This morning we were out walking past the University of Montana and came upon a large group of pretty girls practicing cheerleading moves. The amplified voice of the instructor, also a pretty girl, carried across the open lawn: “One, two, three and four; five six seven eight… don’t flex your hands.” The girls moved […]
A poseur in the Capitol of Cool
We have arrived in Missoula, Mont., after trekking 2,600 miles or so across this great nation of ours in a red Nissan Altima. The car is slightly worse for the wear; yesterday a chunk of wood detached itself from a logging truck on I-90 and knocked out the passenger-side mirror. So at least part […]
Congratulations, Jim. You’re still famous
I don’t know which surprises me more: That legendary actor Jim Nabors has married a man, or that he his, in fact, still alive. Seriously. I was under the impression that he had died four years ago. About the same time Abe Vigoda passed on. And now it appears Vigoda is still alive too. […]
It’s all about the altitude
Today I joined a couple of old friends for a hike up to Mount Aeneas, a minor peak overlooking the Flathead Valley on one side and Jewel Basin on the other. It’s a six-mile round trip with a view at the top that makes you think you’re pretty fit for an older man — […]
A casino on every corner
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]