Pocatello Memories

While living in Pocatello, we took lots of day trips to visit various places nearby.  We went to Lava Hot Springs (Mom didn't know how to swim, but she wore a bright red swim suit and splashed around in the shallow end), Balancing Rock, Craters of the Moon, Twin Falls, Idaho Falls, Scout Mountain, Grand Targee, picnics by the creek, and probably more places that I just don't remember now.

I do remember seeing the water falls and climbing lots of stairs to get to the top of one of the falls.

Mom made sure we learned how to swim and signed us up for swimming lessons at Ross Park.  We carpooled with another family who had a daughter my age named Laura.  When Laura's mom drove, she would make the car dance to the music on the radio by slightly weaving back and forth or slightly applying the brakes to make the car "bounce" in time to the music.  It was a lot of fun and the swimming lessons were great too!

I remember playing hide-and-go-seek in the warm summer evenings, kick the can, red rover, and Truth or Dare during sleepovers in the back yard.  I remember catching lizards on hot summer days and Larry, Ron and Tom catching snakes.

We lived on a hill (1334 El Rancho Blvd) and Dad planted trees and strawberries just over the side of the back yard.  Tom had a bunny rabbit and a rooster in a hutch in the back yard (at separate times of course).  Across the street from us there was a vacant lot with a large billboard size sign.  I liked to climb the sign.

During the wintertime, we went sledding down the side of the hill behind our yard in what was kind of a valley.  One side was very steep and the other side not quite as steep.

I remember flying kites off the back yard over the back yard valley.  One time, I had a kite up so high that I tied it to a pole that formed the car port (we didn't have a garage) while I went inside to eat lunch.  When I was done with lunch, the kite was still high up in the sky.

Mom and Dad enjoyed music and we had a small record player that we could play our 78s on.  I remember listening to Christmas records, a record of Primary music, the Tijuana Brass, the carrot seed (see another post for a YouTube link to the carrot seed song), Snow White and others.

At the bottom of the hill we lived on, on the far side, there was a large canal with big trees growing next to it.  It was a cool place to go play when the summers got really hot.

We used to try to Trick-or-Treat the entire hill we lived on.  I believe Tom actually accomplished that one year.

There was a park on another side of the hill where we could go play.  One summer the city did crafts there.

Syringa was the name of the elementary school we attended.

We had Legos to play with and I liked to build houses with them.  For Christmas one year, I received a Sooper Gooper and Tom received a plastic Thing Maker.  They had metal pieces that we could cook our creations in.  Tom's created plastic spiders, etc., that we could then play with.  Mine created edible food in various shapes, although they were kind of rubbery and strange tasting.  One Christmas, I received a Feeley Mealey game where small plastic toy objects were placed inside a box, you reached in and tried to identify the items by touch.  Whoever had the most correct guesses would win.