Welcome to November. A time of giving thanks. A time when Americans roast a bird (or facsimile), bake some sweet potatoes, and valiantly try to make cranberries taste better.

Like the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving is truly an all-American holiday. It transcends ethnicity and religion: Hindus rejoice at Diwali (also this month), Jews and Hebrew-Roots Christians mark Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah, and Christians—literal or family-traditional—observe Christmas and Easter. However, virtually all Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, whether they stuff a turkey with sage, celery, and onion; a goose with cornbread, oysters, and Old Bay; or a duck with ginger, garlic, and chilies. (I’ll take some of all three, please, and a hunk of elk roast.) Food historians and savvy sociologists even boast they can tell exactly where a person was raised by what’s on their plate.

Most of us give thanks to the Universe for the regular things: Our families, our friends, good health, food on the table. I’d like to stop and add another item to the list. Community. I’m thankful for Bozeman. And I’m thankful for the good people and places still here.


In no particular order, and with the help of two dozen consulted fellow Bozemanites of various political leanings and personalities, here’s a Grocery List of Gracias:

The trails in town. There are going on 100 miles of walking trails in and adjacent Bozeman, and these connect to the more than 1,000 miles of hiking and biking trails in the nearby ranges. It’s truly “Main Street to the Mountains.” Few other small cities have this kind of resource for transport and activities. I’m thankful for these paths, and for our parks. As Bozeman grows, let’s maintain or increase their density on the map.

Our great schools and their hard-working teachers. In the 1990s, Montana’s public schools taught more science and math than any state. Educators from around the U.S. toured schools in Japan for ideas and insight; however, Japanese administrators often came here instead of the other way around. Bozeman’s public schools are still top-notch. Montana has a longer school year than many states, meaning kids graduate with more under their belts after K-12. And we have one of the best student-to-teacher ratios in the nation. However, we need continued and increased funding. Our community’s kids are worth it. And we need to keep moving away from simple test-based curricula back to what Montana excelled at for years. Thank you.

Montana State University. There are 5,300 accredited universities (with grad programs) and colleges (without) in the U.S. Of these, 250 receive more than $50 million per year in research funding. MSU-Bozeman is well within this range, at going on $300 mil/year. In fact, we live next to or attend one of the top 50 research institutions in the nation. This work is important to the health of our citizens (preventative medicine), the integrity of our roads, buildings, and cyberspace, our ability to sustainably grow food for the future, and more. Thank you.

Old-school Bozeman’s businesses still here: Country Bookshelf, Vargo’s Jazz & Books, Town & Country Foods, Cosmic Pizza, Colombo’s, all of the breweries —you guys know who you are. (A friendly Thanksgiving note to the great people at T&C: Those sweet, orange things are sweet potatoes, the white, bland ones are yams. Don’t believe me? Check out a can of “Candied Yams.” Ingredients, legally accurate thanks to Uncle Sam: Sweet potatoes, water, sugar. Boom.) All you businesses and business owners, thank you for still existing. And thank you for the locals and newcomers who support you. And while we’re at it, we really miss: Joe’s Parkway (closed after almost 60 years this fall), Avogadro’s Number, the Leaf & Bean (Glenn & Jessie... if you’re reading this...), Movie Lovers (!), Soby’s, Linus’s Eagle Tires, 4-B’s, the Chinese restaurant 4-B’s “turned into,” and more. Thank you for being part of the story of Bozeman.

Bozeman’s public library, whose current location turns 20 years-old this month. (In total, the library organization dates to 1872, and as a public location since 1891.) The workers and volunteers associated with the library do an amazing job in an amazing building. One very common comment: The book sales are great, but why not raise money for shelf space to provide even more books for the community? A good library is not lean and mean, it’s stuffed with variety. Also, bring back the seating, etc. in the lobby areas. For every newcomer from a sanitized locale who complained about “not our type of people” using this public (key word) space, there are 25 locals who don’t care one iota. Socioeconomic diversity is also diversity.

- Changing gears, I’m thankful for the people in this valley who use their turn signals when they drive. Thank you for telling me which direction you intend to go; this lets me pull into a gap in traffic, which means the people behind me wait less. Thank you for realizing the clicker is next to the steering wheel. You might even assume it was designed this way —it even moves in the same direction as the wheel. Last August I followed a new rig with Texas plates through eight intersections. Not one blinker, even in a residential area with kids on bikes. A week later it was a minivan from Pennsylvania. Not one signal, from the West Side to Downtown. Not going to be tender with words: This doesn’t make you look cool, it makes you look stupider than a box of septic tank gravel. Or the stuff in the tank. Especially to native Montanans; to real Bozemanites. Want to join the club? Use your blinkers. And for at least 100 feet in urban places and 300 feet in rural areas. That is Montana law. The 27-somethings who flip them on as they turn don’t get the point. You’re not doing it for the “cops,” you’re doing it for the rest of us, and that’s why the police care. (No, they’re not going to make a blinker app for phones.) And for those of you who already like to casually “talk” to other drivers on the road, thank you. I’d buy every one of you a sixer or a bottle if I could.

- I’m thankful that there’s still open space in Bozeman. Everyone pay attention: This is one of the things that makes Bozeman Bozeman. The gaps with native grasses and trees. The views of the various mountains between the buildings. Take that away and we stop being Bozeman. Let’s preserve some of this open land. Make them native plant city parks. Something. The land behind the Cat’s Paw. The land along Harper Puckett. Areas near campus. Before it’s too late.

- I’m also thankful that some of the new buildings, especially near downtown, were designed with harmonizing in mind. The new building at the corner of 5th and Main, occupying the site of what was once a motel, looks like some of the older buildings. Thank you. It’s much better than the all-black eye-sore across the street. That’s extremely far from being just my opinion. Developers from out-of-state don’t realize how hot it gets here in the sun. We have more sunny days than cloudy days. We’re at almost a mile high. We’re also just north of the halfway point between the North Pole and Equator. We don’t live in Northern Norway. We line up with Northern Italy. We have real summer. It was over 100F in the shade several times last summer in SW and south-central Montana. Our sunshine is broiling hot, like my dad’s famous New England maple-baked sweet potatoes. There’s more UV and IR here than at sea level or Chicago’s elevation. Stop painting and paneling everything black. Condos with sky-high cooling costs. So, thank you for the other architecture that actually fits with what Bozeman looks and feels like. To the designers, planners, and builders who actually care: We all appreciate it.

Many friends who once lived in the Bozone but moved elsewhere in the state or country have asked how we can stand things. They assume too much has been altered. Granted, much has changed. But my answer is that many things are still the same. I still encounter genuinely nice laid-back people. When I hold the door for others, most still smile and say “thank you.” It’s still Bozeman. To those old-timer Bozemanites, don’t shrink. Stand tall and be heard. Show our new residents how to be a Montanan, please and thank you. Show people how Montana’s towns are “places to live in rather than nervous hives,” as John Steinbeck explained. And to our new residents, thank you for becoming part of our city and for learning what Montana is all about: neighborliness, patience, integrity. And grit is part of integrity. Here’s to Bozeman. Thank you. And to all, have a happy Thanksgiving.