Grand View…where?

Ever since I was a kid I’ve been visiting the tiny town of Grand View, Idaho…which is located about 25 minutes from Mountain Home, or an hour from the more well known city of Boise.  I have family who live in Grand View, a town with a population of 469 people. Over the past 25 years I’ve been visiting, the population has grown by about 25 people.  They say that the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Nothing much has changed in Grand View since I was a child…in this town’s case I would say the more things stay the same, the less they change.

Many of the relatives on my maternal side of the family are Mennonites…a religion not far removed from the Amish, although not quite as stringent in their beliefs.  While the Mennonites don’t believe in media communication and technology, they do drive cars and use power equipment on the farms.

As a child of non-practicing Mennonites, visiting the grandparents and other relatives was…a bit uncomfortable at times–and, could often be quite boring.  As an adult, I reflect back on the time I spent on the farm in the small community of Grand View and cherish all that I learned. Having no access to T.V., magazines, radio or other forms of mindless entertainment, it forced me and my cousins to become more imaginative.  For example, we used to build little boats and race them down irrigation canals.  We’d build forts out of hay bales in the barn. And, we learned valuable skills and work ethic.  The Mennonites are not ones for leisure time, there is always something to be done.  I suppose this is where my anxiousness and drive to be productive comes from.

As kids, if we wanted to do something for fun, like ride/run the tractor…we’d have to make use of it, we couldn’t just drive it around to drive it around. If we wanted to play with the small dump-truck that my grandfather built by hand, we’d have to mow the lawn, put the clippings in the bed…then we’d get to drive it out a ways and use the hydraulics to dump the grass.  That was the extend that we could use the dump truck…there always had to be a purpose.  My grandfather was a machinist who taught me how to weld and tinker at a young age. My grandmother had a garden, along with chickens and a milking cow, so I learned many of those fundamentals as well.

I say all this only to communicate that while my grandfather passed a few years back, and my 95 year old grandmother now lives out of state in a old folks home, that my recent visit to Grand View was to see my remaining relatives, which are greater in number now given the many family births and longevity. I spent the night at my aunt and uncles house where the entire family was invited over for dinner (aka supper).  We had an enjoyable time catching up and reminiscing about time gone by.

My next stop will be another place in the middle of nowhere…Ely, Nevada.  Nevada has to be one of the most desolate states in the union.  If you’re not in Reno or Vegas, and you’re in Nevada, you’re probably in the middle of nowhere.