Wendell or Gooding? Which is Better?
A friend says I missed an opportunity in Wendell for the best Mexican food in the Magic Valley. And I had been parked across the street taking pictures. Wendell could represent the definition of “small town America”. I saw an old man leisurely riding a bicycle through town and several young boys were up to some hijinks outside the grocery store.
I suspect there’s somewhat of a friendly rivalry between the towns.
Gooding is a bigger place and, yet. Still a textbook small town. Friends tell me it’s known for a really great local pizzeria. I suspect there’s somewhat of a friendly rivalry between the towns. It was that way when I was a teenager. We had a competition with a neighboring town where most of my cousins lived. They went to a school with the dominant football squad in the region. My school produced multiple state champions in basketball.
Now that we’ve all grown and mostly moved away, there isn’t much of a contest. Both towns are experiencing hard times.
While we’re living through some economic turbulence, I believe much of Southern Idaho will be fine. These small towns with agriculture as a base have a means of weathering storms. I watch the traffic passing through and if it’s a measure of economic health, there doesn’t appear to be any serious drop off.
Funny, as a teenager I couldn’t wait to grow up and leave a small town. Now that I’m nearing retirement, I find I’d like to spend my later years anywhere but a large city. Don’t write the fly over country obituary. The future may yet belong to rural America.