TGIF Wild Card — 6.30.17

Forty is the biblical number for testing. The Israelites were in the desert for 40 years. Jesus was tempted for 40 days. This weekend marks my 40th anniversary as a Northwesterner. Forty years ago, Mrs. O and I packed all our earthly belongings into a U-Haul truck and, with my brother Ed sharing the driving duties, headed from California’s central valley north to Kalispell, Mont. I was 27. My wife saw the Flathead Valley for the first time when we dropped down into it from Lakeside, along the Flathead Lake. We spent five years in Kalispell. Two years in Lewiston. And the last 33 in Coeur d’Alene. Columnist Doug Clark, a good friend and best man at my wedding in 1975, said to me in spring 1977 that I should jump at the chance to live and work in Kalispell, Mont., or Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. That planted the seed in my mind. When the call to Kalispell came from the late Hagadone Newspaper Group exec George Cecil, I jumped. Mrs. O and I have had some heartaches along the way (as everyone does). But it has been a grand adventure that I wouldn’t trade for anything. Thanks for putting up with me all these years. Here’s your Wild Card …