Montana

Mom, Lyn and I lived in Montana for about 18 months.  Mom had remarried and we moved there to be with our step-father.

The town we lived in was small and remote.  It had a stop sign and a Frosty Freeze.  It was too small for a stop light or a Dairy Queen; much less a McDonalds.  The nearest one of those was 40 miles away.  The nearest mall was over an hour away in any direction.  The town had more bars than churches.  Folks who had moved there were called "The New Comers" even if they had been in town for 20 years or more.

Let me show you around town.


The block that ended after the drug store is where the stop sign was located.

Let's back up and get a broader view of Main Street.


There's my step-father wondering why I was photographing the main street of the small town in which we lived.  I did it because I wanted to remember the town when we left.  In this picture, I pretty much got the whole town.

Between Mom, Lyn and me, Lyn adjusted the best.  She didn't mind the snow and the cold.  She used to ski, after all.  That was a good thing because in our first 8 weeks of our life there, we experienced 6 massive snow storms.  Ok, they were massive to us.  We were shocked to learn that school was only closed due to weather when the governor declared a state of emergency.  So, despite all the snow, high winds and temps well below -50, we still had to go to school.

The town's folk were kind to her.  They didn't view her as a threat on the local job market.  The town was small enough that Lyn could walk up to the park anytime the weather allowed.  During that time, there was no Special Olympics available for Lyn.


She was not happy about that.

The good that came out of living in Montana was that Lyn and I graduated from high school together.  Had  we stayed in our original schools, Lyn would have graduated a year after me.  We also learned that Montana is not the best place for our family.

Comments

Popular Posts