North Idaho memories: Hayden man shares fond recollection of Moscow childhood

Although I have been a Coeur d’Alene-area resident for some 40 years, I have lived and worked in many cities in Idaho.

I was born and spent my first 13 years in Moscow and I think that’s North Idaho enough for this series.

Moscow was a wonderful place to be a kid in the 1940s! The whole town plus the University of Idaho campus were the playfield and discovery zone of kids on bikes from all across town.

Summer days riding downtown to Roger’s for a 5-cent root beer or ice cream cone, then onto the U of I campus to watch an Idaho football practice or maybe get caught up in a vacant lot baseball game!

Of course, catching shiners, snakes and crawdads down at the creek was a staple, as was wandering through the bushes along the creek and railroad tracks, finding recently used hobo camps, ah!

Sometimes we would take over sleeping bags, sleep at the foot of Mingo’s Hill, then climb the several hundred old rickety wooden steps to the top and over to Palouse Creek at the base of Paradise Ridge, where we would catch bullheads with a stick and string.

Winter was also delightful! We had snow vacations for at least 10 days each winter due mostly to trains not being able to bring coal in through the drifts.

It was great fun to sleigh down Pool’s hill and build snow forts and caves in the snow.

I must mention also the Saturdays whooping at the cowboy shows being shown at the Kenworthy and Nuart theaters. It cost us a whopping 12 cents for the matinee!

Finally, one of the huge annual events — the circus! Ringling Bros., Barnum and Bailey and Clyde Beatty. Circuses would arrive by train at the depot on Third Street. The whole shebang would parade down Main Street and set up on the “flats” in the northeast part of town. Us guys would help set up tents and do other labor in exchange for a ticket to a performance. It was a great experience!

Moscow was a perfect place for kids to grow up back in the ’40s!

— John Mushlitz, Hayden

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Send your North Idaho memories and photos to Devin Weeks, dweeks@cdapress.com. Please provide information with any photos you send: who is in them, when and where were they taken and a brief description of what is happening in the photo. Pieces should be no more than 500 words. Please include names of those submitting the memories and how long North Idaho has been or was your home.

Longtime residents have a treasure trove of stories about the way things used to be. We hope you’ll share those gems with us.