View From The Bridge 1/16/16

VIEW from the BRIDGE
By Muncie
1/13/16

NIGHTLINE
I am sure that many of you readers could not connect with the Nightline program last Friday night because of Dish networks problems (whatever they were.) I went to son Randy’s home to watch it. I thought it was very well done and only caught a couple of errors as of distances from one place to another. Otherwise, it was very well put together.

Did you see the George Montgomery bronze and the Square Butte Country Club? Readers from Geraldine, of course, saw many landmarks.

I have watched Dateline for years and in my opinion, the show last Friday was just as good as any other I have seen. I am looking forward to it being shown again so I can record it. You notice so many more things the second time around.

NIGHTLINE II
This was a best kept secret that I learned from the Gals at Studio Salon on Friday morning. Why am I the last one to know anything about anything?

Nightline asked son Randy if he could do a short story on Shep. It is 2 l/2 minutes long. It brings again the Shep Legend of Forever Faithful. To have the story reappear was a love story with dogs. May it live on forever not only in Fort Benton but in the entire dog and people world?

The story appeared on Thursday and by Friday afternoon it had 1,400,000 hits. It is just mind boggling what this modern technology creates.

Today is Monday and the Shep Story has now received over 2 million hits. Have you watched it yet? Just go to NBC/Nightline.com and enjoy.

COOK BOOK
I had conversation with one person about the sponsors of the Methodist Women’s Cook Book. I was disappointed that I did not get through to more readers about the sponsors because of the impact of the book. In my opinion it is going back to roots in Montana.  Perhaps there is not much interest in that sort of thing these days. All the attention is toward the future in every category of life.

People do not talk enough these days. They are buried in their Facebook and Smart Phones.  Well, at least they are learning to type fairly well. I think the very young will see the day when robots will be the norm. (I, frankly, would like to see a robot clean my house, wash and iron my clothes, and make dinner every day.)

Back to the Cookbook. The Café Modern was owned by Dode Bramlette who later in life married Frank Morger. They lived in the house I live in for 17 years before they sold it to Wally and Vicky Morger.

Back in the late 40’s, my Sweetheart Wally told me that he and the men he worked with would eat lunch at the Café Modern. The cost of a whole dinner, coffee, and dessert was .65 cents. (Perhaps it is best not to delve into the past because then you begin to talk about the “Good Old Days” and what everything cost then.

For instance…I worked at the local Drug Store for 6 summers. I made .25 cents an hour. A soda was .10 cents, a sundae was .12 cents, an ice cream cone was .05 cents for a single dip or .10 cents for a double, and .15 cents for a malted milk. Those were the “Good Ole Days.”

I would like very much to hear from you Old Timers about some of your experiences with any of the sponsors of the Cookbook. I know somewhere those sponsors touched your lives and it was memory you treasured. Hope to hear from you soon.

FRIENDS
 Did you put the Friends of the Library meeting on your calendar? If you did not and wanted to attend, your missed it at 12:00 today (Wednesday.) Whether are not the Friends will meet again will be in this column next week? My understanding is that there is a lot of help needed. So if you love to share a good book and the company of Friends, it could be a good way to get off the couch and be out and about. It was always my favorite organization and an effort for me to obtain the book from the Talking Library. Not that I minded because I enjoy having someone read to me especially when I am walking.

ENTERTAINMENT
The next Chouteau County Performing Arts program will not be until Wednesday, February 10th. There will be however, the Consortium at the Elementary School on Saturday, January 30th.

I have heard along the grape vine, that we have some new residents in town. Perhaps they are not familiar with the Performing Arts Consortium and would like to know all about it.

Every other year Fort Benton is host to all Montana towns and cities Performing Arts programs. Artists, musical or otherwise, are chosen to “Showcase” their acts to be chosen by the individual Arts programs. It begins early on Saturday morning and goes all day. (Watch the River Press for schedules.) The day is entirely filled with enjoyable acts. It is also fun to discuss with yourself which acts you would like to see again in an evening performance.  The Showcases have only 12 minutes to show us what they can do.

This program is entirely FREE to the PUBLIC. There is very comfortable seating in our most beautiful auditorium in the area. If you are a stranger to town, come and introduce yourself to the Fort Benton Performing Arts Board members who are usually in the lobby. You do not have to commit to anything but just to enjoy a day of great music. Hope to see you there.

WALKING
I am still walking the halls of the Fort Benton High School Monday through Friday. The school is a very busy place with the basketball teams practicing in the gym or running in the halls for strength and endurance. How I wish I could run like that.

I still, mostly, have the halls to myself and as I have said before, I can walk freely without having to look down to see where I am walking. I look forward to my walk and am grateful that I have that great school to help me exercise.

OBSERVATIONS
I am out of them because there were so many I could not or actually did not want to print.  I go to a different venue below.

WORD TO THE WISE
I found these quotes on the inter-net and it did not have a title that I remember or that was printed. Hope you enjoy them.
1. Your shoes are about the first thing that people subconsciously notice about you. Wear nice shoes.

GOD BLESS AMERICA, MONTANA, FORT BENTON, OUR TROOPS, OUR POLICE FORCES, WEAR RED ON FRIDAY and PUT A GREEN BULB ON YOUR FRONT PORCH.