You’ll Smile Story and Photos by Desiré Aguirre When I saw the grin of Les Tucker, our ninety-six-year-old Western Swing Hall of Fame fiddler, I knew we were going to be all right. I knew he had one
In with the Old and New By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey On a clear blue day in the summer of 2018, I peered out the windows of a building in downtown Sandpoint and saw the city for the first time—metaphorically,
Haute Cuisine at the General Store By Desiré Aguirre Photos by Christine Holbert This feature is offered free in its entirety for the first part of January. I admit it. I got lucky. A friend had two extra
In Praise of the Late Idaho Writer Patrick McManus By Pat Walch For my dad’s birthday back in the late ‘70s, I went shopping and picked up a book that had a cute cartoon of a fisherman on
A New Old Medical Model Story and Photo by Mike Turnlund One day when I was about eight years old, I didn’t go to school because of an ache in my lower abdomen. This greatly concerned my mother,
Talk about a Close Shave By Jesse Warburton, aka Brother Music In northern Idaho, deer, geese, ducks and other wildlife can be observed almost everywhere—in the parks, paddling about in ditches next to the road, crossing streets, eating
Since 2013, the library has utilized 3D printing through programs, classes, and one-on-one assistance. We have helped everyone from senior citizens to five-year-old children with projects ranging from duck call whistles to a 3D diagram of a beetle. Continue reading
I have a theory that the place that feels like home is where you were in fourth grade. Maybe you’ve lived there all your life, or maybe you just spent a year or two there, but in fourth grade you learned about your state and its history before going on to study the wider world as you moved on through the upper grades. Continue reading
The first time I read one of my own poems in front of a live audience, my cheeks burned bright red, my eyes filled with tears, and I thought I would need an oxygen tank to breathe.
Needless to say, the experience overwhelmed me, and for three years I refused to stand in front of a microphone. My daughter, DaNae Aguirre, and my mom, Rhoda Sanford, continued to inspire and encourage me. They had this show-woman thing down. They didn’t need oxygen tanks.
Eventually, I returned to college and majored in communications, where I was required to give numerous speeches in front of live audiences. Picturing them naked didn’t ease my unease, but I practiced hard, and the added incentive of making a good grade helped me stop crying every time I stepped in front of a crowd. Continue reading
It is a warm, bright September evening, the kind that gives no hint of the cold and dark that will inevitably come. Sweaterless, I toss my notebook and pencils—I can’t sing without a pencil—into my bike basket and pedal off to an autumn ritual: the first practice of the Pend Oreille Chorale as it prepares for its Christmas performances.
As I park my bike under the eaves of the church where we practice, I see Caren through the window adjusting the pillows and books that will put her at just the right height to accompany us on the piano. Beyond, I see her husband Mark in his usual well-worn jeans and work shirt, riffling through the score on the conductor’s stand.
Rehearsal begins with reunion. I greet my fellow tenors, the altos who sing the notes I once could, the sopranos whose ranges I haven’t had since grade school. I hear about Gloria’s new grandchild, and Jackie’s new job at the hospital, and ask Ed if he’s in shape for the ski season. I’m pleased to see that Charlie’s back; as one of a few who have been in the group since it first performed twenty years ago (when he was but a youth of seventy-four), he helps maintain its institutional memory and culture.
None of us would be here were it not for the distinctive devotion of Mark and Caren Reiner. They are, as Charlie says, “unimaginably caring mentors.” When they arrived in Sandpoint in 1992, they noticed that the community lacked a chorale and orchestra, and saw they might be able to do something about these omissions. It would be their contribution to the health and well-being of their new community. Continue reading
