OPINION: Kalispell newcomer tells story of his first year 'out West'
Happy holidays to all the citizens of Savannah. As you might recall I practiced medicine in your uniquely beautiful city for a quarter century and offered a regular health column for the Savannah Morning News for 15 years.
Early this year I was offered an enticing professional opportunity way out west. After weighing the options with my wife, Coral (who has always had the more reliable judgement), we decided to accept the medicine position in Kalispell, Montana. I recall during my introductory phone interview being asked if I knew where Kalispell was located. I answered, “Tell me where Montana is and I think I can find it.” Coral, our dog Molly, and I drove a U-Haul to Montana, found Kalispell and began what has been a truly remarkable adventure.
In the 1840s when the great migration westward began, the luxury of a 20-foot long U-Haul with a V-6 engine, automatic transmission, and air conditioning was not yet available. When pioneers left their friends, family and familiar surroundings, they wrote letters home. These letters provided the vivid descriptions of terrain and the indigenous native Americans, as well as the routine, often harrowing, and many times heartwarming circumstances of the way west.
These letters were the single greatest fuel for the next half-century mankind painting of the entire country west of the Mississippi. Although the U-Haul has replaced the mule or oxen-hauled wagon, the letter has not been replaced. This is an account about the adventure west.
We arrived in Kalispell (city pop. 22,000; pop. commercial zone 110,000) in May 2015. Kalispell is the main city in the Flathead Valley, just west of the Continental Divide. The mountains were at first sight and continue to be the breathtaking panorama that greets us every day. In summer they offer a majestic, deep, green, lush, rising throw rug for some hikers and far more deer, turkey, lynx, bears, and birds. The eagle and hawk own the skies. The mountain trails beckon to anyone seeking a tranquility and quiet as never before enjoyed. As winter sets in, these same mountains wrap around the valley as God might support a child with His left arm. We have snow, but the winds are soft, and the sun is bright (at least for a few hours.).
I am not much of winter sports guy, but I plan to take up snow-shoeing and skating.
I am a bit of a sailor. I don’t know who took up the title as the worst in Savannah after my departure, but I do enjoy the water. To my great surprise, just outside Kalispell is the second-largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, Flathead Lake.
The people of Kalispell carry the genetics of those who settled the West. Adults and children are polite, generally soft-spoken, not easily riled, neighborly, but not nosy. They seem to have little time or patience for personal or business drama and social stratification does not seem to exist. People work hard and expect quality results, enjoy the outdoors, live for family, and do not have much concern about crime.
The common local phrase, “Do the right thing,” is part of a way of life. Coral and I experienced this first-hand soon after we arrived. We ordered lunch at a popular restaurant. The waiter scribbled our order on a sort of sticky-note; when the food arrived, he tossed the note in the trash. Later, as I asked for the bill, he said with a smile, “Oh, just tell the gal at the register what you had for lunch.”
As part of that genetic code of being neighborly, we were warmly welcomed by the locals. More substantially, they demonstrated natural kindness beyond normal expectations when we were here for only five months. I had a rather significant, now resolved health issue. For the initial two weeks following surgery a different member of the community delivered supper to our home every night. I have to admit that I did not know everyone who cooked our suppers during that period.
It occurs to me that my not knowing was unimportant to them. I can tell you that being ill and in a strange, new country is a challenge; their ease of support was none like I had ever experienced. That genetically powered Montana pioneer spirit of neighborly kindness is the treasured finding in our adventure out West. Coral, Molly, and I will enjoy a very white Christmas (two feet of snow on the ground). We wish of you a very happy holiday and successful New Year.
Nicholas V. Costrini is the director of gastroenterology at Kalispell Regional Medical Center. His writings will be featured in upcoming issues of the Daily Inter Lake.