Last night I was looking through the 190+ pictures we took on vacation and I ran across these little gems of life in Idaho.

I haven’t been back to Idaho Falls since we moved in the mid 80′s, on our way to WY I insisted that we stop and visit the old Sugar Shack!  That’s what my mother always called this house, a Sugar Shack.  The whole neighborhood was built to accommodate the workers at the Sugar Beet Factory down the street.  The factory had long since closed when we moved in, and the house sat on the edge of town surrounded by farms (well mainly one really big farm owned by the Garns family).

I laughed to myself that the house STILL does not have a screen door.  You see the screen door in the below photo?  Well, I broke it.  I was running toward the house because I was TERRIFIED of a barking/running dog, I slammed my hand onto the screen as I reached for the handle and shattered the glass.  I don’t think my mom ever replaced it….and it looks like no one ever has.

This is the house back in the day, my sister and I getting ready for the first day of school (2nd grade for me).  Don’t you love my knee high tights with open toed sandals and my lopsided pig tails (i probably did them myself)?  Oh, and my lunch box had Cabbage Patch kids on the other side, I was nothing if not a child of the 80′s.

The school, Lincoln School, was right across the street (a rural highway) from our house.  I remember sometimes we would get foggy days when the fog was so thick I couldn’t even see the school across the street.  It was strange to see the school again…as a kid I remember it being a massive structure.  I was surprised as an adult to see that it was a rather plain and small simple building.  It is now being used as a “alternative high school”, and the playground has been removed.  I’m a sentimental person, so change is a bit sad for me.

My grandfather still owns the house and has been renting it out since the mid 80′s.  I remember my time in Idaho so pleasantly that I secretly harbor a desire to move back here- raze the sugar shack and build a nice house- the lot is large, long and narrow. But, the house is no longer on the edge of town- the big farm and irrigation ditch are long since gone.  New home subdivisions are built up on the farm land behind the house, shopping and other amenities are very close.  I’m sure the childhood I remember is no longer possible….and who knows if I could hack those hard winters?  My mom reminded me about the LONG drive way and how much “fun” she had shoveling it every day to get the car out…

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