BOOTSTRAP: Place as a Memorable Character

The Diamond S Ranchotel is more than a place to me. It’s a character in BOOTSTRAP. Surrounded by creaky floors, dusty carpets, and aged wood paneling, I learned to navigate adult challenges that, up until I was sixteen, were unbeknownst to me.

Located three and a half miles south of Boulder, Montana, the Victorian ala mission-inspired architecture once attracted politicians, wealthy businessmen, and celebrities to its natural hot springs. The three-story building was built, expanded, and renovated in the early 1900s. During my time, 1975-6, the Diamond S was mostly a place for teenagers to hangout alongside transients and budget-minded health seekers. My first experience waitressing was in the hotel’s grand dining room.

It was a Saturday night in the winter of 1975, almost two years after my mother had died from three kinds of cancer. My father had died seven years before. As an orphan nearing high school graduation, it’s fair to say that I was on borrowed time to get a life plan together.

The menu was all-you-can-eat prime rib buffet. My assigned tasks were simple. Fill the water glasses, direct people to the buffet line, bus the tables. But some customers wanted adult beverages, others wanted cigarettes, and still others asked me on a date—for after work.

I knew immediately that a life of service wasn’t for me. But I had six months left of high school and Boulder, Montana didn’t have many other jobs except maybe a cleaning lady at the Montana State School for the Mentally Ill. After moving in with a friend and her family when my mother died, I reckoned I had just the one option, grin and bear it until graduation. So, I learned to prepare appetizer trays, refer requests for adult beverages and smokes to my boss, and smile and walk away when someone hissed an inappropriate sexual remark.

I had and still have a fondness for the Diamond S. While working there as an almost adult, I realized that being a wait person was not for me. Oh, I loved the tips and the adrenaline rush during peak hours and the feeling of an honest day’s work at the end. But there was one core aspect of the job that repelled me.

I hated to wait on people.

Despising my work provided relentless inspiration to find my heart’s desire or at least make one up. In my somewhat naïve brain, I imagined this basic two-step plan, learn a valuable skill that people would pay for, and get a job that paid more than minimum wage for knowing it. Candidly, it was more of a reaction than a plan.

The Diamond S, now called Boulder Hot Springs, was a mentor in my teenage story. The experience showed me the hardships with the path that I’d been thrown into since my parents died. It encouraged me to seek my own way. I still had many wrong turns to take and false starts to jump but, knowing what I didn’t want was the first step toward finding what I desired.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but the Diamond S was my diamond-in-the-rough.

One last word. Respect. Respect for anyone who finds joy in serving others.