CDA: Ode to beloved town

Coeur d’Alene, where have you gone?

I seemed to have lost my childhood town, to a way of life I’ve never known.

Our small hometown mentally has been replaced by self-centeredness, bitterness and rude behavior.

My grandparents could send us kids out to play until the bell rang. The streets of Sherman infected my memory of warm summer days, ice cream running down my chin, the sun in my smile.

My children will never get to experience my childhood. I don’t know these new people. Hell, I don’t even know the old people any more either. I can’t trust my children will be safe playing on their own.

The worst part…

Our people, our families, are no longer welcome. We are getting pushed out by well off out-of-staters who can afford all the new developments that are way out of our budget. Who can afford to buy all the old homes, rich in history around us, just to tear them down to the ground and build a bigger but not better home?

I feel bad for you. It’s not all your fault I suppose. You never got the chance to get to know or experience the “old Coeur d’Alene.” You never got the chance to get to know all the families here. You never got the chance to come to our house for the neighborhood Thanksgiving crepe breakfast.

Never got the chance? Or didn’t even try? Maybe if you tried to incorporate into our way of life and our community, you would see our true beauty instead of just the value of our land.

Everyone travels to Coeur d’Alene from all over the world for its physical appearance, but they don’t understand the true beauty of our town. Or at least what used to be the true beauty. The root of our city is the people who made it that way. It used to warm our hearts. Now it just makes us cry for the old days.

I want my town back. I want my people back. Is that too much to ask?

SKYLA MORRIS

A True Coeur d’Alene Local