She’S Going To Miss Bumpy Old Sprague

For years, the county would tempt and tease us, bringing their big tar trucks out Sprague Avenue past Sullivan Road.

We all knew that bumpy stretch of old highway leading east from Sullivan needed a fresh surface, and every year or two when the county trucks showed up I figured the time had come. But then they would patch a few potholes and disappear.

Not this year.

Road crews have ripped out that old roadway this summer and are busily building a new one.

I’m looking forward to driving this new wider, smoother, safer stretch of Sprague and I’m sure a lot of other Valley folks are, too.

But you know what? I think I’m actually going to miss Old Sprague.

As a Valley native, I know that few things here have been left untouched for so many years as that old strip of asphalt and concrete.

Over the years, I have driven and owned many different vehicles - two-wheel drive, front-wheel drive and, now, four-wheel drive. They all handled the bumps, holes, cracks and crevices the same way.

On Old Sprague, the pavement beneath my wheels had a way of turning back the clock. I’ve been a teacher now for many years, but traveling down Old Sprague I could easily become the schoolgirl of 30-plus years ago, riding the yellow bus from my home at Liberty Lake to Central Valley High over exactly this same stretch of pavement.

No matter the current technology or trends, you could travel this road and never see another driver talking on a cell phone or sipping a latte.

How could they? This road seemed to cry out, “Hang on! It’s going to be a rough ride!” Not only was it rough, but it was narrow and lined on both sides by small businesses. Drivers were constantly changing lanes without signaling or pulling out from parking lots and hurrying across three lanes of traffic to find their place in the traffic flow.

I sometimes wondered if the county was waiting for all the barren properties alongside Old Sprague to be built up with thriving businesses before rebuilding the road.

This part of the Valley somehow managed to separate itself from the boom of the Liberty Lake area and the newly emerged Sullivan Road retail corridor.

Several businesses found Old Sprague to be a profitable location. But a lot of others found success short lived. There has been a great deal of turnover there.

I recall that one small business building along Old Sprague once housed a service station, where several years ago you got real service for your vehicle and never pumped your own gas. It later became a used car lot, then a small appliance repair shop and, when that didn’t make the grade, it was remodeled to house the chairs and conversations of a drop-in barber shop.

Business signs have gone up and come down again. Exterior colors have changed to please the newest occupant. Metal street signs that once stood along Old Sprague, braced by boulders brought in from back fields, no longer swing in the wind.

Like everyone else in the Valley, I have had to accept the constant change going on around us. Steady traffic, new shopping districts, crowded neighborhoods built up on what not too long ago were thoroughly trodden pasture lands.

Old Sprague is gone now. This fall, the new stretch of Sprague Avenue will be completed.

There will be four smooth traffic lanes, wide shoulders and a center turn lane. There will be curbing and sidewalks, crosswalk lines and lights.

All of this is good, I know. All of this is the work of a community that is taking care of itself, looking toward the future.

But I’ll still miss this connection to the Valley’s past and my own. Now, only memories will travel along Old Sprague.

Nancy Larson is a Valley native who teaches at Skyview Elementary. She is a member of the Valley Voice Council of Contributors.