Missoula Rabble: November 18
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.
Deyvada
“I’m not a shadow person,” Deyvada said. “I stand out front. I don’t stand behind people.” Deyvada certainly carries the personality that wouldn’t make me think otherwise. She was a truck driver for 22 years before she had to quit because of a torn rotator cuff. “I bought my truck before I knew how to drive a semi,” she said. “Before I realized I had to go to school for it.” I asked Deyvada to elaborate on the life of a female in a seemingly masculine world. “Men tend to look at women as lot lizards,” she said. “I’m more manly than feminine. I’m sexy but I’m hard. I’m not going to let a man say what he wants to say. And if you say something about a woman, you’d better be able to back that up.” I asked Deyvada if it’s changed her perspective on males. “The only thing I hate about males is they can pee standing up,” she said.
John
Any man wearing purple Crocs is going to catch my eye. “I went into Hide and Sole to buy a pair of Keens because if you’re in Missoula and you don’t have Carhartts or Keens you’re not in,” John said. “I never owned a pair of Crocs but they had a pair of hot pink so I bought them.” I asked him where his hot pink Crocs went. “I had some friends come over and they stole them,” he said. “Hide and Sole told me Crocs had discontinued that color. That was the second saddest day of my life.”
Allison
Allison is a former member of the all female, “noise rock” band Knot Knocked Up. “It was really loud, all found objects, lots of screaming,” she said. Screaming and loud music aside, this woman is an absolute sweetheart. She is covered in tattoos and piercings and always has something new and stylish going on with her hair. I asked her to describe some of the reactions she gets from people. “I get all kinds,” she said. “I get good ones and ones where people kind of give me looks where people are nervous or scared or overwhelmed.” I asked how it made her feel. “When I was younger it bothered me and made me feel bad,” she said. “At some point I was kind of like, well, it weeds out the people I don’t need to know. I kind of think of it as a little bit of a blessing.” I asked her how she approaches and receives other people. “I’ve always believed that everyone has a basket of experiences,” she said. “We’ve all shared these emotions and it’s acknowledging being human and finding our ways to express all of these these different things.”
Matt
I crossed paths with Matt on my way home tonight. He had a hat on the ground and was looking for change. “I’m flying a sign for food and money just to help myself out,” he said. “I’m not an alcoholic because of my mom. Alcoholism is what took her in the end.” I asked Matt what his best memory was of his mom. “The last five years of getting to know her and her being sober,” he said. “She asked me for forgiveness for all the things she did. I said, ‘I forgave you a long time ago.’ Gave her a little peace before she passed.”
Benjamin
Benjamin grew up with a father who was a minister in a very religious household. “They saw me as the sinner, the shitty kid in their family for a while,” he said. He had rejected his family’s faith when he was in high school. “It was shitty at first because I didn’t want to go against the grain too much. I still had a lot of love for my family,” he said. “It got pretty hard when it seemed like they were dissatisfied with everything I did even if it wasn’t bad just because I was choosing to live a different lifestyle. I reconciled with them and told them, ‘This is none of your business. I’m still your son.'” I asked Benjamin when he knew religion wasn’t for him. “I would sit in church as a kid and just think, ‘I don’t need some law and some fear of burning in hell to make me a good person.’ Everybody should just be a decent person. Whatever god there ends up being hopefully they’re going to be cool if I’m nice to people.”
“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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