tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11838465.post114953552489236889..comments2024-02-24T18:30:26.749-07:00Comments on prairiemary: A SALUTE TO JIMMIE WELCH SR.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11838465.post-1150150935442654472006-06-12T16:22:00.000-06:002006-06-12T16:22:00.000-06:00I have stumbled upon your blog and have been fasci...I have stumbled upon your blog and have been fascinated. <BR/>My first time to Montana, and Browning in particular, was in July of 1997. I have been wanting to go since my childhood where I listened at my father's knee about growing up there. My dad died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1970 and we never did get to Montana. We had tried in 1964 but the flood kept us away and he never did return.<BR/>I was widowed and turning 50 in a few months and decided that I better begin to do the things that mattered to me, including making my long hoped for trip to Montana.<BR/>I had my dad's Browning High School yearbook from 1929 and hisleather-bound autograph book with beautiful drawings in it by his friend and cousin, Al Racine.<BR/>I took all the back roads from Illinois because I had read a book I never forgot called Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon.<BR/>I had been searching for my dad's family since he died in 1970. He was abandoned by his family in about 1920 and raised by a foster family, the Kells. Doc Kell was the doctor on the reservation and also worked for the Great Nothern Railroad. I knew Dad's real father's name (Harry Schildt) and that was about all.<BR/>While in the museum I saw the book by Bob Scriver and while reading about him I dedeuced that he had gone to school with my father. I went next door to find him feeding a bottle to an antelope fawn.<BR/>I showed him the yearbook and asked him if he remembered it. He said he sure did and, in fact, had done all of the drawings in the book. I then asked him if he remembered Jimmy Eldridge and he exclaimed that he had played trumpet in the band with Bob. That was the first time I learned that my father had even played a musical instrument.<BR/>Bob wanted to buy the yearbook from me but I declined. I did, however, copy it when I returned to Illinois and sent that to him. I also had a book by Doug Gold (who had been one of my dad's teachers) and he wanted that too. I had seen the book in a used book store in Livington on my way out and we called the store then and there and he ordered it.<BR/>I have since learned that the log cabin on Bob's ranch out on Highway 89 was originally built by my great grandfather, Andrew Schildt. There is another cabin he built on my cousin's property north of Kiowa Junction but it is not restored and is slowly returning to the earth.<BR/>Since finding all of my dad's family (both on the reservation and off) I begun relationships with them all.<BR/>I have even built a home in the Flathead Valley and plan to move there permanently in about 3 years. I'd love to hear your whole story and I love reading your blog.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com