Visiting the Old 'hood

 

Once or twice a year, I like to take a drive around our old neighborhood.  

We lived on Great Northern Road, and my folks had land intersected by the road, which they sold at different times. 

The Upper Tibbs Place, as we called it, and formerly known as the Harney Dairy was bordered on the west by some open land and then Greenhorn Mountain. The entire family farm extended across the road and east to North Boyer. 

Bill and I lived in a little house on the upper part of the farm for the first three years of our marriage before moving to our home of 30 years, the old Ed Senft place about half a mile south of the Tibbs place. 

A drive through the old neighborhood always offers a tinge of sadness, knowing that absolutely no vestiges of our North Boyer childhood home, except the ground, remain.  

The little house on the hill where Bill and I lived is long gone, and during yesterday's trip, I was pretty amazed with the flurry of construction going on in what was the farm's north pasture.  

Houses have gone up and more are going up fast. 

I think maybe one or two of the trees I transplanted on the place more than 40 years ago are still standing, but they'll be gone soon. 

Our Love farm down the road has a chain across the driveway. Tall grass and weeds where I ran my aggressive/obsessive mowing and weed-eating program for many years indicate very little activity.

 Let's just say that place with its once lovely but deteriorating red barn would probably not win the tidy farm award in its present state. 

Still, it's nice once in a while to "go home again" because the neighborhood still has a few thriving remnants of the way I remember it and some friendly, familiar faces. 

In fact, I must say my friend Bob Gooby has given some of his barns a breath of new life with some impressive painting jobs. 

Goobyville, itself, just down Great Northern from where we lived and across the tracks, remains its nostalgic self with its willows, its red-brick house, a portion of the old poor farm and that record-setting black cottonwood tree along the roadside. 

My drive yesterday revealed that the whole area around where we once lived is alive with housing and airport development, along with what we still call Quest Aircraft Co. 

Besides driving up on a hillside overlooking our old farm and enjoying the views of Lake Pend Oreille, I also spent some time talking with Paul who was out walking with his canine sidekick Louie. 

Seems Louie, the rescue Border Collie, is one of six dogs owned by Paul and his family.  

A tidbit of neighborhood history came up when Paul told me he lived just up Gooby Road from where we stood, at the place with the red barn. 

"Oh, Neal Cochran's place!" I said.

"Yup, Neal's," he responded, adding that they keep working at restoring that magnificent barn. 

On my way home from the neighborhood, I decided to go up Woodland Drive, which we have called "Filter Plant Road and the "old Schweitzer Road."  

My dad spent countless hours night and day at that old white brick filter plant, which had huge green tanks inside to prepare Sandpoint's city water for human consumption. 

Later, a new plant replaced the old one on the Schweitzer Road. 

While driving past the filter house, I decided to turn in to the Mickinnick Trail parking lot and maybe go for a short hike. 

Turned out shorter than expected, since the trail continued to get icier with each new step. 

Still, it was nice to get out and do a little roaming in the field next to the road where we rode horses and bikes and even walked over the years, often stopping by Sand Creek. 

Lots of memories amidst all those new construction projects and developments---some visible, some not.

Happy Tuesday.  

 

"The Sandpoint Tree Committee’s Outstanding Trees of Sandpoint, Idaho booklet says of this black cottonwood, “This multistem giant measures 8 feet in diameter and reaches a height of 113 feet.” 

The black cottonwood’s sap was used by some Native American tribes as a glue or even for waterproofing, and today its flower buds are used in some perfume fragrances."

                                                           ---Hannah Combs

If any area readers who have been around for a long time have any stories associated with the church in the photo, Jesse Suitter would like to hear from you.

Jesse and his brother bought the building, which now sits in Coeur d'Alene but reportedly spent its younger years at Farragut Naval Air Station as a chapel. 

Jesse told me he spends time at Farragut and that association makes the building's history all the more enticing. 

So, if you have some trivia about the building to share, let me know and I'll connect you with Jesse. 

Thanks. 

~~~~~~~~~

Another Game Day as the West Coast Tournament wraps up tonight.  

In the championship round, the men play BYU at 6 p.m. PST on ESPN. 

Meanwhile, the Gonzaga women also play BYU women for the championship at 1 p.m. PST on ESPNU. 

Good luck to both ZAGS teams.