Rebecca: There's one that especially stands out to me, but it's not my experience, it's my parents' experience 'cause my parents were very, very involved.  And you know, they would have coffee and cookies, and in the old days they would just set it up in the living room at the cabin. I've got pictures of my mom pouring big pots of coffee into little pots of coffee, so it can [be] serve[d]. But  in 1951, my dad was there 'cause he was always there helping, and he must have started doing it as soon as he got back from the war in the forties.  You know, helping every year.

And my mom, who was a draftsman for one of the oil companies, was working with Jean, Neil's daughter, and they'd become really good friends. And so Jean brought my mom up for Midsummer's Eve. But it had been raining. Really bad rain. Big mud, big mud puddles.  And Jean's car got stuck in a mud puddle. And my dad came along. 

You have to understand that when people do the bonfire, they pick up a hand of red dirt, a handful of red dirt, and they throw it in the bonfire and they make a wish. One person each year, one person only. Gets their wish.  My dad had wished for a wife. He  had been turned down and lost opportunities a couple times in that timeframe, and he was rather, rather desperate. He was twenty eight. Aged, aged. My mom was twenty seven – aged. But dad got 'em out and my parents got married a week later.  

Misty: A week? 

Rebecca:  A week later. The families had kind of known each other because they were families that were native to Casper, you know, and had gone to the same high school. And my dad's younger sister was a friend of my mom's. So a week later. 

Misty: The miracle of the mud puddle. 

Rebecca: That was in June of 51, and I was born in August of 52. I mean, so in a way it's my story because that's how I got here. 

Misty: Origin, mud puddle, huh? 

Rebecca: Well, or at least the ability to get someone out of a mud puddle. 

Misty: Or a wish! 

Everyone: A wish. A wish. A wish. A wish.

Geoffery Hunt:  A wish on the Butte. 

Nancy: It's beautiful.

Note: The transcript above has been condensed from its original audio recording to improve the flow and readability of the story.