Small Town Has a Peice of my Heart!

I recently went back to my aunt’s town Wendell, Idaho it is a very small town. There is a lot of farm land all around it and it has one theater that has been open and then closes on and off. It has grown some since my younger days hanging out with my cousins there. But I remember spending a lot of summers there. The have a local pool “Wendell Pool” and we would throw our towels over a shoulder and walk down the street and go swimming all day. (You know the movie the sandlot…when they go to the pool…ya well this is just like that!) after a full day of swimming we would purchase lemon heads, fireballs and licorice ropes and eat them on the way home. There was a great park just a block or so from my aunts home and we would spend hours on the little merry go round…We would lay on our back and look at the sky as another kid would spin us as fast as they could and jump on. Not sure I could do that now and not lose my lunch but I can’t think of anything greater then spinning that fast! Wendell had Dairy Days where they have a parade and then a carnival at the park…as a child I thought this was the greatest thing ever…They gave us free milk and all sorts of fun “Milk” items.

The town now has a subway and a couple other convinces now then what was there when I was growing up. But one place that is the trade mark for me was “SIMERLY’S” Oh how I love to see that store. My cousins and I would walk up to the store to get odds and ends my aunt had forgotten earlier in the day, and sometimes my older cousin would just get paid from milking cows for the week and we would walk up there with him and he would buy us all sorts of candy, idaho spuds, sixlets, pixie sticks…and cigarette gum (shhh…we weren’t suppose to buy those, oh and mom if your reading this…it was only like twice!) and chew…the gum that resembled chewing tobacco. Which parents weren’t fond of either. The thing to know about Simerly’s is it wasn’t just a Grocery store, it was also a clothing store, garden center, and toy store and upstairs it had the coolest thing ever…a hunting and tackle store!!! I get so excited just thinking about it, even at my age now…We would pretty much skip up those stairs and go straight to the tackle part, where there were salamanders for fishing. They had all sorts of them, pink ones, green ones, neon, and even glitter ones. We would buy several and I am sure the cashiers thought “Oh no, here are those kids again”… I laugh as being an adult at how silly we must have looked. So salamanders in bags and candy in hand walking back on the road to the house to play with these rubbery weird critters happy as ever…I guess there is just something about growing up in a small town that has a special feeling to it. All the little hang out spots and our favorite places. So I was in Wendell visiting family when we were driving by Simerly’s and my husband turned to me and said lets go in and see if it’s the same. So we went in and I held his hand basically skipping all around telling him the stories of my childhood…The tackle and hunting store is down stairs now (main floor)…I was a little sad to see they no longer carry salamanders. If so I would have bought some, that’s for sure! It has changed some over the years. The check out and the entrance is the same and still has that Simerly’s smell. When we came out of the store, I chuckled as I seen a group of young boys on their bikes standing at the soda machine drinking their pops talking about what they wanted to do that day…It sure put a smile on my face. Simerly’s is still one of the prime hang out places…When I see the sign I feel at home, even if it was a few holidays and several summers, that I got to be a part of it. The town might be small but has a big spot in my heart!

The side view of the store!

The Stores corner...Local boys stop for a drink!