And the Crowd Roared.....

Standing in the crowd of people in
the middle of Sandpoint on a Sunday
morning, I question my sanity by 9 a. m.

I had been there since 5:30 a.m. After
all I would not stand in line for 3
and half hours for anything. Yet here
I was, standing with 200 people I
didn't know. (that was kind of weird.
not one of my friend, but then my
friends aren't the type who get up
at such an hour). So why was I still
standing there?

Listening to many conversations.
I guess I figured that I had this much
time invested in this, that I hated to
bail out now. Besides, I came to get
pictures. Pictures of the building
falling if I was lucky enough to get a
clear shot. Which was questionable
from time to time. Amazing how
many tall people stand in front of
a short person. So there I was,
waiting like everyone else.

The conversations were to each
other and some times just in
general to everyone who could
hear. We joked about the fact the
pigeons were hanging in there
between yanks on the building.
We joked about how tough the old
girl was and how she wasn't going
to give in easy. We jokes about how
the builders up in heaven must be
laughing their fool heads off. We jokes
about the question of sanity of the
man who was trying to get the building
to fall. Even to the point of when he got
mad and ran his truck into the back end
of the building. And only after 6 tries ..
3 at a time... did the old girl wiggle like
a hula dancer. And the crowd went
OOOOOOHHHHHH.....

And I looked down the empty street
as we were waiting for the next discussion,
and saw the cars going from one end of
Cedar to the other, to be rerouted to
Boyer and then to Larch and back up
on Cedar to head out of town.... and
I pointed at the cars and said...
"Look, we have a Bypass"... at which
everyone laughed. Of course the people
who were snaking thru the town for
those 5 hours were not as amused as
we were. As each stop and go, and stop
for stop signs and lights, the traffic
was backed up to the Chamber of
Commerce buildings on each end of
town. We can only hope that those
who are trying for another lawsuit,
were sitting in those lines, in the heat
of the day and enjoying the traffic.
As they don't seem to think we need
a bypass. But then again, we don't
blow up buildings every day.

The crowds were like at a circus.
We cheered when the water truck
showed up 20 minutes after they
discover they had to have one. We
oh, and ah, thru each breaking of
the cables. And remarks of "this doesn't
look good", when the workers went in
with chainsaws and cut on the beams.
Even talk of why not bring in a terrorist,
and let them blow it up and we would
have the building down and one less terrorist.

And when the police announced they
were going to use dynamite, the crowds
remarks were "about time". "Should
have done it in the first place." And
concern about how much debris was
going to fly. But not enough to stay
back where the police had asked
everyone to be. The request was to
be behind Fir Street (to be in Safeway,
isn't that ironic, parking lot) yet, the
crowd slowly snuck up to Sandpoint
Drug store.

And then the big BANG, the crowd
cheered loudly, as the dust flew thru the air.

It was suppose to go off the week before.
And the interesting thing was... last
week, most of the crowd was over 50.
Talks of working there, father's who
worked there, people who did business
with the owners of long ago. Stories of
being covered with feed dust as they
played, waiting for the folks to get the
feed or chicks, and baby turkeys. But
I guess they must have said their good
byes to the old building that day. As
on the 24th, the crowd was younger...
80% was 30 to 50's with their families.
Teens with cell phones, calling their
friends telling them ..."You got to get
down here, man, they are pulling down
the old building....bring your camera,
and hurry it is going down in a few minutes"
Little did he know it would be 4 plus more hours.

But even though, the people started
showing up slowly at 5:30 a.m. and it
wasn't over until almost 11 a.m. the
crowd stood there, with patience, no nasty
remarks, but talking, joking.. lots of
laughter...People running to get coffee
and donuts for others... Class act Sandpoint....
even heard a few saying... see you at
the downing of the Harold's IGA. The
next old time Sandpoint building that
will be going down.

And the list goes on... CowPaddy, Lakeside
Inn, the Motel next to Wal-Mart is just
about all down, and the Panhandle
Milling Co. Next Harold's IGA.... and
the crowd thought maybe the old Co-op
building would be next... who knows...

So see you at the next demolition.....