Alma Armington… “That mean boy kicked my pony!”

By Eva Hallam Solberg

(Published in PCN October 18, 1979)

The prairie lay flat and treeless as far as eye could see. As the sun rose high in the sky, homesteaders and their families came on horseback or in horse-drawn buggies and wagons. It was 1917 and the Sun Prairie School and surrounding prairie became the scene of the long-awaited Fourth of July celebration.

Women brought their sandwiches, salads, baked beans, pies and cakes, and began setting up tables for the noon potluck dinner. Children laughed and played. After dinner was over, the women began covering up dishes and putting food away from the hot sun to bring out again for the supper later on. The men gathered to begin their baseball games. The single men were pitted against the marrieds. The day was young and there was yet a rodeo ahead to settle down the horses which were tied to wagon wheels and fence posts, awaiting the races and bucking bronc events. The men had built a 100-foot square platform which they called a “bowery” so they could dance in the evening and enjoy a midnight supper before heading home again.

Read the rest of the story in "Looking Back Again: Life Stories from the Prairies of Montana"
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