The best of times, the worst of times (Jordan Montana) 

I played in Jordon Montana a number of times. It is, geographically, 90 miles north east of where I lived. There are no real towns between where I lived and Jordon, just a post office and a couple of small bars along the road. No one actually lives within sight of the road. I think the deer population is larger than the people population.

Let me explain it this way, Jordon is so remote that when you type it in to Google maps, Google takes you to a street (Jordon Ln.) in the town of Ennis which is 417 miၬes to the west. Jordon does have a web site though that lists the people population as 352 in the town and a county population of 1,230. A county livestock population of: Sheep 21,534, Cattle 50,779, Horses 1189, Buffalo 581 and Swine 144. If you would like to see a glimpse of the western life in Montana, Jordon would be the place to visit.

Please understand that I am not in any way making light of this area of our world. I lived there for most of my adult life and have no regrets. I just want you to know that life there is different than in large populated areas and cities. For instance, crime is almost nonexistent. The people who live, work, and play in this area of the world do it differently that people in large populated areas.

It was a hot summer night when we pulled into Jordan. It was an outside job, we were to set up and play on Main Street (street dance). It was the only street in town that was paved. That was only because it was also a state highway (secondary road). The rest of the town had well maintained gravel streets. Jordon is a small town by anyone’s standards. In “downtown” there was a bank, post office, barber shop, clothing store, several bars and city hall, most things you would find in a small town. Most of the Ag businesses were on the edge of town.

The job was the standard 5 hours, 9 PM to 2 AM. We had to take some of our country songs out but most of our Rock and Roll worked well here. We just needed some waltzes and 2 steps for the “old folks”. Most of the young cowboys wanted a little country, but mostly they wanted Rock and Roll.

Things went real well until about midnight. Now I have played in a lot of county bars and see a lot of fights (cowboys like to fight when they drink) but in almost all the time the band was except from the fights. After the fight was over they wanted to get back to drinking and dancing. I even witnessed a fight in Baker (you remember Baker (Part 11) ) where everyone in the bar were fighting, but the band. We stayed on the stage and watched. There must have been 50 people involved in the fight. Including two Highway Patrolmen who came in to try and stop it. At no time did I feel uncomfortable or threatened. When the fight was over we just went back to playing.

This was not the case in Jordon that night. Beer and alcohol was sold in the many bars on Main Street but could and was taken out on to the street where the band was playing. This was a pretty common practice throughout southeastern Montana at the time (a practice that has long ago been done away with).

As the night in Jordon progressed there seemed (at least to me) to be a tension in the air. It was building all night until around midnight small fight began breaking out, outside of the bars. They were small and short but added to the tension. Somewhere after midnight a young cowboy got sucker punched out side the door of one of the bar. He fell hard to the ground immediately and did not get up. Everyone around just ignored him. He was partially blocking the door to the bar. The people going in and out just stepped over him. He lay there the rest of the night. At 2 AM we packed up our equipment and left town. He was still laying there.

I was glad to get out of there and I never been back there since. I watch the news for the next few days but nothing was there about the incident, so I assume he survived the night.

The Duo