Sun Valley resort and home to the rich and famous, Wood River Valley, looking southeast toward the Pioneer Mountains, (July, 1987).

Heavyweight Pullman sleeping cars at Ketchum Train Station, late 1930s, view looks west toward the Wood River and Warm Spring Creek. The car in the center is a Ford from the late 1930s. Jeanne Lane Collection, Community Library, Ketchum, Idaho; used by permission.

Sun Valley
by Harald Wyndham

It's so refreshing, after the seemingly
endless parade of beautiful, gaunt aristocrats
in chic, expensive jogging suits and suntans,
to see, in Giaccobi Square, one genuine housewife,
a bit plump, wearing yellow bermudas with her hair
tied up in a bandana, pushing a grocery cart
between the BMWs and Porsches in the parking lot,
to load two bags of ordinary bread, milk, and vegetables
into the trunk of a battered-up blue 1967 Pontiac.

in Wyndman, editor, Famous Potatoes, 1986

Ride your bike down Broadford Road
and wet a line in the Wood.
Buy every calendar, box of cookies, Lion's Club broom, Jehovah's Witness pamphlet,
and Boy Scout raffle ticket
from anyone who knocks at your door.
Write friends in Chicago, Portland and Pittsburgh
that the weather's great and will stay that way.
Trade garden advice and vegetables with neighbors.
Bump into friends in the skinny aisles of Glenn's Grocery.
Let your dog walk free as a man gone mad with laughter.
Stagger home from the Silver Dollar
and howl at the waxing moon.
Buy a house with a leaky roof and a broken-down fence,
raise some kids, and stack the wood high for winter.
Keep four junk cars and a snarling dog between you and the IRS.
Make love while the church bells ring on Sunday, then walk to Guffy's for milk, eggs and a paper.
Walk heel to toe along a rail where trains don't ride anymore.
Shovel your roof after a storm and wave to others doing the same.
Stand on your porch late at night
and watch the snow come down again.
Dress up crazy for the Labor Day parade.
Smile your widest smile when people from Ketchum
make jokes about Bellevue and keep what's secret.
Praise Jesus, praise Buddha, praise the
mountains
crawling around you whenever you read about smog in L.A., Denver and Boise.

from Wyndham, editor, Things to do in Idaho, 1989, p. 10.