Cool Enough: A Month In The Life Of Little Markie Tornga

By Mark Tornga

Fueled by beer and visions of vast wealth, narrator Mark Tornga and four of his teen-age cronies leave Grand Rapids, Michigan in June 1959 to realize their dream of becoming millionaires. Denied entrance into Canada at several border crossings, they eventually give up one dream and substitute another. With no money, no food and an unreliable vehicle, they struggle to maintain their optimistic plans for a princely future in the Alaskan frontier.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483540771

Book preview

1959

CHAPTER ONE

A Plan...of Sorts

The cast of characters consisted of five testosterone-fueled teenagers with big dreams, a combination destined for failure before the starter could drop the checkered flag.

Alaska joined the Union on January 3, 1959. Hawaii followed suit on August 21st, so at the time of this adventure, Alaska was the Baby State. Also that year, President Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II both attended the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The Brooklyn Dodgers bested the Chicago White Sox in the World Series and Gigi won the Oscar for Best Picture. Bobby Darin sang the number one hit, Mack The Knife. All interesting but only slightly more intriguing that the nightly weather forecast.

Texas Instruments developed the first integrated circuit and microchips were invented, just words that meant nothing to me. I didn’t care about some guy named Fidel Castro or an Asian country with the strange name Vietnam. For my purpose, Alaska’s status was the only event of 1959 that mattered.

Two of us graduated high school that June. As I recall, it should have been four of the five, but I’m not sure if the other two made it to the cap and gown thing. The fifth guy, Chad, was older and worked at a gas station. Well, he was known as Chad, but his real name was Shirley. He was integral to our journey. Without him, this story would never have occurred.

Among the quintet, only Chad/Shirley owned a car, a 1953 Willys sedan. The Jeep, created—and lionized—during the war, appeared likely to survive as a civilian automobile. Some entrepreneurs attempted to capitalize on its success by introducing the Willys, the Henry J., the Tucker, the Kaiser, and the Fraser. However, GM, Ford and Chrysler made sure these young upstarts would not survive. But that’s another story for another decade.

Willys or Cadillac, we didn’t care. We needed a vehicle and a Willys was what we had. Once we made our first million in Alaska, we could buy all the Cadillacs we wanted. Ignorant? Daring? Fun-loving? Guilty as charged.

The Good Life became our mantra, our own personal Alaskan Gold Rush. As I write this now, I wonder if any of us really believed that success would be the outcome of this adventure. At the time, of course, our adolescent minds allowed no room for doubt.

Another one of these reprobates was Roger Sellon, the one I know for sure graduated with me from Central High on June 11, 1959. Then, of course, there was Chad, the hallowed car owner. Franz Schnur and his long time friend George Kalenda rounded out the group. The day after graduation as we prepared to head north, we all said goodbye to our families in Grand Rapids, Michigan. All of us, that is, except Roger, as we would discover later under disconcerting circumstances.

CHAPTER TWO

Beer: The Brain Food of Boys

I didn’t expect graduation gifts from any of my cash-strapped relatives and was dumbfounded, as well as thrilled, when I received money as well as a suitcase from my aunts. I didn’t realize how prophetic that present