Huckleberries: Seal Beach to CDA: California dreamin'

When he graduated from Bonners Ferry High in 1979, Michael Boatman couldn’t wait to leave town.

He joined the Marines. He lived or worked in 46 states. He returned to Bonners Ferry for a three-year stint in the mid-1990s to manage the Kootenai Valley Times. And he was a VP for a health care group.

He’s now 61 and retired in one of the few unhurried places along the southern California coast: Seal Beach. It reminds him of Bonners Ferry in a way, although its population is 10 times larger, has an ocean beach, enjoys winter weather in the 70s and is part of Orange County.

At Seal Beach, like Bonners Ferry, you can find old-timers in restaurants chatting over coffee or burgers. They talk about current events, California politics and wanting to move to Idaho.

“They can only name two places in Idaho — Boise and Coeur d’Alene,” Michael told Huckleberries this week. “Most have never been there, not even for a visit. But they’re planning to move there.”

Michael knows starry-eyed Californians, like a retired cop neighbor, who have researched how much houses cost in Idaho. How much money they could bank if they sold their California home and bought one in Idaho. How they could work from home. And how conservative Idaho is.

“It’s all about politics,” Michael said. “Who moves to a place purely because of politics?”

Decades ago, Michael said, he would need 20 minutes to explain where North Idaho is. Now, he said, everyone knows about Coeur d’Alene, The Coeur d’Alene Resort and golf course, the lakes.

Michael and wife Gina snicker when they hear the Idaho talk. They wonder if the dreamers know they’re not wanted in Idaho. And how much colder the winters are. They like to point out that the median price of a home in Boise is approaching $545,000, which is 10 times the median income.

Michael has mellowed. He knows now that Bonners Ferry is special. But he’s happy with Seal Beach, too.

“When I graduated from high school,” Michael said, “I was convinced that there was a big, busy world out there, and I was missing it. The more things I do and the more places I go, the more I appreciate my life in North Idaho.”

Idaho dreamin’ on such a winter’s day.

Dog gone it

David Rawls and wife Hazel both former Coeur d’Alene school superintendents, may be wintering in Arizona. But they still have time for a good deed.

While hiking the Marcus Slide trail near Phoenix recently, they spotted a collarless pooch too weak to return to the trailhead 2 miles away. So they took “Marcus” home and then to the vet, where a microchip was found. The 14-year-old canine had gone missing for 14 days from a horse ranch miles away. His owner was in tears when she learned the pup was OK. So were David and Hazel. A sweet dog doesn’t take long to burrow its way into hearts.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner — The FBI should check its list/to see if he's a terrorist,/for he went out and took a stroll/and did not watch the Super Bowl — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“UnAmerican”).

• Bumpersnicker (on a red Honda parked on Dike Road near North Idaho College Wednesday) reads better without the small print: “YOU MATTER — I mean not to me, but to someone.”

• Speaking of Dike Road, the license plates on parked vehicles Wednesday were as diverse as Coeur d’Alene can muster. Ten cars in a span of 15 plates hailed from elsewhere: North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, California, Montana, Washington and four other Idaho counties (Latah, Bonner, Boundary and Bonneville). Seems the infighting among NIC trustees hasn’t chased off far-flung, tuition-paying customers.

• Has It Really Been 25 Years — since the late Duane Hagadone offered to plant a botanical garden on McEuen Field and help pay for a library on the northeast corner? On Jan. 31, 1997, The Press announced the proposed $5.7 million project, which included a donation of at least $2 million from Duane for the library. The plan got considerable ink but was dropped. Who knows? Maybe it inspired city and civic leaders to later build a downtown library that overlooks McEuen.

• A dog dubbed “Houdini” by Sgt. Paul Twidt of Kellogg PD’s Roll Call, escaped the outer pen of the pound twice, despite the 9-foot fence. The mutt was better at fleeing than hiding out. Houdini was caught a third time, and placed in a cell with reinforced roof, walls, no windows, no door. Yet, he fled again when a volunteer unknowingly moved him to the outer pen. If he escapes again, says Sgt. Twidt, he should run for office. He has the Kellogg police vote.

Parting Shot

Huckleberries has seen a “Banducci Bingo” card, which pokes fun at polarizing NIC Trustee Todd Banducci. Each square is labeled with a short description spoofing Banducci’s actions as board chairman. You can form a Bingo, for example, by checking these squares along the left side: “Reads aloud unconvincingly,” “Blames the liberals,” “I’m gonna say one thing,” “Meeting starts late,” and “Blocks private comment citing the agenda.” Banducci Bingo beats pulling your hair out over trustee drama.

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You can contact D.F. “Dave” Oliveria at dfo.cdapress.com.