Voices of the valley: Where kids can be kids
It's the summer of 2025; I watch boys ride their bikes past our house on Willis Street to the Clark Fork River. Tied to their rucksacks, fly rods bend in the air as they head to deep waters running west, hopefully taken with strikes and trout for their casts. Many of these young fly fishermen keep to themselves in the tradition of the sport. This aloneness at a young age lays the foundation of our rural culture in each of us, allowing for insightful experiences and thoughts.
As we create distances on the road to some other place, this summer I danced in the wind and hailstorms. I lost myself in the best possible way. After all these years, I realize, I am just a sapling while I collect rocks and listen to them clanging in my pocket. It was this summer that I finally listened to nature and to myself.
If you lived during the early 1960s, it was a decade marked by deep social changes in our country, except in rural areas, where life continued to be influenced by traditional norms. Summertime brought unsupervised exploration and set us free in the day, giving us the time to embrace our independence. Carrying knives and rifles, given to us by our parents or grandparents, reflected an expectation of self-reliance. Kids explore the deciduous woods where they carry half-inch hemp ropes for climbing, hunting knives for almost everything, and .22-caliber rifles for the species of poisonous snakes.
We built forts in the woods with ropes, branches, and leaves. Not elaborate hideouts but useful havens where we heated cans of beans and soups, told jokes, challenged each other, and talked about the war movies of the time—building a fort through collaboration began the journey of learning to work together outside of our homes.
These values are so important to continue to pass along to the generations of the future. Our children today need now more than ever, a safe haven where they can go to just be kids! That is why we are happy to announce the Splash-N-Bash fundraising event Friday, Aug. 1, at 5p.m. At the Plains Park. Come join us for an evening of fun, community, and support as we work together to create spaces where children can thrive.
Charles Bickenheuser lives in Plains. Charles served as a Medical Sergeant in the 5th Special Forces (Airborne) during the Vietnam War. Charles earned a doctorate in education and has taught grades six through graduate school, retiring from both a K-12 school district and a university.