Saturday night was “Board Game Night” at Mosquito Lake Community Center.
A sign on the front of the building said, “You Belong Here.” A bulletin board at the entrance was covered with postings about the center and what was going on there, and other notices of interest to folks who live up the highway.
Inside the center were jigsaw puzzles and novels and how-to books and paint brushes and art supplies and musical instruments, a giant map of the world, tables and chairs and displays of gardening books.
The heat was on just enough that you’d want to be in a sweater and the only lights on were over a couple tables where four women were playing a card game and three youngsters and a adult were playing Monopoly.
The adults chatted and caught up on news while the kids yipped about their hotels and mortgages. (They played a newer version of the game, where a “bus pass” can scoot a player past an opponent’s expensive properties and little plastic “train depots” increase the rent for landing on the railroads.)
It was a charming scene, one that transported a person back to an earlier time when adults and children gathered to play board games and stick together puzzles and paint paintings and grow gardens, activities that stimulated their brains, and fostered cooperation and friendly competition.
And there is nothing quite like it in town on Saturday nights.
The Haines Borough deserves credit for hanging on to the Mosquito Lake School and paying for utilities there. (A former borough manager tried to sell the building but residents stepped in to stop that plan.)
Upper highway residents deserve a heap of praise for their continual community-building efforts, including the Victory Garden and special events like game night.
They give eloquent testimony to the fact that the greatest resource in this valley isn’t the scenery, the fish or some kind of mineral. It’s the people who live here for years, who despite the climate, the cost of living and other obstacles, settle and build homes here and shop in local stores and volunteer and contribute to this place a thousand different ways.
The center also is a monument to the good that the Haines Borough can do. The borough will do even more the day its leadership recognizes that government is not in the business of commercial development. It’s in the business of representing the people who live here.
Game nights are held on the first Saturday of each month, starting at 5 p.m.