies to care for their marriage was over. Having children was one thing, supporting them in an unfamiliar social contract was quite another.
Added to this painful dynamic, was my father’s insecurities and self-loathing as a laborer going nowhere. Soon alcohol provided the propellant for an explosion. One drunken night included an assault of my mother and resulted in separation and ultimately divorce.
Whatever “family” might have been suggested by this short-lived marriage and propagation of children was thereby shattered forever.
Fortunately my mother insisted on enrolling me into Immanuel Lutheran Elementary School, which still exists in downtown Albuquerque. There I came to know Jesus. I was baptized and gained a foundation in Christianity during grades 1-3.
That base has carried me through many of life’s highs and lows.
[2] Immanuel Lutheran Church & School, Albuquerque NM
Live Links in References
Ironically, I would also pursue a teaching career and served as Superintendent of Tom Thumb Montessori Schools in an effort to save it from gross mismanagement by the son of founders Harold and Margaret Green.
The Boomer Brats Only Cared about Themselves
Who in Anchorage cared about private market-based educational options for families here? Not the Municipality of Anchorage, not the family beneficiaries of the noble work of Harold and Margaret Green, not even the State of Alaska Department of Education, which had overseen this educational program directly and even awarded Margaret Green a lifetime teaching certificate.
Pillaging of the Successful Business Would be Rewarded by Government Regulators
[3] Alaska’s Private Education Legacy - The Unfortunate Demise of Tom Thumb Montessori Schools DONN LISTON August 9, 2018
Live Links in References
My mother was not equipped to raise three children and work to support a household financially. She tried, but the task was impossible as her angry ex-husband monitored her every move and made sure “his” son was confused about adult problems beyond a child’s experience or understanding. As that eldest son, I called Dad after one week when Mom had disappeared with a man she had been seeing. They had moved on to California–the Mecca of displaced dust bowl misfits.
Dad quit drinking cold-turkey. He took classes at University of New Mexico while working as a “telephone man” for Mountain States Bell, installing rotary dial instruments on which people dialed up and talked to each other. He faithfully paid child support, never missed a scheduled visitation, had a nice bachelor pad, and a 1958 MGA sports car—with only two bucket seats.
He would eventually get his Bachelor Degree at University of Alaska.
Dad was self-absorbed, and strong-willed.
Upon picking us up from the Child Protection Services holding facility–me, my sister and my brother–Dad drove to the Mescalero Road home. There, we piled into that car a basset hound, a cat and the few belongings we could stuff in with the top down. Dad gained temporary custody in the absence of our mother and took us to his efficiency apartment.
Were We Now a family?
The attorney said no. At eight years old I was part of the conversation when he told Dad our mother would soon be notifying him of her address in California to which she would expect the children she had legal custody of to be sent. Dad revealed to me years later that he had physically assaulted and threatened to kill the man my mother was seeing before they disappeared. With that in mind, could our mother have had ample cause to desert us to find happiness away from all the pain she had endured in New Mexico? Would she have tried to get us back had our father not succeeded in gaining employment and moving us to Alaska?
I don’t think so. She was self-absorbed, too.
I never saw or heard from our mother, with very limited exceptions, until I looked her up and called her myself after nearly 30 years. I hadn’t wanted to ever see her again. My new wife, Cathy, encouraged resolution of this void in my heart. I wasn’t angry anymore. As a result–on my 40th birthday–my mother and the half-sister I had never known visited us in Juneau, Alaska! It was an awkward but wonderful reunion. My new sister and I were strangers with a link to the past. Same bloodlines different life experiences.
Is family any association of people whom certain parties want to aggregate and call family?
Some are small, some are large, and some are extended beyond the place in which most members reside. Is that it?
In Fact, We are All Part of the Family of Man
I have learned through the wonder of Facebook, from a fellow Liston–whom I would likely have never known because he lives in Texas–that the Liston family can be traced back to about 1021, with the birth of Negel de Listona, a Norman Knight.
[3] Facebook page of Jeffrey De Liston
Live Links in References
Reportedly Negel was with William The Conqueror in 1066 during the Norman invasion of England. Negel died in 1086 having already changed the spelling of his name to Nigel de Liston. Thus, he is credited with being the first Liston in history and father to all living Liston’s today according to Jeff M. De Liston. The Liston’s De Liston Facebook page even lists a Liston prayer (in Latin and English) believed to have been issued around 1023.
[4] Worldwide Liston Facebook Page
Live Links in References
Listons from all over the world are friends on this digital gathering place. Through it, I have learned a lot about the dimension of my extended Liston family as one of many building blocks in the family of humans on planet earth. I learned from cousin Jeff that there are quite a few Listons in Philippines as a result of three Liston brothers who traveled there and made a lot of babies!
Soon I had many new Liston Facebook friends at a time when I was in crisis as Cathy was dying of cancer. I started reading about the amazing history, geography and culture of this amazing place with much in common with Alaska!
[5] Who Were the Knights Templar?
These new friends chatted, and offered constructive suggestions. The Philippine culture is caring and helped me sort things out as I realized I had been entangled in an evil confidence scheme as an Alaska Senior, newly widowed with assets, after 29 years of marriage.
Donn and Cathy Liston before her diagnosis of lung cancer in April 2017. As someone declared by an earlier Juneau court case to be a public person, I became a target of scammers at the darkest time of my life.
Bordens set Liston up to fraudulently steal his house by breaking him emotionally and financially for leaving their real estate scammer plantation. How can Alaskans expect to receive justice from our courts when judges do not see criminal acts in direct pleadings? And, when Borden hired an attorney Neal Ainsworth (Ainsworth.law) to represent him, why didn’t HE inform the court of this known violation of state and federal law?
[6] How Scammers Prey on the Elderly, DONN LISTON June 2024
Live Links in References
I prayed a lot.
Alaskan friends helped as they could but Filipino friends threw me a lifeline. After burglarizing my home, Bill and Wanetta Borden stole my Ring Security System to make sure I knew I was never safe in this rural home on one acre again. Had I stayed in Alaska I would be dead today.
Since coming here I have created Picture Postcards from Philippines. Each has a quick read of discovery.
Philippines Culture Understands True Meaning of Family.
References:
[1] Bernalillo School Today
https://www.bernalillo-schools.org/o/bes
[2] Immanuel Lutheran Church & School, Albuquerque NM
https://immanuelabq.org/
[3] Alaska’s Private Education Legacy - The Unfortunate Demise of Tom Thumb Montessori Schools DONN LISTON August 9, 2018
https://donnliston907.substack.com/p/alaskas-montessori-education-legacy
Facebook page of Jeffrey De Liston
https://www.facebook.com/jeff.m.liston
Lo, There do I see my Father. Lo, There do I see my Mother, my sisters and my brothers. Lo, Do I see the line of my people, back to the beginnings. Lo, they do call to me, they bid me to take my place among them, in the Halls of Valhalla, where the brave may Live, Forever
A Liston’s Payer, 900AD.
[4] Liston International Family page
https://www.facebook.com/listons.liston
John De Liston was a Knights Templar in the late 1190s he returned from the Holy land to Scotland to a place Called Over New Liston where he built his church. He named it Temple Liston a town grew up around the church and was called the town The village of Temple Liston until the 1300s when the Pope outlawed the Knights Templars. The town changed its name to Kirkliston, Scotland John’s De Liston’s church is still there to this day and is still called Temple Liston.
I Jeffrey De Liston am a direct Descendent of John De Liston I put the De back into my name to honor my ancestors. If you’re Liston family came from Scotland or Ireland you are also descended from John De Liston. This goes for almost all the Listons who are in America today Canada, Australia and the Philippines. Oh one more thing if your Liston family is from England you are descended from John’s brother Simon De Liston so you see we Liston’s are all part of the same Liston family?
I give honor to my Ancestor John De Liston
Inside all the armor is a man ready to fight for HIS FAITH IN CHRIST knowing that no matter the outcome of his struggles CHRIST will judge him on judgement day and the RESERECTION of all the dead, those who died FOR CHRIST and in CHRISTS service will hear the words
” I know you “
[5] Who Were the Knights Templar?
https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/the-knights-templar
The Knights Templar was a large organization of devout Christians during the medieval era who carried out an important mission: to protect European travelers visiting sites in the Holy Land while also carrying out military operations. A wealthy, powerful and mysterious order that has fascinated historians and the public for centuries, tales of the Knights Templar, their financial acumen, their military prowess and their work on behalf of Christianity during the Crusades still circulate throughout modern culture.
[6] How Scammers Prey on the Elderly, DONN LISTON June 2024
https://donnliston907.substack.com/publish/post/146034279
