Yesterday I had a good day. I started with coffee, donuts and homemade cookies with Jeanne and Rob at their house. We had a very nice visit and made plans for some upcoming events.
Then I went to Rocky Mountain Credit Union to conduct some business and then out to cemetery to make sure everything weathered the snow storm ok. It thankfully had. The cemetery was very busy with folks putting out flowers for the Memorial Day weekend.
Then I had some time to kill so I decided to take a trip up the hill and went up to the Granite Mountain Memorial. I just really like the view of Butte from up there. While I was up there I realized that I was close to Paul and Kelly Eddy’s house, so I thought I would see if they were in town and stop in to say Hi. While Paul is not a cousin by blood I have always really considered him a cousin. Officially he is my cousins cousin, but he was around the ranch with my cousins during a large part of my formative years. God knows I tortured him and my cousin John by being the annoying little tag along when I was little, but they also paid me back at times. So it swung both ways.
My cousin John and Paul pulled a little stunt one Fourth of July weekend that had my grandfather the most pissed off that I ever seen him in my lifetime. I have no idea how old everyone was but they were probably preteens and I was probably 4-5 years old. I was just an observer (not necessarily a innocent one, but I was sparred because I was too young to know any better). As I remember the events of the day, John and Paul came up with the idea to make what essentially was a bomb. They took one of my grandmothers empty prescription pill bottles and they took a bunch of fire crackers and broke them apart and emptied the black powder into the bottle until it was pretty close to full. Then they put a piece of foil on the top and then screwed the cap on the bottle and pierced a hole in the cap and put a fuse in it.
Then they came up with a idea on where to put this supersized fire cracker aka “bomb” to light it off. Now I don’t know why but they chose to put it in between some logs of the horsebarn (it is a log building) and they lit it. Now I don’t remember being there when they set it off. But I do remember the aftermath. My grandpa was very pissed for a myriad of reasons (blowing the barn off it’s foundation, burning the whole ranch down, etc.) and like I said it was the most pissed off that I ever saw him. Needless to say John and Paul got in some big trouble with that one. I will tell you I never thought about building anything like that, when I got old enough to know better. I might not be the sharpest pencil in the box, but I knew enough to not do that.
Paul and Kelly are not officially full time Butte residents yet, but they bought a home up in the top of Walkerville. They are currently remodeling it. They really have some beautiful views from this home. A couple of years ago, Paul purchased my grand father’s Gran Tarismo Studebaker from my Dad. He had it shipped out to a shop in Des Moines, Iowa and had had a frame up restoration done on it. It has really turned out beautiful. He still has a couple of mechanical issues to shake out to getting it running right but he is getting close to having it done. I know Grandpa would be really happy about that and he has more than made up for the “bomb” incident.
Anyway, I had a nice visit with Paul and it was nice to see their place. Kelly was in Des Moines so I did not get to see her this trip. She and I have been two ships passing in the night, but I am sure we will catch up at some point this summer.
After visiting with Paul I went and had a quick visit with Kate and the kids. Then I went and had a couple of beers with my friend CD Holter at the McQueen club. Fortunately my old friend and college roommate Tom Davis just happened to walk in and we all had a very nice visit and relived some of the good old days.
I believe I mentioned this beforeTom and I both bought our engagement rings together and unfortunately both have lost our spouses way too early to cancer. Jennifer and I married in August and Tom and Kathy married in December.
Anyway it was a good day of visiting and reminiscing.
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