By Cole Boehler
En route to the annual late-March South West Montana Tavern Association dinner, we've driven through blizzards with five inches of fresh slush on the highway and a windstorm that sandblasted my windshield and paint into oblivion in seconds.
This year, however, the weather was fine. It was simply the atmospherics inside my head that tended to foul up this otherwise fun and memorable occasion.
Thank goodness a pharmacy was located and antihistamines popped, allowing the pressure in my skull to ebb and the possibility of respiration to return. And, despite the warning on the medication package, a libation or two, while not aiding my condition, made me care about it a lot less.
One man's clogged sinuses were not about to lessen the good time the several hundred other folks who attended experienced. The mood and decorations at the Western Montana College Arena March 24 in Dillon was festive and the bars were open and the stock tanks filled with ice and cold beer.
Just past the registration table, my wife, Marilyn, and I ran into Bob Miller and his charming mate Deb, who promptly invited us to sit at their table close to the dais where picture taking is made easier. Seated at the same table was MTA President Jupe Compton, Havre, and his charming wife, Lora.
Raffle tickets were being sold for cash and merchandise prizes while a well stocked silent auction was also underway.
One of the highlights of the South West dinner is the live auction, partly because the quality of auction items is always exceptionally high (don't necessarily count on scoring great bargains–this is a charity after all and bidding is generous), but also because you never know what will find its way to the auction. This year, perhaps the most unique item was a purebred English Setter pup purchased by Butte's Hide-A-Way Bar for $350.
A very desirable high-definition digital camera and printer donated by Town Pump was auctioned along with a Larry Zabel print that brought $500 from Chic's Bar in Alder. Spectacular liquor baskets– one an actual 32-gallon trash barrel stuffed with 19 bottles of spirits (bringing $525)– are also auctioned.
MTA President Compton left the charity event with a handsome Budweiser Clydesdales mirror for just $120. A guided fishing trip fetched $425.
Bill Kelley snagged $245 in the 50/50 drawing and Butte's Johnny Perino won the "heads or tails" competition.
Delicious, juicy prime rib and all the fixin's damped down the crowd's appetite and the hardy made any number of trips to the dessert table.
The traditional bingo ball drawing ensued for seats at the head table and chances at the evening's big money.
Seats, in order, were drawn for 3-D, West Electric, Longhorn Saloon, the Bear Claw, Butte Produce, Thompson's Corner, Collins Games, Bert's Upholstery, the Glen Bar and Harrington Pepsi. The 11th seat, drawn from a separate raffle, went to Don Alley.
The elimination phase began then, with losers still winning $125 and a bottle of champagne.
First down was 3-D, then followed by Alley, the Bear Claw, Collins Games and the Longhorn Saloon.
Harrington Pepsi offered its seat for sale for $500 and Trevor Shearer paid the price. The Butte Produce seat was also sold to Big Sky Motors for the same amount, before the elimination resumed.
Bert's Upholstery was knocked out next followed by West Electric, leaving just four seats, two of which had been purchased mid-elimination.
Big Sky Motors ledger wound up with an entry on the "loss" side when the $500 seat became worth $125 and they were sent packing. The other purchased seat, Shearer's, won $500 by taking third place– the exact amount paid for the seat. So chalk that whole endeavor up as a "wash."
That left Patti Gillis of the Glen Bar and Lu Thompson of Thompson's Corner in the drivers' seats for second place ($1,000) and first place ($2,500). Who would be the next out?
We'll never know as Gillis and Thompson decided to split the top two places, sharing $3,500 between them–not a bad return on investment.
When things wind up at the WMC Arena, you can usually count on a good portion of the crowd to make the rounds at Dillon's good watering holes, and we have accompanied them most years.
This year, with a headful of congestion and antihistamines, this author thanked his spouse for returning them both promptly to their abode for the night while no doubt the rest continued an excellent evening of fun and frivolity.
Evelyn Lohman is serving as president this year and is assisted by vice-president Jerry McDonald and secretary-treasurer Debbie Kearns. Executive directors are Donnie Thompson and Bob Miller. The SWMTA boasts 26 member licensees from largely rural Beaverhead and Madison Counties--a very high participation rate, indeed. Eight associate members fill out the organization roster.
Over the years, the group has contributed to: Dillon Cubs Baseball, State High School Rodeo, Dillon Jaycee Rodeo, Rancher Roundup and scholarships for UM Western College students.
Also benefiting have been: the Dillon Food Bank, Southwest Montana Shrine Club, Madison and Beaverhead County Fairs, Southwestern Montana Arts Council and the Dillon Middle School.
The Madison and Beaverhead counties High School Drug & Alcohol Free Graduation Parties have gotten a financial boost from the SWMTA, as has the Dillon YMCA, area fire departments, VFW memorials in both Dillon and Ennis and many others too numerous to mention.
Our (big cowboy) hats are off the members of the SWMTA for putting on such a fine bash in order to support the worthy causes in their fine communities.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, May. 2007, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.