Missoula Rabble: November 6
Missoula Rabble started as a bet among coworkers about taking a photo a day. It has turned into one of the more entertaining Facebook pages in Montana. It recently put out its first book. The Montana Mint and Missoula Rabble are teaming up to bring the best of this page to a broader Montana audience. Be sure to check out Missoula Rabble’s Facebook page here.
Jonathan
Jonathan is in town meeting his daughter for the first time in eighteen years. “She was kept away by her mother for her whole life,” he said. “She found me on Facebook last December.” I asked him what it was like meeting her after all that time. “She turned out well,” he said. “She practically is me. We’re just moving forward now. She’s playing her first rock show this Friday and I’ll be there.” I asked Jonathan what it’s like to be a dad. “Getting introduced by that title takes some getting used to but I like it a lot,” he said. “I find it gratifying. My whole life I’ve just wanted to tell her the truth about everything. Talk to her as an adult. Now I can.”
Dan
Jonathan is in town meeting his daughter for the first time in eighteen years. “She was kept away by her mother for her whole life,” he said. “She found me on Facebook last December.” I asked him what it was like meeting her after all that time. “She turned out well,” he said. “She practically is me. We’re just moving forward now. She’s playing her first rock show this Friday and I’ll be there.” I asked Jonathan what it’s like to be a dad. “Getting introduced by that title takes some getting used to but I like it a lot,” he said. “I find it gratifying. My whole life I’ve just wanted to tell her the truth about everything. Talk to her as an adult. Now I can.”
Quinn
“I lost my job, lost my place, lost my girlfriend all in a span of a week,” Quinn said. “I’m trying to figure out how to get out of Missoula. That’s what I’m doing in Missoula right now.” This was Quinn’s response when I asked him what he was doing in Missoula. If that wasn’t obvious…. Quinn told me he’s buying a bus ticket and moving to Portland in a week. I asked him why he thought all of this happened at once. “I honestly couldn’t come to a clear conclusion as to why things happen the way they do,” he said. “Maybe there’s a possibility, like there’s no chance. Maybe everything’s for a reason. Maybe that’s what I’m trying to figure out. What percentage of people’s lives can they choose to make happen and what percentage just happens because that’s the way it is.” I asked Quinn what his ultimate goal is in life. “I guess being happy,” he said. “It’s all these things I’ve been trying to figure out for so long. I know I want to have a simple life, be happy, and probably die in bed. That is probably what my main missions in life are.”
Kathy
“I was crying a little bit about losing my ponytail. Not so much my breasts, but my ponytail,” Kathy said. Kathy found out last year she had breast cancer. She cut off her hair and gave it to Locks of Love before she started chemotherapy. I asked Kathy how she responded when she found out. “I had lost my mother, brother, sister and husband to cancer,” she said. “I kinda thought God gave me a free pass so when I found out I was devastated.” I asked her how she has dealt with it over the past year. “You get off the poor me train pretty quick because you want to survive,” she said. “Through the surgery, losing my breasts, the chemo and losing my hair and almost my fingernails, I just decided that you’re in bad shape but there’s a lot of people in worse shape than you so quit feeling sorry for yourself and get up.”
Antonio
Antonio was walking alongside the river when I saw him. He had a hat that stuck out. I asked him why he chose to wear a sombrero today. “I’m representing Cinco De Mayo,” he said. Antonio says his family and he celebrate the independence of Mexico for about a week. His whole family is from Mexico. “[My grandma] taught me that my heritage is very important,” he said. “Hopefully there will be diversity with Hispanics, especially in the Northwest.” Antonio told me he feels there’s a lack of cultural diversity in Missoula. I asked him to elaborate. “I just don’t think people care about that kind of stuff,” he said. “They don’t care about diversity really. I mean, what kind of diversity is it? What diversity is here is people that skateboard and kayak and listen to hippie rock bands. I just don’t see the cultural differences. I’m trying to change that a little bit. I’m trying to give people a taste of Mexican culture.”
“Missoula Rabble is proof that everyone does have a story to tell. I started to profile people on the street and the overwhelming response from the public made me realize this was going to be something special.”
– Ashley McKeee, Creator of Missoula Rabble
All Photo and content credits to Ashley McKee
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