As an elementary school student, I would have never listed Idaho.
No Idaho wouldn't be the bottom, but it would never occur in the top four either. Maybe it would be No. 34. Somewhere in the middle, but closer to the bottom, since it is so much like Utah and Wyoming, so why bother going there? You already know what you are getting, more or less.
When Tad and I graduated from college in December 1989, we had several job offers. Two were in Davis County, Utah. One was in Dallas, Texas. And the other two were in Houston, Texas. It wasn't that surprising, since we'd basically looked in Utah and Texas. Utah because it was convenient, and Texas because it seemed like the best place on earth to move to. Why I felt like that I don't know, but I did. And it turned out to be one the greatest things ever to live in Far Northwest Houston just outside the 1960 Loop. A place where you could nearly see the skyscrapers out your front windows, but still hear the cows out the back ones. We loved life in Houston for six years, but then it became time to move on.
Again I don't know why it was time to move on, it just was. So we started looking. We pinpointed Arizona as a great choice and went to visit as part of a trip to the temple sealing of one brother in the San Diego. Everybody flies from Houston to Phoenix, gets off the plane and drives five hours to San Diego right? Well we did over Labor Day weekend in 1995. It was 110 degrees outside that weekend in the sun, but it wasn't a 110 degrees in the shade. Comparing the DRY heat of Arizona to the WET heat of Houston we'd just left, definitely improved the standing of Arizona. (We don't need to talk about the absolutely perfect temperatures of San Diego. I knew we were not destined to move there.)
We picked up a paper in Phoenix, after visiting the Mesa temple and headed out to San Diego.
The trip was fun, and on our return to Houston we looked at all the opportunities for Jobs. There were two that seemed possible. One was with Intel in Chandler, Arizona. The other was with Micron in Boise, Idaho. Why Micron advertised in the Phoenix paper that fall, I don't know. I thought it was weird, but it was a job, and it was in the West, and we knew we were suppose to move back West. So Tad applied.
Out of those two applications came three job interviews. One was in Santa Clara, California with Intel. Now I think that Santa Clara is one of the most beautiful places on the earth, except for the people. THERE ARE TOO DANG MANY OF THEM THERE. Plus we'd lived in an apartment for six years now. I was pregnant with our first child. I did not want to live the rest of my life in an apartment or tiny rented house in California on an earthquake fault with all those people and their CARS!
So Tad tried to turn that offer down. They just kept trying to convince us to take it. Short of buying me a mansion, a Mercedes, and lifetime family pass to Disneyland plus groceries for life, they had no chance. But the manager from Pakistan, or whatever Middle Eastern country it was, wasn't getting that message.
Meanwhile Intel Chandler and Micron Boise were calling. They both wanted to fly Tad out for an interview. Chandler wanted to fly me too. Well yes we'd love to come and visit Arizona in November and tour houses with a realtor and drive a royal blue Mustang. (It was a great trip!) We had the job in Chandler. The real estate agent knew it. Everyone they flew out with a spouse had the job. I blame Manager Pakistan and God for us not getting that job. Manager Pakistan threw a tizzy fit and a wrench into the whole thing and ended the opportunity. I didn't have a clue what God's deal was.
At the same time Micron was still in the running. Now why we would ever want that job, I couldn't figure out. They put Tad through the worst interview he'd ever had. (He has been through worse ones since, btw.) They offered less money than we were making and less probably than we would have had in California even considering the cost differences. And No, they wouldn't be flying the spouse out to look for a place to live. They also wouldn't be covering the pregnancy, or just about anything else. They had a $1,000 stipend that we could use to fly me out (AT CHRISTMAS! Are you kidding me?!?!?) That same $1,000 would also cover the COBRA payments. There were other things that $1,000 was slated to cover according to them. In the end we'd need $5,000 to come close to covering everything they suggested using it for. (They did, fortunately only offer a full package move option. I did not have to pack boxes. It was a superb blessing.)
So I didn't get an all expenses trip to the Gem State to tour the town and pick a house. I'd been to Idaho probably 10 times in my life up to that point. I'd probably spent 1,000 hours in the state. Maybe. Thirty minutes of it had been at the Boise Airport. That was the sum total of my personal experience with anything west of Twin Falls. My in laws picked out our apartment, bless them. Paul, Barbara, and brother Steve drove up one day and picked up flyers about the various places and did their best to recommend a good one. Tad and I chose one of their top picks, and I called and RENTED an apartment sight unseen over the phone.
I wondered why we were coming to Idaho. Nothing against the place, but really? (It's boring.)
And cold too. I was not happy about the cold part.
Friends (Mont and Kristy McNeil) assured us that the Treasure Valley was the Banana Belt of Idaho. I rolled my eyes. I'd been to Burley. There is a reason they call it Brrrrrley. Boise is farther north, therefore colder. Temperate climate? Right.
We watched the men pack the apartment and haul it off. (Including the boxes labeled Reffs. Not to be mean to the packer who couldn't spell, but it made me smile to see his label written on a box containing two wreaths.) Once they left we spent one more night with our dear friends the Lindholms and then headed off to play in Big Bend National Park and make our way across Texas, New Mexico, up Arizona (where I wasn't getting to live!), and north through Utah. We spent a night with my grandma in Salt Lake. Another in Burley. (It was COLD!) And then around 10 am Saturday January 13th, we pulled into Boise and I saw the city for the first time.
Thus began our life in Boise. I was not exactly thrilled to be here. But then I also wasn't as lonely and homesick as I had been the first months in Houston either. I had no car. And I had no brain. (Pregnant remember?) I only knew how to get from the apartment to Albertson's (across the street), Micron, and my doctor's office since with only one car again, I never went anywhere else. (We left the broken down LeBaron in Houston at a Pick A Part.)
I watched the news and spent literally months baffled by the references to the Boise town square, that didn't seem to mean downtown Boise. What was it? (I claim pregnancy brain, but really what kind of newscast spends everyday talking about a shopping mall?)
One rainy night we ventured out of our neighborhood and across town to find the REAL shopping at The Boise Towne Square(!!!) It was pretty sad. Sears, JcPenney, Wards, Mervyn's, and The Bon. I was rather depressed. Dillards was my very favorite store in Houston. I hadn't expected a Lord & Taylors or Sak's, but really... Sigh.
Getting a little lost, (well I was anyway, Tad probably knew exactly where we were) we ended up in the parking lot of the Home Depot. I was comforted. (That is so sick and sad to write. Comforted by a Home Depot. Again pregnancy.)
So life moved on. I made friends. They were fabulous. We all moved. I'm still friends with some and send Christmas cards to all. We had a baby. (Rocked my world.) And bought a house. (Awesome. Until it got too small because we had four more babies.) We settled into the Treasure Valley and Boise, Idaho.
We even learned to say it right. Boy-see. (I don't really care, but it is important to the natives.)
And now here I am 16 years later. The McNeils were right. It is a Banana Belt. Not Houston or Phoenix, but pretty decent weather for a place so far north. Sometimes it snows. Rarely does it stick. (Except this January which was horrible, but I lived.) Mostly it is beautiful. The people are nice. Not the same kind of friendly as Texas Friendly, but nice solid people, who care about you and are there for you when you need them. The roads stink, but then it isn't California, so I will live.
Some days, I think that maybe I see why God sent us here.
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| Idaho. It's not so bad. (And there is more to it than potatoes.) |
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