Emptyknitster

Hubby and I started out for the Homecoming game on Friday. Weather was bad, roads icy and snowy, so we wanted to take our time, AND by the way, Gamer's closes at 2:00. We needed to make it to Butte in time for a PASTY! Hubby and I had a great lunch and visited with a local historian. I found out that the home we always called "The Castle" was originally the home of William Clarke's son. I also found out that this photo is indeed the famous "Blood Alley" where my brothers got the tar beat out of them on a regular basis. (They always have been lovers not fighters!) I loved Butte and the time we lived there, but no so the rest of the family! When my father was transferred to Butte, he was told we would live there no more that two years. At the three year mark Mom and Dad became desperate to get out. So much so that Dad's boss called him at home one evening and asked if he wanted a transfer. He hung up the phone and told the family we were moving. They sta...

When we lived in Butte my mother would give me a list of items to go buy. I would put my brother Scott in the stroller and walk the six blocks or so to Penney's, Mode O'Day, and Woolworth's to do my shopping. I remember taking my brother to Penney's for his first professional photo, and later taught him to sip form a straw at the soda fountain in Woolworth's. I bought the yarn at Woolworth's for my first major knitting project, it was a royal blue cardigan sweater with white Scottie dogs on it, made for my baby brother. (we had a West Highland Terrier named Willie at the time, double meaning!)

When I went to Butte High School, I would walk by Gamer's Bakery everyday on the way home. It was the closest thing that Butte will ever have to a tearoom. Carl owned and ran Gamer's. He wore a bow tie and greeted everyone that came into the bakery as if they were a long lost friend. Carl made me feel like I was his most wanted and important customer - even as a teen. Hubby reminded me that Carl didn't use a cash register. He would take the money from you when the bill was paid and pull out a wad of cash from his pocket if you needed change. I was introduce to pasties at Gamer's. They are the BEST pasties on the face of the Earth! I thought that Gamer's had closed when Carl died but was delighted to find out they are still operating and at the same loca...

A few of my teen years were spent in unique Butte Montana. For me these were wonderful years. The people there are unlike any other people I have ever met, they are your true and loyal friends unless you do them wrong; and if you do, you will never earn their trust again. They will gladly give you anything you need - even if they will have to do without. When we moved there we were only suppose to be there for two years, my father rented a little house on the west side of Butte. At the time there were other parts of Butte that were in worse condition but the soon got eaten up by The Pit. I loved this area because although we lived in a small house we were surrounded by mansions...... Our house was in between the Schilling's house and an old rest home that later housed a family of twelve children. (The single mother had hopes of making it into a boardinghouse) The Schillings were an elderly, childless couple that took us under their wings. Helen bought me my first cashmere swe...