Crossing A Divide

[Editor's Note: This essay is the first in a series of "We, The People" pieces we intend to publish as a step toward a better understanding of the rich variety of humanity that composes our national "We."]

While I have been helping my daughter recuperate from a major surgery, I have had an opportunity to experience a very different life from that life that I lead. I would like to share this slice of Montana with you.

Impressions from West Glacier, Montana….of guns and bears and Gummy Bears

We woke up to two more inches of snow dusting the tall pine trees. This dusting joins the four feet of snow that is already on the ground. My bedroom window has snow within three feet of the top of the window on the right side and snow within one foot on the top of the window on the other side. However, my bedroom window is just above ground level.

No one has trash pickup because of the bears and animals. The "dump" is 7 miles away, ringed with an outer ring of barbed wire fence, then three feet in is an electric fence, and then two feet in from that is a six foot chain link fence with barbed wire at the top. All refuse is in metal containers and the containers are bolted shut at the end of the day.

The closest grocery store is 15 miles away at Columbia Falls and the big town of Kalispell is 35 miles away (15,000 people).

The school where my daughter Karol teaches music has a total of 30 students in 6 grades…..three teachers, an aide, and Karol. Each child leaves their school shoes at school in an open closet in an anteroom where they hang their snow suit and boots. When school is dismissed early due to a blizzard, the school bus returning the students is preceded by a snow plow and followed by a police car.

The Headstart program in a neighboring town is keeping the children in for recess because there have been mountain lion tracks in the playground area. Karol’s friend lost her dog to a mountain lion several weeks ago.

There are numbers of large families in this area. Karol’s closest friend is expecting her eleventh child. I met one woman who has nine children and another woman who has fifteen children. Many of these families are home schooled. Home schooling is also prevalent in the upper mountain homes that are too remote for public schools.

The men seem to marry later…in their late forties….to younger women. Karol’s explanation:

The men leave high school and make their living logging, guiding, etc. At a later age, they are then ready to have a family. Hence, the age differences. The people are incredibly self reliant. You need to know how to fix things, how to handle animals, how to handle weather and unexpected natural events, how to shoot to hunt and to defend, how to farm.

To get mail, I walk (even though I could drive) the two miles to the small rural post office.

The daily Flathead Valley newspaper serves a large area. The police reports are listed weekly.

This week’s lead story…"Kalispell police responded when a woman reported five men trying to break into her husband’s truck. Officers found the intruders and learned they are friends of the man who had decorated his truck with Gummy Bears." Another story…."At a home in Tamarack Woods, a man and a dog went to a front door. The man asked for and received a cup of sugar---which he poured in a line across the property’s security gate." And "Kalispell police had unusual complaints about traffic hazards this week. On Main Street, people on crutches reportedly pretended to fall in front of vehicles. On Woodland Avenue, people on bikes tried to herd deer onto the road, nearly causing an accident." But my all time favorite so far...."The police took a call from a woman who reported herself for running a red light in Columbia Falls. She said that she had never done that before, didn’t know why she did it and would understand it an officer wanted to give her a ticket."

The people are very friendly and helpful and this small community is the West entrance to Glacier Park. It is truly spectacular in the winter….with its own lore and people. You can hear the silence. You can occasionally hear the train whistles in the far distance. I have not heard or seen a plane in the sky. The mountains are clear and crisp or eerily shrouded in shifting mantles of clouds. And at night the stars are strong and many. Last night the half moon made long shadows on the snow.

I feel like Little House on the Prairie in the mountains. And strangely enough, I like it.

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