PART 2: Bozeman Locals Share More Fantastic “How Long Have You Been Here” Gems

Getting old-school stories and memories from Bozeman locals who have been here to witness so much change is always cool. We shared the first set of "memory gems" and since we got SO MANY cool answers to begin with, we thought we'd share more. Army/Navy store, anyone? Here is PART TWO of the Bozeman blast from the past challenge.

There's no doubt that Bozeman has changed A LOT in recent years. But if you've been here for 20, 30, 40, or 60 years, your markers of Bozeman history are a blast to compare. Favorite old businesses, schools, (now) major roads that were simply 2 lane dirt paths - OVER 1,400 locals chimed in when we asked this question:

"Tell us how long you've lived in the Bozeman area without telling us how long you've lived in the Bozeman area."

(NOTE: There may be a few typos, misspellings, or grammatical errors in the answers below. They were copied and pasted exactly as they were typed as comments on the original question. No biggie!)

• "I do miss the spinning horse on Main Street.... at least they fixed it and put it back up...."
• "Cinnamon rolls at 4Bs, worked at Taco Johns all through high school, Walked to the babysitter on South Black ( age 10 and 7for my sister)with no concerns about stranger danger, Northwest was only big airline, Aubrey’s pizza near the public library. And Bridger Bowl season pass was less that $100 per year.
• "I remember in high school getting caught with beer in the McDonald's parking lot and some babe policeman just took it from us and let us on our way!"
• "There’s a creek that goes past the high school on W Main. We lived on Babcock and played in it all summer. There was not much town west of it."
• "Alley Cat bar under the L & C (Lewis and Clark Motel)"
• "Well, I’ll be - my grandparents owned that motel and worked there :-)"
• "Going to play pool at the corner pocket. On north 19th when it was on a dirt road"

• "As a kid Emerson was an elementary school, Wilson was the middle school and there was Bozeman Junior High and Bozeman Senior High."
• "Wood floor roller skating rink at Hot Springs!!"
• "My uncle and his family were the original owners of the Hot Springs and put the old bus up on the sign and ran the KOA there."
• "Fancy dinners at O’Brien’s and Union Hall"
• "the Cartwheel Supper Club at Four Corners!"
• "I remember thinking the Black Angus was super ritzy dining! And it was for Bozeman. My mom's boss would take us there and order a bottle of Cold Duck. As a 10yo I thought that was like Dom Perignon"
• "my mom would buy me chocolate cokes at Bungalow Drug when she had coffee there."
• "Quality Wholesale on 7th, Manny's, the John Deere dealership building was the west edge of town, became Gibson's. The old Forest Service building by the ponds west of the mall, cows with windows in the pasture across from the mall, pool tables by the hour up at the Sub, Army-Navy surplus store on Main St., mildew and all. Hipshots, Karl Marx pizza, unless you were an eater beyond compare, no way could you finish a whole PIckle Barrel cheesesteak sandwich..now it's easy. No line at the DMV, the polar bear at the Main Mall all dressed up for Christmas."

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• "My mother shopped at Ralph’s on north seventh."
• "Trout swimming in the indoor pond of the sporting good store. There were some big fish in there"
• "I still remember when they removed the train tracks that crossed S Wilson. Speaking of Wilson, how about the five way intersection of 3rd, Kagy and Wilson."
• "Only 6 stoplights on Main Street synchronized at 19 mph so you never had to stop the semi driving through town and they all flashed yellow after 10 pm. Then parking the semi on the street in front of JB's Big Boy, eating a late supper waiting for the weigh station at 4-Corners to close and heading to Ashton, Idaho with another load of grain."