“My mother was so mad. The first thing she said to me when she got off the train was…

I’ve always wanted to go to Red Lodge, Montana.  Okay maybe not always but I’ve wanted to go ever since Grandma Lou (her name was Lucile but we called her Grandma Lou) told me that’s where she grew up.

One day I asked her “From Red Lodge…how did you ever end up in Detroit?”  My question must have catapulted her back in time to a very specific moment that took her by surprise. She giggled and then her eyes twinkled. Grandma Lou had amazing big brown eyes that twinkled when she was up to something…or just being playful. Now that I think about it, I think they just always twinkled.  She then proceeded to tell me the story.  To keep things simple it went like this; friends of the family mentioned they could get her a job in the motor city working at the Ford factory…she accepted the offer, hopped on a train and went to Detroit.

What I loved most about this story was what actually made her giggle. She then told me about the first time her mother (Great Grandma Giovetti) came to visit her…in Detroit.  She said, “My mother was so mad. The first thing she said to me when she got off the train was, ‘If I had known that Detroit was this far from home I never would have let you leave!” Apparently Grandma Lou thought this was funny, I did too.

Grandma Lou shared many stories with me about her life but they were mostly about when she was a young woman beyond her days in Montana.  Every now and then though she threw in a little  nugget about Red Lodge, the house they (her and her siblings) purchased for their mother and snippets about her older brother Pete who had died in the tragic Smith Mine disaster.

After Grandma Lou passed away I started becoming more curious  about the tiny little mountain town she grew up in. I thought it such a departure from Italy in which her parents migrated from.  I  later learned though it was quite common for immigrates to land in the west where mining jobs were abundant. I wanted to go Red Lodge to see for myself.

But as things often happen, life just kept getting in the way.  And the more life kept getting in the way, my plans to visit Red Lodge kept getting pushed further down the priority list. For one reason or another I never made it…until now.

I have a few days, a map, my cameras and a ton of long overdue ambition fueled by curiosity.  I’m going to Red Lodge, Montana!

~The Urban Mountaineer