Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 476
As most of Big Sandy knows by now, the famous Mint has changed hands. Or rather it has come back into familiar hands who have owned it before. Lawrence Jappe IV, Shayla Vroman and Marie Jappe were at "The Mountaineer" last week talking about what the Mint is all about. Marie said that she and Larry bought the Mint for the kids. Marie added it was very familiar to the family as her mother and father owned it from 1996 to 2005. And even before that Walt and Judy Sivertsen owned the popular...
I must have written a story and in it mentioned the name of Ella Ling Anderson because I got a letter back from Jerry Halter who had a lot to say about Ella. Here is what I know. Ella’s mother was a Gros Ventre and a charter member of the Van Orsdel Methodist Church. She married a Ling and they had quite an early life as they were picking up and moving from one place to another. Finally Mr. Ling became the weatherman here in Havre. Ella ran the sheet music department at Buttrey’s Department Store and also played the piano or organ for the sil...
I don't remember a lot of this story but I think I have most of the facts straight. The story came to mind after hearing and writing about the mussels in some of our Montana lakes and reservoirs. Matter of fact this was such a large story that there were several books written about it. Of course I can't find mine now so I will have to tell you a tale that starts out great and ends up very sad and the tale is not over yet. For many years around the time that we celebrate Thanksgiving a...
My Grandfather Stuart featured himself as quite the weather man. He spent his life talking to his friends about what was going to happen in the South Mountain View Community of Havre, Montana regarding weather. The problem is that he was usually wrong. However one time he did correctly predict a terrible blizzard. From that day on he was known as Blizzard Stuart. The only weather tidbit I ever got from my father was that he said when there are sun dogs around the sun, it was going to be very...
One thing we at the "Mountaineer" have always marveled about is that if we ask about a story of most any kind from the Big Sandy School System we have it sooner rather than later, And we get it in spades! The school gives us lots of computer stories and staff gives us lot of great hunting stories but none measure up with Letters from Santa from the Elementary School and the Christmas stories that came from the sixth grade and Mrs. Fasteson. All were wonderful and we are so honored to be able to...
In another section of this week’s “Mountaineer” Vicki Sylvan has a thank you to the community for all the good things they have done for her while she has been the Big Sandy Library. Somehow, that is not the way it should go. It is us of her community that should be thanking her for all the good she has done in letting people know what books are in the library, which are good, which are bad and which are downright ugly and at all times recommending very good books of all types to a book hungry public. It was about the time that Vicki took...
From a November press release written by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists, there is an invasive mussel larvae in some lakes and rivers in Montana. It is with sort of a jaundiced eye that one looks at that press release because even the name of the body of water is wrong. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks calls it Tiber Reservoir but most everyone on the High-Line knows it to be Lake Elwell. Judge Elwell is probably turning over in his grave that his name is not used on his beautiful...
When Leslie Gregory suggested that we do a story about Christmas cookies, I cringed. I cannot bake. No exactness about what I cook. But that is exactly what Leslie can do is stick to the directions and come out with some great cookies. And, yet I knew there is a world of cookies out there to explore, to sample and to bake and that is not to mention the wonderful Christmas candy that seems to float around the community this time of year. So you will not only hear about Christmas cookies but some...
I have written a lot about when I was a small boy in Havre, Montana. It was the late 1940’s and early 1950’s and children in my neighborhood of Second Avenue played outside winter and summer. Not only that but we walked everywhere. We walked to school and back home again. We walked to the movies on Saturday night or to the Havre High Gym to go to a basketball game. Not only were my friends and I walkers, but the streets were full of kids walking home from many events that had happened around the town. I remember there were four basketball pla...
Every year those trusty Big Sandy Chamber of Commerce people go out and about and make plans for the best Christmas Stroll ever! It is their largest and maybe only fund raiser of the year but they certainly do not do it for the purpose of making money. They do it because they love their home town and they want the Christmas Stroll to be the best ever and a time for fun for everyone. This year they had a new item. Actually they had many new items but this one struck me. The three downtown bars co...
I had a strange Thanksgiving. It all started when I picked out a Thanksgiving turkey. I wanted around a 16 pound turkey because I think they taste better and actually had a Butterball in the shopping cart at a grocery store that will remain nameless. Then I noticed a strange brand and the grocery seemed to have a million of them priced very inexpensively. A sixteen pound unheard of brand was $14.00 and a sixteen brand Butterball was $25.00. So in a moment of cheapness I bought the unknown brand. I did notice as I hauled the turkey home that it...
It seems of late like there are a lot of people retiring from the Big Sandy community or changing jobs. With every change someone goes home and lives a completely different life style and someone takes over a position and brings new ideas to the workplace. That was all happening in spades when Linda Rutledge retired from the Senior Citizen's Center and Karma Hale took her place. It was the young taking over for the not so young when Karma had her first day in the Senior Citizen's Center on Novem...
Tony Collins will be displaying his Western Arts of Montana at "The Mountaineer" during this Saturday's Christmas Stroll. What that means to the farm and ranch community is that in our midst for that day will be an expert on all things branding. From making branding irons (did you know that most all branding irons are made of stainless steel now?} to branding irons for the range and for the kitchen to brand steaks, Tony Collins lives it all every day. He is a wood working expert as well, making...
It is time to get the Christmas lights out and up. It is a little early for them to be on but it is so much easier to get them up when it is warm. When Mother and I moved into our Sixth Street home in Havre I knew I wanted to have some privacy at the front of the house so that if I wanted to go outside and drink a martini on a Friday night I would not be seen. So we made a wide sidewalk, almost a terrace running from the front door to the driveway. Then we made a high berm and planted blue spruces all the way along the front of the house....
I had heard about my father, Bee Lucke’s troubles with draft boards for years. As a matter of fact it was sort of a family joke. It seemed that in 1944 and early 1945 the local draft board was short of draftable men so they started taking married men with one child. Bee Lucke fit that bill perfectly. I was the one child. As mother told the story, every time he went to Butte to take his physical he was told that he was going to be drafted so when he got back home to Havre, some of his friends wou...
When the Big Sandy School District decided to get a lot of Chromebooks for students in junior high and high school, 90 were issued to students. How about a few more numbers. There are 177 kids in K through 12 in the Big Sandy Schools. Once Bob Nelson and others knew they wanted to invest in Chromebooks, there have been 154 of them bought in the last three years. Before any were bought and issued, Bob Nelson did a lot of work and study as to which devices would be the best for students in the...
When this "Mountaineer" reporter first heard about job shadowing he thought it must be about Lamont Cranston and "The Shadow". Little did he know that it was really about going to see what a job entails so that the student might want to go into that line of work. Juniors and Seniors at Big Sandy High School have gone to Great Falls and followed people around for a day to see if they might be interested in a job like the one they were shadowing. But not until this year has Shersteen Cline's...
I have always associated my early Thanksgiving dinners and such with working at the Lou Lucke Company. For those four short weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas the Lou Lucke Company was decked out in live Christmas trees, bells, mica display racks and front display windows that looked like they were here direct from the North Pole. I think it all started when my Grandfather and his brother Bob loved to decorate for Christmas. It was only fitting that their store, the Lou Lucke Company,...
Around 75 Thanksgivings have passed me by and still I am excited about the day, the eats and getting with kith and kin to celebrate family, faith and friends. For years it was the food for me. Maybe it still is. If I could not have turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy for Thanksgiving dinner, it would not be much of a dinner. I know many people who take their whole families and go to a place and help out with cooking or serving or washing dishes afterward. And that is fine, although in my family, it has always been a little more...
“The Mountaineer” invited all professional cooks in Big Sandy to participate in a special Thanksgiving interview. Most accepted. A few did not. Answers were very revealing. For instance many cooks like to cook alone. What does that do to open concept living that is so popular these days? Some cooks said the best short cut to cooking is not to cook at all. Go somewhere else and bring something. Most all had bad experiences in cooking for Thanksgiving dinner. One of the best answers of all concerned whether to stuff the dressing in the bird or se...
This story is not a story about Grandpa Lucke although he is in it quite a bit. It is a story about us Lucke kids at Thanksgiving. But it needs a beginning and maybe Grandpa Lucke is that. I have been going to write a book about Grandpa Lucke for several years. It will be just a book for the family and not a long book at all. I have not gotten started on that book. Grandpa Lucke was a genial German who changed his name from Lueche to Lucke when he opened up a shoe store in Havre in 1903. He figured that no one would buy shoes from someone...
Amanda Rohlman heads up the music program in both the Big Sandy Schools. She has a big job as she has 27 in choir and 28 in band and as she says, all are really proud to be there and very excited about what they are able to accomplish. By the time you are reading these words, the All Star Band will have taken place in Missoula. It was held from November 11 to 13. Students are nominated to go from directors and play in 2 bands from five different states in the northwest. Dakota Terry and Grace...
A couple of weeks ago I got a message from Dave Louvar at “The Grocery Store”. The message simply said that he wanted to interview me. I said fine and over he came one morning with some questions. Marlys Edmonds was there too and she had questions as well. Dave wanted to know the origin or Robby Lucke. I told him that I came from a Havre family only we had about run out of money by the time I came along. I spent my young years dreaming of and working in the Lou Lucke Company, a store in Havre (where Norman’s is now) and which sold high grade me...
There are getting to be more black bears and grizzly bears around then there were a few years ago. It is known by most everyone that those bears are leaving the Northern Eco System and moving back to their age old home, the Montana prairies. A couple of weeks ago, one of the strangest occurrences of all occurred west of Dupuyer when around a dozen female grizzlies and their cubs gathered for a couple weeks sojourn in one area just east of the east front of the Rockies. For whatever reason bears...
We live in an amazing world. You can almost buy anything you want from far away and it will be shipped to you ASAP and be of a great quality. I am talking about everything from clothing, to food, to shoes, and even cotton socks, if you find you need cotton socks. With me it is cooking. I used to be able to lay a complete turkey dinner out on the table just by doing it the morning of the dinner. I can’t do it anymore. Old age has set in and I find I do less and less of what I used to do. Matter of fact this fall, I did a practice turkey just t...
