Growing up in Miles City I think I thought it was pretty boring, but as a result I learned how to entertain myself and I had lots of time to read tons of books, to dream up projects, and to really get to know my friends and neighbors.
I couldn't wait to get out, but I still have fond memories of all of those seemingly "boring" things we used to do such as build forts, play in the parks, fish in the Rivers, climb Carbon Hill to slide down the sandstone slides, explore the entire town (speculating about which houses might be haunted), and yes, drag Main, where I and my friends weren't so "cool" that we didn't liven it up by doing Chinese Fire Drills or (once) stop to T.P. someone's car while he was in the movie Theatre...looking back, I got a lot done every day despite the fact that I complained all the time about having nothing to do.
I see that on here as well. I am very impressed by all of the things some of the Miles City teens have accomplished. One of them is checking in on this thread-he seems so much more advanced technologically than teens of the same age that I know. If he were out here he would probably be too busy playing Lazer Tag or doing the Extreme Rollercoasters at Magic Mountain or Surfing at the Beach or Hanging out at the Mall or all the other millions of things that vie for kid's attention in SoCal (Disneyland, slot car racing, pilot lessons, horseback riding lessons, hangliding, kayaking, outrigger, sailing, scuba diving, dancing, swimming, great concerts, rock climbing, 20+ movie theatres, sports, music, gangs....) I think in 20 years some of the "bored" teenagers in Miles City will have accomplished a lot more than kids out here that are too busy to focus on getting really good at something.....
I am not sure that is really good for kids to have "too much too do"....my 6 year old still says "I'm bored" and I spend a lot of time trying to impress upon her that the downtime is great-it leads to creativity and gives you time for reading and creating things (whether it be an art/craft/science experiment) and time to really get to know your friends. Sometimes I worry that in the future she will always expect to be entertained. I don't think that is particularily good for kids. Maybe Miles City is doing things right by letting the kids entertain and "find" themslves without a lot of "background noise"(not that anyone would think so when they are young, lol!)