I have been watching this thread from its beginning wondering how the “tone“ would go. Unfortunately it has degraded to match the very topic it hoped to expose.
I did not want to get involved on this topic but due to the last couple of pages of complete $&*! posts, I felt I needed to weigh in. Probably more for me than any of you reading this.
Here goes:
1. I live in Bozeman, have for over 35 years.
2. Met my wife and married her, still married to her for over 35 years.
3. Went to college in Bozeman. Go Cats!
4. Raised two boys in Bozeman. Now strong young men protecting our country from enemies we don’t know.
5. Both of my sons attended MSU.
6. My wife was born in Bozeman.
7. My family protects the highways in and around Bozeman/Missoula.
8. Work for a local company for the last 35 years, in Downtown Bozeman. (don't preach to me about parking)
9. Blood, sweat and tears to buy our first home in Bozeman, now on our 4th and last home.(probably won’t be able to afford the next one)
10. I have buried a few friends in Bozeman.
11. I was at ground zero when the blast hit downtown Bozeman.
12. I have some very wonderful friends in Bozeman. (Not many left but still a small group of solid good, salt of the earth people)
13. I would meet friends at the Bungalow Drug store and enjoy catching up, in Bozeman.
14. Chased Elk behind the Triple Tree Ranch. Bluff charged by the biggest black bear I have ever seen.
15. Chased some Monster Mule Deer Bucks above the tree line in the Bridgers.
16. I miss the Powder Horn with George & the boys.
17. I remember when Huffine was two lanes AND was gravel.
18. 19th street stopped at Durston and turned into a field
…….etc.
I could keep going but I think that my point has been made. Bozeman is my home of choice, for now.
I don’t like some of the changes that have happened but realize that cause and effect is always at work. The pendulum has swung so far to the left in Bozeman that it feels stuck. Other days it can seem as if it is moving back…but never quite gets going.
Yes, the traffic sucks! Yes, the road rage is ridiculous! Yes, the entitlement attitude of our new residents is exhausting! Yes, the hunting sucks for a 100 mile radius around Bozeman compared to earlier times! Yes, with every subdivision added there is a push for the “new“residents to make this place just like the place they fled! Yes, my own sons will never be able to afford to come back and live in their home town! Yes, all the tax rumors are true, through the roof.
We choose to keep living here for the friends, family, coworkers & neighbors, what little are left. We choose to live here for the beauty unique only to Bozeman. We keep choosing to live here in hopes to see the pendulum start to move the other direction…because it always does, eventually….God willing.
It feels like forever that the winds of change have been blowing hot and dry in our face for the last few years here in Bozeman. We long for a shift in the wind to the back like a cool, mountain thermal coming up from the valley floor….maybe….someday.