We spent a week in late May in Whitefish, Montana, a small scenic town about 15 miles from Glacier National Park. Whitefish has a population of just over 8,000 and has a weekly paper called The Whitefish Pilot. As a former newspaper editor and reporter, who worked at both weekly and daily newspapers, I always find it interesting to read the local paper when visiting a town to get an inside look.
Sometimes the news or at least the headlines can be head scratchers when viewed by an outsider. For example, the lead headline in the latest issue of the Pilot says: County Board Mulls Whether Whitefish Lake is an Airport. The mountain lake referred to is long and angular, created by glacier waters. We saw it a couple of times during our stay on drives along a mountain road. We didn’t see any airplanes or any indication that the lake was an airport. But we’re sure there’s a story behind that odd headline.
What we found particularly interesting was the police blotter. It’s a collection of mundane reports called into the police department, and some of the entries are humorous, like the one from April 6, 4:06 p.m. below.
But while perusing the blotter on a couple of occasions, we noticed something a bit out of the ordinary. On two consecutive days, close to the same time, UFOs were reported flying over Whitefish. There was no articles about it, at least that we saw, just reports alongside the report of people congregating at a gazebo and a vehicle leaking diesel on Hazel Place.
Take a look:
Monday, April 6
12:32 p.m. A woman’s attempts at turning up the volume of her podcast while biking ended with an accidental call to the police.
4:06 p.m. A man bent over and stared at a woman on Baker Avenue.
11:05 p.m. A man was out spotlighting for his missing dog on Missy Lane.
Tuesday, April 7
7:52 a.m. A lost dog was found on Baker Avenue.
12:29 p.m. A crew that had been fired from a job was picketing the job site on Vista Drive.
3:33 p.m. A caller witnessed four kids steal a grill near City Beach.
7:23 p.m. About 15 people were congregating in a gazebo.
11:35 p.m. A man spotted a UFO off Wisconsin Avenue.
2:35 p.m. A vehicle was leaking diesel on Hazel Place.
3:26 p.m. A Bearberry Lane resident was confident the traveling salesman going door-to-door was violating social distancing rules.
5:54 p.m. The caller thought he saw a man beating his girlfriend in a gazebo.
Thursday, April 9
9:54 a.m. The caller was receiving scam-related emails about his bank account.
11:14 a.m. An Ashar Avenue caller saw what she suspected was drug-related activity.
12:56 p.m. Someone put glue in a caller’s lock on Second Street.
1:16 p.m. The caller believed a Chicago-based gang was stalking him.
3:42 p.m. A caller wanted to express gratitude to the emergency services employees working.
7:27 p.m. A black bear was spotted near City Beach.
11:29 p.m. A caller and his neighbor saw blinking lights to the northwest and believed it to be a UFO.
I love your writing….when is the next book? sounds like a neat town
Working on it now. Good to see you, Viv!
On the subject of books Trish, and the Police Blotter, I just finished reading Abbie Hoffman’s deplorable book ‘Steal This Book’ (a book I have had on my bookshelf, unread without it having been stolen from me, for years) after having recently watched ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ on Netflix.
And these four entries in the Police Blotter reminded me of his book –
9:54 a.m. The caller was receiving scam-related emails about his bank account.
11:14 a.m. An Ashar Avenue caller saw what she suspected was drug-related activity.
12:56 p.m. Someone put glue in a caller’s lock on Second Street.
1:16 p.m. The caller believed a Chicago-based gang was stalking him.
Because Hoffman hated the police, and in his book he told readers how to scam banks and forge credit cards, put glue in locks and coin slots in public telephones and parking meters, and of course how to shop lift from stores and deal in drugs like weed to get money.
I always had the impression that Hoffman was like a merry prankster until I watched the movie and read his book, now I think he was just an immoral scumbag painted as some kind of hero to the Yippy movement.
No wonder he ended up killing himself.
I gave the book to my son to read and keep and then hopefully throw out … or have it stolen, since he told me about the Netflix movie in the first place.
I just hope my son doesn’t start making Molitov cocktails and pipe bombs from the clear instructions given in the book. 🙂
We recently watched that same movie. I think Hoffman loved the attention, that he was hungry for it. And when the attention wasn’t there anymore, he decided he was outta here. I read his book years ago and don’t remember much of it. Probably for the best!
I’m actually writing a post about the book/movie/s/podcasts now using some photos I took of the book before I gave it to my son, so it might jog your memory if you read the post.
I always fantasied about growing up to be a Hippie, but more like the Godspell type, minus the Christianity, but still a moral “do as you would do un to others” type of Hippie, not like Hoffman was.
I’d love to read it. Send me the link when it goes up!
Hoffman wasn’t like any of the hippies I knew, that’s for sure.
Here’s the link to that post –
https://brizdazz.blogspot.com/2021/06/steal-this-bookmoviepodcast-whatever.html
thanks!
I saw a documentary on Abbie Hoffman (I couldn’t get through Steal This Book). He was diagnosed bipolar, with not a light case of manic depressive personality disorder, manic type. He used large amounts of recreational drugs to medicate it and often ended up on a psychiatric ward during the psychotic phase. Unmedicated bipolars often kill themselves. This is not an excuse for his lack of moral compass. I was surprised, however, to discover how prevalent this pattern was, in many of the people who became radical left heroes in the 60s. Drugs masked a lot of bipolar, schizoaffective, and major depressive illnesses at that time. Also physical/sexually abusive and incestuous situations were common in many households, both rich and poor. These were not glory days.
As for the Police Blotter, I’m really nostalgic for the days when our front page headline was Specialist Gently Removes Bees From Hive In Tree On City Plaza. Article contained instructions on how to. There is no small news.
Ah, small news. I miss that, too.