I live in Helena, Montana. We pronounce it hell-eh-na not he-lee-na.
Gold, discovered here in 1865 made it an overnight boom town, while
a civil war was raging in the East. It's a very small town with the city
limits boasting 25,000 people.
The town is unique and I fell in love with it
over 40 years ago. The gardens and the old
houses beckoned to me. Many miners did strike
it rich and expensive mansions popped up
throughout the city with each house vying
to be different.
I can go out my back door, walk 2 steep blocks and I'm at the base
of a mountain that provides many walking paths. There is one house
located just before the sharp incline where the mountain begins. Some
how, this old house reaches out to me and every time I actually
stop and take in all the house's magnetism. Cody dog would always
look at me as if to ask, "why are we stopping?" Even if she could
talk, I'd never have an answer, I just had to stop for a while and
afterward, "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" always entered my mind. lol
Joanie, a shirt tail relative, grew up in Helena and knew of every
family who lived on the West end. One day we were walking up
to the mountain and talking about history, a favorite subject to
both of us. I was saying that I had read most of Stephen Ambrose
books because he was my favorite historian.
Joanie said, "He used to live right up here." I got so excited and
wanted to see his family house. Well, of course, it was the house
where Cody and I always stopped. I was speechless but not
surprised as things like that often happen to me.
I don't know what one would call it, a
vibration, a ghost beckoning, an apparition
conundrum, or just enthralled with an old
house?
Anything like that ever happen to you?
Not in waking life, but I used to often dream of a certain house and garden where I felt so comfortable, I knew I'd lived there and would live there all my life. I've never seen this house, although i have seen a few that looked similar. Not in a past life; I'm pretty sure this is my first time round, so maybe it's a home for my next life.
ReplyDeleteRiver
DeleteWouldn't it be wonderful if we could really find the house in our dreams and live there. I would have to find mine when I'm very young because
trees and gardens are so important to me. But...... I'm still planting trees. LOL I even plan on planting a few more fruit trees this spring.
Keep that home in mind... you'll find it.
Such things have happened indeed. I think they do to us all but some fail to recognize them. Not sure it was any ghost beckoning though lol but hey, maybe it was a ghost farting and you smelled it and stopped hahaha
ReplyDeletePat
DeleteGhost farts! Are they little white sparkly, misty floaters? Some ghosts just eat too much and then they won't fit into their sheets. Ha I'm not surprised that you don't believe in ghosts .... but maybe I do and maybe
I don't.
Love his writing, not surprising that you would love his home.
ReplyDeleteStill a nice
joeh
DeleteI'm happy that you appreciate his wriiting too. My oldest son was visiting me when Ambrose was here for one of his last lectures. We both enjoy his books and usually read the same books so we can discuss it. How great to have a son that shares in ones's same interests. I hope your kids share interests with you too.
I love this story. The world is full of connection, so much of which happens on a level we don't actually understand.
ReplyDeleteI also appreciated your comment about Alison Krauss over on my blog. She has come a Long way. Here is the link to a more recent photo:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b3/8c/13/b38c134d242420bcb5ca3e6d4ca0f8a0.jpg
Robin
DeleteI see what you mean. Quite the change from her baggy sweat shirts when I saw her. Of course, I like baggy sweat shirts toos but one has to glam up when on stage.
Thanks for directing me to her photo.
Those kinds of things happen to me sometimes too, AND Ambrose has always been my favorite historian. I have to be honest though, when all of the incidents of plagiarism kept surfacing, I didn't know what to think. It shouldn't have tarnished my opinion of him, without the facts, but it did. I still like his books, of course, but I always think about those accusations. Have you read Rick Atkinson? He is one of my faves.
ReplyDeleteAnd now about Helena... I've been prounouncing it wrong my whole life!!!! LOL
Have a wonderful, happy day. :)
Rosie
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm familiar with the accusations but I haven't been excited enough about it to actually look into it but this is the way I look at historical plagiarism. If there is only one account of a historical event, isn't it all plagiarism? If there were 15 different stories to one historical event, wouldn't some of them be lies and some would be told as the truth. Rosey, I don't know, as I said, but perhaps Ambrose lifted something word for word from another historian's book.
When I've gone to his lectures, he told such an exciting story of history and to meet him in person, he seems so "midwest honest, I just loved the man and love reading his books.
I guess I plagiarize in my blog because I've never had one original idea in my head
and I don't always give credit to where it comes from. LOL
That's OK..... most people pronounce it the other way. I guess there would not exactly be a right or wrong but just the popular way of pronounciating it.
I am so bogged down in work that I'm tearing my hair out. AND I'm working with puppy to come to a whistle call. What a job. I give out a whistle code and quickly give her a very expensive treat....a little piece of juicy steak or the like. I repeat this until my breath is gone. I do this twice a day. That is where I am in this new quest, doing it for a couple weeks or more. Then we move outside with all the distractions and whistle AND she is supposed to remember that she got steak when she returned to that whistle. We'll see when we move outside. Many years ago, we raised hunting dogs and taught them to a whistle but I've forgotten exactly how we did it. We had one bird dog that didn't like to go in the water and the kids tell me, I threw him overboard from the duck boat. What a meany I must have been and I don't even remember it. It must have happened because they all tell the same story. hahaha
We had a little dog that didn't like to swim. My second oldest (the dog's favorite of us all) used to put her in the pool and we'd all be mortified, lol. Good luck with the pup. I hope the training goes well and is fast! I'm trying to teach Macbeth to a bunch of high schoolers who think Shakespeare is a waste of time...so pulling one's hair out is not so foreign of a concept to me. ;) And that's awesome that you got to meet a famous author in person!
DeleteHello from Idaho and since we're almost neighbors. I've never been in Helena Mt.
ReplyDeleteFound your blog though River.
If you find the time stop in for cup of coffee.
Dora
DeleteHello and thank you for visiting. It is nice to meet you
A gracious invitation. I'll drop by. I like coffee.
Belva
that's awesome that you got to meet a famous author in person!
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