In addition to meeting the characters of the Old West through stories, we ran into some modern day characters.<\/p>\n
We dropped in to see Chuch Cochrane in Custer, SD. Cochrane taught at Fargo South High in the 70’s and 80’s with Dad, retiring to Custer in 1990. While in Custer he owned and operated the Trading Post up until four or five years ago. He also had a business called French Creek Charlie where he took people out panning for gold.<\/p>\n
The second thing I noticed about Charlie’s log cabin home was all the stuff. It’s like a shrine to dead and historical things. There are no fewer than four stuffed animal heads (big horned sheep, deer, anteloope and even a jackalope) and guns mounted on the wall using deer hooves as holders.<\/p>\n
Charlie is 72, a smoker, a bit hard of hearing, has difficulty breathing and walks with a cane as a result of a knee replacement on May 2. He is full of stories and opinions (he was watching Fox News when we arrived) about local goings-on and can out talk even Dad.<\/p>\n
We listened for almost an hour until his (fourth) wife, Pam, returned from playing cards with her mother at the local nursing home. They play gin, and Pam’s mom usually wins, although Pam won that day. <\/p>\n
The six of us went for pie at The Purple Pie Place. While we ate our baked goods, Pam suggested local attractions, some of which we had already seen and some we took in after we left them.<\/p>\n
I don’t remember having Mr. Cochrane for a teacher but Barb does. On our way out of the pie place he asked Barb point blank if he was a good teacher. Without missing a beat she said, “Sure. You betcha”. Good answer!<\/p>\n
We said our goodbyes and explored Custer for an hour. Our first stop? The Trading Post. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In addition to meeting the characters of the Old West through stories, we ran into some modern day characters. We dropped in to see Chuch Cochrane in Custer, SD. Cochrane taught at Fargo South High in the 70’s and 80’s with Dad, retiring to Custer in 1990. While in Custer he owned and operated the Trading Post up until four<\/p>\n