My name is Thad Montgomery, and this is my story. But it's also the story of a young girl named Ronnie Deering, and of all the kids at Wyatt High School. And it's the story of a highway that ran through the heart of our little rural community ... Cougar Highway.
About the Author: Ted Montei was born in 1955, the last of three children of Douglas and Hazel Montei. Raised on his parents' farm in rural Michigan, he learned the intricacies of country life and was no stranger to long days of hard work. With two older brothers helping out by manning tractor seats, Ted was more apt to be found at the end of a hoe handle; as such, he had a different perspective of the farm than his siblings. With an overly doting mother who tended to spoil her youngest child and let him skip out on the harder chores, Ted's love for the agricultural life waned as he grew to be a young man. But like his protagonist in "Cougar Highway," he came back to appreciate and love the farm in his later years. Ted says, "Being raised on a farm, especially a small farm like my father's, gave us an appreciation for life, a realization of how interconnected we are with everything in the natural world. Everything is important; the sky above us, the ground beneath our feet, and all the creatures that populate our little globe. It's ALL vital and it's ALL sacred." Ted's father never got further than tenth grade in school, but he was a wise man who knew the value of a good education. He labored hard on the farm so that he could afford to send his three boys on to college. All three graduated from Michigan State University, and knowing that his children had went on to college was a source of immense pride for him. At MSU Ted studied English, and it was there that he honed his writing skills. But life tends to keep a person busy ... a 33 year career of working for the Michigan Department of Mental Health, marrying Cindy Halladay in 1983, and the addition of a beautiful daughter sixteen years later, all kept Ted out of his writing garret for much too long. Finally, a few years after retiring from working for the State, Ted finally got the chance to tackle what he had always wanted to do, to write a novel. You are holding in your hands the end result of that endeavor ... "Cougar Highway."