A walk down memory lane in old haunts
This past week, my sisters and I experienced joy and sorrow with a wedding, a funeral and a baptism. Family was at the forefront, with introspection worn like a familiar patchwork shawl. On Monday I was scrambling like we all do to catch up with life after taking a few days of putting everything on the back burner.
Midday I was in Coeur d’Alene and decided to give myself a half hour or so to soak in the beauty of the season. I drove through Forest Cemetery to say hello to my father and down Government Way through the canopy of autumn splendor. My favorite scenic fall street, Foster Avenue, didn’t disappoint. I made my way to Ninth and Sherman where, although our old house no longer stands, it will always feel like home to me.
Parking the car, I walked down leaf-covered Lakeside Avenue and was transported back in time, about 50 years back, to a time when after dinner I’d bundle up and walk to the Coeur d’Alene Library on Seventh and Lakeside to do my homework. The sound of the leaves under my feet, the crisp air and stunning colors of the trees and shrubbery were exactly as they were when I was a teenager.
In the 1960s it was wonderful to live downtown. Saturdays spent shopping at Woolworth’s with girlfriends, a warm butterhorn at the Brunswick Cafe, maybe meeting up at Playland Pier and cruising Sherman Avenue or sitting on our front porch watching people cruise Sherman Avenue.
Our home was a grand three-story turn of the century house on a half a city block with a wrap-around porch, 26 rooms, six bedrooms and antiques in every room. It was like living in a museum without velvet ropes preventing you from touching things. It was a most perfect place to have teenage slumber parties that could include a couple dozen girlfriends.
I remember that we had a number of things happen through the years that made us believe former long-departed occupants of the house might still be in residence. In the kitchen there was a box with a bell and arrows pointing to different rooms on all three floors.
In those rooms were buzzers that in the olden days the people of the house would use to summon the staff. Under the dining room carpet at the head of the table was a buzzer to ring for the next course to be served.
There were buzzers in the bathrooms and bedrooms and living room and parlor. It wasn’t uncommon for the entire family to be sitting at the dining room table or kitchen table and have the buzzer from another room on another floor sound.
It was at first kind of unsettling but we became accustomed to the unexplained or a whoosh of cold air or a fleeting wispy glimpse of a woman in white on the landing of the grand staircase.
The basement was a place I rarely ventured, and not just because that’s where the washer and dryer were located. It was damp and dank and no small amount spooky. The carriage house was one of my favorite places, the sense of the horses and tack and groomsmen who once occupied it was strong.
So in 2016 for a brief moment in time I was able to revisit my youth there on Ninth and Sherman where I’m also quite sure that those long departed residents of the old house still visit, too.
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Highlights: the Post Falls Lions Haunted House is open every night through Halloween at Fourth and Post, at 7 p.m.
Tonight at NIC, Special Needs Basketball Tournament with games at 5:45 p.m. and 7 p.m. Free admission.
Thursday is the Day of the Dead Fiesta celebrating ancestry and artistry to benefit Emerge Community Arts program. 6-10 p.m. at The Cellar, 317 Sherman Avenue.
Friday Post Falls Police Department free movie night at Post Falls Middle School, 7 p.m. showing of Goosebumps and American Legion Post 143 Halloween Costume Party with pot luck, 6 p.m., 1138 E. Poleline Ave.
On Saturday, Fall Fest and Apple Palooza in downtown Coeur d’Alene with the Kootenai County Farmer’s Market, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.; Sons of Norway Heritage Fair and Salmon Dinner, 2 p.m. - 6 p.m. at the Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center; and the North Idaho Life Masquerade Ball at the Greyhound Park, 4 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.
Halloween on Monday is CitiFall Festival at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds from 5:30-8:30 p.m., hosted by Heart of the City Church, free event for the family.
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Happy birthday today to Gail McGaughey, Scott Peterson, Wanda Brust, Linda Jones and Brock Prince.
Another trip around the sun will be marked tomorrow by Barb Smalley (60!), Cade Coffey (20!), Anthony Beckstead (40!), David Cole, Jen Butler, Deirdre Eldredge, Deeann Zahn and Aidyn Dugger.
Fabulous Friday birthdays with Terri Gervais, Laura McNeil, Jenni Gibson, Jill Swoboda, Jonathan Mueller, Tracie Olin Smith, Kathleen Clancy, Bernadette Oaks, Heather Montee, Dale Fitch, Jamie Oliver and Ashley Gerzina.
Sandy Patano (60!), Jerry Baltzell, Kara McCollum, Bill Guy, Amanda Krier, Mary Ransdell, Dave Clark and Shawn Duncan are celebrating on Saturday.
On 10/30 wish a happy birthday to Rainey Coffin, Lori Dahlke, John Kelly, Lori Jurado, Vivian Stadley, Brad Oliver, Kay Mills and Derek McGee.
Halloween birthdays with more treats than tricks for Kathy Prosser, RaeAnne Capaul, Krysta Huft, Amber Copeland, Tom Hasslinger, Rob Moser, Jabet Wheeler, Tyler Engelbrecht, Kevin Grady, Linda Haughton, Jaks Fowler and Susan Johnson.
On the first day of November Randy Martens, Bernice Dymek and Pam Jank will put on their party hats.
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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.