Whistlestop:

Red White and Blue - 1998-2003

While living in the village of Lavina, the idea of starting a business on Main Street aka Highway #3 came to me. To shorten the story, let’s just say that the proprietors of the Slayton Mercantile who also owned the old County Garage two doors down said that it was available for use and added for sale for only ten thousand dollars. Well, that seemed immediately ridiculous since my pockets were empty. But, “wonder of wonders,” my father in South Dakota and aunt in California came through with 5K each and the building was mine.

The county garage originally had been an automotive livery and car dealership. The south half of the building was by itself a huge one-story garage with an added workshop in the rear. The north half was two stories with two separate sections at ground level which had done some garage duties and contained the fire department at one time. The upstairs was for many years the Lavina Opera House. That’s right, Opera House. That’s what they had called it. Not too many people can make the statement: “I owned an opera house.” How lucky can a guy get!

The Opera House was the best part of the whole structure and offered possibilities of renewal. The imagination and energy were there, if not the finances. The Opera House had hosted vaudevilles and civic meetings, school plays and programs for many of its early years. Names and autographs of performers and shows were visible in various nooks and crannies, particularly on the wings of the stage at the west end. Later on, movies came along to make for a Show House into the 50s and 60s. There was even a Nixon political poster still hanging on one wall.

Several locals recalled roller skating and watching basketball games being played in what became the second floor arena. That was really hard for a modern eye to believe since the 12-foot ceiling didn’t allow much room for even a lob pass or a long arching shot. With a hoop at ten feet, the players must have caromed a few balls off the ceiling from time to time.  The floor length was a little over 50 feet. 

Much housekeeping, cleaning and painting - eventually some roofing – was required to get the place ready for use. Rocky Mountain Remedies took up only a small portion of the huge building – but it got closed down within a few weeks upon a visitation by the state building inspector. To get the structure “up to code” would have cost far more than the initial investment.

So, cleaning and painting in Red White and Blue persisted until the property became The Rocky Mountain Garage. It was resurrected as the site of occasional celebrations along with continued general warehouse duties which brought in a little income. The first “occasion” was my 50th birthday party: Red White and Blue and 50 Too. 

The idea came from a friend and became an opportunity for local talent to appear before friends and neighbors. Along the way I decided to proclaim myself the Emcee of the proceedings (one way to become master of something), sing a song and do a recitation. I prodded and coaxed until I had a lineup to join me. Mother and daughter Bredings from Harlowton started the show singing The Rose.

 

Jeanne from Roundup did a poetry reading. Good friend Jane and her friend Sharon Rose from Billings sang “God Bless America” and “Wonderful World.”
   
Two guitarists did individual pieces. Another Rose played an acoustic medley and Brandon Lund did his electric version of “The Star Spangled Banner” à la Jimi Hendrix. Ten-year-old Charles Horton gave us all a boost, most especially the emcee, by playing “Happy Birthday” on his saxaphone.
   
Ian Elliot and Jon Coxwell, friends from Billings with whom I had worked at the Babcock Theater a few years earlier, appeared and hogged the stage for quite some time. I thought they would never stop. They roasted and roasted and roasted me. They finally backed off the stage after singing and strumming “Stompin’ on Your Heart” and “Good Night, Irene.”
   


Joe King did an indescribable comedy routine which got him the Entertainer of the Year award for 1998. Joe told us that he had “always wanted to do standup comedy,” but said that he was “afraid people would tell him to sit down and shut up.”

The festivities were topped off with a pot luck dinner. But not before I closed the show with the Golden Valley Address (after Abe Lincoln) and my rendition of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” I had practiced the song for weeks while walking my dogs on the country roads. The audience picked up the chorus thanks to friend Jane and the song went over pretty well. Good enough for me to get invited to do a reprise at the fundamentalist church at a nearby town.



Red White and Blue celebrations continued on an annual basis for a few years in the Rocky Mountain Garage. The 1999 version was a two-day event with New York Night  followed by Red White and Blue and Lady Liberty Too. To get ready for the event, Ginger Allen (who was by then a resident of Lavina) and I commissioned multi-talented Rose Wise to paint an 8 X 8 bust of the Copper Queen of New York Harbor. When completed. the painting was hoisted to the roof the Rocky Mountain Garage and nailed tight to the south-facing wall of the old Opera House. It was then visible for several blocks.

The 1999 event was scheduled around the visit of another New York City friend Audrey Shapiro. Audrey prepped ahead of time to sing some NY tunes with us onstage at the Garage. I made myself emcee again and started the program with a show-and-tell about my then recent six-month stay in New York City. 

Ginger shared family stories and “Politically incorrect songs my grandfather taught me.” They included “Dan McCarthy Owned a Brick Yard” and “Clarence Fitzgerald Sweet Evening Breeze Primrose.” She claimed, “They were naughty songs.” But you could have fooled me. Ginger was very bright and funny onstage. Audrey joined the two of us for a medley from West Side Story. The centerpiece of which was ”Officer Krupke.” 


   
I did some my own fill-in stories about New York and coerced young friend Chris Crowther to read a PSA on the Dangers of Toast. A Big City Sing-Along followed. Then, there was long-distance taped music from New York. BeBe and a friend sang and strummed guitar with Frank Zappa’s tune called “Movin’ to Montana.” We closed the evening with “Home on the Range” and New York refreshments.
   
Despite her reticence to perform, Ginger was beaming and really enjoyed herself on New York Night. It was harder to get her in front of the larger crowd on Sunday. But once she got planted onstage, the words came out and the stories and songs hit the bull right in the eye.
   
Sunday’s Red White and Blue and Lady Liberty Too was a bigger success than the previous night because of a larger crowd, potluck meal and more participation. The first night was basically Ginger, Audrey and I. We reprised bits and songs from the previous night and then brought local talent up for review. It was not all local, some was close to loco. Joe King received the Entertainer of the Year Award for 1998 which manifested as a plaque with a painting (by his devoted fan and friend, Rose Wise) of the comedian himself. He followed his standup routine of the previous year with a brief but very visual impersonation of a fried egg. You had to see it to ...
 
Joe then brought to the stage the comedian of the day, 7-year-old Harrison Cooper, Rose’s grandson, who read some of his favorite jokes to the delight of the audience. The Burnside sisters sang “Desperado” for us, Brandon Lund played two mean numbers on his electric guitar, and our own County Commissioner Joan Krause played a couple of her favorite tunes on the harmonica. They were impressive enough to get her the Entertainer of the Year Award for 1999. Ginger, Audrey and Sarah Horton wound things down with some drumming and close to the Earth music. We closed with another sing-along and a retreat to the potluck trough.



The 2000 event became Red White and Blue and Ethnic Too and featured  Lavina’s horse trainer and musician in residence, Mike Beck. A superb professional in both arenas, Beck sang his own poignant songs, picked away grandly on the guitar and told some great stories of the West, cowboys and their favorite horses. He was an immediate hit and performed on later occasions at the Rocky Mountain Garage.  In 2001, moments of sadness and nostalgia developed as a hurry-up version of the Red White and Blue celebration was held in the Rocky Mountain Garage in late July. The Horton family, then preparing to move to Texas, were honored for their contribution to the town and school of Lavina.

A variety of other events took place at the Rocky Mountain Garage in between Red White and Blue celebrations. The school alumni, fire department, and other groups decided to use the building for entertainments. The final enormously successful program at the Garage came almost as “a gift from the heavens.” Scott Kirby heard about the venue and asked – volunteered – to perform on a tour he was making in the Rocky Mountains.



Kirby hailed from Ohio where he took a degree in English. But, he followed his passion into a musical career beginning as a street performer in New Orleans before moving to the wide open West. Charles Osgood had already deemed him one of the best ragtime interpreters on CBS News Sunday Morning by the time he appeared in Lavina. It was a sweltering day in August 2003, when Scott Kirby played Scott Joplin ragime tunes on his favored old piano to a full house at the Rocky Mountain Garage. Potluck and community chatter followed his superb show.

Thanks to the residents and especially the transients as well as the Rocky Mountain Garage, Lavina became for me – and maybe for others – a real home. In many ways, I consider it my “home town.”

I often think of Lavina as being kin to a similar spot on the road in Alabama which was made famous in the book and movie called Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe. Sweet words describing Whistle Stop ended that story and are borrowed to finish this one about Lavina. “It was never more than just a little knockabout place. But now that I look back on it ... it’s funny how a little place like this ... brought so many people together.”

At the same time, Lavina became the jumping off point for further, unique adventures which were solo in many ways. Check out On the Road Again for more stories.