Yesterday was a beautiful day in Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Washington...didn't even smell bad...That area is famous for being a stinky city due to the pulp mill situated on the Clearwater River...The Snake River and Clearwater come together in Lewiston, and eventually empty into the Columbia at Tri-Cities Washington...and then on to the Pacific Ocean...Lewiston is an inland seaport city, thanks to the locks on the Columbia...Logs first and wood products and grain (I believe) have been the main exports out of Lewiston...April, May and into June in Lewiston are green, lush, trees and shrubs blooming, then come the roses and the start of a very hot, dry summer...We avoid Lewiston in the summer.
OWAV:)...05/20/11
My first trip to Lewiston was in 1956...I was in eighth grade...Our new band teacher Mr. Boyd had primed us all winter for this trip...We were practicing music such as marches, and classical music so we would be ready for the competitions he had entered us in...Most of us had never heard classical music or entered in any kind of competition...Mr. Boyd expected the best out of his students and soon gained our respect...Two things at the top of his list were: One, you never came late to class and two, you never forgot and left your instrument at home...When he stepped onto the podium, everyone came to attention immediately...
Lewiston, a city of 5,000 people and over 200 miles from McCall, was the largest city that many of us had ever visited...The school board agreed to furnish a bus for transportation, and Mr. Boyd explained to the girls that Lewiston had a YWCA...(Young Woman's Christian Association) for us to spend the two nights...None of us had ever heard of a YWCA...I think the cost was $1.00 per night and they furnished an iron and ironing board..and had a bathroom on every floor... I have no idea where the boys stayed, unless it was in rooms at the "Lewis and Clark" hotel where Mr. Boyd could chaperon them...The girls didn't have a chaperon, but I think the YWCA had "hours" and "lights out", similar to college dorms...We were all too scared to even think of doing anything that might get us in trouble.
We needed money for meals, lodging and a few dollars to go shopping...I, of course worried about getting lost, and was reassured by our neighbors, that Lewiston had one main street and the YWCA was located there...All we had to remember was: to be dressed in black pants and freshly ironed white shirts and waiting for the bus at the appointed time...We must have resembled a bunch of quail, as Mr. Boyd "herded" us to the various music competitions held at the Lewiston High School...I don't remember him ever loosing his temper...Free time was spent shopping, we paraded up and down Lewiston's Main Street...trying to decide how to spend our meager spending money...two movie theaters were available and John Phillip Sousa's life story played every year at one or the other... Just for our benefit..."Stars and Stripes Forever" rang in our ears for months afterwards... To be continued...
I have a coffee date this morning...will be meeting Pat and her sisters, who are here for a visit...Should be fun and I plan to stay away from the triple shot of espresso!!!
I stayed up until 11pm last night killing the last of the "pigs" on Angry Birds and making sure I had found all of the golden eggs...Now I can get something done!!!OWAV:)
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