November 26, 2007
Monday

 

Hay Bales, Lower Piney Creek Road, Banner, Wyoming
November 26, 2007, 8:00 a.m.

We had another glorious almost winter day here in northern Wyoming. The high reached 37º with a very low wind. There are calls for “very windy” tomorrow. I took a walk after my morning C&C, accompanied by Josie, the program manager’s dog. I walked about a half mile down the road toward the pile of hay bales pictured above. They reminded me of the baled material in the fields I drive by nearly every day at home. (Yes, I am just a little homesick.)

The hay bales are on the ranch west of the Jentel property, just over the Johnson County line from Sheridan County. The road is packed dirt. Three pickup trucks passed me, one towing two ATVs on a flatbed. Josie barked at the trucks but kept a safe distance. The drivers of all the vehicles tipped their hats and smiled at me. I think they probably know Josie.

I’ve had three brief forays into Sheridan, the town of about 15,000 that lies some thirty miles north of where I’m staying. Two were shopping trips, and the third was the trip to the Mint Bar on Saturday. The shopping trips, undertaken in the facility’s van, allow only enough time for food shopping at Albertsons and maybe a stop at the Wal-Mart next door for non-food items we find we need. (I got wraparound polarized sunglasses there, without which I would not be able to take the morning walks I’ve been enjoying.)

A fiction writer is always looking for material, and I know from my trip in 2005 that the flavor of the towns out here is different enough from the towns back home that exploring them gives me new eyes on American life. I know a little of the culture of Sheridan and nearby Buffalo from the newspapers that come to the house (by mail). The Buffalo Bulletin pastes its address label over the “-etin,” so when you unfold the paper you appear to be looking at the Buffalo Bull. This weekly has been “the voice of Johnson County since 1884” and features almost exclusively local news. This week’s issue has a piece about the prowess of women pheasant hunters and a school district’s difficulty in selling three modular classrooms it no longer needs.

The daily Sheridan Press has national news as well as local, but it’s the local stories that draw my attention. There’s a controversy between two county agencies that has resulted in each raising the fees that it charges the other. An article gave each side an opportunity to explain that the increases were not retaliatory. As I paged through Friday’s edition I came upon a display ad informing me that it was necessary for the McKenzie family to cancel the anniversary celebration for Dick and Betty because of Dick’s “unexpected passing.” A few pages later I saw his obituary. He was 83 and shown in what was probably a recent picture, in a rancher’s hat and shearling coat. I’ll bet that was a 60th wedding anniversary celebration that did not take place. I felt sad for Betty, suddenly bereaved this holiday season.

I’d like to rent a car when we go into town at the end of this week and keep it till we go back the next week. I want to move about on my own, visit the library and the cemetery, maybe pay my respects to Mr. McKenzie there. I want to visit a local bookstore, the two yarn shops, the Lutheran congregation on the first Sunday of Advent, and, of course, the Crazy Woman Saloon in Dayton. If the weather holds, I’d even like to visit Cody, 150 miles away, to learn more about Caroline Lockhart, an investigative reporter and novelist from Philadelphia who visited Wyoming on assignment when she was 33 and never went back. She broke convention and made her mark as adventurer, lover, civic leader, and writer. The cover photo on a biography of her shows her sitting on a black horse, the Wyoming sky sweeping out behind her.

It’s the same Wyoming sky that sweeps over Jentel, but I want to see it the way Caroline did.

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