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The times in Truckee are a changing

Sierra Sun Staff Reports

I have never liked change. I’ve never been one to readily accept things that are modified or newly formed. My comfort zone is status quo. Yep, just leave things be, as they are, so that I can remain in a placated state of denial. I like my next day to be like the last. I like to know what to expect, to see the familiar, and to know that it will remain so.

I do realize, however, that not accepting change is living in an unrealistic state, and honestly, I don’t care to join the ranks of those who complain incessantly about change, although that seems to be what I do a a lot lately.

A while back, my husband and I – frustrated with change in our local community – chimed in with many other Truckee couples (those of 10 to 20 years residence) declaring, “We’ve had enough. This town just isn’t the same. We’re outta here.”



This firm statement, boldly pronounced, was voiced prior to PC this and PC that and Greenwood and Boca and Hopkins and such; before streetlights, fast food restaurants, roundabouts, incoming large aircraft, and alterations on population signs.

Still, the small changes we witnessed were enough to get under our skin. Yep, we were on our way to another town, another mountain town, and one that wasn’t being inundated with “outsiders.” Maybe we’d move to Montana or Idaho or perhaps to that state of diminutive population, you know, Wyoming; surely there wasn’t any new development going on there.



But time continued its course and we continued to live in Truckee, and although we profusely complained about growth we enjoyed the town and its surroundings. We figured, at that point, that the mountains were still the mountains and the town was, for the most part, still a small town. With one elementary school housed in one building, our daughter was beginning to feel a sense of community with her fellow students and the teachers. My husband and I began forming our own circle of friends.

Then big change arrived in Truckee, hundreds of acres of trees felled for incoming neighborhoods and portions of town.

“OK, this is it,” we confirmed. “We really are moving THIS time. We’re outta here.”

But then we’d think about Truckee, our friends, and the neighborhoods we had lived in, houses with yards in the firs and pines. And we began to look back at our beginnings in the small Sierra community, to our first jobs, our daughter’s first childhood experiences, and to the hundreds of times we had greeted Truckee locals. Memories – wonderful memories – had been formed for my husband, our daughter, and me.

Katie Shaffer, in her Sierra Sun article, reminds us why we choose to stay in Truckee despite exclusive developments, city-type shops and restaurants, and an influx of tourist newcomers.

As I watched the Truckee Follies last weekend, I was reminded again of why we remain here. We choose Truckee because of two elements: the mountains and the people. We choose to live here because we are surrounded by striking alpine scenery and by people who we feel akin to. We choose to live here because we are able to ask, “Do you want to take the dogs to Sage Hen today or should be go on a long hike somewhere on the summit?”

We are able to start our cars and within 15 minutes ski down the backside of one of numerous world-renowned ski resorts. We are able to ride mountain bikes in a nearby forest. We are able to jump in Donner Lake within 10 minutes of deciding to do so. After a heavy snowfall some of us are able to cross country ski right from our front door. We are able to drive to work within 10 minutes of our homes, to shop and eat within 10 minutes of our homes, and to “play” within 10 minutes of our homes.

Within 20 minutes of Truckee, we are able to sit on the shores of Lake Tahoe, an attraction that others have singled out and traveled great distances to see. In 3.5 hours, we are able to arrive in one of the most stimulating and picturesque cities in the world and to obtain, in one short weekend, a “culture fix,” in whatever form that may be.

Truckee is indeed a most desirable place to live.

While I don’t like change, and I don’t endorse the extensive alterations that are occurring in bordering Truckee valleys, I do still love Truckee.

For now, it’s spring – a change I most wholeheartedly welcome.

Eve Quesnel is a Truckee resident.


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