Come, let me take you for a ride. Down an old dirt road. To a place in my past.
To my grandparents' cabin. Where they spent summers until they ultimately moved to Colorado, to live full-time. And where I spent time in the summers too, long ago.
Picking berries for jam. Helping Grandma cook. Making my own fudgesicles using a little kid cookbook. Walking little nature trails (amazing we never walked into a bear! I guess they could hear us coming, OK!) Tubing on the nearby lake. Floating on a log raft in the neighbor's pond. Generally wreaking havoc with my cousins, which included the time some of them decided to pretend they were bears (outside the fifthwheel me and my cousin were sleeping in) very early in the morning, and made my littlest cousin (at the time) cry. Going to the nearest town (had something like four businesses - groceries, laundry, a post office, and a bar!) and Grandma letting each of us who went along get two comic books and two candies!!!! Wow, that was all such good stuff. Those were some of the best days. And the most cherished of memories.
So, even though I had brought Bill to see the cabin (about 25 yrs ago now!), and it was not the full 37 or so years since I had been visiting as a little girl, it still caught me by surprise and reduced me to tears (right in front of the current owner, no less!). The emotions of it all, and the memories.
I was surprised to see the cabin still so intact, still so much the same. The shed had long since perished and been replaced. And the owners, who are hunting outfitters (and the kids of old friends of my grandparents, I believe), must be using the place as temporary, cheap digs for the hunters. I don't think I'd want to stay there! It was never very fancy (concrete floors, see-through log walls, uncomfortable furniture - see that log couch? Fine for little kids but...!), but it's gone a bit downhill from there. And with 35 yrs of occasional use, one can see how. But hunters are hardy folks, and I'm sure they don't care much for a night or two. Much had been changed in the old place. For example, I'm pretty sure I remember a big old cast iron stove that we cooked on - not the more modern (but still ancient!) cooktop that's been there these past years. And my grandparents' old room was turned into a laundry/shower facility, while the little room across the open deck outside that used to serve as shower is now storage. And the forest has reclaimed Grandma & Grandpa's garden patch, a place where another cousin had once spotted a moose. In this photo, I think they may have added the stuffed furniture. I don't remember either piece. And that one ugly yellow couch is blocking the cool rock fireplace. I think the drapes are still the same though!
And there's Bill, revisiting that rock hard "couch!"
A beautiful pond out by the main road. I don't remember this from before, but then again I wasn't always looking for things to photograph back then! My mind was much more occupied with whether I'd get leeches on me if I went on that raft in the other pond!
A pretty stop as we motor on, heading for Noxon, the teeny town where my grandma used to resupply (they also went to Libby and Troy, but I mostly remember Noxon).
There it is! And it's virtually the same still! Just a few buildings, visible from across the water (looks like it's called the Cabinet Gorge Reservoir on our map).
The grocery store and the bar, just like forever. Who says nothing can stay the same and that everything changes!? Well, OK, so this might be the ONLY thing/place that doesn't change!
I went in the shop and talked to the gal working there. Believe it or not, she was also from San Diego! But she'd been in Noxon for 30 yrs or so, and she could also remember how the grocery store layout used to be different! Ah, my old brain was validated! The candies and comic books used to be centrally located - just as they should be!!! Now the candies are off to the side, in the dark, and they don't even sell comic books! So it's not a perfect world...
Only one more place we need to go, to complete my Montana past.
Tomorrow...
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