A Walk Down Memory Lane For My Children

This is a view of Malad from the air. The Samaria Mountain is in the background. Old Timers always said that when the mountain groaned or roared, it was time to plant your garden. I could never figure that one, until I took some German exchange students hiking there.

The mountain has a honeycomb of caves, and while hiking, you can see those that caved in over time. I had a small group of students who loved exploring those caves and told about how small some of the caves were. I told them about the cave-ins and even about the folk lore thing about the mountain roaring, but it didn't do any good. They still spent time crawling underground in those caves.

In April of 1907, there was massive flooding, and a dam broke, which sent water rushing toward the town. I couldn't believe these pictures when I saw them on the Malad site.

I only remember one flood in the 80's, and it was a bad one, but nothing happened like this. There was a lot of water in the valley, making it tough to feed cattle in that early spring, but the damage was not like in this picture from the early 20th century.

The funny part about these

old pictures is how difficult it is to recognize anything in the town, and I grew up in Malad and lived there until '87.

But when I grew up in Malad, the community was familiar with the large number of reservoirs that surrounded the area. That luxury didn't happen when a photographer took these early pictures of Main Street.

The picture above is a view of Ireland Bank at the original site. My regret is that Idaho communities didn't preserve the old buildings. Malad kept them, but they are in such a condition of disrepair, that I'm not all that sure that anyone can ever do anything to restore them.

Cles and Lydia went to school in this building, and the teachers were incredible. It was a great start for them. Cles finished the sixth grade, and Lydia had one more year of elementary school before beginning the experience at Bonneville North Junior High.

Kristin only knew this building when she went there with my Annie. There were times when we spent a lot of time getting classrooms ready. That's what you did in the days when Ann and I began teaching.

I did teacher seminars for a while, and it shocked me to hear young instructors brag about not spending extra time preparing materials or setting up their classroom.

This is the corner near the Malad Drive-In. At the left is the old American Legion Hall. It was here, where we spent Saturday nights dancing to the sounds of the 60's. The dances always went until midnight, and we did them all year long.

I quit going after high school graduation, but before then, it was something I never missed. I only wish the town had the businesses it once had. Everything began dying away in the late 70's and early 80's.