Letter from the editor 

The sweet sounds of summer

As a young Boy Scout, I had a troop leader who was forever hounding us to finish this or that merit badge or move up in the ranking more quickly than I deemed necessary. At 13 years old, what's the hurry?

The rush, he claimed, was that it was imperative for an ambitious young scout to achieve as much rank as he could before he got into high school, where he would undoubtedly catch a case of "The Fumes."

The fumes — perfumes and exhaust fumes — could derail even the most dedicated tenderfoot on the path to his Eagle. I was a prime case, garnering the last signature needed for my Eagle Scout badge literally three hours before midnight on the day before my 18th birthday.

I was thinking about "the fumes' the other day as I was trying to get some work done at my house and the constant hum of two-stroke boat motors carried in the breeze from Flathead Lake was proving too much to resist. Not really much of a gearhead, the rumble or boat motors near my house or the rumble of Harley Davidsons as they tear past my office on Highway 35 provide some sort of mental intoxicant that renders me mostly useless.

Unfortunately, I'm somewhat of a renaissance man when it comes to getting distracted, and the whack of a golf ball or spin of a bicycle chain have the same effect.

It's nice, after a particularly long and dark winter, to give into some summertime distraction. And if the smiles on people's faces and full parking lots around the Lake are any indication, plenty of people are getting in on the action.

A few more words on graduation

It's hard not to be impressed with the kids Bigfork High School sent out into the world on Sunday afternoon. Though it was sometimes hard to tell if it was sweat or tears running down many of the faces in the school gymnasium, there was a clear sense of well-placed pride.

As most of us eventually realize, graduating from high school is a beginning rather than an end, and among the many wise words given to — or spoken by — the Class of 2009, none might be as useful as the question asked by Assistant Principal Matt Jensen just before the kids headed out in front of their parents.

"One more time," he asked, "is everybody wearing clothes?"

They were. They're off to a good start.

—Alex Strickland