This is Why the Fourth of July is Better in Buhl than in Boise

They Needed to be Prodded Into a Parade

If it happens outside of Ada County, it’s not on their radar. I had a conversation with a guest this week about Boise’s Independence Day parade. My guest gushed about the big event. Keep in mind it’s a relatively new effort by the promoters, and is mainly a political platform for Democrats and Republicans. Both are trying to convince the public that they love the country more than the members of the other party.

Credit Bill Colley.

I mentioned the big parade in Buhl. The woman on the other end of the telephone had never heard about it because it doesn’t matter from the Treasure Valley perspective. To say it’s massive. One small town along Highway 30 becomes a major city for the better part of a day. Unlike Boise, nobody in the Magic Valley has forgotten the nation’s birthday for the last few decades. I guess they were too busy, stuck in traffic every day, to notice.

Overcrowding Somehow Makes You Smarter

This isn’t unusual. When I was in college, there was a group of guys who were from, or grew up near, New York City. They were shocked that nobody else cared about the upcoming game between the Jerks and the Jokes, or that some borough president had put a bullet in his head after a recent graft scandal.

I grew up in a town not quite as large as Buhl. We had a parade once a year that attracted people from a radius of 80 miles. On that one day, the population grew 10 to 15-fold. Every other weekend, you could have napped in the middle of Main Street and not blocked traffic.

Credit Bill Colley.

This morning, I was thinking how blessed I was to have a childhood in that environment. Yet, people who live in overcrowded neighborhoods in cookie-cutter homes somehow believe their IQs are 10 to 15 points higher.