He did not, I asked specifically. I even said “Alaska is the 49th of the 50 states.” and he chuckled and said I was confused. Thankfully that wasn’t the standard, but I did meet a few more similarly confounded people over the years.

Also the number of people that think Alaska is small because of how it’s shown on many maps is staggering.

When I moved away from Alaska, the first person I spoke to in Georgia was a fast food cashier who asked about my day, and they asked “How are you liking the states?” No variation of “Alaska is a state.” would get through to him, he just kept saying “Sure, but I mean like a United States state.”