The Elks Club

Brad and Sandy are visiting Gladys this afternoon.
Sandy was reminicing about being a girl. When the family
would go into town for shopping, Their Grandad Calvin,
would give them
each a dollar to go buy comics at the drugstore.
They got to go off on their own. Brad, however, was too
young to be let out on his own. Brad had to stay
at the Elks. Sandy said that she remembers the cherries
and the monkeys in her Roy Rogers. She remembers that one
day, Uncle Jack sent out the drinks with three monkeys
in each drink. It must have been while the Rodeo was
going on. Sandy didn't like the cherries so she'd put them in
a separate glass and save them for her grandfather.
Brad says he still has a box of monkeys somewhere.

DAHLINS & FLETCHERS GATHER - 4 GENERATIONS

Dick has been cooking since last night. The leaves are in the kitchen table, the
extra chairs have been brought out. The prime rib smells wonderful, there are
crab, asparagus, & shrimp in a puff pastry on the counter, and the wine is chilling
The salad is in the fridge, the relish trays are done, Gladys is resting in her chair and Dick is putting the finishing touches on the buffet.

Gladys' nephew, Ed Dahlin and his wife, Flo, are coming out from Sheridan,
followed by thier son, Bill and his wife Rachel. Rachel's nephew, Johnathan,
from Fargo, North Dakota is coming along bringing two friends in tow.

Ted and Peggy will be coming up from their place at Stag Rock. Sam Lei
will be coming in from Ashland. Sam is Gladys' son in law, he was
married to Joyce who died five years ago from cancer.

Ed's mother, Elma, was Gladys' older sister. Aunt Elma was married
to Stride Dahlin. Their homestead was on top of the Divide between Bear Creek
and Otter Creek. It is owned by Eddie Nichols of California and Ted leases
it from him for summer pasture.

The Dahlin family originally came out here from the Sand Hills Nebraska.

Elma and Stride sold out during the Thirties and moved into Sheridan.
Both Ted and Dick lived with them during their high school years at
Sheridan High School.

Wedding Memories

"Merle and I only had $33 dollars to our names
when we got married. He didn't have a ring for
me so we went to the dime store and bought one.
He put it on my finger for the ceremony and then
took it off.
We got married at the First Presbyterian Church in
Miles City. Its the same one that Ted and Peggy,
Penny and Junior, Jack and Vi got married at. Its
a pretty famous church now. I was trying to think of where
Jane and Auggie got married. I think it was in
Billings.
I don't think I had a special dress to get married in.
I didn't wear my high school graduation dress. Just
don't remember now.
Merle was a college graduate, I was a school teacher.
We made for good company.
After we got married we gave our shopping list to
several of the stores in town to bid on. We went with
the cheapest one. It was the Sawyer Store I don't remember
if they loaded our groceries for us or not.
After we picked up our groceries
we went to Otter to Merle's homestead. Merle
had an old car, it was pretty raggedy but it ran.
Merle's homestead was in the hills, it was off by itself,
just a little log cabin. You had to haul water from a spring in a barrel.
Funny way to start out a marraige, we had a good life
together" remembers Gladys.

The New Hot Water Heater is IN!!!!!

Monday night Charlie Lei and Dick finished installing
Gladys' new propane hot water heater. She is still
being wise about her power use. "It feels good to
have a bath again and not worry," says Gladys.

"I'm so glad that Charlie was able to do everything
that needed to be done. He and Dick got it all
figured out. Charlie was a big help."
Gladys is relieved to have the work all done.

New Hot Water Heater @ Gladys'

The wait continues for the installation of
the new propane hot water heater. Gladys is
now conserving power.

Ted and Dick went down to the basement and
dismantled the bottom burner in the
50 year old electric hotwater heater.
Dick's contact at TRECO tells him that their
current electrical consumption is down to
100 KW per day. All the baseboard heaters are
turned off. Gladys is turning off all the
lights as she leaves the room. Conservation
is alive and rampant at the Fletchers.

Charlie Lei is due to come and hook up the new
propane water heater next weekend. Charlie is
Gladys' grandson.

Gladys wants to get her power bill wittled
way down. Since it was $650 last month, which
exceeded her monthly Social Security income.

Dick wrote a letter to the Governor and also to the
Senators and Representatives from our area.
Dulcie will hand deliver them while she is in
Helena this week.

Dick is hoping to raise the public awareness
regarding the elderly, schools and the impact of power
increases in Southern Montana upon those on fixed
incomes. He is a Trustee for the school board at
Ashland Public in Ashland Montana.

Dick has also written letters to the editors of
local papers.

Mirage 2

Sam Lei looked at the mirage pictures.

"When I was a boy we lived up high, I
could see the Big Horns and sometime
we'd see those mirages. Do they know
what makes them?

Junior and Djordge Visit Gladys

Left to right: Junior, Gladys and Djordge

Gladys' pals, Junior Milhailovic and Djorde Vukmirovic, showed up with Ted this
morning. They are on their way to go shoot coyotes and prairie dogs. Junior had
some time off and needed to pick up alfalfa seed for his folks farm, so they decided
to head out our way.

Junior and his dad have been coming out to Ted and Peggy's hunting since 1984.
They will be back again this fall.


Dixie, Gladys' grand-daughter, is visiting too. So we are headed out to Ted and Peggy's to see her. Dixie will be here for a few days. Gladys is looking forwards to
playing cards with her and catching up on all the news from Billings.