Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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This past Independence Day Weekend, I chose to spend the three days at home alone. This seems to come about as the years go by and we choose not to put on a swimsuit to enjoy the long weekend. Might be because most of us no longer have bikini bodies, but that is not the point. Anyway, The evening of July 3 I found I was exhausted after a long, hot day outside. Coming to the house I decided that my choice of relaxation was a hot shower and a glass of ice tea. The lure of TV, Facebook, or the Internet didn’t even suffice. I chose to sit with m...
What makes an interesting living history portrayal? An historic interpreter is an artist, creating a living portrait of a person whose life was worthy and meaningful in the context of the time in which that person lived, giving audiences a glimpse of the past. The living history artist makes choices about what will be interesting and what will sell; and a great deal of time, research, supposition and intuition are expended in the process. Nancy Cooper Russell, wife and business manager of Montana artist Charles M. Russell, is hardly a...
Editor's note: In the previous installment of Saco Stories, a character was misidentified as "Richard DePuydt." The actual moniker is simply "Richard," sans the last name (no relation). We apologize for any confusion. It wouldn’t be a regular day riding the range without dropping in at a secluded ranch house. In fact, not pausing for a neighborly greeting, cup of coffee, or whatever would have been a real insult to hospitality in the West. Settlers on the plains of Montana depended greatly on each other, and the virtue of hospitality was a...
“Where there is hatred, let me sow love,” the supplicant pleads in the Prayer of Saint Francis, “where there is despair, hope”. When faced with an onslaught of murders last week, people took to social media and to the streets to express their sorrow, outrage and the unhappiness with the status quo. An instant, human response is fear and distrust of the perpetrators and people who look like them. We are collectively mourning and wondering why the shooting deaths of so many people happened, and demanding change. One of the most radical things...
Since the early 1980’s there have been over 200 major publications touting the number of gun laws nationwide at the 20,000 figure. Since the early 1980’s lots of people have been killed with guns, singly or in bunches. No irreverence intended. Just the facts. And what good did all those early gun laws do? I suppose no one can say with any degree of certainty. If we had fewer gun laws would the killings have escalated? Would they have declined? Seems to me that each new piece of gun-trol legislation is presented or written by folks in gov...
Over the past month, I had the honor and privilege of recognizing more than 1,200 Montanans who served in the Armed Forces during the Vietnam War at special pinning ceremonies. (Date and location for Glasgow/Fort Peck area coming soon) Many of these events we chose to host at the veterans memorials because we wanted to share the moment with those we have lost. These memorials are places to remember our brothers and sisters who have fallen in defense of our nation, to celebrate the lives of our veterans, and to bring the tight-knit community of...
I attended two Nashua School board meetings last week. I no longer have a child at Nashua School. My husband and I no longer work full-time at the school, but we are very involved in extra-curricular activities. We both graduated from schools that have closed their doors. It was a slow, painful process and one that we would never want to happen in Nashua. It’s no secret that Nashua School is going through major staff changes. As I sat at the board meetings, I observed the school board working very hard to resolve the issues in order to open t... Full story
Intriguing headline, what? It’s true. One can retire and live a life of Riley on a little over $60,600 a year. Free ... No strings ... no obligations, and best of all, NO WORK!! Get paid handsomely while you sit on the beach or hike in the mountains, or enjoy the evening sunset from the back porch while hitting on a doobie supplied, free, by your benefactor. Don’t believe it? Well friends, it’s being done by at least three or ten millions of people all over this great country every year. Some states pay better than others, and in a momen...
While serving food with the Boy Scouts at the Veteran’s Memorial Dedication in Fort Peck on Independence Day, I was taken off-guard by a comment made by a woman and her husband. They said they were surprised to see Boy Scouts and didn’t know they still existed. They added that it was nice to see young men with their pants pulled up, clean cut, behaving respectfully. I thought, “What other way would they act?” They are Boy Scouts after all. What worried me, however, was not that there are young men in the world who are not acting appropr...
With the All-School Reunion having occurred in Opheim this past weekend, it must be time for some reminiscing. I confess I’m not a Montana native. I didn’t grow up in Opheim, nor in any one place. I was a military dependent. We moved every few years as my father was stationed at various Air Force bases. I had just completed my sophomore year in Wiesbaden, Germany, at the General H. H. Arnold High School, when dad was reassigned as commander of the 779th Radar Squadron just outside Opheim. We were flown back to the states, to the D.C. area. Dad...
Feb. 19, 2010, a date that is burned into my memory. That was the day I had a modified radical mastectomy for Stage 2 breast cancer. March 19, 2010. The next date that is unforgettable for me. That was the day I began five and a half months of chemotherapy by infusion. The next few years I became used to taking a hand full of pills every day. Never one who ever took a pill, other than an aspirin for a headache, I found myself having to keep track of when to get prescriptions refilled and taking pills on a schedule. At the end of my...
Dirt Road Indictment My best friend’s father recently lost his battle with cancer. He was a man I knew my whole life, a good man. He had been sick for a long time and I would see him in the local grocery store and say hi and chat him up. I went to see him one more time before he passed, the first time I had driven “down” his drive in the 10 years since I moved back to Saco. I drove “by” his drive countless times, often twice a day for work. It is in these times a lot of people look back with regret. “How many times could I have driven in t...
According to an old ballad, Saturday night was the loneliest night of the week. Not so for the Circle Diamond cowboys. After their once-a-week bath, either in a creek during the heat of summer days or with a tub full of water heated on the kitchen range, the next step was dressing up in clean attire. With permission of the ranch foreman, they were off on horseback to Malta where they encountered a few girls quite interested in accompanying them to a dance at Wagner, a tiny but lively town west of Malta. After locating the off-duty stagecoach...
I am going to deviate a little this week to reminisce about class reunions. Do you remember the first school reunion you attended? For most that was the 10th year after graduation. Sometimes those first reunions make a memory that helps get us all excited about the next big reunion, or those memories may make us decide never to take in another reunion. The Opheim All-School Reunion was held this past week. All-school reunions are so much more fun that a “class” reunion. I do realize that I am talking about a small school and very small classes,...
I draw a lot from my 23 years of military service. During that time I have known and served with many of our nation’s finest. However, some of the strongest men and women I have ever known have fallen on hard times and contemplated or committed suicide. It can happen to anyone. Many folks are familiar with the statistic that 22 American veterans take their own lives every day, but I wonder how many know that this crisis is much more far reaching. Montana leads the United States in suicides per capita. Suicides affect every aspect of our l...
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year or so, you must know that Donald Trump is the Republican candidate running for the 2016 Presidential Election. Along with his running, you’ve most likely also heard of or seen his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” He promises the people of this country that he will restore traditional values and policies that once made this nation great—economically and morally. As I think of this slogan, I begin to dissect it. Particularly, I think of the word “again.” Has this country ever...
What the hell are those two government agencies doing picking on a 77-year-old disabled Navy veteran who is just trying to live out his life in relative mountain comfort and not bother anyone? Seems as time goes by, and more and more people are getting disenchanted with the over-bearing EPA and most other government entities, they manage to step in it again by pushing yet another citizen around and gaining atta boys from their superiors in Washington, D.C. Ok ... stop right there you BHLs. I know Joe Robertson doesn’t actually OWN the land h...
It’s been nearly two years since I left Valley View Home. Although I initially resigned my position, I was eventually terminated. Either way, I didn’t leave willingly. I thought I had left all of the hurt and hard feelings behind. However, recent events have dredged those feelings back up – and more. My heart hurts, I’m angry, and I’m worried. My heart hurts because in the past two years, many people that I respect and consider friends have been terminated or pushed to resign from positions that they had literally dedicated their lives to....
It was recently brought home to me just how far something a person writes can travel. I received an email with a message in it that had been sent from a Courier subscriber in the state of Virginia that was a compliment on my column. Many, many times people have stopped me and said how much they enjoy my column. To each and every one, whether I’ve received the compliment in person, by phone, by email, or as a message to another person who has passed it on -- thank you very, very much. I deeply appreciate all of your kind remarks. They really do...
Earlier this week, the Natural Resources Committee voted on a series of bills, two of which dealt with public lands. The first piece was an outright transfer of federal lands. The second piece dealt with establishing a land management pilot program. I have said this before, and will say this again: I do not support selling and transferring ownership of Montana’s public lands. Anyone who says otherwise, whether they are knowingly lying to promote themselves, or unaware of the actual votes, is wrong. I was the only Republican to vote against m...
Time. Minutes, hours, days, weeks. Some days time goes far faster than I can and other days seem to drag on forever. We look forward to vacations, milestones in our lives, events we want to attend. In fact, we at times spend so much time looking forward we forget about the moment we are in. We get so busy that we let things slide by us unnoticed. People plan out their time. Some have their entire day scheduled minute by minute. And if something should interrupt that schedule, they tend to get upset. Schedules do have a place, but none of them...
Don’t pay the ransom! Through nearly inhuman cunning and deceitful deception, I have eluded my captors and have returned to my disheveled home intact. There were jars scattered around the county with “Help Save Virgil” labels printed on them. Some, about 70 percent to 15 percent my way, read “Please keep Virgil.” But they were mostly set up by my own relatives and some disgruntled cribbage opponents. Anyway, here’s a thought. Think about it for just a minute and most of the “thinking” people who peruse Thanks For Listening will tell you there...
It was a good weekend in Whitefish for the Courier and an even better one for visiting dearly-missed relatives on both sides of the state for me. In the former category, Sean R. Heavey hefted three awards at the 2016 Montana Newspaper Association convention for Best News Photo (first place), Best Feature Photo (first) and Best Lifestyles Photo (third), while I carried away first place for Best Editorial. There were publications with more awards to collect (get over yourselves, Flathead Beacon), but our little broadsheet was warmly received and...
The picture of the automobile featured on “Yesterday’s Memories” in the last issue of the Courier elicited a few comments from a couple of readers, which in return jogged some of my own memories. I definitely do not remember when automobiles featured carbide lights as headlights, but I do remember hearing about them when I was a kid at home. For those of us that have never seen them or used them, you might compare them to a kerosene lamp. Can you imagine the amount of light that was generated as you headed down the trail on a dark night? I real...
The husky homesteader astride his horse realized he would need to pull in for the night. A prairie snowstorm was developing. Snow was coming down fast and furious – stinging the man’s weathered face deep in the sheepskin collar. As anyone familiar with horses realizes, a good horse will keep his bearings and return his rider home in good shape. With the dropping temperatures, the man decided that to continue on was too risky for man or beast. A building was barely visible, but no matter, these were the days when the welcome mat was out 24 hou...
