Montana

I love postcards featuring an entire state. The shape of Montana lends itself well to this, as noted in a previous post showing a card actually shaped like the state.  

Montana claims a piece of my attention sometimes, in a variety of disparate ways.

1.  Ivan Doig.   He's been called the "dean of western literature" and a "worthy successor to Wallace Stegner."  If you haven't read his novels, particularly the "McCaskill trilogy", consisting of English Creek, Dancing at the Rascal Fair, and Ride with Me, Mariah Montana, you've missed out on something great, especially is you have any interest in the history of the American West.

2.  My friends Claire & Steve.  They moved to Montana last summer.  Steve attended college there and Claire is going back to school for a MSW (Masters in Social Work, specializing in hospice care) after 30 years in the travel business.  Yeah, Claire!

3.  Big Sky.  My friends John and Cindy have a recently completed building a compound.  We spent time at Big Sky when the compound was just a glimmer in John's eye, and haven't yet seen the finished product.  I imagine it to be pretty wonderful.   The whole area is beautiful and close to Yellowstone and offers a wide variety of winter and summer sports.   However, the day we left it was 30 below zero at the Bozeman Airport.   Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Claire in Montana

My friends, Claire & Steve, recently moved to Missoula, Montana. Claire claims that after a month, she has become a cowgirl. Somehow, I don't think she's quite willing to give up the high heels and pearls yet. We shall see.

P.S. Notice the Ozzie & Harriet stamp.

Montana - A Better Example of a Postcard Shaped Like the State

Couldn't resist posting this right after Idaho's when I came across it.

It's such a better example of a postcard shaped like its state. I suppose it helps if you have a couple of right angles.

Montana, Random

My parents and my grandparents visited Montana when you could still stay in places like this with dirt parking lots. There aren't a lot of these kinds of places left, but the clouds in "big sky country" are still incredible.

I love the clouds in this postcard, the dirt parking lot, and the innocence and lack of slickness apparent in the copy describing the place. "Hunt Wild Game of all sorts or just Loaf". Both the language and the punctuation are of another era.