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I would like to get some input on these two communities from people who have either lived there or attended school at either university to compare and contrast the two towns and also give some idea of how much interaction there is between students at the two schools. (i.e. Do WSU students hang out at UI and in Moscow and vice versa).
Do the residents of the two communities who aren't students engage the other community frequently?
And finally, is there a rivalry between Pullman and Moscow themselves of any note or do they perceive themselves mostly as functioning as the same place despite the state line that divides them.
Thanks.
I put this on the Washington board as well. Really fascinated by the dynamic of these two schools and towns. There is nothing else like it in the country.
They're sports rivalries, of course, but when I attended the U of I, there was a lot of back and forth sociability between the 2 schools.
Back then, the iegal age was a year lower in Idaho than in Washington, so the WSU kids would go to the bars in Moscow; that was a major way they got to know each other.
I took a couple of Pullman girls to dances and functions in Moscow, and went to some in Pullman. This was pretty common.
Back then, there was more hostility between the Moscow townies and the college kids than that between the schools. I'm not sure how much of that exists anymore, as things have changed considerably since then.
Nowadays, the 2 towns have grown, so the few miles that separated them are now a lot fewer than back then. I expect they're even more sociable than they were when I was there.
They're sports rivalries, of course, but when I attended the U of I, there was a lot of back and forth sociability between the 2 schools.
Back then, the iegal age was a year lower in Idaho than in Washington, so the WSU kids would go to the bars in Moscow; that was a major way they got to know each other.
I took a couple of Pullman girls to dances and functions in Moscow, and went to some in Pullman. This was pretty common.
Back then, there was more hostility between the Moscow townies and the college kids than that between the schools. I'm not sure how much of that exists anymore, as things have changed considerably since then.
Nowadays, the 2 towns have grown, so the few miles that separated them are now a lot fewer than back then. I expect they're even more sociable than they were when I was there.
Thanks for the response Banjo M,
Would it be fair to say in those days that WSU students partied in Moscow more than Pullman due to the drinking age?
And as a UofI student who did UofI people perceive Pullman in general in terms of whether it was more "happening" than Moscow or did they think that Moscow held that distinction. And how did the WSU kids feel about that (if you have an opinion).
They're similar towns and are pretty close to the same size. School wise WSU is bigger but I felt and still feel like UI had quite a lot nicer campus. I did my undergrad at UI. Frankly I didn't really ever think much about WSU and my guess is the reverse would be true if you asked a WSU student. I knew some WSU students and would hang out with them periodically but not really much. They're both pretty good sized schools with healthy on campus student populations so you don't really need to go outside your own campus to form a large social circle.
Sports wise there's not much of a rivalry because you're talking Pac 12 (Pac 10 in my day, late 90s) versus Big West/Sun Belt/WAC/Sun Belt/Big Sky/To be continued. Although we did beat them two of the years I was there in football so that was kind of fun.
The Palouse is a unique place and I enjoyed my 4 years there. Probably not where I'd want to live long term, though. They are definitely both quintessential college towns with residential style campuses, which really fit the college experience I was wanting.
They're similar towns and are pretty close to the same size. School wise WSU is bigger but I felt and still feel like UI had quite a lot nicer campus. I did my undergrad at UI. Frankly I didn't really ever think much about WSU and my guess is the reverse would be true if you asked a WSU student. I knew some WSU students and would hang out with them periodically but not really much. They're both pretty good sized schools with healthy on campus student populations so you don't really need to go outside your own campus to form a large social circle.
Thanks for the response IdaD.
Although I understand that at each school the students were able to form their own social circle my follow up would be this.
Did you find yourself going to Pullman to go to a club or restaurant at times? Did you ever go over to Pullman for an event, a game or a festival? And did you see WSU students out and about in Moscow doing the same?
I know when I was that age I would have been curious about the girls at the other school.
Would it be fair to say in those days that WSU students partied in Moscow more than Pullman due to the drinking age?
And as a UofI student who did UofI people perceive Pullman in general in terms of whether it was more "happening" than Moscow or did they think that Moscow held that distinction. And how did the WSU kids feel about that (if you have an opinion).
Not necessarily. The WSU kids mostly hung out with themselves, but everyone got along fine most of the time. The jocks from both schools intermingled quite a lot, as did some groups, like the Forestry and Mines majors, but it varied with other groups.
I remember all the drama majors from both schools as being one interchangeable pack that all looked and acted alike, and the few bikers who attended both schools tended to hang with each other a lot.
But the kids who drove hot rods didn't, and back then, there were a lot of hot rods in both schools; farm kids and hot rods go hand in hand, and the kids who built them in high school drove their wheels to college later on.
The early 60s was the height of the hot rod. A kid could drive a Little Deuce Coupe for $300 and a lot of bruised knuckles and broken wrenches back then.
I didn't have a car up there, and I never rode home for a vacation in anything but someone's hot rod until I got a car of my own as a sophomore. A lot of those trips, especially during the winter, were real adventures in survival. One took 21 hours, in the teeth of a blizzard, in a car with no brakes.
My Dad was a very cool guy. When he realized I needed some safe wheels, he went to Blackfoot and talked to his buddy, the Ford dealer. He swapped 2 pregnant Appaloosa mares, one with a colt by her side and $200 for a brand new Mustang, the very first sold in the state of Idaho. I had to buy the radio for it myself, and it was a bare-bones model, but they were so hot the dealers could only get one apeice, and I had to wait a month before I could take mine out of the showroom; I had to come down from Moscow to get it. It was the only Mustang on campus, and was a better chick-catcher than a Corvette!
Moscow at that time was definitely known as a bigger party town. I was there during the last year ROTC was required for all male freshmen and sophomore students.
As a land grant college, the federal government mandated ROTC as a way of maintaining a sufficient officer corps for the military and national guard after the Civil War. After the draft became mandatory after WWII, the requirement was stricken in 1962.
The Spring Revue, the day when all the ROTC members on campus, which was most of the male population, was always huge. The seniors who were about to graduate were all given their commissions then, honors and awards were handed out, and all the military branches conducted their own ceremonies at the same time, with one big group of uniformed guys in ranks filling the football field.
It all took about 3 hours, and the guys who didn't faint all got very thirsty standing out in the hot sun in wool uniforms all afternoon.
I don't know what happened in earlier years, but the single time I was in that formation, Moscow ran out of beer. Twice.
The town was completely dry by 7:00 pm, and a fleet of beer trucks from all over re-fueled every grocery and saloon in town. And then by the 1:00 am closing time, the town had been drunk completely dry again.
It made the national news.
For some reason, almost everyone who drank a beer in Moscow ordered them red, with tomato juice in them. Salt was optional, but the juice wasn't. It was rare to see a student drinking anything but a red beer, except for that one occasion; the town also ran out of tomato juice, and it wasn't re-stocked until days afterward.
That was the only time I saw regular beer being swilled. Even in parties, the big can of TJ was always sitting next to the keg, alongside a box of salt. People would buy little 6-packs of TJ to go with the 6-pack of beer.
It was an old tradition when I was there, according to the bartenders. Back in earlier times, several bartenders said they used to drop a raw egg into a lot of the red beer as well, but I didn't see that.
I'm not sure if it survived, though.
Another Moscow thing was a lot of milk drinking. It was common to see students order a quart of milk with a hamburger. They would drink the milk straight from the carton. Every burger joint in town always had lots of milk crates around, and they ended up in the student rooms. The Student Union also served quart cartons.
Last edited by banjomike; 05-25-2017 at 11:41 AM..
Back in my day there, which was within the last decade, we had a bus that went between campuses because we could take classes at either campus and vice versa. They're considered "Sister Campuses".
The student body would also come together for shopping because the main grocery store shopping there is only in one place really and it meets in the middle between the miles of the two campuses. They'd also share a greyhound bus ride during the holidays and summer breaks depending on which direction they were traveling, or a plane ride because the airport is in Pullman and takes less time than the bus ride, or they'd 'ride share' on student boards and Craigslist.
Pullman had the good Asian food restaurants and the Indian food store for spices and such. Moscow had the cool co-op and traditional historic campus that looks like a castle. With big events like the Borah Symposium at UI or the Murrow Symposium at WSU you'd get a lot of draw back and forth. Both places have good clubs that you'd see either student body at. Both are on the Palouse. Both share the pacific time zone and radio stations and people attracted to these campuses from similar regions such as Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming.
There is a long sports rivalry and the loser walked the seven miles to other campus afterwards. There's a bike path that stretches between them that they take and there are black and white historic pictures of this hanging in the buildings. I believe this was stopped or put into question for a couple of years because of the different divisions. They considered doing it again for symbolical reasons, but I think WSU said no to it ultimately, or maybe there was one symbolic game and then no more. I can't really remember as it's been awhile.
There's also the back and forth night life between the fraternities and sororities or house parties. I love both areas so much but UI will always have my black, silver and gold heart as I'm a Vandal.
Some of my younger cousins are attending there now and making me so proud! I do have a younger Sister that just graduated from WSU and an older brother who graduated from BSU, so we're a house divided.
Last edited by Merrily Gather; 05-26-2017 at 05:52 PM..
Back in my day there, which was within the last decade, we had a bus that went between campuses because we could take classes at either campus and vice versa. They're considered "Sister Campuses".
The student body would also come together for shopping because the main grocery store shopping there is only in one place really and it meets in the middle between the miles of the two campuses. They'd also share a greyhound bus ride during the holidays and summer breaks depending on which direction they were traveling, or a plane ride because the airport is in Pullman and takes less time than the bus ride, or they'd 'ride share' on student boards and Craigslist.
Pullman had the good Asian food restaurants and the Indian food store for spices and such. Moscow had the cool co-op and traditional historic campus that looks like a castle. With big events like the Borah Symposium at UI or the Murrow Symposium at WSU you'd get a lot of draw back and forth. Both places have good clubs that you'd see either student body at. Both are on the Palouse. Both share the pacific time zone and radio stations and people attracted to these campuses from similar regions such as Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming.
There is a long sports rivalry and the loser walked the seven miles to other campus afterwards. There's a bike path that stretches between them that they take and there are black and white historic pictures of this hanging in the buildings. I believe this was stopped or put into question for a couple of years because of the different divisions. They considered doing it again for symbolical reasons, but I think WSU said no to it ultimately, or maybe there was one symbolic game and then no more. I can't really remember as it's been awhile.
There's also the back and forth night life between the fraternities and sororities or house parties. I love both areas so much but UI will always have my black, silver and gold heart as I'm a Vandal.
Some of my younger cousins are attending there now and making me so proud! I do have a younger Sister that just graduated from WSU and an older brother who graduated from BSU, so we're a house divided.
Thanks for this response. I think it would be so cool to have two sets of college town events and university activities in what is essentially one small isolated area of 55K. Two different major state universities 10 minutes apart and 2 downtowns 15 minutes apart.
Someday I hope to catch a football game at WSU and UI. Both on the same day!!
Thanks for this response. I think it would be so cool to have two sets of college town events and university activities in what is essentially one small isolated area of 55K. Two different major state universities 10 minutes apart and 2 downtowns 15 minutes apart.
Someday I hope to catch a football game at WSU and UI. Both on the same day!!
That made me smile. I used to cover the home team football games.
The summers are the best up there because in Moscow half the town empties out and in Pullman nearly the entire town goes home for the summer. So it's quiet and quite gorgeous and those that stay behind are like this close knit breakfast club doing summer school classes or just living and working. We'd get together and go explore the region. Taking road trips to concerts and festivals in the bigger cities or find all the swimming holes and dive bars in the little towns to patron along the way.
I really loved it up there and look back on my college days fondly. It was far enough away from home but not too far.
I'm not sure how, but I came across this sort of ad for Subaru/road-trip story/list that has lots of things to do in Moscow. It includes links to those places that are still active too. All I know is I saved it on facebook awhile ago so maybe one of my friends posted it. Anyways, it made me think of this thread.
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