Ramblin' to the Ramble Innby Josh Heiser, Simms High"Bob and Ethel's Ramble Inn" the red sign out front says. I was pretty parched from my walk, and the establishment was (in walking terms) the halfway point between my house and my destination, so I stopped in. I leaped up the three warped stairs leading to the worn, old door. All I could think about was something cool and wet sliding down my throat. The door opened with a very audible creak. Inside, the bartender, a short, muscular man, probably in his late thirties or early forties, leaned behind a long, brown bar, behind which leaned. He had a wild crop of black hair and a goatee that needed a trim. He wore an old, faded pair of Wranglers and a sleeveless shirt that had lost its color some time ago. Poker machines lined two walls. On the wall behind me, bras hung on thumb tacks. On the left, there was a CD jukebox, and next to that a doorway with a hanging bumper sticker that read "BEER CONTAINS VITAMIN Pee." (I made the assumption that was the restroom). Also, behind the bar, there were many different ornaments ranging from bumper stickers to lamps. The bartender looked at me and said, "You can leave it open." I stared at him blankly. "Huh?" Not the brightest thing I could have said, but it was hot and my brain was fried. "The door," he answered, pointing to it. Dumbly, I looked down at my hand tightly holding the doorknob. I let my hand fall to my side and walked in. I spotted a barstool in the corner that probably used to be candy-apple red but had faded to almost pink. I asked for a Mountain Dew and a glass of ice. As the bartender turned his back to me to look in the fridge, a pair of the loudest, grayest men I had ever seen waltzed through the door. I could tell they had been here before as they said "Hello" to Russell behind the bar. Russell put my drink on the bar in front of me and moved on to the other two customers in the bar. I stared long and hard at the trio. I listened as they talked. Their worn wrinkled hands brought the glasses to their lips time and time again. Russell looked at me, and I saw in his eyes a sparkle that had not been there before. I smiled. He called me over to sit with them. They asked the usual questions: where I live, where I moved from, my name, and what school I went to. The tall one in between Russell and his short friend asked me if I knew any history of the Sun River Valley. "No," I said. I'd lived in Sun River for just under four months. "Well, I 'reckon it's 'bout time for you to learn somethin' 'bout where you live." The other two quieted down while he told me his best recollection of the history of the Ramble Inn. "It started as Lange's Corner, being a stage stop between Helena and Fort Benton. Herr Lange moved here from Germany in 1872. In 1880, he was hired by the Foss Company to hunt buffalo for the hides. The white men hunted buffalo, and the Indians skinned them. When he moved to Fort Benton, he found that it was the other way around. The Indians hunted, while the white men skinned. In 1883, Lange gave up and decided to enlist in the Army. He was stationed just down the road at Fort Shaw. In 1900, he and his wife started a business near Sun River. It quickly gained popularity for its chicken dinners and Lange's singing and harmonica playing. "In 1914, they finished the Ramble Inn building. It was a frame house farther back from the road than the original Lange's Corner. In 1928 Mr. Lange and his wife traded the land and the building for two houses in west Great Falls. They traded the property to Russell and Bessie Sherman. Later, they too gave up and sold the property to Dave and "Ma" Scarrow, under whose care the frame house burned down in 1942. The land sat empty for a while. No one did anything with it for the next few years. Then Adeline and Joe Larivee bought it from the Scarrows. "Until then, my father and his friends were going to The City Bar in Great Falls to drink and have a good time. When the Larivees bought the land, my father and his friends told them of the bar that used to be there and how many people would like it back. After much thought, the Larivees decided to build a new bar in the old bar's place in the late '40s, and business was good. "During the flood of '64, Adeline told me I could stay there until the water went down. She laid down a carpet in front of the fireplace and let me sleep there. I didn't stay long. As soon as the flood waters receded I went home. I tried to pay her back, but she wouldn't stand for it. She just kept sayin' that I would have done the same thing if I was in her place, and ya know what? I probably would have. "Anyway, business was booming at the new Ramble Inn up until 1979 when a fire burned the building to the ground again. They had some big shot fire marshal come in from Great Falls, but the cause of the fire was never determined. After that the present structure was built, and then the whole thing was sold to Bob and Ethel McBurney. "Back in my day, we knew how to have fun. We'd get hurt, but we'd always get up and keep on livin'. The kids these days just don't understand that everything you do brings you one step closer to death. I was readin' in the paper the other day, that an eight-year-old boy shot another eight-year-old boy in the face, over a toy. Okay, here's another example. Take that cigarette in your hand. Why did you start?" "I couldn't tell ya. It was so long ago. Life goes by too fast." I answered. "It goes by fast because you kill yourself trying to look cool in front of your friends. If you just opened your eyes you'd see that being cool in front of your friends is not the most important thing in life. Living is." "Whatever." I said. I paid Russell, and as I walked out the door the man said, "Thank you for letting me try to get through to you." "Yeah." I answered as I walked out the door, and just like that, I was gone. I haven't seen the old man since, but I thought about what he told me, and have since quit smoking. I wish I could run into him again, and have some time to sit down and hear more of his stories about my Sun River Valley.
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