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<\/a>I have been to a world\u2019s fair, the Grand Canyon and a rodeo. But until the last week, I had never seen a same-sex wedding or attended a book signing at which I was one of the signers.<\/p>\n<\/a>I have been to a world\u2019s fair, the Grand Canyon and a rodeo. But until the last week, I had never seen a same-sex wedding or attended a book signing at which I was one of the signers.<\/p>\n
Here is what was extraordinary about the wedding: absolutely nothing.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t mean that it was boring or pointless. At my age, I go to a lot more funerals than weddings, and I still prefer weddings. We had a terrific meal, good music, an open bar and convivial conversation. The only thing that distinguished this from any other wedding I\u2019ve attended was that one bride wore a long white dress, and the other bride, a longtime friend of the family, wore black slacks and a white shirt.<\/p>\n
When the fellow conducting the ceremony pronounced them \u201cwife and wife,\u201d nobody in the large crowd batted an eye. Well, it was dark, so I can\u2019t be sure nobody batted an eye, but certainly nothing bigger got batted around.<\/p>\n
The couple\u2019s romance goes back more than two decades, so for most of their time together their love affair was considered not only immoral but illegal. Years ago, they held what our friend called a \u201csecret ceremony\u201d in a Billings city park to bind themselves to each other. To the official eye, the ceremony would have been closer to a witches\u2019 coven than to a public affirmation of lifelong love and affection.<\/p>\n
Now they are legally attached, and good for them. Maybe they will have to account for their behavior in the hereafter, and perhaps I will, too. That\u2019s OK. Under the religious doctrine I grew up on, most of us are going to Hell anyway. As the saying goes, it\u2019s Heaven for climate, Hell for company.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>David Crisp<\/p><\/div>\n
If that is our fate, it\u2019s good to see some fine people earn a little happiness down here on earth before they have to give their eternal account. As Huck Finn said, when he refused to turn in the runaway slave Jim, \u201cAll right, then, I\u2019ll go to hell!\u201d<\/p>\n
On our way to Hell, we did pick up a good story about the caterer, who lives in Red Lodge. I couldn\u2019t verify it, so I am leaving out names; besides, it\u2019s too good to check.<\/p>\n
The story goes that she had worked in several restaurants in Red Lodge before applying at a new place that was just opening. On the part of the job application that asked for references, she wrote, \u201cAsk anyone.\u201d The owners were chuckling over that when another new employee found out who had written it. Oh yeah, he said, she\u2019d be good.<\/p>\n
So the owners walked out the door of the restaurant and stopped the very first person they saw. We\u2019re thinking of hiring (so and so), they said. What do you think? The passer-by replied, I think she\u2019d be great.<\/p>\n
She got the job.<\/p>\n
The book signing was a low-key affair at House of Books to launch \u201cSandstone,\u201d a new anthology of works by area writers intended to raise money for the independent downtown store. It was edited by Precious McKenzie, one of my colleagues at Rocky Mountain College, and designed by Craig Lancaster, who seems to publish a new novel about as often as I write a column. Connie Dillon of Gallery Nine designed the cover.<\/p>\n
The volume has 31 contributors, and it\u2019s a good thing I didn\u2019t know who they were until I picked up my copy of the book. I probably would have been too intimidated to write a word.<\/p>\n
I know about half of the contributors and know most of the rest by reputation. McKenzie, Lancaster and Dillon are all in there, plus Carrie La Seur, Wilbur and Elizabeth Hughes Wood, Pete Fromm, Dave Caserio, Danell Jones, Tami Haaland, Russell Rowland, Anna Paige and a raft of other writers with scary-looking credentials.<\/p>\n
Those of us who showed up for the open house signed copies of each other\u2019s books, drank wine, munched on goodies and, at least in my case, tried to look like a serious author. A planned reading from the book was canceled to avoid cutting into talking and drinking time.<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/div><\/div>My own contribution is a 14-page condensation of the history of Montana journalism, from the days of the Copper Collar under the Anaconda Co. to today\u2019s uncertain climate. I draw heavily on Dennis Swibold\u2019s \u201cCopper Chorus: Mining, Politics, and the Montana Press, 1889 to 1959\u201d for the early days of Montana journalism, but I also draw on the files of Nathaniel Blumberg\u2019s invaluable Treasure State Review of Journalism and Justice, and I extract quotes from historian K. Ross Toole and from John H. Toole, who wrote a history of the Missoulian.<\/p>\n