My own time in Colorado
Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:50 pm
I lived in Colorado, at first I thought it was twice, now I realize it was at least 3 if not four times. All of these were either in Denver or the Denver Metropolitan Area.
Thinking about this has clarified my thinking. In no particular order, here they are:
1. My sister owned a house with her husband on Ivanhoe Street and our entire family lived there for a while, then
2, me, my brother and my mother moved to another part of town - on the other side of Ellsworth - then moved on to California.
In both those cases I was young enough that I was going to Elementary school, below 6th grade.
3. I spent a summer at my sister's place in a suburb of Denver that (then) was far enough out that bus service was commuter-type only. This is the kind where it runs into downtown Denver from about 6 in the morning until 8, and then back from Denver from about 3 until 6. Other than that, no service.
I believe #3 was before my sister got the house on Ivanhoe.
4. I spent the summer of 1976 - I was there on July 4 - back at the house on Ivanhoe. Me, mother and brother had moved to California. I rode out to Denver - alone - from Long Beach courtesy of Continental Trailways. I remember that because back then for some strange reason I had this dislike of the Greyhound company.
5. Me, my brother and mother were living in an apartment in the city of Arapahoe, directly across the street from Buckingham Square shopping center, which I routinely kept mistakenly calling it Buckingham Palace. I think I can reconcile the events by putting #5 either before we lived on Ivanhoe, or between #1 and #2. It's kind of fuzzy.
I do remember during #5, the theatre across the street in the shopping center was running "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" and "Murder on the Orient Express" which was the worst movie I would ever see except maybe until "Fargo" came out.
I remember two things I did while I was living in Denver, which was when I was on Ivanhoe. One, I saw an exhibit at the telephone company's office downtown. It mentioned that tours were available. I call and find out they're not available for individuals by themselves. But the sign didn't say this. So I did the exact right thing. I found out once from a book that with large companies like a telephone company, the thing to do is call the office of the president of the company, where you won't get them, but you will get some flunky who'll usually try to placate you.
So I called the president of Mountain Bell - QWEST wouldn't even exist for twenty years - and spoke to someone there. They told me to wait while they checked into it.
They did. Half an hour later I actually got my tour.
The second thing that happened was I essentially snuck onto a tour group that was visiting a railroad yard, and we went inside one of the towers. I stuck around for a while after everyone left, and actually got to run the tower (with the guy watching me). He had the TV on where they were showing the several week-old premiere for "The Towering Inferno," and I pointed out that was old; I'd already seen the movie.
Oh the memories of childhood. I think about some of the things I did back when I was a kid, that either were serious crimes then or since have become crimes but weren't when I did them. I'll talk about that in a different article.
Thinking about this has clarified my thinking. In no particular order, here they are:
1. My sister owned a house with her husband on Ivanhoe Street and our entire family lived there for a while, then
2, me, my brother and my mother moved to another part of town - on the other side of Ellsworth - then moved on to California.
In both those cases I was young enough that I was going to Elementary school, below 6th grade.
3. I spent a summer at my sister's place in a suburb of Denver that (then) was far enough out that bus service was commuter-type only. This is the kind where it runs into downtown Denver from about 6 in the morning until 8, and then back from Denver from about 3 until 6. Other than that, no service.
I believe #3 was before my sister got the house on Ivanhoe.
4. I spent the summer of 1976 - I was there on July 4 - back at the house on Ivanhoe. Me, mother and brother had moved to California. I rode out to Denver - alone - from Long Beach courtesy of Continental Trailways. I remember that because back then for some strange reason I had this dislike of the Greyhound company.
5. Me, my brother and mother were living in an apartment in the city of Arapahoe, directly across the street from Buckingham Square shopping center, which I routinely kept mistakenly calling it Buckingham Palace. I think I can reconcile the events by putting #5 either before we lived on Ivanhoe, or between #1 and #2. It's kind of fuzzy.
I do remember during #5, the theatre across the street in the shopping center was running "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" and "Murder on the Orient Express" which was the worst movie I would ever see except maybe until "Fargo" came out.
I remember two things I did while I was living in Denver, which was when I was on Ivanhoe. One, I saw an exhibit at the telephone company's office downtown. It mentioned that tours were available. I call and find out they're not available for individuals by themselves. But the sign didn't say this. So I did the exact right thing. I found out once from a book that with large companies like a telephone company, the thing to do is call the office of the president of the company, where you won't get them, but you will get some flunky who'll usually try to placate you.
So I called the president of Mountain Bell - QWEST wouldn't even exist for twenty years - and spoke to someone there. They told me to wait while they checked into it.
They did. Half an hour later I actually got my tour.
The second thing that happened was I essentially snuck onto a tour group that was visiting a railroad yard, and we went inside one of the towers. I stuck around for a while after everyone left, and actually got to run the tower (with the guy watching me). He had the TV on where they were showing the several week-old premiere for "The Towering Inferno," and I pointed out that was old; I'd already seen the movie.
Oh the memories of childhood. I think about some of the things I did back when I was a kid, that either were serious crimes then or since have become crimes but weren't when I did them. I'll talk about that in a different article.