I was born in Billings and my Dad liked to move around so lived in Havre, Missoula, Helena, Bozeman, Butte, then back to Billings before I was 8. When I was 8 my mom brought us to Miles City and I stayed there until I was 19 then went to school in Bozeman. I spent summers working in little pieces of paradise at resorts in Glacier National Park, Jackson Hole Wyoming, Winter Park, CO, and Wickenburg, AZ.
After I graduated, the best job Miles City had to offer(maybe the only job at the time) was at Ben Franklin's (nice people, Grant and Dorothy, but a college graduate shouldn't be making minimum wage), so I was off to San Diego, CA. I moved with my company to Santa Barbara and now live just south of there in Ventura.
I saw a post putting down Californians a minute ago-but consider this-at least 20 people from the CCHS class of '80 are working and living out here because there is a lot more opportunity than there is in MT. I imagine there are more "Miles Citians" out here than back there-I know when I lived in Miles City the population was over 12,000 people and now I've heard it's about half.
When I retire, I imagine I'll be one of those "darn Californians" that buy land in Montana ;-) Of course, my Aunt wrote that it was
-40 degrees the beginning of the month so maybe I'll have to be one of those "snowbird" types!