James Davenport grew up in Deer Lodge, MT, at a slower pace than his urban peers and without the surfeit of pop culture that informs their language. In his 1962 bestseller, Travels with Charlie, John Steinbeck observes that Montanans seem unaffected by television and the homogeneity overtaking other rural places:
"The calm of the mountains and the rolling grasslands had got into the inhabitants...It seemed to me that the towns were places to live rather than nervous hives. People had time to pause in their occupations to undertake the passing art of neighborliness."
(Broadcast: Reflections West, 8/19/14 & 8/20/14)