What’s the Dumbest Question You’ve Been Asked about Montana?

I took a trip down memory lane recently, and it sparked something, making me remember some of the strangest questions I've been asked by out-of-staters as a Montanan.

Let's travel back in time to the mid-90s.  It was the time of dial-up internet.

I was in elementary school at the time.  My mom, who was a teacher, somehow found out about this organization that set up chat rooms between students at schools across the country.  That's nothing nowadays, but back then, it was a big deal.  (Just wait until I get around to telling you about doing COVID-style remote learning in the days of dial-up.  It's just as boring.)

Anyway, I was matched up with a kid on the East Coast, in I want to say New York City.  (Give me a break, it's been 30-ish years.)

So we get going, exchanging basic stuff like where we live, because we both went into this blind.  As soon as I said I lived in Montana, I was asked the obvious question:

Do you live on a farm?

I answered "Yes", because I did.

In return, I learned that the other kid lived in the ghetto, a word that I, a kid living in Eastern Montana, had never heard before at that time in my life and was half-convinced was made up.

Other questions soon followed, the now-stereotypical ones of "Do you ride a horse to school?" and "Do you have indoor plumbing yet?".

The first one, I saw coming even back then, but the second really messed with me.  It was my first encounter with the thought, "People really think that's how things are here?".  I mean, really, you think we have Internet access but not indoor plumbing?!

So to head off questions from any out-of-staters reading this, yes, students in smaller towns do on occasion ride horses to school out of necessity.  It also happens as a fun way to wrap up a school year and is something of a traditional senior prank in these parts.

So to all you Montanans reading this, now it's your turn to share the dumbest or weirdest question you've ever been asked about living in Montana.