Fred Watstein works maintenance with the Big Sandy School System. Although he has not been in Big Sandy very long, he has made himself known at the school, on the City Council and bicycling around Big Sandy with his family.
Fred asked "The Mountaineer" to write a story about him as, in his own words, "The Mountaineer" interviews everyone else, why not me?
We agreed at "The Mountaineer" and first, found out that Watstein is his third last name. First, his last name was Thomas. From there it was changed to Watson. Most interesting when Fred and his wife got married they decided to give themselves a last name that would reflect parts of both of their names. So, Watson and Farbstein became Watstein in Kalispell in 2008.
Fred had moved from Michigan to the Flathead in 1999 after graduating from college. He did construction in the Flathead Valley during the boom period there during 1999 though 2011. Fred's wife, Jemina is an art teacher and shortly after that got a job at the JFK International School in Berlin which had 1500 students.
Fred says it was a huge change. He had not lived in a large urban center all of his life and Berlin was just huge. Plus, not knowing German, he had a hard time communicating with anyone. The family sold their car and took advantage of shopping malls, the subway and busses to get around Berlin.
In July of 2015 the family, now with two daughters, Oziah age 6 now and Frieda, age 3 now, headed back to the United States and Montana when Jemina got a job teaching art at the Box Elder High School.
The family knew they wanted to live in Big Sandy but did not know how to find housing so went on Facebook where Lis and Frank Maxwell answered their questions by offering them a rental house right next door to theirs. Fred says it was wonderful for the rent was not bad at all and they had the most beautiful view in Big Sandy.
Fred went to work working for the School District handling maintenance.
"I have taken it upon myself to get rid of a lot of clutter in the school. There are some wonderful things at the school," added Fred.
When Fred was made a member of the City Council he sort of took on the project of the old hotel. He sees many uses for the building that can be had and much money available to fix it up for a nonprofit group.
Meanwhile, even for the whole family, it is a culture shock to live in Big Sandy after living in Berlin, but it is wonderful for his daughter to ride her bicycle all around town and wonderful for the family to live in such a close knit community.
Fred said, "Big Sandy is a neat town. I am very glad that my family is going to be a part of it and I love working at the school and being on the City Council."
Fred is 40. He might think that life is going too fast. But one day, like most of the rest of us, he will realize that life does really begin at 40 and that we are lucky to have him as a member of the community and hope he and his family grow old right here in the Golden Triangle.
