08/26/2026
I needed a day or two or three, to reflect, decompress, and get my thoughts together, to first THANK everyone who called, emailed, texted, stopped by, and came together this past Saturday to celebrate my 75th birthday. I am so grateful.
A special thank you to Lori Knott, and Annette Kozel for finding the time in their busy schedules, to share their knowledge on guided meditations, and sound healing.
And a very special thank you to Kim, Joe, Haileigh, Madelyn, Lori, Jerry, John, Linette, the Beynon's, and so many others for pulling this past weekend all together, Never would of come together as well as it did without your work.
We even were able to get another birthday in for Mr. Factoryville himself, Herb Beck, celebrating his 96th birthday.
So I am officially what I consider one of those old-timers, the same old-timers I was always fascinated with back in the day talking to, in the saloon I built in Gallatin Gateway, a small town outside of Bozeman, up the road from Big Sky, not far from Yellowstone, in Montana.
So here is a little story and background on that.
When I say built, I mean built. Not hired out to a contractor, I mean built with friends who had a lot more knowledge than me as carpenters, with home cooked meals, and lots of kegs of beer. Rainier and Olympia, if my memory serves me correctly.
Every log was milled by me, at a log mill I worked at, Every truss was hand peeled by myself and wife, and built by us. The bar equipment we drove to pick up in Boulder, Colorado. with my friend Jim Reilly, who just recently stopped by the Barn to reminisce, That ride back is a story in itself, having to stop in a small town outside of Casper, Wyoming, with the trailer behind our pick up truck dancing to stay on the road, in a brutal Wyoming blizzard. Yes a saloon we hand built, with my wife, and friends.
Now when I say Saloon, I mean a Saloon, not some bougie bar or restaurant you will find in Bozeman, Montana today. Yes, the same Bozeman in the show, Yellowstone. No, this Saloon was where the customers would ride their horses to, and a few would ride right through. You think I get mad when folks drive too fast in town here, you should have seen me back then, when one of the cowboys thought it was funny to whip through the Saloon on horseback. Yes live poker games,(legal back then), with guns, and shots of whiskey on the table, into the early morning hours. Country western bands upstairs, and pajama parties downstairs, from sororities and fraternities from Montana State University. I am pretty sure I don’t need to tell you how liquored up cowboys in their fancy hats and boots, mingled, with liquored up college boys in pajama’s :). I am laughing thinking about that now, but I can assure you I was not laughing back then. Yes a real western Saloon.
Now back to where I started, and the morale of this little post.
As I said I was always interested in talking to the old-timers that came into the Saloon. I would love to just talk and listen, and I always asked them about their lives, what they would do different if they had to do it over again. A few said nothing different, but most said, “I wish I would have”. As a twenty year old something, I took it to heart, and vowed back then, if I ever made it to be an old timer, I never wanted be one of those old-timers sitting at a bar saying I wish I would have. I can honestly say that mission was accomplished!!
Now don’t get me wrong, are there still things to do, you bet, and until the Good Lord, decides I am wanted and needed elsewhere, I plan to continue to live a life worth living. Traveling to find the coolest stones, passionate about community affairs, speaking out about those issues that matter to me like insuring our National Parks are a national priority, transparency in our courts, importance of a free and independent press, and maybe most importantly spending time with friends and family and having more events like this weekend, bringing friends, family and community together.
So my old-timers advice, to the best of your ability, live a life worth living, seize the day, and don’t wake up one day and say I wish I would of, it’s never too late to start, until it’s too late.
Lou!!
PS: Here all week through Sunday night, so text or stop by. Then I will be off to New England and Maine, looking for cool rocks, :) back for the weekend, then off again to the Great Lakes in search of Yooperlites, Denver Rock Show, looking for cool rocks, “), Utah, looking for cool rocks, and Wyoming digging fossils, before heading back home.
