my town

I live in a small town in the lower left corner of Idaho.

I was born here, which I guess is BioDad's fault.

Were it not for a lot of federal money a hundred years ago, we would still be in the desert. But thanks to that investment, we live in a very fertile farm area, though in the last decades it seems we have built a LOT of very ticky tacky houses.

When I was a kid here there were 8 or 9000 people. Downtown bustled. Saturday night people came to town to buy clothes, food and cars.

Mom bought a lot on the edge of town after my BioDad was killed. She had a tiny house built, but after she married stepdad, he built a larger house on the corner.

Now the people who count say we have 30,000 people living here, but that was before the foreclosure pandemic. Downtown is dead, except for a dozen law offices and an insurance company or two. Even the banks have moved out.

Business has moved to other locations, tearing up some real good farm land in the process.

The house I grew up in was a couple of blocks from the small college in our town. It is one of the oldest colleges in the state. Not big, about a thousand students, but a very decent little college. The two richest families in the state have poured a lot of money into the school through the years, and the buildings show it.

Tonight we went to the college to attend a concert. In spite of the fact that they have a fair number of very good events, we have not attended many.

Tonight we learned that if you don’t mind the back seats (and the concert hall is actually quite small), the price is not too bad, so we will go back again.

It is so easy to get busy and miss out on the really good, affordable experiences that are close and affordable.

Another change I have to make.