New West Network

My Page: Marjorie Smith

Retiring to a nudist camp

I don’t suppose it’s up there with golf and fishing yet, but I’m guessing novel and memoir writing are gaining on those traditional retirement pursuits. With the desktop publishing revolution, to say nothing of the opportunities opened up by e-publishing and on-demand printing, aspiring writers have more opportunities than ever before to get their words out into the universe. No longer constrained by the narrow vision of traditional publishers seeking surefire blockbusters or by greedy vanity publishers, writers with something to say can say it now, again and again.

While some late-blooming authors devote themselves to memoirs or volumes of advice aimed at the younger generation, the Bozeman writing team of Byron and Kay McAllister has launched a series of tongue-in-cheek murder mysteries set in a nudist camp. Their second novel, Runaway Nudist has just come out in paperback after being available as an on-line read for a few months. A third,To Kill a Nudist is currently available on-line and will be out in paper in a few months.
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This booming town really does need public transportation

Since last August, Bozeman and Belgrade residents have taken 50,000 rides on the new Streamline bus system, which is Bozeman’s first public transportation system since the death of the old trolleys that plied the streets between downtown and the MSU campus more than seventy years ago.

I’ve taken at least 40 of those Streamline rides myself. For the past six weeks, I’ve been wandering the streets of Bozeman with my new heartthrob, the Streamline bus. I can’t begin to describe how deliciously disconcerting it is for me with my abiding (my daughter calls it bizarre) fondness for public transportation to view the familiar scenes of my hometown from the windows of a bus.

According to David Kack, who chairs the Galavan-Streamline advisory board, “What we projected would be 300 rides a day in the first year is already over 500 rides a day.”
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How much longer do we get to ski?

With the glaciers disappearing in the Alps and Montana ski resorts delaying their opening days this year for lack of snow, I find the continuing building boom at places like Big Sky amazing. What happens to downhill skiing in this age of global warming?

Downhill skiing has always had a dreamy, déjà vu quality for me. It doesn’t matter where I’m skiing – at Big Sky or Bridger Bowl, in Hokkaido or Vermont, there will be a long, lovely run where I suddenly think, “Yes, I’ve been here before!” and then realize that I’m remembering an entirely different ski area on another continent.

Even as a child, skiing at brand-new Bridger Bowl, I had a sense of having done this all before – even when I hadn’t. Perhaps it’s my Swiss ancestry – somewhere in my blood there must be a memory of sliding gracefully down snow-covered slopes, threading between snow-bedecked evergreens. Or perhaps it’s the result of learning to ski during my hyper-romantic junior high years, when everything was almost too meaningful to digest (the unbearable lightness of skiing?)
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Who gets punished for the education planners' "mistakes"?

Here we go again. Cantankerous Bozeman seems poised to leap into another battle as mail ballots go out this week for a bond issue to supplement funds already voted to build a new Chief Joseph Middle School.

Or maybe not. When you listen to the explanations of the need and look at the designs, it seems a slam dunk. If we don’t approve this bond issue, education for our sixth, seventh, and eighth graders will take a giant step backward and Bozeman will no longer lead the state of Montana in educational standards and accomplishments.

But here’s what’s likely to set the talk radio crowd to jabbering: we just passed a $55 million bond issue in 2005. That was to renovate the high school, buy land for a future second high school, and buy land and build a new middle school (the current Chief Joseph Middle School.) Now the schools are coming back to the well because of mistakes made in that earlier bond issue. And some folks are grumbling about punishing someone for those mistakes. [more]

Looking back, looking forward; it's what January means

Year end summaries and ten top story lists being de rigeur for any self-respecting journalist/columnist in the waning days of any year, I decided to look through the stories and columns I’ve contributed to NewWest to see what's happened since the stories first ran. Herewith, updates on some of the issues I’ve dealt with in the 14 months I’ve been writing for NewWest.
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Can we cope with our aging demographics?

It is certainly not news that the U.S. is facing a crisis in care of the elderly. Since the oldest of the baby-boomers hit 60 this year, it stands to reason that the demographics spell problems ahead.

But it’s possible that many folks living in the New West – especially those newly settled in this wonderland of outdoor activity – may believe it’s a problem for other regions of the country, not here.

I beg to differ.

All around me, the parents of our vital, grabbing-life-with-both-hands residents are following their kids here, attracted, to be sure, by Montana’s beauty and recreational opportunities, but also wanting to be close to kids and grandkids as they enter their “golden years.” [more]

The Jeni Fleming Trio

Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true
- Yip Harburg, (The Wizard of Oz)

When Jeni Fleming sang those words last weekend to a packed house at Bozeman’s Emerson Cultural Center theater, I’m sure mine weren’t the only eyes that were a little moist. It wasn’t just the nostalgia of the familiar tune, the conviction in the voice, or the fact that Jeni Fleming is just one of the most adorable songstresses on the planet.

It was the words, and the size of the dream she, her husband guitarist/sax player Jake Fleming, and bass player Chad Langford had dared to dream... [more]

Main Street Park Is Newly Renovated but ...

While the Pope’s visit to Turkey focuses world attention on issues of religious tolerance, we’ve got a hot debate going on right here in beautiful (and downright chilly) Bozeman.

This IS Bozeman after all, where everything is controversial. But the current flap over the Ten Commandments and whether they should be re-installed in a downtown park seems to have put us smackdab into a central national debate: Is this a Christian nation after all? Do we really believe in the separation of church and state?
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The Long-Awaited Library Opening

The nastiest response I ever received in almost 20 years of column writing in Bozeman came in response to -- are you ready for this? -- a column about our new library. Yes, folks, there ARE people who really hate libraries! They call talk radio, apparently, and insist that the new library has less space than the old library or that it’s only one story inside although it towers over Lindley Park, or that there’s almost no space where the public will be allowed. Lies, all lies. What's the truth? The new Bozeman Public Library is gorgeous and already well-loved. [more]

Will we be seeing more absentee voters? More dirty tricks?

What the Washington Monthly wanted were reports “from real Montanans” about the one race that would have an effect upon the nation as a whole, the Tester-Burns contest for the senate. Ironically, my home – Gallatin County – became a major part of the reason the results of that race weren’t known until the wee small hours of the morning (or officially until Thursday when Conrad Burns finally conceded). [more]