Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

Terry Glase is the most courteous courtesy photographer.

Famous in the world of botany photography, Terry took that glorious picture of Priscilla on the front page of the Ledger last week several years ago while on autumn hike with a friend. Turns out that was just one of many mountain trail hikes that he has taken, and taken beautiful record of with his camera.

Packing his trusty Nikon DSLR pretty much wherever he goes, and he goes to a lot of mountain places around here, Terry has photographically catalogued most of the wildflowers growing in this area, and his fantastic pictures are available for viewing on the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center webpage. This Texas-based organization has an amazingly complete almanac of photos of North America flowers available on that site for viewing, and many of the pictures of flowers from around here are credited to our own Mr. Glase, of little old Plains, Montana.

In fact, you can search the site by photographer; if you do, don’t be surprised by the almost endless selections of photos you will be able to access when you enter Terry Glase’s name.

When reached by the Ledger to discuss his Priscilla photo, Terry told me of just some of the many adventures he has had in our local mountain wonderland – some also involving wolves, moose, alpine lakes, hidden mountain gems and other wonderful, wild things he has discovered during his myriad travels. And I returned the favor with a few tales of my own.

Terry said he also serves on the Plains Rural Fire Department when not spending time in his beloved mountains. He had retired from service from the RFD several years ago, but volunteered to return to active duty during the very large and very dangerous Sheep Gap wildfire west of Plains in 2017. He has been back with the fire department ever since, and does not speak of re-retiring from that job.

I am sure that Terry is highly valued by the rest of the firefighters in the Plains RFD; just like he is highly valued by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for his incredible photography ability; and just like he is valued by everyone who saw that amazing picture of Priscilla with the lookout stories in last week’s paper.

That picture captured everything needed to lead the reader into the story; the damaged lookout in the forefront, with the expansive view perfectly capturing its place in the western Montana world of mountain peaks, all highlighted by a brilliant blue sky punctuated with scattered wispy clouds.

Picture perfect if you ask me. Thanks for that picture Terry, for all those pictures on the Lady Bird Johnson site, for volunteering in your community, and for everything else you do.

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Imaginary players never turn you down…

When you are imagining something, say the playing of a sport, the other imaginary players can never turn you down. They have to play, after all, this is your make-believe world and they have no say in the matter.

Some of you who know me may not believe this, but I used to be quite the star in my own imaginary leagues when I was attempting to grow up in Thompson Falls so many years ago.

Although I never did succeed in growing up, I was quite the success in my imaginary leagues. I was like Walter Mitty on steroids.

During baseball season, I won the triple crown several seasons in a row – leading the league in batting average, runs batted in and, of course, home runs. And oh, yeah, I did a little pitching too, throwing a couple of perfect games and numerous no-hitters when I wasn’t blasting the ball out of the park with my trusty bat.

Can’t recall exactly what years it was, but I’m pretty sure I won a few Cy Young awards along the way with my make-believe pitching. I was like, unhittable in my own fantasy league.

During football season, I became the star quarterback who always kept his team in it right up to the end, and then found a way to win it in the last seconds. Or, when I was on defense, I would make the game-saving tackle or interception, always in heroic, triumphant fashion befitting a champion like myself.

When basketball season arrived, I pulled out all the stops, being the go-to guy when the games were on the line. I can’t really recall how many times I made the winning free throws with no time showing on the clock, or hit a long, difficult outside shot at the buzzer to pull out games.

It may not seem humanly possible but I accomplished all these sports heroics before I was even 12 years old. I truly should have gone down in the record books, if there is a place for such imaginary records.

Never one to brag about my accomplishments and not wanting to bring attention to myself, I would never tell anybody about what a star I really was in my own mind, but I have to admit I was pretty special to myself.

Now that the largely sports-less spring of 2020 has mostly passed away without a whimper, maybe this will make people feel a little better about not being able to play sports this year.

After all, all you really need to do is to look inside yourself like I did so many years ago.

Take my word for it, there are plenty of games to be won, and honors to be earned, in each and everyone’s own imagination. And inside your own head, you never have to lose.

There you have it, I am the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world, and if you don’t believe it step into my mind and I will prove it.

Okay, maybe having no sports is not that bad a deal; you certainly don’t want to get into my mind and find out what’s going on in there, I will tell you that.

Besides, in my mind, I will still win anyway, no matter what game we are playing and no matter how good you are, I will always be just a little better.

Imagination is a powerful thing all right, and nowhere more powerful than in my sports-addled brain. I am the champion of the world! Just ask me.