Marc Moss: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Tell Us Something podcast. I’m Mark Moss, your host, founder, and executive director of Tell Us Something. The next tell us something event is October 7th. Theme is Welcome the Wild Side. You can learn about how to pitch your story and get tickets@tellussomething.org this week on the podcast.

Nita Maddox: He walks up and he’s got this completely unredeemable action adventure movie, and I pull up his account and it’s just bad movie choices and $50 in late fees, and he tries to introduce himself again, and I was like. Listen buddy. You have terrible taste in movies. You owe $50, you’re gonna need to pay us $20 of those late fees.

Take your crappy movie and kick rocks.

Joyce Gibbs: And so I run around to the back where the, where the nesting area is while she’s eating her food. And I open up the cage or open up the back of the hutch [00:01:00] and there they are. Four furloughs eyeballs closed. Squirmy little. Baby rabbits and they’re squirmy. So much so that one of them falls out of the back of the hutch and lands in the snow and it starts screaming and I

Amanda Taylor: was in it.

So by in it, I mean that by age 16 I had signed a purity contract with God. Really it, it was just a piece of paper that some guy in a church printed, but to me it was from God and I was signing it for him. Plus I took it very seriously and I wore a purity Ring

Marc Moss: three storytellers share their true personal story on the theme.

Be careful what you wish for. Their stories were recorded Live in person on April 4th, 2025 at the Volite [00:02:00] Theater in Butte, Montana. We gathered then on the traditional and unseated lands of the Salish Kni and ponder and Assab peoples whose ancestors have cared for and been stewards of this land for countless generations.

We recognize the deep history, culture, and resilience of the indigenous peoples who lived here long before European settlers arrived. These tribes have been integral to the land, water, and ecosystem of the region, sustaining it through generations of careful stewardship. As we honor their enduring presence, we must also acknowledge the injustices that have been done to these communities.

Displacement. Broken treaties and the ongoing impacts of colonization, including damage done to the earth. This acknowledgement is a reminder of our responsibility to honor and support indigenous communities. One way that we can do this is to support organizations like the Butte Native Wellness Center, the North American Indian Alliance, and get cultural and historical insights at places [00:03:00] like the Butte Cultural Heritage Center.

Remember this, tell us something. Stories sometimes have adult themes. Storytellers sometimes use adult language. Please take care of yourselves. Our first story comes to us from Nita Maddox. A determined single mom navigates the challenges of working four jobs and trying to buy her dream business, a local video store Amidst this chaotic life, a quirky encounter with an unexpected suitor leads to a surprising turn of events.

Just as everything seems to fall into place, a sudden life altering incident challenges her newfound stability and reshapes her entire world. Nita calls her story perfect Blue House. Thanks for listening.

Nita Maddox: So this is also a coming out story. No, it’s not, but maybe it will be. When I was [00:04:00] 25, my daughter was two, and there were two things that we did almost every day.

One was we walked from our little studio apartment on Hickory, down Beckwith up to the University of Montana where she went to daycare and I took classes, and along the way it’s. Started with like low income neighborhood into more middle of the road, and then the big fancy mansions around the university.

And midway there, there was a perfect blue Victorian house, big green lawn, white picket fence, oak tree with a swing. And somewhere along the way we started calling it our house and imagining the life we would lead in it. That seemed so far away from the little studio apartment we were living in. And then on the way home, we would always stop at the Crystal Video store and I actually recognize there might be people in the audience who have no idea what a video store is and when they’re done.

Right. They are amazing places and the [00:05:00] Crystal was one of the best of them. Everybody who worked. There was a writer or a musician or a artist and they knew everything about, um, Peter Green away’s use of Tableau, vivant or S’s use of lone wolf, and there was all these like fabulous shelves just full of other worlds, worlds.

That just expanded what I could imagine in my sometimes feeling a little bit claustrophobic life at that point, seven years later. My daughter is nine. There’s now a 6-year-old brother. I’ve spent two years working in a corporate environment that just didn’t really suit me. We move back to Missoula and I’m working four jobs to make ends meet and try not to touch into my savings.

But one of those jobs is I’m working at the Crystal video store now and the owner. Would very much like to sell the crystal video store and ask me if I wanna buy it. And [00:06:00] so I was trying to put together the resources to buy the video store. Now, one evening I’m working there and this guy comes in and I’ve known him for a while.

And I found him kind of interesting, which was intriguing ’cause he wasn’t really my type. My type was like dark brooding musician and he was kind of tall and blonde, cleft chin, sort of the captain of the football team archetype. And he had met me probably five times prior to that and he never seemed to remember me.

So I kind of was like, I don’t know what I think about this guy. And he walks up and he’s got this completely unredeemable action adventure movie, and I pull up his account and it’s just bad movie choices and $50 in late fees. And he tries to introduce himself again. And I was like. Listen buddy. You have terrible taste in movies.

You owe $50. You’re gonna need to pay us $20 of those late fees. Take your crappy [00:07:00] movie and kick rocks. And that was it. He tried to court me for months. And I was a single mom trying to buy a business, working four jobs, and I had no time for this character. But then he kind of got me and he was like, listen, I just bought this house.

Come over. I’ll make you dinner. You can bring any movie you want. And I show up at the address at the perfect blue Victorian with the green lawn and the white picket fence. And the tree with the swing. And I notice, oh, this is a little wink from fate here, huh? Okay. So we embarked on about three months of a very romantic adventure, and he was surprisingly great about dating a single mom who was working a lot and trying to buy a business.

And then the day came where I signed the papers and put down a ton of money, and I now owned this business that I had really wanted to have, and my daughter and son and [00:08:00] I were crossing the street on Higgins in Missoula to go get ice cream at the Big Dipper to celebrate. And we were run over by a truck in the intersection, and I’m never gonna forget the feeling of grabbing for my daughter’s jacket.

And she was just gone. I don’t, I, my mind couldn’t even comprehend where had she gone. And I looked down and my 6-year-old, his head was right by the bumper of the truck, and I grabbed him and threw him over my head to the sidewalk, just as I noticed this crushing feeling as the tire rolled across my foot.

My daughter spent three months in the hospital and the most of that next year in a wheelchair. She had seven different surgeries, one to reconstruct her face, and during that early phase, that steep uphill climb about learning how to run a business, I was pretty much every day in the hospital and I had just bought a video store right [00:09:00] at the beginning of Netflix being a thing.

So when we kind of normalize when she comes out of the hospital, there’s just so much stress and the only thing I can really remove from the stress is to break up with the guy and he says, you know what? You should just move in with me. That’s gonna make things easier. Which seemed like a good idea other than the fact that we’d only been dating for about six months, but we move into the perfect blue Victorian.

So we’re in our house and I own the business. I’ve always wanted to own and things are normalizing a little bit, but I’m also noticing that I’m really tired and kind of run down. Probably just stress. So I go in for a checkup and then the day before my 33rd birthday, I took my daughter to what was going to be her last doctor’s appointment in this chapter of her life was going to end.

We were gonna schedule the very last surgery. It was really disappointing ’cause they. Some things weren’t [00:10:00] healing correctly and she was gonna need another couple of surgeries and she was pretty bummed. Said, listen, I’ve got a doctor’s appointment, you can come like a follow up appointment, you can come with me to that and then we’ll go do something fun.

So she came with me and I remember. Being in the waiting room and we had the funny little pillow in the exam room and she was chasing me around in her wheelchair, hitting me with this pillow. We were laughing and was like, oh, this is, this is so fun. And then the doctor came in and said that I was gonna have to have another series of tests because it looked like I had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which I did.

And that whole dream that out of nowhere I had manifested. Began to dissolve and I sold the business eventually so it wouldn’t get caught up in the medical bankruptcy, and it was a lot of pressure on the relationship and it ended and we moved out of the perfect blue Victorian. Now this story might sound like it’s a tragic story, but actually in the end, [00:11:00] which there isn’t an ending yet, it didn’t end.

All those people are still alive, and to be honest. I was getting some feedback about the story and somebody said, wow, it was so interesting. You were just telling a story and then all of a sudden you get hit by a truck. But that’s the way it works. That’s how trauma works. One day you’re leading one life, and the next that life is never there again.

You’re leading a completely different life. It was this. Rapid reset where we were in this very sweet, normal life and then this giant heroine’s journey for both my daughter and I started, and neither of us has led anything close to a normal life. We have led a very wild creative, yes, full of some more trauma.

Yes, the trauma from that still follows us, but a amazing resilience. C and an incredible lust for life was found in that moment. So that’s the story I’m telling and [00:12:00] that’s the story I’m sticking with.

Marc Moss: Thanks Nita. Nita Maddox is a multi-generational Montanan, born and raised in Whitefish. She has a passion for adventure, even if it is finding something exciting in the produce area at the grocery store. Nita is here on this planet to be seriously playful on the journey. Next up is Joyce Gibbs. As a third grader in Montana, Joyce convinces her parents to get pet rabbits only to discover.

Their true intention is to breed them for food. Despite an early mishap with the first litter, she learns the harsh realities of a farm life. This unique upbringing shapes her understanding of where food comes from, leading to a memorable, albeit somewhat grizzly childhood experience. Joyce calls her story, stew and Pop.

Thanks for listening.[00:13:00]

Joyce Gibbs: Third grade Clinton, Montana, 16 miles east of Missoula. You know, in third grade when you know, there’s, you get the pet, you get the, we had a pet rabbit, so in the back of the classroom is Peter Peter’s in his little cage, and it’s our job to water him and feed him and, and, uh, clean out his cage every once in a while.

That was super fun. And my friend Dina in third grade, I went over to her house one day and she had like 20 pet rabbits and I was like, oh, you can do this at home too. And they had chickens and goats probably, and pigs, you know. But um. [00:14:00] And so I go home and I’m like, mom, dad, I think I want a pet rabbit. And my dad says, well, okay, actually you can have a pet rabbit.

You can have two pet rabbits. We’re gonna get a male one and a female one. And we’re gonna breed them and we’re going to eat. They’re young. I’m like, yep. Uh. Which is fine, you know, uh, my dad was a hunter, so, um, I wasn’t able to like, help him cut up the meat in third grade, but we definitely were like wrapping in butcher paper and I knew where my meat came from and, and, uh, I was like.

Yeah, that sounds like a good thing. I can do that. So, uh, we [00:15:00] go to Dina’s house. Dina’s dad has a super cool hutch that he made that has three different compartments and, uh, it stands off the ground and for the critters, you know, might eat the rabbits. But, um. Each compartment has a nesting area in the back, and then a front door and a back door.

And then, uh, they have these side doors so you can open up those side doors so the rabbits can commingle. And so, uh, we get the hutch and we go to the store and we get, um, these rabbits, uh, one’s white and one’s black. And, and they were short hair and you know, they’re little rabbit size. We got a book on how to raise rabbits, abbot, and we take ’em home.

And we put ’em each in their separate compartments. [00:16:00] And then about a week later we opened up those doors so they could commingle. And they, uh, a couple weeks later, my dad’s like, I don’t really think anything’s happening here, here. Like, okay, so we go talk to Dina’s dad again ’cause he’s got, you know, 20 rabbits and, um.

And he says, oh yeah, those Dina’s dad says, oh yeah, those, those store-bought rabbits. They don’t really sometimes do that, but I’ve got a really good breeding dough. Dough, uh, rabbits are called dough and box. So, um, I got a good breeding dough for you. And we get, we get. This rabbit, she’s got long hair and lop [00:17:00] ears, which are the ones that fall down and she’s this big and um.

We’re, we’re gonna call her Stella. I forgot to mention, um, my dad said, you know, it’s probably not a good idea to. To, uh, name your rabbits, but, but just, you know, we, we should, so, so we’ll call the white one Stew and we’ll call the black one Pot. So, so then we have Stew and Pot and Stella. Thankfully it was a, you know, triplex.

So we get them all co-mingling together. Because part of the book had like drawings of how you could tell male and female, but I could never figure out actually what that drawing meant. So we just let ’em all in there and a [00:18:00] couple weeks later, my dad’s like, yeah, I think something’s happening here. So we uh, we figure out that Stella is pregnant and I’m super excited and it’s sometime in the winter.

Um, one day I’m supposed to, or every day I go out and I feed the rabbits and I, um, their water always freezes over, so I have to like take it in and thaw it out and give them fresh water in the morning. So I’m doing that and I noticed that Stella, I isn’t coming out of the nest and I finally like, bring the food out and the water out and get her to kind of come out of the nest.

And so I run around to the back where the, where the nesting area is while she’s eating her food. And I open up the cage or open up the back of the hutch, and there they are. Four furlough eyeballs, [00:19:00] closed, squirmy, little baby rabbits, and. They’re squirmy. So much so that one of them falls out of the back of the hutch and lands in the snow and it starts screaming.

And so I pick it up and I throw it back in the nest and I shut the door and I lock it. And I go to school and I say, Hey, my rabbit had babies. Hey, did you hear my rabbit had babies? And I go home. And like Stella’s hanging out in the cage and I’m like, cool, I’ll go back there and see. And I open up the hutch and I open it up and there’s no babies in the nest.

And uh, later on that night, I tell this to my parents and they say, yeah. Yeah, you’re a [00:20:00] foreigner. You picked up her baby, you ruined the nest. And she ate all her babies, like, oh yeah.

So the next time Stella got pregnant. I was really patient and after a couple weeks, those little babies came out of the nest into the front part of the hutch and they, uh, and they were super cute and ran around and, uh, I didn’t name them.

Um, and about a month later my dad said, no, it’s probably time to. To harvest those rabbits. So we had two pine trees that grew pretty close to to each other, and he put a board across and he put some,

he put some rope [00:21:00] coming down from the board and he said, bring me a bunny. And I brought the bunny in and he tied ’em up from the legs. And he held them by the ears and he cut off their heads and he put it in a five gallon bucket, and then he gutted ’em, and then he skinned them, and then he handed me this piece of meat.

And I brought it inside and I gave it to my mom and she cleaned it and she wrapped it in butcher paper and she, and we had rabbit stew and we walked the five gallon bucket up to the hill and uh, and dumped it out and left it for the coyotes.[00:22:00]

And we did this a couple times

and eventually one day as we, uh, like six months later as we were coming down the hill with another empty bucket, I said, dad, I don’t think I want any more pet rabbits. Thank you.

Marc Moss: Thanks, Joyce. Joyce Gibbs was raised in Missoula, Montana, tramping through the woods. She grew up to become an artist builder and Tyler. She is a resilient, creative, and adventurous woman. After a brief stint in New York City and then New Orleans, she bought a dilapidated railroad house on Missoula’s historic North Side and spent the next 15 years remodeling it and making it her own.

When she is not busy, building beautiful spaces. With her tile [00:23:00] installations at Joyce of Tile, you can find her riding her motorcycle, gardening and playing. Closing out this episode of the Tele Something podcast is Amanda Taylor. Amanda was raised in a devout Christian community and was committed to purity, vowing to save herself for marriage.

This conviction was challenged when she moved to Switzerland and met a captivating man. A spontaneous trip to a luxurious hot spring with him leads to a pivotal moment of self-discovery, forcing her to confront her deeply held beliefs. Amanda calls her story. Hallelujah. Thanks for listening.

Amanda Taylor: I found my reverence for Jesus Christ in the town of Powell, Wyoming.

It has about 6,000 people. Um, some diners and a lot of churches and I found my community there at church and it was my closest friends and the people that I was most connected [00:24:00] to. And so I was, uh, once I found them, I was locked into that lifestyle. And I was in it. So by, in it, I mean that by age 16 I had signed a purity contract with God.

Um, really it, it was just a piece of paper that some guy in a church printed, but to me it was from God and I was signing it for him as I took it very seriously. And I wore a purity ring, which if you don’t know what any of this means, you’re lucky. But also it, it means that you are making an agreement with God that you will not have sex until you’re married.

It was a long time and so I made that agreement and I wrote letters to my future husband [00:25:00] and I collaged this box of like romantic pictures and bible verses my meticulously folded these letters and put them in it. And I thought, you know, and when we get married I’ll. Give him this box of letters as though that’s like something someone would want.

And I also, I kept a prayer journal and I wrote in it every day. And if I forgot a day, I would ask God to forgive me for forgetting a day. And then I would also ask at the end, please forgive me for any sins that I forgot about. Just to always just making sure all my bases were covered. So that I could end up in heaven with my friends.

Um, luckily I also had an insatiable desire to travel and see the world. So when I was 20, I, um, signed an actual contract, you know, like one that actually mattered. Um. [00:26:00] To go

to be an au pair in Switzerland. And o an au pair is just a fancy word for a nanny or a person who, uh, cooks, cleans and does all the chores and childcare, uh, for a very low price. And then you, you live with the people as well. So I moved to Switzerland to become a nanny and, um. I got there and I was still like connected with church.

I brought all my church or brought all my prayer journals. I was still on track for heaven. And, uh, within the neighborhoods there, like everyone knew that there was an American living in, in a house. It was me. And whenever another neighbor had an American visiting, they would, they would all like let each other know and they’d be like, Hey, we have an American.

You should send your American down, and they can be Americans together.

And so [00:27:00] about eight months into my time there, uh, we got a call. There was an American down the street at my friend’s house, and I was like, yeah, I, I like friends, I’ll go meet him. So then I went down the street and there was this man named John, and John was 27. He was an architect who had quit his stressful New York City job and was backpacking around Europe and he had shaggy hair.

And he was funny, so, oh no. Um, I loved him instantly. You know, all he had to do was say hi, and I was sold and we had some casual conversation, and then he told me he was going to this really great hot springs in the Alps that weekend. And then he invited me and I was like, pinching myself. I was like, oh my God, is this actually happening?

Am I gonna give him the box of letters?[00:28:00]

Um,

so I, I agreed to go to the hot springs. You know, I, if he invited me to the moon, I would’ve, I would’ve gone. Um. So we made a plan. I was gonna go after work and he would already be there. So the day comes, I get my backpack on, and the some cool outfit that I thought was cool at the time, who knows what it was.

But, um, so I take the train and I get to this hot springs and um, I walk in and if you think of somewhere like Fairmont Hot Springs, you know, there’s like. Children running, running around everywhere in a questionable amount of urine in the water, and you know, probably like. Wondering if you’re gonna get warts on your feet.

Um, it was not that, it was the opposite of that. Uh, it was like nestled into a [00:29:00] mountainside and I walked in and the revolted ceilings and live jazz is happening and John is standing there drinking a glass of wine and I’m standing, I stood there my, with my backpack on. Quickly realizing that this is not a backpack kind of place.

Um, but luckily John got me upstairs quickly. We got my backpack put away, and then we came back downstairs and enjoyed a night of jazz and, uh, conversation and I just kept loving him. Um, so, uh, the next day we soaked in the water and it was the hot springs. Like all of the pools were made out of granite that was mined from the Alps.

And there was a rose petal pool that just smelled like roses. And then there was a, a rain shower that was just like this beautiful room that just, it felt like it was raining. Um, so yeah, basically like Fairmont, you know,[00:30:00]

almost, almost minus the slide, but. So we soaked in there and chatted, and I don’t know how you could not love someone after hanging out in a rose petal pool, but so we were hanging out in this pool and he mentioned an ex-girlfriend. And I said, oh, I’ve never, I’ve never had a boyfriend. And he said, what?

You’ve never had a boyfriend? I was like, no. Why would I, why would I have a boyfriend? And he was like, what is happening? And I was like, well, I’ve actually, like, I’ve never been on a date. He was like, what? I, I was 21 this time. So I suppose that was a little peculiar, but I was like, no, I have never been on a date.

I was like. I’m with the Lord. I don’t go on dates. I got this box of letters. Um, so he said, all right, [00:31:00] tonight we are going on a date. And I said, great. So we went out to this fancy restaurant that I could not have a, could not have afforded by myself for sure. And. You know, my pants had like, were like tattered at the bottom from stepping on it, stepping on them, and I could see around in the restaurant, no, everyone else had nice pants, so I just was like, Ooh, we gotta keep these under the table.

So we had this three course meal. And then dinner wraps up and we went back upstairs to our room and I, um, we were, oh, I forgot to mention earlier the, we were in the same room, but we were, there were two twin beds. Plenty of space for Jesus in between. So we have this beautiful dinner, full bellies. We go up to our separate beds and we’re just laying there in the dark and I’m just smiling.

And he goes, Amanda, I’m like, what? He says, I have a confession. [00:32:00] And I’m like, what? He said When I invited you here, my plan was to hook, hook up with you. And I was like, oh my gosh. And he was like, but now after getting to know you and talking to you, I, I can’t do that to you. You are so sweet and so innocent.

I just, I can’t do that. But I just like, you’re a very attractive woman and, and it’s been wonderful to spend time with you. And I was like, oh. Um, and with all of my strength, I said, well. We could make out just a little, just a little, little make out, never hurt anybody. Um, and then he sat up outta his bed and I pushed the twin beds together.

And the next thing you know, we’re making out. But then I remembered one, we, Jesus is still [00:33:00] here. And then two, I was like, I actually have no idea what to do after kissing. Like I don’t, I dunno what happens after that. I just know that I don’t do that. I don’t even really know the logistics of it. So I said, stop, wait.

I was like, I don’t, I don’t know what to do with, um, that. I don’t know what that is. I don’t know what it looks like. I don’t know. I’ve never looked one in the eyes. I don’t know.

And he is like, what? He said, okay, we are gonna go on a journey of discovery. I was like, cool. And he said, I’m just gonna touch you and you’re gonna say if you like it or not. And if you don’t like it, I don’t do it. And I was like, great. But what about you? He said, you’re not touching me at all. I said, great.[00:34:00]

And then, you know, we kissed a little bit. I was like, I like it. We kissed a lot. I was like, love it. And. And then there was, you know, some like, touching of all the parts, and I still struggle to say the names of ’em, but it’s fine. ’cause I’m just 38. Um,

so yeah, it was like, like, like, like, like, like and then,

and then he. Started kissing down my stomach. I was like, okay, this is too far, this is too far. So I was like, stop, stop, stop. And he said, okay. And then we went to bed. You know, it was like the, the happiest sleep of my life. And we woke up the next day and things kind of just started right where they left off.

Thank you so much. Um, and he starts kissing [00:35:00] down my stomach and I just, I didn’t, I didn’t have the heart to stop him, like I just couldn’t. And so he went and. Really all I have to say about that is hallelujah.

That is so satisfying in a church. I just wanna do it one more time. Hallelujah.

But like all good things, it had to come to an end. And I had to get back to my life. He had to continue backpacking around Europe and so we went our separate ways. I got on my train and he got on his. And, you know, I had little tears in my eyes as I sat down in my seat because now I really loved him. And, [00:36:00] uh, I had about four hours of watching the Alps go by to think about it.

And I just, I could not reconcile the fact that now I was probably going to hell. I know. And I, I was like, but I’m, I’m a good person, but I’m going to hell. And I was, and I just couldn’t, I couldn’t reconcile, reconcile that, and I couldn’t make sense of that. So by the time I got off the train, I was walking up this hill to my house.

I really, I only knew two things at that point. And it was that I was not asking for forgiveness and that all of that needed to happen again. That is all I have. Thank you so much for listening and for coming out.

Marc Moss: Thanks, Amanda. Amanda Taylor resides in Missoula with her cat, Ted. As a child, she spent summers visiting her grandparents in Alder, Montana. [00:37:00] Her earliest memory of Butte is her grandma taking her to the Butte, Walmart, and buying her Reba McIntyre poster. She no longer has the poster, but she still loves Reba McIntyre.

Thanks for listening to the Tell Us Something podcast. Remember that. The next tell us something event is October 7th. The theme is Walk on the Wild Side. You can pitch your story by calling 4 0 6 2 0 3 4 6 8 3. Learn more and get your tickets@tellussomething.org. Coming up on the next episode of the Teso podcast,

Hammy: that was the first thought I have gonorrhea.

The second immediate thought was the place I need to go to treat this gonorrhea is my first day at the health department. I thought, oh my God, this is gonna suck. I get dressed. For some reason, I decide to put on white underwear. To this day, I don’t understand why I chose white.

Katie Van Dorn: And I probably should have figured it out, but I didn’t.

And I [00:38:00] came outta surgery with my right leg, an inch and a half shorter than my left, and I was pod to say the least, and a doctor said, well, that’s the way it has to be. So it just was so, I just learned to. Used poles for hiking, and I put lifts in and outside of my shoe, and I got a lot of body work.

Karna Sundby: When I found his body, I just started screaming and screaming and ran into the house, grabbed the phone, and started dialing my parents in Illinois.

When I realized I can’t just keep screaming when they answered the phone and I can’t stop, I hung up.

Aunvada Being: I asked him if he wanted to open up and he jumped at it. He was thrilled. And that was shocking to me and also terrifying. And I’m, I wish that maybe I had been a bit more terrified because I spent about two years fielding a lot of text messages, asking if it was okay that he had sent pictures to them.

And I, I lost my [00:39:00] mind. I was sad. Three kids and a husband a second one, and I didn’t have what I was realizing I needed.

Marc Moss: Listen to the stories from the June, 2025 live event that closed out Pride Month. The theme was lost and found. Subscribe to the podcast so you’ll be sure to catch it. On the next tell us something podcast.[00:40:00] [00:41:00] [00:42:00] [00:43:00] [00:44:00] [00:45:00] [00:46:00] [00:47:00] [00:48:00] [00:49:00] [00:50:00] [00:51:00] [00:52:00]

Thanks for listening to the Tele Something podcast. Coming up on the next episode of the Tele Something podcast.[00:53:00]

Listen to the stories from our return to Butte America in April of 2025. On the next episode of the Tell Us Something podcast, subscribe to the podcast so you’ll be sure to catch these [00:54:00] stories. On the next tell us something podcast. Remember that. The next tell us something event is October 7th. The theme is Walk on the Wild Side.

You can pitch your story by calling 4 0 6. 2 0 3 4 6 8 3. Learn more and get your tickets@tellussomething.org.

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Tell Us Something podcast. I’m Marc Moss, founder and executive director of Tell Us Something, and your host for this episode of the podcast in this special edition of the Tell Us Something podcast. We take time to honor an important community member. Tell us something. Storyteller, alumni, support of the arts, statesman and friend.

Pat Williams five times. Pat Williams joined us on the Tell Us something stage to share pieces of his extraordinary life with us. Each one delivered with that unmistakable wit, wisdom, and profound connection to humanity that he so loved. You know, we require each storyteller who shares their stories at tell us something to attend a group workshop, and Pat just never found the time to join us for those workshops.

But. He got a pass because he’s Pat Williams back in April of this year. Tell Us Something, travel to Butte America to bring Tell Us Something to an [00:01:00] enthusiastic group of listeners. I. At the Covellite Theatre, I shared a story about the first time we held a Tell Us Something event in Butte, which was also at the  Covellite Theatre.

That first time in Butte back in 2019. I had to buy time for the start of the event because the evening’s very first storyteller, Pat Williams was late. Listen, as I share that story, which is more than just a story of tell us something in Butte, more than just a story of Pat Williams, it’s honoring my friendship with Pat.

Stick around after my story to hear one of the stories that Pat shared on the Tell Us Something. Stage a story about Bing Crosby in Butte America. Sláinte,

how many people have been in love before? Yeah. So, I don’t know, before the, before the internet was so prevalent and social media wasn’t, wasn’t yet invented. [00:02:00] When I was in love at least, I wrote and received love letters from my lovers, long torrid, sometimes thoughtful and reflective love letters. And then when the breakup were happen.

Emails. Don’t forget to gimme back my black t-shirt. I want that Black Sabbath record back. I think you have my popcorn maker all in an email. Cold, succinct. And I thought, you know, making, oh, it’s a really good way to heal and, and I. Make art sometimes I, and I’m from Akron, Ohio originally, and so I love abandoned buildings and rusty shit.

And, and so when I first came to Butte, I was like, oh, this feels a lot like home. And so I, I had a whole bunch of rusty things and I had all these love letters and I thought, I love you and I never want to be without you. [00:03:00] I hate you, and I never, never want to see you again. Both honest feelings that are out there in the universe.

What happens if we put ’em together? So I like ripped out sections of those love letters. Burned the rest, used an Exacto knife, cut out sections of those emails, mounted them under glass, collaged them together on rusty metal with wires, and found other rusty things. And one of the things I found was an old wall-mounted telephone.

Now some of you don’t know what that is, so before we all had. Uh, camera and a video machine and a phone and all the things in, in our pockets. Telephones were mounted on the wall and they were stationary and you had to pick it up and there was a rotary in like 1, 6, 6, you know, whatever. And it took a long time to dial.

Anyway, I found one of those from like 1945 or something, and I took it apart. [00:04:00] And because they’re beautiful inside, they’re just these cool, gorgeous machines. And I put it in my acid to rust it. And peed on it. And then it was super rusty and I put it on one of these pieces of art and the art show is happening, and this guy is like standing there, like looking at it, and the proprietor of the venue comes over.

He is like, she says, do you know who that is? And I’m like, no. She’s like, that’s Pat Williams. He wants to buy your art. I’m like, oh, okay. I know who Pat Williams is, and most of you probably do, but for those of you who don’t, pat Williams is the longest running congressman from Montana in like the seventies, eighties, nineties, and did a lot for the environment and the arts, and all of a sudden I’m like a little bit intimidated and honored, so I walk over, introduced myself, Hey, I’m Marc.

He’s like, good to meet you. I’m Pat. [00:05:00] Like I saw this in the paper and I wanna buy it. And so that was what was on the, on the, in the newspaper when they wrote the story about the show. And I said, great. And he goes, but I don’t want the whole thing. I just want the phone. I said, I’m not taking it apart. I’m not gonna like take the phone.

And he is like, I don’t care what you do, I just want the phone. I said, the price is the same. He said, that’s fine. Deliver it to me when the show comes down. Here’s my number. Okay, what am I, what the fuck is this? So I know a guy that’s got a plasma cutter, so the show ends, I take it over there and cut it in half.

I sell the other side of it for the same price. I think it was like 350 bucks. So I sell this thing twice and I call him, I’m like, I got the art. I’m, uh, I’ll deliver it. And he’s like, I’ll meet you at the Uptown Diner. So, okay. And that place doesn’t exist anymore, but Uptown Diner in Missoula. We go there for breakfast, he buys me [00:06:00] breakfast.

I’m like, what’s the deal with the phone? He said, well, I grew up in Butte, Montana, and I lived above a candy store that my, my family owned. And one afternoon when I was a kid, I was taking apart the phone with a screwdriver and my grandmother came and found me and she yanked the screwdriver outta my hand and said, you’re gonna burn down the candy store.

And I’ve never seen the inside of a phone.

I said, pat, what? You’re 75 years old. Like, how old are you? What you’ve never, you’ve never taken a phone apart. He said, out of other things to do. So that began our friendship and I founded Tela something and I knew Pat was a good storyteller ’cause I was there with him for two hours. And I had beers with whiskeys with him at Charlie’s.

You know, he used to, there was a bar in Missoula that has like this door in between the [00:07:00] bar and the coffee shop. And he would like take his coffee and like walk over to the bar and he’d come back and he sit down and hold court. And I was like, Pat’s great. And I was like, man, wouldn’t it be great to get him on the tell us something stage?

And sure enough he was like, I’ll totally do that. And he told I think three stories that tell us something. Um. One about Dr. Martin Luther King. You can listen to it at, uh, tell us something.org. The other one, um, about Bing Crosby coming to Butte. And the third story he told here in 2018, and I don’t remember what the theme was that time, but the show was supposed to start at seven o’clock and it’s 10 minutes to seven and there’s no sign of Pat.

And the guy that was driving him, his name’s Brian, he’s a storyteller, uh, too from tell us something. And I had his number and I called him up. I’m like, Brian, where are you guys at? [00:08:00] He’s like, well, uh, we just got our second round of drinks at Lydia’s. I’m like, God, damnit, that’s across town. Like the show is supposed to start.

He’s like, well. I mean, and I was like, okay, just get here as fast as you can. The show it is 10 minutes after seven, they’re still not here. Ev everyone’s sort of looking at me. There were about this many people, maybe a handful more. And I’m like, I mean, I guess I gotta do this. And oh, I forgot to tell you, uh, at the time I had a broken leg.

So like those steps coming up and down those steps, how many times did I go up and down those steps? And everyone’s like, what’d you do with your leg? And I’m like, not right now. I got, oh, you know what? Actually, lemme tell you because the show has to go on, right? So where’s Pat? I’m like, wished that he would come and tell a story in Butte, [00:09:00] like, be careful what you wish for.

He’s late. Maybe he’s not even gonna come. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. So I tell the story of how I broke my leg, the short version of that story. ’cause I don’t have enough time. Is that. I was at Burning Man. I don’t know if you know what that is. It’s this big art festival in the desert, and it was one of those days where everything was perfect.

I was in love with the world. Everything was great. My wife Joyce and I were gonna have sexy time later. She was like, you go that way. I’m gonna go this way and we’re gonna have some adventures. I’ll see you tonight. Don’t forget to take a shower. I’m like, I got you. So I’m out gallivanting around on my bike, you know?

Hey, hey, high fiving people. Even with, you know, my non-dominant hand. I’m like, this is great. This guy’s rolling by on one of those one wheel devices. I’m like, that looks fun. And he goes, you wanna try it? I’m like, I don’t. He’s like, have you ever snowboarded? I said, yeah. And he goes, well then it’s the same thing.

Look where you’re going. I was like, okay. And so I got on, tried it, went that [00:10:00] way. He’s like, no, no, no. Like watch you got ba like, and so I did it for a while and I’m like, this is crazy. How do you, he goes, I’ve only had this for four days. I’m like, you’re doing great. He’s like, it just takes practice. You can do it.

I’m like, I’ve got other things. I’ve got somewhere to be in a little while. So I, um, ride my bike. I’m still going, and I see. This punk rock and roll band, setting up their equipment on top of a shipping container in the shipping container is a bar. Now, I don’t know if you know anything about Burning Man outside of like the pictures that in videos that you’ve seen, but there is no money there.

You don’t, there’s no bartering either. It’s everything is free and so like there’s a full bar. I’m like, okay, but there, the other thing that’s out there is. Uh, a halfpipe, a skateboard, halfpipe with skateboards everywhere. I’m like, okay. Um, [00:11:00] I’ve never been on a skateboard, but remember I’m sort of in love with the world.

The possibilities are endless. I can do anything. So I walk into the bar and the guy’s like, what do you want? You want some whiskey? And I was like, not right now. I want you to show me how to drop in. And he was like, I don’t know how to skate. Bullshit. Like he’s got tattoos, full sleeves, ears pierced, nose pierced, lip pierced, like Yeah, you do.

He’s like, never been on a skateboard before. I was like, okay. So I walk out, find a board, get on it,

drop, drop in the, the skateboard goes flying. I go flying and I’m like, okay. And it’s like, try it again. ’cause like. He who never tries, never succeeds. And so and so, I try it again and out he walks. He’s got a talk hand in his hand and he’s like, Hey, old man, what are you doing? I said, I’m either gonna be successful [00:12:00] or I’m gonna be injured.

And he goes, you know what I like about you? You set realistic goals.

And he said, I’m not gonna show you how to do it, but I will tell you that you have to like, let the board and the wheels sort of hang off the edge first, which I wasn’t doing. And I was like, oh, okay. And so I tried that and it was a little easier, but I still fucked it up and, and I tried it again and it was, I was a little more successful, but not, not fully.

And you know, I’m still falling, the board’s flying over that direction. And on the seventh try, I drop in and I hear, I’m like, oh yeah, I’ve reached my goal about that whiskey I set about that time. Pat walks up the steps. I’m like, Hey, please welcome to the stage Pat Williams, and up he walks. He doesn’t know anything about that.

You know [00:13:00] that, that story that I just told. He’s like, cheers. I’m. So I was like, this is twice be, be careful what you wish for. Be careful. Like I, I wish that I knew how to ride a skateboard and I wish for Pat to tell a story in Butte and obviously, you know, if you’ve ever heard him tell a story, he brought the house down.

He was amazing and I’m very grateful to him. And to you all for being here to share a night of true stories. Thank you so much. Stick around to hear Pat’s story about Bing Crosby in Butte after the break.

So he said Phil and I left our half full glasses there and went out and jumped in my sports car.

Wonderful night. Warm top down, and he said, we’re racing through the countryside.

That’s coming up. Stay with us. We’re trying to decide on the theme for the October 7th. Tell us something event if you’d like to weigh in on what that theme should [00:14:00] be, head over to tell us something. Dot org to cast your vote in the running are five potential themes, learning curve, wild and free.

Walk on the wild side. Confluence and no time to explain. Go to tell us something.org to cast your vote. We’re also looking for sponsors for the October 7th. Tell us something event. If you’d like to sponsor, tell us something, please email me, marc@tellussomething.org. That’s M-A-R-C at, tell us something.org.

Okay, let’s get to Pat’s story. Pat Williams shared this story at Tell Us Something in front of a live audience. On February 18th, 2014 at the Top Hat Lounge in Missoula, Montana, the theme that night was, what are you waiting for? Bing Crosby spends time in Butte, Montana to fish and get away from the spotlight fame brought to him in the 1940s and fifties.

He is misrecognized by a pedestrian on the street. Bing then [00:15:00] shares a story with Pat about Blue, the Bear in the Jungle Book, Phil Harris. And drinking whiskey.

It’s nice to see you. Oh, it’s nice to see all of you.

Um, some people are damn tough despite big problems, aren’t they? Yeah. Let’s hear it again.

Carol and I have been in, uh, Missoula now since I left the US Congress. We’ve been here 17 years. We absolutely love it. My home as well as Carol’s, uh, uh, initially was Butte, and, uh, you can go home again, and the two of us do it all the time. I thought tonight I’d tell you, uh, a couple of quick stories about.[00:16:00]

Of the many hundreds that happened to me in Butte. Um, this one is about a, uh, a famous entertainer who used to come to Butte, kind of incognito. He knew my family and he liked to come by. Um, unshaven with dark glasses before sunglasses were all the rage and a hat pulled down and collar up, and that was a Bing Crosby.

Uh, some of you younger, I assume know who Ben Crosby was. Ben grew up as a neighbor up here in Spokane, and in his early years he loved to fish in Montana. So after he became famous in the thirties, forties and fifties, he would occasionally come to Montana and he had a particular bent for Butte. He knew an uncle of mine [00:17:00] and so he became friends with our family.

So here’s two quick stories about Bing Crosby and Butte. Uh, all people that famous, uh, I assume get tired of being recognized. And when Bing came out here to fish and. It’d go to Butte. He, he simply didn’t want to be recognized, so he’d always have that heavy growth. And the glasses and the hat pulled down, the collar up and banging.

My mom and my dad and my uncle are walk. I was a little kid. This is in the late forties, I think. I was a little kid and we were walking down Park Street in Butte, which in those days was very busy, very loaded with people, pedestrians, and, uh, a woman. I started on by and then turned around and came back and stood right in front of us and looked at Bing with a lot of people going by and said, Hey, your, and she [00:18:00] stopped ’cause she couldn’t Exactly.

She said, your, um, your, and he took both of her hands. Because he knew she was about to shout Bing Crosby in a crowd. So he took both of her hands and pulled him, pulled her close, and he said, I’m Bing Crosby. And she pushed him away and said, no, that’s not it. Wait a minute, you are

now. I, uh, yeah. It was great fun. Now, another story that’s more appropriate for this particular. Crowd and that is that Bing was, uh, had a great friend named Phil Harris. Phil Harris was from the south. He was a singer. And for about two thirds of this crowd, you know Phil Harris as the voice. Of Blue. The Bear in the Jungle book, remember Blue?

Well, [00:19:00] blue Blue and his wonderful songs were the voice, uh, of Phil Harris and Bing told us this story after he had been in Scotland. He said, Phil and I went to Scotland. And he said, uh, I had bought a new car and he said he and I were tooling around in the afternoon and the evening and drinking a little bit, trying to be careful, but drinking a little bit.

And he said it got to be 10 or 11 o’clock. And we were in one of the pubs in northern uh, Scotland, and he said the, uh, the, the pub was closing. He said, I think it was 10 or 11 o’clock. And he said, Phil and I were just kind of getting going. And pretty disappointed that we were gonna have to leave this bar and the bars closed at whatever, 10 o’clock he said.

We said to the bartender, well, is there anywhere else we can get a drink? And the bartender said, well, about 45 minutes north. They stay opened until one. So he said, Phil and I left our half [00:20:00] full glasses there and went out and jumped in my sports car. Wonderful night, warm. Top down and he said, we’re racing through the countryside.

And he said, we get out into a kind of a rural area about, uh, 20 minutes out of that town. And he said, we see little Scottish distilleries way off in the distance, little low buildings windows, all lighted by the fires inside. Men carrying wood back and forth for the fires. He said, I said to Phil Harris, look at there, Phil.

They’re making it faster than you can drink it. And he said, Phil said, yeah, dad, but I got ’em working nights. Thank you.

Thanks, Pat. [00:21:00] Pat Williams was Montana’s longest serving member of the United States House and died on June 25th, 2025 in Missoula, Montana. The Butte native, who was Montana’s last Democrat elected to the house to date served nine terms from 1979 to 1997. Including two as the state’s at large.

Representative Williams was 87 years old. Pat believed in the power of storytelling to connect us as humans and was a huge fan of Tell Us something he is missed. To read a full tribute to Pat Williams had to tell us something.org. You can also listen to all of Pat’s stories that survived. You know, he told five stories.

Only four of them were recorded. You can listen to all of those stories at tellussomething.org. Just search Pat Williams. Thanks for [00:22:00] listening.