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Posted on: Dec 08, 2022 at 8:08 AM

If you have seen today's Billings Gazette, you will probably have read that Charles Nesbit died Monday. Many of us remember him as our English teacher in our senior year at Billings Senior High. I was kind of a snotty kid back then, and I don't think I was fully appreciative of how exceptional a teacher he was. I have since been a teacher myself, never nearly as good, and I have often wished I could go back and thank him for the many things I learned from him (and still remember) and the energy with which he assigned and read and commented on our writing. I was disappointed that his obituary contained none of the favorite poems he included in the obits he wrote for his family members in previous years (in particular, Emily Dickinson's "The bustle in a house/the morning after death"). So here's a poem that Mr. Nesbit himself wrote and shared with us in class back in 1967. (I still have a page of class notes from the day I copied the poem from the blackboard, I liked it so well.) Mr. Nesbit grew up on a farm near Poplar, and I always thought this captured some of what he must have felt as a child and adolescent who was maybe a little out of place in that remote, unforgiving landscape. Maybe some of the rest of you will remember it, too, as you remember him.

For My Final Portrait

Color the sky very shy, very shy
Except for one blushing cloud,
And make all the prairies nervous--
And perhaps the late wind loud.

Crumple my hands in my lap
Like tufts of frosted grass,
And let a blond submission
Over my features pass.

Obvious shadows to fill in
With swirls of vertigo!
After the darkness has settled
Color me white, white snow.

Posted on: Dec 31, 2022 at 11:28 AM

Happy New Year to all of you. Ihpe this New Year bring nothing but happiness to everyone

Happy Birthday, Pat! Best wishes for the new year, Lorna

Posted on: Nov 30, 2022 at 9:08 AM

Charlotte, Happy Birthday! It was good to see you at the reunion. Lorna

Posted on: Nov 17, 2022 at 9:06 PM

Karen, A very happy birthday to you! Keep on aging in reverse, Lorna

Posted on: Oct 18, 2022 at 10:09 PM

Mike, A belated birthday wish. My husband and I were in Killarney on the 12th. So, better late than never, an Irish recipe for longevity: "Leave the table hungry. Leave the bed sleepy. Leave the pub thirsty." Many more happy years to you.

Posted on: Sep 30, 2022 at 12:21 PM

Many thanks to those who organized the reunion. It was my first time back in Billings since before the pandemic, and the longest I have ever been away. So it was a special pleasure to be able to talk with so many former classmates and renew old memories of home.

Posted on: Sep 26, 2022 at 8:45 PM

Thanks for a great evening of fun and friendship. Again the renunion staff did an excellent job. And thanks to the Red Door staff to help make the evening great.