Hello Orofino, Debbie Flerchinger here Im really glad I found this post. Yea. Its like going on vacation to my home town. I was raised in Orofino Idaho out in what was then Swaynes Addition next to Chases Flats as you crossed the bridge from town, turned rt, drove through Riverside along the river and then went up into Swaynes addn. Back then there were no street names, no house #s. We used to tell mom we were going on the 2nd road or up on the 3rd rd. We lived on what would have been the 1st rd. We walked to the bus stop from our house. It seemed like forever because we walked down the rd that crossed over the 2 ponds and then up to just above where one turned on to Swaynes Addn. We lived above the drivein theatre back in the day. On a gd summers night we could stand in our driveway, or sit on the hood of dads rig, or as mom tells it, we would pull the door of the oven down in the kitchen to get high enough to see the movie. Naturally, we couldnt hear it, but who cared we could see it. I was probably 4or 5 yrs old when we moved out there. before then we had lived in an apt. or duplex up behind a court house or a dr. office. This would have been 1957. My yngst bro. and sis. were born there. in 58 and 59. We were proud Maniacs all of us but my yngst brother who graduated elsewhere but he was a full-blooded Idahoan. My dad first worked for a car dealer as a body man in the early years and then opened his own shop at the bottom of Canada Hill, Johns Auto body Shop. Mom was his bookkeeper while we went through the mid yrs of school, I guess. I was a 12 yr student of the Orofino schl system. Not real popular, but I look back now and it was an innocent time. I mean we still had a stoplight there in town. I went to school with the Duff girls, Melissa Green lived across the street from us. Went to school with John Rhodes, Corby Finke, Leslie Schilling, Connie Schaak, and all the kids that grqduated in 1973. We were the 1st class to graduate from the NEW High School. Of, course, to you yng whippersnappers, I suppose that place doesnt seem new. It has been a very long time sinceIve spent any time down there. My family is all gone from there now. It is so funny because I still dream sometimes of living in our house out there in Swaynes addn. up from what was called Barneys Supermarket. That was all virgin cowland with swamps down back. I can remember cows getting loose from somewhere and wandering around our house in the yard. Mom and dad had bought a really tiny house. It had 2 bedrms One for all 5 of us kids and 1 for the parents. In dads spare time which was greatly limited he managed to enlarge the house to a comfortablem fit for a family of 7 or so it seemed. Of course mom was a marvelous housekeeper and kept everything in order. The little house grew from 2 bdrms to 3. He enlarged existed rms, and just before they moved in 1977 from Orofino dad added on a beautiful family room I never got to see. Mom didnt get to enjoy the completed house because they sold it and moved, but in times past when we went down thereI like to drive through that area and see the house. The last time we drove through back in 2010 I think, I could hardly recognize the area. So many places had gone in around closer to our place than originally was. We had all together, an acre or so. I remember having to move rocks for flower beds and gardening. I swear the parents just had us move those things around the yards so it gave us something to do and how to learn work ethics, because we dared not say no or argue about the chore. We lived up river from the paper mill in Lewiston and on a good windy day we could smell that aroma for hrs.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 05:10:45 +0000
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