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Weed Draw: It’s difficult to bring kids back home

Weed Draw: It’s difficult to bring kids back home

December 30, 2014 by Geoffrey O'Gara 15 Comments

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Geoff O'Gara, Wyoming PBS
Geoff O’Gara

Last minute Christmas shopping, and a last stop by the National Outdoor Leadership School issue room. There’s Kevin McGowan, in his little office by the entry. Fireplug of a man with a white thatch. Seems like he’s been there as long as I’ve been in Lander, which is three decades now.

Browsing the racks: how about a green shirt of mysterious outdoor fabric, to remind my wandering son to get his butt back here to finish our climb up Fremont Peak, and, while you’re here, help me build a yurt platform out in Red Canyon?

It’s hard to bring them back, but you keep trying. My spouse Berthenia and I are not Wyoming natives, which means the only relatives populating our little mountain town are the ones we spawn. With all three of our “kids” now adults working far from Wyoming, we currently have no relatives nearby. Nick is half a world away, at a newspaper in Istanbul.

Sons can be difficult. They take risks. (Daughters do too.) They do it on a bike when they’re three years old, with our encouragement. They do it with their lives when they get a little older, deaf to our discouragements. Whitewater, drugs, mountain blizzards, war zones, skateboards, bad friends, bad luck – there are lots of ways.

Often they don’t hear our warnings because they tuned us out during The Wretched Years. Remember? When the silky cooing child became the zitty, snide teenager? The timing is usually terrible – teen madness strikes right when the parent’s job starts to suck, the spouse is getting bored, and you’re marooned in a little mountain town with no nearby wise aunt or grandparent to perform an intervention.

The kid will say, “My math teacher sucks” and I’ll say, “Don’t say sucks – and maybe if you studied –“ and he’ll say, “He’s the sucking soccer coach, dad, I NEVER get in,” and I’ll say, “Maybe if you practiced –“, and he’ll say, “F*ing shut up!” and kick a hole in the door while slamming it. Really, he could score some goals.

Unable to find an exorcist, I took his ungrateful, ungraceful 13-year-old carcass to the NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) Rocky Mountain branch to get some gear for a dreaded father-son fishing trip, sitting as far from each other as possible in the car. He slunked to the back of the issue room and looked at knives. He had a terrible frown. He didn’t smell good.

Kevin McGowan came out of that little office. A solid, rolly-polly guy with an earing, leaning into his walk with his arms hanging, his head down and bobbing a little. Grumpy looking face. We’re friends. But he went right by me. To Nick.

“Hey, how are you. You playing any music?”

Pretty soon they were deep in conversation. I stayed on the other side of the room, watching them in the mirror on a bicycle helmet, pretending to be interested in mysterious outdoor fabric. I saw Nick shrug and smile. I saw Kevin’s serious, inquiring face, tilted to look at him.

It went on for a good while. I felt anxious at first – would my awkward son say something stupid, or pretentious, or profane? No. That wasn’t what was bottled up in him – that was all in me. Then I felt a little jealous. I like talking to Kevin. He was finding Nick more interesting than me. He seemed to know how to reach him.

Finally, after we bought some socks and a camp stove and some mysterious outdoor fabric, we started out the door, and Kevin briefly put his hand on Nick’s shoulder. And I thought: That’s how I want to treat my son.

We got in the car. I moved a little closer, asked him, “How’s the music going?” Nick looked over at me, gave a little snort, and looked out the window.

In November, at the new Lander Community Center, they played a video of Joe McGowan, Kevin and Ann’s son, skateboarding out in the meadows and aspen groves and sagebrush in the mountains around Lander. He and his friends Willy Ratz and Henry Austin had to carry around boards and plywood sheets to these unlikely settings – it’s amazing how hard young people work to have fun (and, sometimes, take risks).

At one point in the video — loud loopy music on the soundtrack — Joe stands facing the camera in his wide-brimmed straw hat with his skateboard in hand. He raises the board up, smiles, and takes a big swing at a pitched cow pie, shattering it.

Lander-raised Joe McGowan appears in the short film Sage Skate. (click to enlarge)
Lander-raised Joe McGowan appears in the short film Sage Skate. (click to enlarge)

There was a long line in community center parking lot, a sunny November afternoon, and I noted how the people assembling – greeting, smiling, talking quietly – represented all the different decades I’ve lived in Lander. Some were from old Wind River ranch families. Some had come in the 1980s to take a NOLS course. Some came with the recent migration of rock-climbing nomads. Many were kids – young adults, really – who had spent their entire young lives in Lander.

We who moved here from more crowded parts of the country know that this is a genuinely small town of about 8,000, which perhaps doesn’t need such a big, high-ceilinged community center as this new one. But on that day, it didn’t seem big enough.

When we finally got inside the building, and the video of Joe and his friends started to play, people were standing up against the wall and out in the foyer – there were no chairs left, no empty space.

And few dry eyes.

The McGowan family: Pat, Ann, Kevin, and Joe. (Courtesy photo — click to enlarge)
The McGowan family: Pat, Ann, Kevin, and Joe, who died after being struck on Halloween night in Laramie. (Courtesy photo — click to enlarge)

Joe, son of Kevin and Ann McGowan, age 21, a student at the University of Wyoming, was trying to quiet a fracas on the street outside his house in Laramie, by inviting strangers into the party rather than have them make a disturbance outside, as I understand it. One of the strangers hit him, he fell and struck his head. He died.

Addressing such a big crowd would give most of us stage fright, but it was not hard for Joe’s relatives and friends to think of laughs and adventures and stories about the smiling kid with the skateboard. Even Ann and Kevin spoke, generous words from the unknowable underworld of grief, for a crowd of people who sat helplessly on the perimeter of that darkness, wanting to help, and needing help.

Weeks go by. It’s December. Kevin McGowan is back in his small office at the issue room, on the wall above him a colorful reminder of his son’s talent as an artist. I’m back at the sale rack looking for another green shirt of mysterious outdoor fabric.

A triptych of colorful mountains painted by Joe McGowan hangs in his father's office at NOLS. (Courtesy photo — click to enlarge)
A triptych of colorful mountains painted by Joe McGowan hangs in his father’s office at NOLS. McGowan died after being struck in the head on Halloween night in Laramie. (Courtesy photo — click to enlarge)

We talk a little bit. I want to recall to him that moment in the Issue Room where he showed me how to be a father. But where does that lead? We shake our heads in wonderment about all those people who gathered in the big room on the hill after Joe’s death. Much more than the local food workshops, or the Christmas music show — that was the moment the building was baptized a community center.

It doesn’t fix what was broken in the McGowan family and among his close friends. But it makes our choice – to live in a little mountain town, and grow families here – graspable. Our sons were born here. This is their hometown.

It’s hard to bring them back. Impossible to bring Joe McGowan back. But we keep trying.


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Filed Under: Featured, Guest Column, Guest Columns, This Week

Geoffrey O'Gara

About Geoffrey O'Gara

Geoffrey O’Gara is a writer and documentary producer based in Lander, Wyoming. He works for The Content Lab, LLC and serves on WyoFile's board of directors. His column, Weed Draw, is named for a remote vantage in Wyoming’s Red Canyon. He is the author of What You See in Clear Water: Indians, Whites, and a Battle Over Water in the American West (2002), and A Long Road Home, Journeys Through America’s Present in Search of America’s Past (1989), and several other books. Contact Geoff at [email protected]

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Emilie Ryan says

    February 23, 2020 at 10:01 pm

    Beautiful and true,

    • City: Loveland
    • State of Residence: Colorado
    Reply
  2. Anonymous says

    January 16, 2015 at 7:19 pm

    Hi Geoff . Was lucky enough to have your article forwarded to me by Anne and Kevin. I am Kevin’s sister. Your article is a fine tribute to the Lander community . The short time that our family visited the weekend of Joe’s memorial was a powerful experience. We left knowing that the Lander community would wrap their arms around the McGowan family. Thanks for continuing to watch over them.

    • State of Residence: Pennsylvania
    Reply
  3. Frank Del Real says

    January 3, 2015 at 9:58 am

    Very well Done Geoff. Extreme events tend to bring communities closer together. After hearing the news of Joe it prompted me to call my own (and Lander’s) son Max not only because of our connection to Joe and his family but instinctually as well. Having not lived in Lander for several years now I remain attached to it and it’s people.

    Frank Del Real
    Casper

      Reply
    • Steff Kessler says

      January 3, 2015 at 7:12 am

      Thank you Geoff, for articulating what is in our hearts and our community. Beautiful, all of it.

      Steff Kessler
      Lander

        Reply
      • Molly Doran says

        January 2, 2015 at 11:17 pm

        Geoff, I was very moved by your story. It was like being in the Issue Room watching Kevin. It is hard to raise a son and worlds harder to lose one. I am so glad that Lander is where this special family calls home.

        Molly Doran
        Lander

          Reply
        • Molly Doran says

          January 2, 2015 at 11:17 pm

          Geoff, I was very moved by your story. It was like being in the Issue Room watching Kevin. It is hard to raise a son and worlds harder to lose one. I am so glad that Lander is where this special family calls home.

          Molly Doran
          Lander

            Reply
          • Eric Concannon says

            January 2, 2015 at 9:13 pm

            Good stuff, Geoff. Thanks for this. Also, great shot of the Little Popo Agie down by Red Canyon.

            Eric Concannon
            Lander

              Reply
            • john gans says

              January 2, 2015 at 8:33 pm

              Thanks so much Geoff. This is capturing of so much of our reality……..

              John Gans
              Lander

                Reply
              • karen matson says

                January 2, 2015 at 7:07 pm

                Thank you, Geoff

                  Reply
                • Anne Austin says

                  January 2, 2015 at 6:25 pm

                  This is so beautifully written and captures so much about what it’s like to move to Lander and live here–getting to know and love the community as you work, play, participate, and (for some) raise a family. We miss Joe. Thank you, Geoff.

                  Anne Austin
                  Lander

                    Reply
                  • Joe Austin says

                    January 2, 2015 at 6:20 pm

                    Tight throat and tears in my eyes as I read it with Henry. Beautiful piece Geoff. Thank you.

                    Joe Austin
                    Lander

                      Reply
                    • Bob Clabby says

                      December 30, 2014 at 4:35 pm

                      Reading your words and looking out the window at snow and sagebrush. Reminds me to appreciate the time we have with the ones we love.

                      Bob Clabby
                      Former Lander resident, now in Pendleton, Oregon.

                        Reply
                      • MJ Clark says

                        December 30, 2014 at 1:14 pm

                        Nailed it.

                        MJ Clark
                        Lander

                          Reply
                        • Julie Lefevre says

                          December 30, 2014 at 6:45 am

                          Yes to all of it, from raising sons, both surly and sweet, to the reasons we live here. Thanks for another home run, Geoff.

                          Julie Lefevre
                          Lander

                            Reply
                          • Julie Lefevre says

                            December 30, 2014 at 6:45 am

                            Yes to all of it, from raising sons, both surly and sweet, to the reasons we live here. Thanks for another home run, Geoff.

                              Reply

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