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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Growing Up In The Valley

People often say the Spokane Valley is a great place to raise children, and it may be.

But in says gone by, it was equally great, say three people who grew up here and still live in the Valley.

Erma White, Mike Silvey and Jeanne Hauenstein all recall the Valley of their childhoods as a wonderful place to play, to learn and just to be a kid.

White, now 86, recalls the Valley of the 1920s and ‘30s as a place of sunflowers and rolling duststorms that blocked out the sun.

“It was all fields,” said White, who now lives in Millwood.

Silvey, 45, the remembers the Valley of the 1950s and ‘60s as a place to pick raspberries and bale hay to earn money for 39-cent hamburgers and fries at Ron’s Drive-In.

“Sometimes it seemed a little boring, but we always found something to do,” said Silvey, who now owns a construction company.

As a girl, Hauenstein, now 27, rode horses and picked wildflowers on land where hundreds of houses now stand.

“It was very, very rural,” Hauenstein said.

Today, White, Silvey and Hauenstein share their recollections of growing up in the Valley. See page 6 for their stories.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color)