Odds and ends

Received a super important email from Cabela’s the other day. Santa will be at the store at 4 p.m. Saturday! That’s right, Santa! A full two months before Christmas! Woo, um, hoo.

I know, I know, Christmas starts just before Halloween nowadays, so I shouldn’t be surprised, but I’m old school, which is to say I don’t think about the holidays until the 20th … of December.

I was rummaging around their “bargain bin” online and noticed they have a pair of Ray Ban aviator sunglasses for kids for the low, low price of $50.

What was the first sentence your child uttered?

“Hey Mom, have you seen my Ray Bans?”

or…

“Oh man, I just sat on my Ray Bans!”

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I’m happy to report Larry Wilson is back at home and recuperating. I took him over a meal last week and he was in good spirits. Hopefully his column will be back soon as well.

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Condolences to the Blackfeet Tribe on the death of Earl Old Person. I never had a chance to interview him, but he was always pleasant and was a renowned Blackfeet leader and met every president from Harry Truman to Barack Obama.

I know there has been some bad blood between some members of the Columbia Falls and Blackfeet communities over the years, but I’ve always been treated well by the Blackfeet when I’ve been over there and I’ll never forget the blanket I bought at a shop in Browning that kept me from suffering through a cold night while at St. Mary.

Try to buy a blanket in Columbia Falls. Unless the hardware store started selling them, I don’t think you can get one here.

My hope for the Blackfeet is that someday the buffalo will roam the prairies and into Glacier National Park like they did in the 1800s, which isn’t that long ago.

The landscape was made for buffalo, and it always pains me when people try to stop their expansion. I grew up on a dairy farm and I’m fully aware of the value of the good old cow, but buffalo are ideally suited to the prairies of the west and restoring herds is simply the right thing to do.

I think they could build a viable economy around the buffalo. I would also like to see them start their own Glacier-style national park. These ideas are not of my own making. Folks with far more vision than I have are working towards these goals.