Blaine County Blessings (Fathers)

Since Fathers’ Day is in June let’s focus on special memories of dads and grandfathers in June. I’ll start out with a story about a time when my dad, Russell Benson, covered my back. Mark and I started dating way back in high school. I rode to Chinook with him one day when he had a dentist appointment. He asked me to go to GTA and pick up a 50-pound bag of powdered calf milk and charge it to his dad, Jim Billmayer. I was a town kid and had never heard of GTA. Instead, I went to IGA and charged every box of powdered Carnation milk they had to Jim Billmayer. On the way home he asked if I’d gotten the milk. I told him I had but said it came in boxes instead of a bag. Oops.

He left the milk at our house in Harlem. The next day my dad took it back to Chinook. Or at least that’s what he said he did. I never asked him. He was a well-known cattle buyer in the area, and I can imagine how proud he would’ve been to tell people his daughter didn’t know the difference between calf milk and Carnation instant milk. I’d say there’s a good chance the milk went to the dump, and he went in and paid the bill. Either way, he covered my back. Thanks Dad. I hope there were other things I did that you were a little prouder of than that.