Road Trip: Rocky Boy and Havre, Montana

 From kindergarten through third grade, I lived in northern Montana. My dad worked for the Indian Health Service. In kindergarten and first grade I went to school on a Chippewa-Cree reservation at Rocky Boy. We lived there on the reservation, right by the clinic where my dad worked. When I was in second grade, Celeste and I started riding the bus into Havre, about 30 miles away. In third grade, my family moved into Havre and lived there while my dad took on the longer commute.

We moved from Havre to Winslow, AZ when I was nine years old and I have never been back to that area. Since Caroline and I had time, we decided to go exploring up there. 

Montana in July is AMAZING.

It is gorgeous and the temps are so pleasant.

We stopped in Helena on the way.

We got to ride the Great Northern Carousel.

It was my favorite carousel I've ever ridden.

Not only did it have fun and creative animals.

Like rainbow trout

And a hippocampus.

But the best part was, that they had a bar sticking out near the operator's booth.

When the ride started, you could reach over from your horse and grab a ring

off the bar. Most of the rings were plastic. But there were a couple of "gold"

rings that were good for a free carousel ride. That alone is super fun.

BUT to make it even more fun, you got to THROW any of the plastic rings

that you got into some targets on the other side of the carousel.

I've never seen anything like it.

I loved it.

So fun.

Downtown Helena

I can see why my parents were drawn to Montana.

Summers are amazing here.

I'm too wimpy to handle the winters, though.

There's lots of farmland there.

We passed some interesting farm equipment on the road.

Oh, and on the rural roads of Montana we had our first near-accident. A flatbed-type truck was driving at us on a two-lane highway. He dropped a 2x4 out of the back of his truck that was maybe 4 or 5 feet long. It was traveling end over end in OUR lane RIGHT AT US. It was terrifying. But luckily, we had just enough time to slow down and get out of the way and we were safe. Phew.

There is not much to see in Rocky Boy.

It's very small.

They do have a casino there now, which I'm sure

didn't exist when we lived there.

This is the elementary school where I went to kindergarten and first grade.

I don't have a whole lot of memories of it.

I remember learning to sing "O Christmas Tree" in Cree.

I had a boyfriend named Koshane and a friend named Geniel (sp?).

We got to eat pemmican in class one day.

And we got to eat in a cafeteria for lunch.

My kindergarten teacher was Ms. Marten

and Ms. Beswick taught me in 1st grade.

I was good at school and there was talk of having me skip

first grade, but Ms. Marten said I was socially immature and 

it would be better for me to stay with kids my own age. :)

I think there was just one school for k-12 if I remember right.

There is just one street with about 8-10 houses right next

to the clinic there in Rocky Boy. The homes are still there,

but I can't remember exactly which one was ours.

I think it was this one.

Or it might have been this one.

I have such fond memories of living here.

I shared a bedroom with Celeste in the basement.

I learned to read and loved reading in bed.

I remember my mom making big batches of caramel corn.

We would eat it and watch movies or play games.

We would get LOTS of snow in the winter and we could

sled from the back fence all the way into the street.

Celeste, Paul, and I also loved to play outside.

Celeste and I would go exploring in these "mountains".

I remember them being bigger...

There was also a creek near here.

We would wear our cowboy boots down there in the winter

when it froze and pretend we were ice skating.

In the summer, we tried to build a dam with rocks so

that we could have a swimming hole.

This is the sign outside of the clinic.

And behind me is the clinic where my dad worked.

We spent one night in Havre.

The neighborhood where we lived has done a really good

job of keeping up the houses. They are so cute!

I couldn't remember our actual address,

but I'm pretty sure this is the house we rented for one year

before we moved to AZ.

One of my best friends lived right next door, Kristin Gorder.

The elementary school that I went to in 2nd grade,

Devlin Elementary, has been demolished.

This is Sunnyside Elementary, where I went for 3rd grade.

My most vivid memory of that year was the Challenger Explosion.

We were watching in class when the space shuttle exploded.

It was traumatizing.

I also remember having field day and thinking I could beat all

the boys in the races. And I loved playing little league softball

for the first time when we lived in Montana.

When we first moved to Montana, our little branch didn't have 

our own building. We had to rent space in an old church or school.

I remember it was a BIG deal when we got approval to have

a building of our own.

And it's still there!

And still looking pretty good, too.

It would've been fun to attend church there,

but we weren't there on a Sunday.

The moon was striking the night that we were in Havre.

The picture doesn't do it justice.

But it kinda stopped me in my tracks when I came out of 

the grocery store. So pretty.