Pony Holiday Bazaar a hit

The Pony Senior Center welcomed a steady crowd on a chilly Saturday, Nov. 23, to the annual Holiday Bazaar, where friends, family and one visitor from Missoula cried out, “Are those the famous maple bars?”

Deanie Jackson, a former teacher from Harrison who lives in Norris, is the queen of the maple bar, and the sweet treats were part of the draw to this seasonal event in the heart of Pony. The Senior Center sits next to the Pony Bar, and visitors from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. gave Pony a pre-holiday pulse with shoppers looking for unique hand-made crafts, books by local authors, leather goods, felt hats and knitted scarves. 

But there were no wreaths made with pine bows because the 4-H kids didn’t join in the fun this year. 

Shirley “Head of the Bazaar” Gandenberger stepped in with alternative wreaths made of wire and yarn, explaining, “Those were a new adventure for me.”

Gandenberger, who lives in a renovated miner’s shack in Pony, said she’s been helping with the bazaar for about 10 years. 

“There was a gal trying to do one down in Harrison, and it just didn't work out. She was a member up here at the Senior Center and we said, ‘Sure, we'll do it.’”

“It's just a community get-together more than anything,” continued Gandenberger. “See the crafts and stuff that people do from all around. We have some from Ennis, McAllister, Pony, Harrison. It's mostly hand-crafted. I quilt, I do other sewing, I cook.”

Next to Gandenberger’s table was Janet Muirhead Hill, who runs Raven Publishing in Norris. She’s best known for her Miranda and Starlight series about a lonely girl and a young black stallion. 

She is also the winner of the 2024 High Plains Book Award for Young Adult Fiction. Her work “A Twist In Time” is about two girls who explore the same caverns on their thirteenth birthday. Madison Clark is an only child of rich New Yorkers who enters the Lewis and Clark Caverns on July 17, 2019. Emily Sorenson, one of nine children of struggling Montana ranchers entered on July 17, 1919. 

“Amidst a burst of light and a thunderous roar, an electrifying jolt shakes them to the core. As they recover, they find themselves lost in time. Madison must cope with life in the early 20th century, while Emily must adapt to the astonishingly fast and furious 21st, each wondering how they can ever get back to their own time,” explains the Raven Publishing website. 

Muirhead Hill expanded her bazaar offerings from one table to two, as other authors became more popular. 

Marcia Melton, who splits time between Gallatin Canyon and Tempe, Arizona, “Writes historical novels for middle grades. She started with one called ‘Boarding House.’ It was about Butte and Phillipsburg in like 1919,” explained Muirhead Hill, “And then she wrote the Joe Henry books, and this is her third Joe Henry book, ‘Joe Henry’s Return.’ This is just Montana history wrapped in a story about kids.” 

Hearing and sharing stories are part of the appeal at the Pony Holiday Bazaar. 

Marilyn Pattee showed off a lovely knitted scarf with rust and beige stripes. But then when you hold it the right way, large-domed, big-eyed alien heads appear. 

“These are the fun ones,” said Pattee. “They just look kind of strange until you look at them on the side.” 

Pattee said she works as a substitute teacher at the Harrison School and she used the alien scarf as a prop, explaining to her math students that you need math every day to do all kinds of things. 

“They were saying, ‘We hate math, we hate math,’” remembered Pattee. “And I was saying, ‘This is a great example of how you use math all the time. They said, ‘That’s so cool. Maybe math isn’t so bad.’” 

The other perk of the Pony Holiday Bazaar are the bizarre creations of Debra Jacobson, who shared anecdotes about growing up in Norris and Harrison, back in the 1950s when ranchers used to load their cattle on trains headed for Minneapolis. 

“My dad was the depot agent in Norris. So I was born and raised there,” explained Jacobson, somehow connecting the topic of rattlesnakes to the famed newsbroadcaster Chet Huntley. Turns out, Jacobson’s father “bumped” Huntley’s father out of the position of depot agent in Norris, and the Huntley family had to move to Whitehall. 

Jacobson said, “Most kids go out the door and Mom says, ‘Watch for traffic.’ And Mom said, ‘Watch for snakes.’ We killed rattlesnakes once or twice a day. We walked around with a shovel.”

That explains the use of rattlesnake rattles in Jacobson’s collage art, which combines old jewelry, cast off tools and animal parts. 

“It’s just weird stuff,” shrugged Jacobson, pointing to a piece that might work great in an eclectically designed bathroom or office.  

“It's not a deer skull. It's a vertebrate off of a deer. I got rattlesnake rattles on it and buffalo teeth. Deer buttons. And then I take some old jewelry,” offered Jacobson, while more browsing shoppers poured in and more maple bars disappeared. 

Outside, a winter storm was brewing up on Hollowtop Mountain, and those at the bazaar were left with lots of cozy options for a wintery day. The kitchen at the Senior Center served chili. Pattee—whose company is called “Noggin Warmers & Stuff”—offered hats and scarves. And Muirhead Hill’s pop-up bookstore was stacked with locally inspired stories, perfect for curling up with under a handmade quilt.