I‘m probably wrong about this, but it seems to me Montana was an early adopter of the legalized gambling craze that has since overtaken the rest of the country. Keno parlors and poker rooms are everywhere around here and have been since the ’70s. I used to take it for granted. Only after moving away and returning here on visits do I appreciate how pervasive and pernicious […]
There goes the sun
Sunsets are like rainbows; you always imagine you’re the only one seeing it. And even a run-of-the-mill one is still kind of awesome. At Mom’s place in Sheridan, I go outside after supper and go right back in again to get my camera. This time of the year, the Big Sky lives up to its name. Maybe tomorrow I can come up with something more topical.
All ghost and no town
They call Rochester a ghost town, but it isn’t really. Oh, there are ghosts. They whisper through the weeds and sound exactly like the wind. But there’s no town left. Only a crude foundation or two, and a cemetery of about 50 graves. The first thing you notice is how many of them are marked “Baby” or “Unknown.” It was a tough life, mining in Montana. These […]
A dispatch from the upper boondocks
I'm alone at the family cabin. It feels good to say “family cabin,” even though this one has been in the family for less than a year. It’s located 12 miles off the highway and eight miles miles off anything like pavement, way up a washboard road made dusty by sedentary adventurers in their SUVs and four-wheelers. They drive until the road ends and then they drive […]
When the sun goes down
As someone born and raised in Montana, I should be immune to the summer sunsets here. Or at least immune to urge to take a picture of them. But I’ve been reaching for my camera almost every night now. I guess I understand why Charlie Russell painted so many of the damned things. It isn’t just the light; it’s the vastness of it, and the sudden and […]
An endangered view
Not much to write about today, so here’s a picture taken from the front door of my brother Ed’s house. The field in the foreground was surveyed for subdivision, but then the economy tanked and Ed got a reprieve. Every cloud has a silver lining, right? For my money, it’s not even a cloud. Putting the brakes on rampant development in the Gallatin Valley was long overdue. […]
This just in …
One thing about a road trip: The national news of the day tends to fade right into the background. Thus, I was not moved to write about the startling breakup of Mr. and Mrs. Tom Cruise. Anderson Cooper’s shocking admission of 100 percent gayness barely registered at all. I didn’t even care that scientists have finally determined why supermarket tomatoes taste like stale water. Out here in […]