As you might have guessed, sometimes I like to just escape to the back country. It helped me yesterday, because I was full of doubt, uncertainty, and depression- about many things too much to get into. But it was a relatively cool day for June and I thought I would explore the rugged back country of southern Idaho and eastern Oregon.
If you've ever driven between Boise and Reno, or Sacramento and points west, you have probably driven right past it: An old, crumbling schoolhouse, sitting just off the highway under a huge spreading willow tree, maybe ten miles north of the nearest town, a slowly dying community called Jordan Valley. Most people just speed right by it, not even paying attention or barely noticing it. To most people, it's just an old ramshackle decaying building under a tree sitting in a cow pasture. But I've stopped, more than once, and checked it out. I tried to imagine the days when children of all ages attended classes in this one-room schoolhouse. Tried to imagine them running through the field during recess breaks, and listening to the teacher standing in front of the class. My own school experience growing up would have been very different, of course, than the kids who attended school here, in this rural ranching community. The siding was peeling away, the roof leaked, and by all appearances, the local cattle had been using it as an outhouse. But it still seemed to hold onto it's energy, it's fading memories...
Then one day, last December, I drove by there on the way home, and the old schoolhouse building was gone. I only assumed it had been torn down. Like it was a fire hazard, or an attractive nuisance. Just erased by the process of time.
So, yesterday, I happened to pull into Jordan Valley in a rather glum mood, hoping to be inspired by the desert and crags of the back country. I stopped into the little coffee shop along the town's main street.... and THERE IT WAS!
Right next door to the coffee shop, was the old schoolhouse. I could barely believe it! It was almost unrecognizable. It had been fully restored and turned into a historic tourist attraction. It's sides had been freshly painted white. It's bell tower had been rebuilt. Inside, it had brand new hardwood floors, and new windows. The blackboard had been restored. They had re-fitted the school with vintage furniture- old-style desks and chairs, and there were artifacts on display, along with old photos of the teachers and kids along the walls. Apparently someone took a heart to this old building, towed it into town, and then, over several months, the whole community pitched in to restore it.
It is things like this that help restore my faith in the innate goodness of humanity and community, in what seem to be darkening times. It is a small thing, to wax nostalgic about something so silly as an old schoolhouse, but as an old history buff who tends to get nostalgic about a lot of things, this actually made my day.
The rest of the trip involved exploring a beautiful box canyon and trying unsuccessfully to reach a spot called "Cow Lake" but having to turn around at a spot called "Huge pond blocking-the-entire-road-lake," but that stuff's not very interesting. Actually, this is all I got. See ya!