Trailer Trad Living: What's the Most Idaho? Quiz

Northern Idaho is fabulous but I can't resist poking a little fun at it. Here is a pop quiz. What is the most 'Idaho' -

1. A used library book sale

2. A quilting expo

3. A hippy 'Hempfest'

The answer may surprise you. The used book sale came on strong with throngs of older, university types perusing old sociology books for a dollar and modestly dressed women looking to add to their large collection of children's home school textbooks and religious books. 

Next is the quilting expo which, on its surface, was probably as purely Idaho as is possible unless one were able to combine it into a 'gun and quilt' expo. Just kidding, actually. Around here, everything is done in a remarkably chill, low-key way that sets it apart from other conservative areas and makes it Northwest in spirit. As an aside, NC is much more hard-core than Idaho, it appears to me. For example, the Raleigh Fairgrounds held gun shows all of the time that crowded out antique collectors like me. For every one, the parking lots surrounding the Fairgrounds filled up so much that it looked like the State Fair was in town. Really.

Anyway, I was at the quilt show because the Viola, Idaho women's quilters held a raffle for a beautiful, hand-made quilt and I won!  One thing that I noticed from the quilt fair is that the little modest women there looked quite alike! It can seem as if they're all related. Short, gray hair with roundish face, pant suit (dark pants with print top) with the occasional "oh my gosh, I forgot the casserole" Upper Midwest-ish comment.

But the surprise winner is the Moscow Hempfest, an agricultural and economic development event held in the park a block from my house. It was filled with 'interested' kids, college students, and older counter-culture types. The bus pictured below was just one of several make-do mass transit vehicles used by those interested in this subject. I was going to take pictures of the trippy, hippy VW Vanagons at the park but I thought that might freak out the already paranoid folks sleeping in the back!

The surprise winner of Most Idaho goes to Hempfest! It wasn't just because the attendees, while trying to look 'One World,' came across like a 1967 Coke commercial. What really seals it as quintessentially Idaho is that, first thing the next morning, the park was SPOTLESS. A colleague from California observed that the same park in CA would have a been a mess for weeks.