That guy from somewhere else

I’m not from around here.

That fact is regularly pointed out to me.

Usually following a column someone didn’t like.

It’s true. I was born and raised a Hoosier. I didn’t arrive in Montana until I was 18.

I came here on my own.

And I’m still here by choice.

But I don’t bring that up when someone calls me an outsider.

There’s no need.

It shouldn’t make my opinion on matters of Montana any less legitimate. You don’t have to live here a certain length of time to have an opinion.

Of course no one likes someone from somewhere else coming in and telling them what to do. Me included. But I pretty much don’t like people telling me what to do no matter where they’re from or how long they’ve lived here.

My daughters don’t have this problem. They were both born and raised here. One is in Livingston. The other lives in Atlanta where being from Montana is a bit of a novelty.

My eighth grandchild -- the seventh born in Montana -- arrived last month in Bozeman. No one will question her legitimacy, or that of her siblings, to weigh in on issues germane to this great state.

Me? I’ll always be that guy from somewhere else.

It will be 45 years ago this June that I first pulled into Cooke City looking for work. I found a job with an outfitter and spent that summer on horseback in the Beartooth Mountains. I was in Heaven and never wanted to leave.

I’ve been a wrangler, guide and logger, worked in a sawmill, spent time as a short-order cook and then spent a decade in construction before entering the newspaper business 30 years ago. All in Montana.

I’ve lived in Cooke City, Livingston, Bozeman, and now Malta.

I worked construction in Gardiner, Whitefish and Melville.

I get Cat-Griz.

I can pronounce Wibaux.

I’ve been treed by a grizzly bear.

But write a column about wilderness, wolves, sage grouse or public land and it will be pointed out that I’m not from around here.

Not that it should make any difference. I love the fact that the place where I’ve chosen to live is so special that folks from somewhere else actually care about what goes on here.

That isn’t the case with too many other places. I’m not much interested in what goes on in Indiana and I was born there.

I had no choice in that, but the decision on where to live was all mine.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]