This picture of my family reminds me of the eye of a hurricane, you know it can't last but the calm sure feels good. This was the summer of 1967 and we had moved to Billings, Montana so my Dad could finish his bachelors degree. We had lived in North Dakota and Miles City, Montana before this and it was always tempestuous but this summer was golden, until......................
We spent the summer swimming at the local pool and playing in the park. We were all piled into a little house but we were pretty happy. This was the summer of great adventures, we went on field trips with the college, fished in the local rivers, played in a local play as cowboys and generally just ran amuck. This was the summer of doing things that were dangerous with no thought for the consequences. Ee thought it would be great fun to coast a bicycle down a very steep hill and see how fast we could go. This all went fine until ........ It's just not a good idea to coast a bike down a hill with no brakes and no chain linking the pedal and rear sprocket ! I still have the scars to prove it ! ( That's me standing next to my sister in front of my mother)
It all ended when my best friend fell from his tree house. We had all had great fun there all summer playing in the tree house and swimming in the creek. He fell from the tree house and it killed him, I don't even remember his name. Right after that my brother Dale ( Dale is holding the cat ) was hit by a drunk driver and was killed in front of the whole family !
The summer was over.....................................
