Home again Home again Lickety Split

Back in Genesee. I was awfully tired of driving by the time I got back here. And the weather here is cold and the company can be stressful. We're having hamburgers for dinner, Again.

I took the dog for a walk around town today. I was trying to be very incognito in my black hoodie and hat I wanted to take pictures of my hometown and I didn't want anyone to recognize me being a tourist. Conversations would have been awkward.

"What are you doing home? How's Ph.D School in the Big City"
"oooh, I dropped out of school and I'm running away to work at Girl Scout Camp in Switzerland"
"oh, well aren't you fancy? Jessi is still in Law School and so and so got married, and so and so died and so and so embezelled $40 K from the fire department and bought a horse trailer with air conditioning"

And I was wearing my gecko shoes, how embarrassing.

I did run into a few children who wanted to pet my dog. I asked them about life in Genesee--they have mostly new teachers at the school, but the cranky old 4th grade teacher is still around. The children seemed frightened of her. Rightfully so in my recollection.

Genesee doesn't even cover a square mile but we have all the important things. Fire department, school, store, and football/baseball field. There's a gas station that you can't get gas at unless you're a member of the Union. If you're hard up and on fumes, you can try to find a local with a charitable heart to start the pump for you. While I was walking by a guy in a jeep with Ada county plates (That's southern Idaho...).
He looked at the old fashioned pumps, couldn't find a credit card reader and got back in his car looking annoyed. Once John Lithgow stopped through town for gas. That was the big story of the summer.


This is "Down town" It covers two small blocks and is mostly defunct. The only operational businesses are the bank, the post office, two bars, and one hair-cutting place.

Our post office still has the old fashioned boxes in them--the kinds you normally just see in museums anymore. They have two postal windows, but I've never seen the right hand side one in operation. To the left of the post master window, they post birth announcements. My arrival was announced there...

This is the house I grew up in. It was built in the 1880's and was one of the first houses built in town. While I was taking this picture, a little girl came out on the porch to ask me what I was doing. We ended up having a long, repetitive conversation about who has what bedroom now. It was blue when I lived there.

This is the way you find my parents' new house. Follow the signs to Genesee Sausage...

Here's the neighbors out on a little pony ride.