Sarah Palin’s Childhood
Growing Up… Alaska Style
Swimming lessons in an Alaskan lake where the water was so cold that Sarah and her siblings had to warm up next to a beach campfire afterward.
Hunting rabbits and eating wild game steaks and moose burgers instead of beef.
A wood stove as the sole heating source for the bedroom she shared with her two sisters.
Devouring every word of the newspaper and reading non-fiction instead of the Nancy Drew books that were popular with girls her age in the 1970s.
No television during the summer months. Dad’s orders.
This was the childhood of Sarah Palin, the Republican party’s 2008 vice presidential nominee.
Back then she was Sarah Heath — the third of four children born to Chuck and Sally Heath, a school teacher and school secretary.
While Palin was born on Feb. 11, 1964 in Sandpoint, Idaho, her idilic Alaskan childhood began just a few months into her life when her parents moved north to Alaska.
After a short teaching stint in Skagway, the Heath family made their way to Wasilla, the small town located an hour’s drive north of Anchorage where they made their home in a wood-frame house that served as the perfect launching pad for various expeditions. Like other kids, Sarah made forts, took hikes and played basketball. Unlike other kids, she ran 5 and 10 K races with her parents throughout the summer and took week-long camping expeditions to Denali National Park that her father turned into outdoor classrooms.
Her high school years were filled with sports with Sarah earning the nickname of “Sarah Barracuda” for her fierce competitive spirit on the basketball court. She was unwillingly sent down to Junior Varsity in her junior year, but in her senior year in 1982, Sarah sunk the winning freethrow in the state championship on an injured ankle.
In her gubernatorial campaign, she credited her experiences on the basketball court as life-changing, learning about setting goals, discipline, teamwork and success.
Thanks to Kaylene Johnson for providing some of these points. For more information about Sarah Palin’s early life, read Ms. Johnson’s book:
on October 15th, 2008 at 3:06 am
I suppose all of this qualifies her to hold the highest office in the country? She may have been a decent young lady. But now the barracuda label is derogatory. She’s a destroyer. She wasted no time destroying John McCain’s campaign. She could care less if he wins. She’s not interested in playing second fiddle to him. She wants to control the whole orchestra. What she’s looking forward to is making her run for the white house. Shame on McCain for picking such an idiot as his running mate. She has turned off arch conservatives with her unbridled racist rants.
on October 25th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
i love you sarah and u sure do have my vote
on November 3rd, 2008 at 3:20 am
I grew up in Wasilla Alaska with the Palin family I took my son to daycare with piper Palin my little brothers best friend is Levi Johnston. I know alot about politics and yeah some believe Sarah is not the one who should be second in office, but you know what that is why we vote. I do not believe people need to be going around saying mean things about Sarah and her family. It’s inhumane some of the things that are so UNTRUE that have been said about her. Leave the children out of it they are inocents in all of this. sarah is a great leader a great mother and we will be lucky to have hewr in office. She’s been in politicsw all her life and she knows whats going on. You know what makes a good leader someone who cares about her counrty more than they do their self, someone who goes to enemy lines to help support her troops, someone who is a real human being and didn’t get into the politicals just for the flashy stories and headlines. Sarah Palin is a great perason and she knows and care about the people and thats all that really counts. She will make a difference in this Counrty weather she is a vice president a govenor or just a simple house wife. She is meant to do great things and as in her beliefs she will prosper in whatever she does. We Alaskan’s may do things alot different from you folk in the lower 48 but remember our damn State is almost as big as all of your 48….She governed alot of people and a huge State as it is.
Kelsey from Wasilla AK