Nostalgic tour of my hometown, Nampa, Idaho.
Welcome to a tour of my hometown, Nampa, Idaho. Nostalgic for me, probably just odd for everybody else.
Nampa was population 25,000 when I was growing up, now it’s a sprawling metropolis of 70,000. Every time I go visit, yet another landmark from my childhood is gone. So I corralled my mom into playing chauffeur while I took some informal snaps. She always thinks I’m a bit crazy, but she played along because I think she too sees that our past is vanishing, replaced by stucco covered big box stores and hordes of clone homes.
Without further ado, here is your guided tour:
First stop, very important: The Rollerdrome! The glory days of rollerskating! I’m so glad this sign is still there. It was like a beacon for me as a child, inviting me to skate in clockwise laps to recorded organ music for hours on end.
I like how the wire for the light looks like a little towing rope.
It also called itself The Fun Spot! I broke my arm here in 5th grade. “Skate at your own risk”
Right next to the skate rink, the downtown public library. Hopefully encouraging kids with broken arms to read when they’re not skating, right? Actually I read 500 books one summer, won the summer reading contest. Don’t be too impressed though. Other than taking summer rec baton twirling lessons, there just wasn’t that much to do.
Case in point. The Stinker gas station. The one over on 16th Avenue. Me and my friend Beth would walk here to buy a Pepsi. Then we’d walk back to her house again. Ah, good times.
More excitement. Lone Star Market, across from Mrs. Davis’ house. She was my piano teacher and when my brother was taking his lesson, I would walk over to the market and stare at all the candy I wasn’t allowed to have. Sadly, this place is a bit ghetto these days. Not a place for 8 year old girls!
A total landmark and one of my earliest memories. The nifty airplane at Lakeview Park. As a child, I wondered why this plane was suspended in the air. Like, why didn’t it just fly?
Another landmark. Equally intriguing to a little kid. Half an orange car smashed into a fence? I love that this junk yard is still called Jalopy Jungle and that the car is still bright orange. By the way, my mom was seriously concerned for my sanity when I asked her to drive to this place. It was the only time she wavered in our little quest.
Just down the street from Jalopy Jungle, the Hobby Center. Yeah, I had a phase where I made sequined dolls. I also made bread dough sculptures, potholders, rinky dinks, macrame plant hangers and did some leather tooling.
King’s. A five and dime with the BEST toy department. Downstairs in the basement. During the summer, the air was filled with the intoxicating smell of inflatable swimming toys.
Pennywise Drugs. One aisle of toys. Also the place where I got my film developed. I was a regular at their photo counter at the tender age of 9.
One of the coolest and prettiest old buildings in Nampa, the old train depot. They tore down the legendary Dewey Hotel, so I have no idea how they managed to keep this place. My dad worked on the railroad for 35 years, so whenever we’d go down to the train yard, I’d get to see the depot. We lived in a series of ranch homes, so the curvy turrets on this were pretty exotic for me.
Moving into my junior high years, Keystone Pizza was THE place to hang out. Sometimes my gymnastic team would go there after a meet.
Friendly Freds. The one place that wouldn’t card us when we wanted to buy alcohol. I know that I got really drunk (and really sick) once from Mad Dog 20/20 and Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill wine coolers. I consider it a character building experience.
And finally, I got my driving permit at 14 and roamed far and wide. Here’s my beloved Chicken Dinner Road. Out in the country. Not much there.
SUZI Q | QWEDDINGS Wedding Photography Austin, Texas
January 9th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Aloha my friend,
I LOVED your hometown pictures. I, too, skated endlessly to recorded organ music at Warnoco. I had special purple corduroy elephant bell bottoms…they flapped in the breeze as I skated. Never mastered going backwards, but was a champ of the one-legged squat. Pretty good at the Hokey Pokey on skates, too.
Amazingly, I also won the summer reading contest one year, though I didn’t have to read 500 books. And I took baton twirling lessons with my sister, and marched in many a parade. I also made rinky dinks, clay things, leather tooling, and made several pairs of moccasins. The Tandy store made me drool.
Your train station is definitely snazzier than ours was. It’s a visitors’ center now that the train doesn’t stop in town anymore.
Like Nampa, Greeley, Colorado, was about 25,000 when I was a kid, and now is more than 70,000 and trying to be bigger, rather than authentic. I don’t go back much. Prefer to remember when Kim Springer and I would go to the Upper Crust for pizza, and to the arcade to sing along with Foreigner songs and play pinball.
Happy New Year and thanks for taking me to your childhood. We would have been good friends if we had lived near each other.
January 10th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
So that’s where you went when I was taking lessons? It was nice to see all the landmarks from growing up. It reminded me of a time before laptops, cell phones, texting, the web, facebook, and all the things that keep us busy today. It’s too bad a lot more of the old stomping ground isn’t around (like Red Steer). But it’s nice to go down memory lane again.
September 1st, 2010 at 11:52 am
I was born and raised in Nampa and I see you left out three very important places in Nampa. They are the Hong Kong, Wheelers and Artic Circle. Things disappear so often here where in Montan they are preserved. The three I mentioned are special to me and I go there often. These landmarks, I hope will remain here for a long time. I hope others will enjoy them as I have throught the years.
September 1st, 2010 at 12:15 pm
HI Debbie,
Ah…you are indeed a Nampan. I actually drove by all three of those landmarks, intending to include them but they have remodeled so much, they don’t look like the real deal anymore. Not very photo worthy, but still very food worthy. Wheeler’s has the best vanilla malt, ever. Hong Kong, why did you go sterile and modern and start serving Korean BBQ? What’s up with that? Arctic Circle, great burgers with special sauce. Yes, three Idaho landmarks. Thanks for reminding me of them!
Suzi
February 16th, 2011 at 7:33 am
Also born and raised in Nampa, Idaho, graduated 1965, worked for Nampa Police for 6 years, now retired and live in Guatemala. Seeing the old Rollerdrome did bring back some fond memories. I’m still in touch with Larry Tiegs. And remember Gary Coleman too. The old Dewey Palace hotel was my favorite spot, growing up. It was closed for a long time, then they put in a coffee shop and then tore it down, so very sad.
February 16th, 2011 at 9:11 am
Hi Jim! Great to hear from another Nampan. I wish that I had gotten to see the Dewey Palace. I can only imagine how cool it was. Thanks for reminiscing with me! Suzi
April 22nd, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Remember Wee Willy’s? It was in Nampa from 1975 to 1997. I worked there from 1991-1995 as a teenager. Did misc work there as a younger man in the late 1980s too. Great food!
May 3rd, 2011 at 1:37 pm
I remember Wee Willy’s! Oh wow, totally forgot about it til just now when you mentioned it. Maybe I can track down an old photo of it from a newspaper archive. Would be fun to see it again.