Summer of '75

Stuff we did in Montana with our cousins and their friends from the rez:

- swam in irrigation canals

- rode horseback all over creation. They had a horse named Hawkeye who reportedly was in the movie Little Big Man, with Dustin Hoffman. (By all accounts, he nailed his part…)

- walked down to the roadside stand to buy cokes, candy, and fireworks

- learned not to wipe the can when sharing cokes (if you’re really bored, see spit and polish)

- lit firecrackers

- broke firecrackers in half to create spark shooters with which we terrorized unlucky crickets and grasshoppers

- blew up anthills and watched them swarm out looking for something to attack

- put red ants in with black ants (and vice versa) to watch them fight

- tried to smoke a cigarette (Roxanne & I). We were temporarily out of matches and couldn’t get it lit using just punk*, so we never inhaled.

- learned to rope

- pretended to give sermons from the pulpit of the tiny neighborhood church, which was open and empty during the week

- explored the junkyard, sitting in old cars with broken windshields and pretending we were old enough to drive

- watched the cows urinate and defecate (while at first glance this may not seem attractive, it’s actually pretty impressive if you’re 10 yrs old and have never seen it up close before)

- lit fires (Roxanne’s little sister Michelle and I). We stole matches from the kitchen and lit dozens of little fires in the fields. We were very careful, always making sure we had an area of bare dirt between our fires and the surrounding vegetation, but try telling the adults that. When Roxanne told on us, we both ended up writing “I will not play with matches” 500 times, plus Michelle got a spanking. Not sure how I got left out of the spanking part, but I didn’t ask too many questions about it at the time…

- enjoyed ourselves immensely



*slow-burning brown stick used for lighting fireworks