Since Brian posted the things he's going to miss when he leaves, let's hear from the current ex-pats - what do you miss most?

I miss -

5. Recognizing most of the people I see in the grocery store.
4. SHHS Saturday afternoon football games (that dates me).
3. Well-lit neighborhood streets at night.
2. Mavs baseball games at Denton Field.
1. Finger steaks from the Airport Inn.

18 packs of Busch Light from the M&H.

The sound and smell of sprinklers watering the lawn on hot, Summer days. (Where I live now city water is a bit expensive to use and most of the year one doesn't need to water anyway).

Grasshoppers. I've seen two grasshoppers total since leaving MC in 98.

Train horn in the distance.

Being close to my friends, whom I've known since we were in diapers, and seeing people I really, truly, know.

Doughnut runs to Gerrie's.

Grabbing a soda or beer at Bill's Minit Market.

Hoping that someday I could pick up where Howard left off and drive the ice-cream truck around for the Summer.

Being a 3 minute drive from virtually any place of interest.

The types of trees common in MC (not sure what they were?).

Taking my own children on bike rides along roads I traveled when I was a little boy or to the park and playgrounds I used to play on.

EDIT: How could I forget finger steaks from the Airport Inn, either?

If we could have a time-machine I'd like to have pizza from the cellar back and Hardees again, too. I hate this Carl's Jr. abomination.

[This message has been edited by Dan Mowry (edited 9/14/2008).]

1. Watching the Parkman at Wibaux Park work the sprinklers.
2. Setting out for Signal Butte cross country.
3. Downtown in the 70's, horns a honkin'.
4. Floating the Tongue.
5. The Airport Inn gameroom.
6. Choosing which theater to see a show.
7. Lincoln Grocery candy counter.
8. The Penguin.
9. The ramp.
10. Being a kid with a whole family.

Cheers!
FH

Dan,
The cottonwood trees in Miles City will always and forever be a special memory. The ground turning white, looking almost like snow.

To my husband, who wants to retire there, I make a big deal out of not missing Miles City but there actually are a few things:

1. Train whistle every night about 10:30.
2. Walking around town in the middle of the night without a care.
3. Montana and Park theaters. Everything here is too new.
4. Wild thunderstorms.

GVC's wife

Airport Inn finger steaks and combo pizza, and Martha.

...Seeing Bobby Kenny on hot pursuit to the next police/fire calls...

Boating & jet skiing at Spotted Eagle.

Bombing around the Honda Trails, Little Sherwood, & up to Signal Butte in the old Jeep Wagoneer then latter in the old Bronco. Back in the days of +/- $1.00 per gallon of gas. Can't do any of that these days.

Cruising Main, parking lots full of friends.

Swimming at the city pool (I don't recall what it's name was before 'Natural Oasis')

How about those cheesy games on the bulletin boards, Danno. (before the internet)

Remember when that memorial fountain in Wibaux Park worked?

Wow, there's a lot of things about Miles City I miss, and I still live here..

1)Finger steaks from Airport Inn of course
2)The Rollercade
3)Baseball and football at Denton Field
4)Getting $2 bills from Red Rock Sporting Goods as change
5)Bills Minit Market
6)Ice skating down by Denton Field
7)Riding dirt bikes out at the Honda Trails or South Gate Meadows
8)Pacos from Crystal Pistol
9)Watching fireworks from Airport Hill
10) Branding season every year

[This message has been edited by Jeff Newby (edited 9/15/2008).]

I have not read the others except the first so I would not be "influenced":

I miss:

The strawberry sodas with nuts in them that only the Miles City DQ could make right. No other DQ anywhere since makes them the same.

Listening to Paul Harvey while trying to get home for lunch but the trains were covering the crossing for 20 minutes at a time. Do they still do that?

A town with only a few stoplights and no 4 lane roads

The books in the children's collection in the basement of the library

Green olive pizza at the Airport Inn

Sounds of Sweet Home Alabama coming out of the Gaslight on a hot summer evening

Popcorn at Denton field while watching softball with my dad (who passed away 3 years ago)

Climbing the fence to the swimming pool at night

Good yard sales

Sunbathing on a summer afternoon while listening to KATL

The Battle of Stalingrad over and over in Letke's class

Dr. Luther---who was so strange he was a legend

A Real A & W

Dragging Main (no one here has heard of such a thing)

Watching the little kids at the Wibaux Park wading pool

The parades

Crazy Days

Deep snow on a sparkling sunny day

What I do not miss is:

Giant mosquitos by the billions

The mosquito fogger truck

30 below temps day after day

The flooded underpass

Having to be at school before 7AM on a dark and cold winter morning (but getting out at noon was nice)

Smell of the sewer on a hot summer night

Dusty unpaved roads

1. Cowboy Football
2. Cellar Pizza
3. Jesus (not the real one)
4. Coach Partridge
5. M&H Burritos
6. Card Shop
7. Denton Field
8. 600 Cafe (cuz I could charge)
1.5 Geez I forgot the Shortstop

that's just off the top of the ole mellon.

"...Seeing Bobby Kenny on hot pursuit to the next police/fire calls..."

That is hilarious!


-The panicked look on the ushers face when the Bonine, Baldwin, and Berg families all came in the door of Sacred Heart Church 2 min prior to the start of 9:30 mass.

-Pacos, Finger steaks, & the "Belt Buster"

-Free ice cream cones at Western Pharmacy

-Dinner at the Crossroads before Grandpa and Grama went to AZ

-4-H Achievement Night dance

-Volleyball in Volborg

-the local banter at the 600 cafe (1st lier doesn't stand a chance )

Just to make you all feel bad: I had finger steaks at the Airport this past Thursday evening. They are even better than you remember

...but they're unfortunately twice as much for half as many.

Not that that stopped me from eating as many as I could this last Spring.

MG - ah, the BBS games on Signal Butte and Dragon's Den. Good days. I almost miss BBS'es run by local sysops compared to the WWW.

1. Going outside, no matter what time of day/night and playing football in the street!
2. Playing "Ditchum" in the graveyard
3. "Snipe" hunting at Spotted Eagle
4. Dragging Main
5. Jumping off the high dive at 2:00 in the morning.
6. Trying to get away from Officer King! (No offense Sir, I promise I'll have that 500 word essay on "Stop Signs" done tomorrow!
7. BB gun wars down by the Tongue River
8. Alta Club on a Saturday night
9. Little Big Men Pizza
10. Chubby's
11. Sitting outside during those AMAZING electrical storms
12. The intoxicating (no pun) smell of fresh rain combined with the mosquito truck
13. Driving past GOD and cussing at him then watching him chase us down to the next stop light and bless us.
14. Those quiet winter nights (SO CRISP SO CLEAR)
and on and on and on................

1. Dragging Main
2. Playing pool at the Tavern
3. Crystal Pistol Pizza
4. The Log Cabin and the Alta
5. Tree Lined Streets
6. Main Street Shopping- when there were actual stores like JCPenneys and Anthony's
7. The Tanning Patch
8. 4B's during the bar crowd
9. Ice skating rink- the only time God could walk on water!
10. Knowing all my neighbors, next door, across the street and down the block. (John Minow, if you're the lil fish that lived on Merriam- how the hell are ya?)

...Did you know that "kids these days" don't drag main anymore... It must be an art lost around the year 2000... Understandable with the gas prices, but what are kids doing these days around the MC...or do we want to know?!

Last row of the Drive In theatre...Clam's.....Barney's....CJ's
The Beanbag...The smallest T.V. station in the U.S.(KYUS). Hookie Bobbin'...The Wild Horse....The RedRock Bowling Alley....The thousands of Pidgeons in the underpass (when the grain bins were there)...The Stockman Bar.....So Much gone now!!.....The Submarine races at Branum lake..( My Favorite..Tossing dead pidgeons thru Mr. Jone's Math class window).....Ol' lovers lane....parking meters on Main street.....The old cb gang....drag races on the old Ft. Keogh rd...

[This message has been edited by James (edited 9/17/2008).]

Did you know that "kids these days" don't drag main anymore... It must be an art lost around the year 2000... Understandable with the gas prices, but what are kids doing these days around the MC...

Maybe they are all at home playing with their Wii's.

Grant's pool hall. Mr. Schmidt waiting on me at the Dairy Queen out on Valley Drive....always called me Miss. Mrs. Kosty and her Curiosity Shop. The old newsstands....O'Connors. A&B which became Benasky's. The relish tray at the Crossroads. Arlene Waddell teaching baton twirling at the armory.

I miss coming into town and seeing Dr. and Mrs. Mathis' barn, and his Hereford cattle grazing on the meadow and Mr. Fretland's dairy cows. Eating at the A&W in the car, going to the sale barn and visiting with people from every direction from town. I do love coming back, people wave even though you have an out of state license plate. And then walking into a store and seeing someone you know. What a great place to live, I hope to come HOME more often now seeings how my daughter and her husband are moving there. Thanks, Miles City residents for being friendly and welcoming people into your town. I was there to a wedding this past weekend and the reception was in the Montana Room, that is a really nice place. I loved the Charlie Russell paintings and the drawings of old building in Miles City. A great place for a reception.

1. My mom
2. Early breakfast at 4B's after the bars closed.
3. Working at "the little Cenex" (gone now!) hoping that one of my friends and not some weirdo from the bus stop would come to visit me.
3. Walking to the old Buttrey's on Valley Dr from the Alta Tr Ct at age 10 and buying a groccery or two just like a grown up.
4. Speaking of Buttrey's, "Smilin' Andy" who years later became my brother-in-law.
5. Playing pool at the Yellowstone Tavern when I was too young to even be in a bar.
6. Dragging Main in the hopes that whoever I had a crush on at the time was out that night.

[This message has been edited by jkuhl (edited 9/17/2008).]

Shrimp & Green Olive Pizza at Airport Inn
Dragging Main - Couldn't believe they actually blocked off Main for the All 70's Reunion dance! The kids don't know what they are missing.
Riding my bike all over town
Seeing people I know everywhere
Swimming and not worrying about sunscreen
The cracks in the sidewalks
Climbing trees
Seeing my best friends every day
Winter snow & ice skating outdoors
Taco John's enchiladas

When I drive into Miles City (for reunions) I am overcome by a feeling of "This is what knits me together, the essence of who I am."

Ex-pat since 1979

I graduated in '69 and left Miles, although have been back quite a few times. I smile when I read these comments as my friend and I often talk about what we miss about our home town and the old days gone by.

its nice to know we all miss the same things

Another thing I miss is the hospital. It is so weird to come back and find the building where i was born is GONE.

Geez... so many things!

1. The Tavern. Nothing like that to do here....
2. And the Cellar pizza. Yum.
3. Midnight walks to WalMart. Heck, I just plain miss WalMart! (Sad, isn't it?)
4. 4Bs and their tomato soup. (Maybe this should have been #1!)
5. Taking my little brothers, and later my niece and nephew, to the Froggy pool in Wibaux park.
6. BHS.
7. Especially the street dances.
8. M&H.

Yeah... that's just a start. But then again, it's just after 2 am.

This all sounds oddly familiar - a-la: "You know you're from Miles City when..."

Some of this has been posted before but, ah, what the heck...

I miss:

- going to the Montana or Park Theatre as a kid with a buck and having a leftover quarter for the popcorn after I bought the ticket.

- The days Custer High AND Sacred Heart both had football teams playing at Denton Field...and BOTH were good!

- having this dilemma on a hot summer day: "should we go to the City Oasis pool or Spotted Eagle today?"

- The Beanbag, the Penguin, and the candy counter at Miles City Floral and Greenhouses (as well as the soda fountains at Woolworths and Thompson Rexall Drug).

- Having Pinky Pelletier help me fix my flat bike tires at the old Texaco/Cenex gas station on Valley Dr. East (recently torn-down).

- Going with my dad and brothers to the old, green corrigated steel USED CAR building (next to that now-extinct gas station) to buy our Christmas tree for the season for around 3 or 4 bucks.

- Walking to the MC plaza to browse the goods at Osco, The Curiosity Shop and Rasco Tempo.

- Biking out to Red Rock Sporting Goods (long before it moved) to buy my football cleats, etc., for the year.

- Attending one of several Main-Street parades: especially the BHS parade.

- The Bill Newhouse baseball tournament (aka the "10-State").

- Playing Little Guy Football when their teams were: the Rams, Colts, Browns, Dolphins, 49ers and Jets/Packers.

- doing a MC Star paper route after school when I was still in grade school...and then having to wake-up at around 5 every morning to do a Gazette Route a few years after that. (yeah, it sucked, but in a strange way I DO miss it.)

- going bowling a time or 2 at Recreation Lanes...and even at Red Rock Lanes a time or 2.

- Ascending the ramp inside the Red Rock Supper Club when it was a special occasion for a fancy dinner.

- I don't know if I really miss the finger steaks at Airport Inn...but I DO miss the restaurant as it was before it burned down and rebuilt (the atmosphere and ambiance more than the food).

- Egg-catching contests, chasing garter snakes, and sack-races at "Kinsey Days".

- Seeing the Bonines drive by in a very-full, tan-and-gold-colored jumbo van (probably on their way to the Church at the same time as the Baldwins and Christophersons).

- Seeing real nuns coming-in and going-out of the old Ursuline Convent.

- Speaking of Nuns, I miss passing-by Sister Ruth (God Rest), in-particular, when she was out-and-about and still with us...she always gave a friendly greeting.

- I'll second Richard on the Holy Rosary Hospital Building...I and my 2 younger siblings were both born there, so coming home for a visit with the building gone just doesn't seem right...but life goes on.

That's it for now, I need to go to sleep...those were the good old days.

I miss Tempo's.

working at Red Rock Drive Inn while in high school and making floats, milk shakes, and batter dipped onion rings. we made $1.85/hr.

plugging in the car in the winter

having chains on the car and finding out going under the underpass and not slowing down made it a sled-------so slammed into another car on the other side

Dinner at the CrossRoads

picking asparagas in the ditch out by the Pine Hills School

our basement flooding always in the spring

huge ice jams on the river in the early spring

Going out on Halloween and parents not worried about us

Marching in Hartze's band and doing routine's during football games


ANY ONE HAVE ANY BAD MEMORIES OF MILES?

I was always scared to walk my dog at night when cody schrieber was still on the loose. I took him outside and basically stood by the front door and made him do his business right there. Every little movement of tree limb or rustle of leaves i was ready to bolt for the door. It is funny now to remember, but scary then. lol,

When I was a kid the best wintertime pastime was sledding on Carbon Hill. We had the speed run, the inner tubes only run, and the big open run for whatever. It seemed like it took hours to tromp back up the hill via the hand built stairway.

anyone remember Harmony Hangout?

Your memories are much like mine so I guess my grad year of 1966 is close to yours. I have a special fondness for Miles City. My first job was a car hop at A&W Drive-In; my second was as a reporter for the Miles City Star during the summers of my junior and senior years at CCHS. Then I continued two summers into my college years at the Miles City Star while I lived with dear friends Colleen Kohn, her hubby, and my friend Donaleen when my parents moved to Gainesville, Fla. The 1960s were an interesting era. I graduated 1970 from Montana State. My hubby and I moved to Texas that year and we have been here ever since, although we departed ways about 8 years ago. We remain friends and share many common memories.

Harmony hangout, boys standing along the east wall girls on the west. On a rare occasion one of each would meet in the middle to dance (?) while the others watched dumbfounded. Oh, those where the days indeed.