Growing Up In Moscow
I’ve always thought Moscow was special. Nestled in the lap of Moscow Mountain, with rolling hills surrounding it, open to the sky, Moscow felt comfortable, secure, and beautiful. Especially in summer the sweet smell of ripening grain, golden in contrast to the blue of sky and the deep blue of mountains, delighted the heart and stirred the mind. Give me a warm summer evening with a full moon rising and I am back in the Moscow of my childhood.
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s we knew our neighbors. The neighborhood kids played baseball, jumped in leaves, and built snow forts. We loved to bike over the dirt piles in East Moscow where new neighborhoods were being developed. We played in East City Park on metal monkey bars, swings, and merry-go-rounds that would never pass muster today! We went swimming at the pool in Ghormley Park, a stark facility compared to the Hamilton-Lowe Aquatic Center. And I loved to visit the Moscow Public Library to check out a Cherry Ames nurse story or a Nancy Drew mystery. We didn’t go to a lot of movies, but I was thrilled to watch Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, along with other Disney classics of the time, at the Kenworthy and Nuart theaters. And for twenty-five cents!
We knew where to find good things to eat in town. Roger’s Ice Cream (now the Chang Sing Restaurant), famous for the one cent banana split, was a treat. You picked a banana from the bunch and the price of your banana split was underneath a sticker. While the Knobby Inn on Main Street was famous for split pea soup, I loved their huge twenty-five cent milkshakes! I remember looking longingly at the beautiful homemade candy in the case at Hunter’s Candy, originally on Main Street but later on Third Street. Hunter’s was also famous for their caramel apples in the fall. Sometimes we would get something cold to drink at Fonk’s Five and Ten and then wander to the back of the store where goldfish, guppies, and parakeets were for sale. Fonk’s was also a great place to look at toys.
David’s Department Store, on the corner of Third and Main, anchored the downtown. Every year my mother took me to buy new shoes and dresses for school (no pants for girls according to the early 1960s dress code). But David’s was magical at Christmas. The big display windows were all decorated in red with white flocked trees as a backdrop to the holiday merchandise. David’s was also the place to go if you wanted to see Santa Claus.
I loved growing up in Moscow. It has been a wonderful place to raise our children and now they are raising their children here. As Moscow grows, I hope it will continue to be a place where generations can live, work, play, and raise children, flavored with sweet memories and growing toward a bright and hopeful future. - JULIE GARFIELD
