This early photo shows the Masonic Temple building in Deer Lodge, Montana. In later years it housed a drug store on the ground floor behind the corner pillar.

By Suzanne Lintz Ives

As a child, I’d definitely have been on Santa’s “naughty” list. I stole candy when I was little, and then went on to a larger crime that haunted me for 50 years.

First Steps

The author, Suzanne Lintz Ives

If your moral compass is spinning, I ask: Did you ever commit a minor childhood infraction, maybe telling a little fib or swiping a cookie? Crime is crime!

It began in Deer Lodge, Montana. We were scared at first.

Three of us bored seven-year-olds would innocently enter the store. Two of us would distract the clerk by dropping cans on the floor — and one of us would pocket bubble gum, penny suckers, and jawbreakers.

In three tries, we weren’t caught.

Believing we had refined our craft, we were ready for Main Street and Ben Franklin. We even named our gang, “The Egdol Reeds” (Deer Lodge spelled backward).

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