Category: All (-ish)

45RPM: “Misunderstood” by Wilco.

Where I match a song to a specific memory.

I did well in college, but had a terrible transition to full-fledged adulthood.  There were so many missteps in the years after college; bad job choices, bad “boy” (and “bad boy”) choices, bad substance intake choices, bad mental health in general.  This album, “Being There” hit me just right during that time, and this song probably best captures the sturm und drang of that period.  At the time, I worked for Whole Foods and was house-sitting for a coworker.  I could walk to his house from work, which was much better than the hour train ride it usually took me to get home.  One night after work, I had yet another crappy encounter with one of my not-good boy choices, walked home in the Cambridge darkness, ranting all the way, and blew in the house full of fury. Slamming this into the CD player helped, but not as much as moving across town–which I would do later that month–or moving across the country, which wouldn’t happen for a few years, but was on the horizon.

Moonshine Mini Mart

 The second of three things of no real value that I can’t let go of in my wallet is a card for the Moonshine Mini Market.  My family would stop here on the drive from Boise to Portland and back.  My parents would buy us scratch lottery tickets (at the time Oregon had scratch offs and Idaho didn’t) and a treat, usually a candy bar or an ice cream sandwich.  Then we would pop up the street to get gas and be on our way.  Unfortunately, the day came when we drove up for our mid-trip pick-me-up only to find that the Moonshine Mini Market was no more.
 
It was as good as the rest.
 
I think Keith Moon and I share the same customer service philosophy.
 
I drove past the site and parked so I could walk back and take a picture.  And what should I spy but the sign!  The road is one way, sending traffic in the opposite direction, so the new owners of the site must have just replaced the side of the sign that the cars would see, leaving this a nice time capsule for me to discover.
And thus ends the record of my wonderful vacation.

Julia Davis Park

I took a short walk along the Greenbelt in Julia Davis Park.  I wanted to see the river traffic.

But look!  There’s a designated smoking area in Julia Davis Park.  Apparently the guy I came across smoking outside of the designated smoking area was not aware of this/does not care.  I did not tell him.
 

There were a lot of people on the river.
 
I was hoping for some bridge jumpers, but this isn’t the best place to jump and so there were no takers.  But I wasn’t the only one seeing how many people were floating.
 
There are places to pull out of the river and hang for awhile.  One of them is right near the bridge I was standing on.
 
A certain brother of mine does not like all the new rules and regulations.
 
I wandered into the water and so did this friendly fella.  He wanted me to throw something, but I just chatted at him.
 
In the river!
 
It’s pretty shallow here.  If I were floating this would be a BU, FU part.  (Butts up, feet up)
 
It’s a very good way to spend the afternoon.
 
Here are the pictures I got from the bridge.  I’m partial to the individual tube, rather than the raft, as you get to actually be in the water.  I also noticed that while we used actual tire inner tubes back in the day, everyone I saw today has tubes manufactured for the purpose of floating.
 

More driving

I put 200 miles on the car in Boise alone.  Thanks to the fact I don’t have to do it every day, I do love to drive.

Mom’s house, post divorce.  I’m a fan of older, rather than newer houses, but I always liked the details on this house.  I’m not a fan of the new color though.  And mom’s landscaping was much better.
 

Simplot Hill.  This is where we went ice blocking.  I wonder if that is still done.  I just googled the term “ice blocking” and it seems it is not an activity exclusive to Boise, Idaho.  We always did it at night and I used to imagine J.R. Simplot listening to the laughter rolling up the hill to his home.
 
I drove up to Bogus Basin Ski Area, which I have not really visited before.  I’m not a winter sports person.  I was very surprised at how small and winding the road is.  It was a fun drive, but I don’t think I would want to do it in the winter.
 
The ski area in summer.
 
And more ski area in summer.
 
You are welcome, Bogus.
 
Overlooking town.
 
More views of Boise from afar.
 
Again, the landscape!
 
I love it.
 
This used to be a grocery store near Simplot’s house. It’s where we would buy our blocks of ice.
 
I’m pretty sure this is where my mother bought me the kelly green polyester sweater I had to wear for band concerts at West Junior High.  Just one block down the street was the place everyone got their letter jackets.
 

Chef’s Hut

Here it is!  My first place of employment.  I worked Saturday, trading off with another guy.  One week I would wash dishes, the next, wait tables.
 
It’s bigger now than it was in my time, where that ceiling beam is used to be the wall.  It’s also owned by a different person, Corky sold the place awhile back.  So it looks a bit different.
 
One of the new things is the fan in the door.  This is a good way to get air circulating to the kitchen.  Back in the day there was a refrigerator there.
 
Here’s the sign where the specials of the day used to be written. At the time, there was no website address on it.  One of the people who worked in the business park complex would come in regularly to do the lettering for the next round of specials.  He ate for free, lucky fellow.
 
I asked if I could stand behind the counter and they let me.
 

Drive to Lucky Peak and back.

This used to be East Junior High School, where I took oboe lessons for a time.  Don’t ask.  Now it’s a field.  At least it gets to be a field, unlike my former junior high site.  There’s a new East somewhere else.
 
Driving out Warm Springs to Lucky Peak.
 
Before I knew about the politics and consequences of hydroelectric dams, I was always in awe of this contrast:  lush water and parched landscape.  Boise left its mark on me in so many ways.
 
Iconic.
 
We spent a lot of time at Lucky Peak swimming.  The “sand” was horrible, nothing like sand at all, but the swimming was fabulous.  There used to be wooden rafts floating out “in the deep.”  Older kids–teenagers–would swim out there and frolic while I watched from the shallow water.  Later, I was a teenager frolicking out there.  You could dip under the raft and come up underneath, which was a great place to steal a kiss.
 
Green and brown.
 
Back in town, I was happy to see this restaurant was still there.  When my coworker from my first job quit, one of the waitresses we worked with took both of us there to celebrate and say goodbye.
 
Empire Lanes! (Bad picture, but it’s there, you just have squint.)  This is a bowling alley, but we went there to play pool, because they had tables that were 50 cents per game. We were horrible pool players, so a game could take up to an hour, making this a screaming deal.  There was also a jukebox and a greasy-bowling-alley food-type restaurant.
 
This used car lot is where we used to go rollerblading after dark.  The reason?  There were no rocks on this lot.