Alberta Laktonen was interviewed by Anjuli Grantham on October 29, 2015, in Kodiak, Alaska, as part of the Kodiak Historical Society’s West Side Stories project. Born in 1930 in Karluk, Alaska, Alberta grew up in a large family in Larsen Bay, where her Norwegian father was a set net fisherman, cannery worker, mail carrier, and carpenter. Alberta recounts childhood memories of subsistence gardening, household chores, educational opportunities, community life, and the local cannery’s role in the village. She also gives some details of the migration of families in the area, and changes in fishing practices and equipment. Alberta discusses her marriage, her experiences raising a young family with limited outside help, and the value of self-sufficiency. She describes working at the cannery mess hall and quitting to become one of the first independent female set netters in the region, where she had to negotiate for fishing sites, learn the trade without prior experience, and balance work with raising children. Laktonen also discusses her husband’s work in electrical and mechanical maintenance, his role in bringing telephone service to Larsen Bay, and their family’s seasonal migrations between Alaska and Seattle, touching on significant regional events like the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the 1964 earthquake, and the introduction of limited entry in fisheries.