So Long It’s Been Good To Know Ya

So Long, Chief Mountain Territory
I Can't Believe Your Song Is Gone So Soon
I Barely Learned The Tune
So Soon
So Soon



Chief Mountain Service
July 19

I got back late. I put my gear in the bunkhouse and then went over to
Mike's café and ate a hamburger and fries. That was a tasty treat
after spending a week in the mountains. Mike, the longhaired, six-gun
toting gunslinger from Chicago, invited me up to his living quarters
above the café for a cold beer. I sat down with him and his wife and
had a farewell chat. I never knew until then how paranoid my next-door
neighbors were. Actually, I was probably better off not knowing. It
wasn't hard to say good-bye.

Saying good-bye to the Power's family wasn't so easy. "Rugged" was
the best word I could come up with to describe Tom. Before Montana, he
had lived in Sheridan, Wyoming, a city on the edge of the Big Horn
Mountains. He said, "The place just got too civilized for me, I had to
leave." Why he left Sheridan wasn't surprising to me. But what he was
about to say, over the breakfast table, was.

We were having our last meal together, so basically that was the time
for our "good-byes." Tom was in a pretty good mood when he asked me if
I had enjoyed my stay in the mountains. I actually stayed longer than
he expected me to. I told him "Yes, I was glad to be back, though."
Then he asked me if I got lonely up there. "Not really," I replied,
"After I got used to being alone, I enjoyed it." Then Tom said,
"Before I bought this place, I owned a cattle ranch and herded the
cattle up under Chief Mountain. "Sometimes I would stay up there for a
week at a time. It almost killed me. I couldn't take the loneliness.
It got so bad; I had to sell the ranch. That's when I bought this place."

I didn't know what to say. Nobody contradicted Tom. Fortunately, I
didn't have to respond. Everybody just kept eating breakfast as Tom
stared at Chief Mountain out the window. After I had almost finished
my eggs, he looked over at me and said, "But you know, when I die I
want to be buried right up along side that mountain. I would like
nothing better than that. She's one hell of a mountain." Iva handed me
the eggs. I took a second helping. I guess what's inside a man is
mystery, sometimes even to the man himself.