The Terrible Catsafterme

Brad's Musings and Meanderings

random acts of quoting

"What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here?" - Taggart, "Blazing Saddles"

co2.jpgMy one and only visit to date to the central section of our country occurred during our Spring Break from school, which lasted from March 22 – 30, 1986. My Mom, Denise, and I took advantage of our Spring break from school and flew out to Colorado to visit my aunt Darlene and uncle Bob for a few days at the end of the week. Although Dad was living back home again, he didn’t come with us. Most likely we had had the plans arranged before my parents reconciled. Darlene and Bob had lived in Colorado Springs for about two-and-a-half years at this point, Bob having been located there during his Army stint. I had always been very fond of Darlene and was really looking forward to the trip. Bob picked us up at the airport and smiled at us through his now-hairy face. Much to my dismay, he had grown a full beard and moustache, which made him look much older than I had hoped. There is no apparent reason for my feeling on this, by the way. I also soon learned that he had taken up smoking, and all week I was hoping that he would offer me a man-to-man cigarette. It never happened, so I was forced to scour his ashtray on occasion for some usable butts to satisfy my teenage nicotine addiction.

We hadn’t seen Darlene since Christmas and the first thing she remarked on was the onset of puberty which was overtaking me. I remember her exact words were “Gee Brad, not only is your voice changing, your looks are changing!!” True, I was beginning to sprout up a tad, which was also causing me to slim down a little bit. My battle with excess weight was nearly over…for the time being.

Their house was a very nice tri-level which greatly impressed me. The exterior of the house was actually quite similar to the house in which I live now. Bob and Darlene also now had a big shepherd dog named Aspen, and although I wasn’t typically a dog fan, it was the first one that I had some long-term exposure to and I rather enjoyed playing with her. I slept down in the basement, which offered me ample alone-time to loot the ashtray. I brought along some English homework assigned by Mr. Focht, intending to get it done during the week, but wouldn’t even crack the first book until we boarded the airplane for home.

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Darlene and Bob’s place, my home for a week

I can’t recall the sequence of events during this very fun week, but I know that the two most significant events were our visit to the Garden of the Gods (where most of our photos were taken) and our day of skiing, which is both the first and last time I will ever stick my feet in those infernal devices again. There was also one night at a batting cage/arcade that Bob took us to, a visit with their long-time friends Karen and Marty,  a night out to dinner at a fancy three-story restaurant in Denver called Casa Bonita with cliff divers and caves and all-you-can-eat food (we’d just put the red flag up on our table when we wanted more), a trek to the Cave of the Winds in the Pikes Peak mountain region, and our final escapade driving in the mountains during which we got our car stuck when Mom tried to turn Darlene’s car around in a ditch.

In fact it nearly caused us to miss our flight home on our last Sunday there, March 30 – which also happened to be Easter. Darlene has missed some of her weekend choir performances at church, but we had already bid her farewell as she went off to the Easter morning service. Bob was traveling alongside of us in the mountains on his motorcycle and had to flag down another car to tow us out of the ditch so we could make it back to Darlene’s house and on to the airport.

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 Denise at the Cave of the Winds – in the Pike’s Peak region of Colorado

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 Denise and Mom high on the mountaintop

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 Denise in the very realistic jail at the Cave of the Winds

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 Denise entranced by the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs

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Denise and I race to the top

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 Mom and Denise at Balanced Rock

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 Okay, we made it to the top of this rock, now what?

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 I’m wedged inside Cathedral Valley as Denise climbs up it

I’m glad I can say that I have once tackled the slopes, but overall skiing was a disaster. I mastered the bunny slope okay, although my awkward, chubby body made several spills into the snow – which seemed to always get in my face and/or gloves. Thankfully, it was remarkably warm and I needed only to wear my Gumby sweatshirt up in the snow-covered mountains. It was when I attempted to go down the bigger hills that trouble seemed to follow me. Once I got to the top of the mountain, there was a tremedously steep hill that I had to maneuver by going diagonally down the hill back and forth latching onto tree by tree by tree. Finally I made it to the long and winding slope which yielded my worst crash yet, one which Mom and Darlene witnessed from the ski lift above. I ended up throwing my ski gear and pissing off Mom. But overall, I guess it was fun.

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Darlene is ready to show us novices a good time

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Denise makes her way down the slopes

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Mom finally escapes the top of the hill

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On my way to certain doom

Mom had already her share of worries while skiiing when she somehow ended up traveling up the ski life by herself for the first time and had no idea how to get off of it. Bob had helped Denise and Darlene assisted me when we arrived via lift to the bunny slope, but Mom just kept going on up the hill…with no idea how to get off. It’s no wonder that throwing my ski pole irritated her!

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Me, Darlene, Bob, and Denise on Easter Sunday before we headed out

I have a lot of great memories of this trip, which took me to an area of the country that I would love to visit again. When I got home, I had acquired a nice tan from our time on the slopes. My friend and neighbor Teresa Hurley was irritated and a little envious when I got on the bus for school that following Monday and she saw that I had gotten so tan over Spring break.

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We had this photo taken during our visit to Casa Bonita (and Black Bart’s Cave)

1986 will continue

5 Responses to “Spring Break in Colorado 1986”

  1. Hey – I don’t think it was me that got stuck in the dirt, I believe that Darlene was driving. One of my remembrances of the trip was that Bob gave me his big truck to drive, which was stick shift on the column. I had a tough time with 1st and 3rd gear and the fact that it was so big, but that didn’t stop me from taking off with the kids to sightsee in a town where I had no idea where I was going. However, we made it and had a great time. My other remembrance of this trip was the skiing. I really enjoyed it and pretty much mastered the skiing part (at least on the bunny hill), but I never really mastered the ski lift. I fell everytime I got off of that thing. However, it was something I had never done and it was the year of me trying new things. I also thought this was 1985, not 1986.

    Barb/Mom

  2. I know we talked about this, Brad, and I don’t remember what year we came up with, but we moved back to Ohio in Oct of 1986 because Brittney was born in Jan of 1987. It could have been either years as far as I’m concerned. I can’t come up with it.

    Darlene

  3. I remember one of the times we were climbing around in the mountains, I was freaking out because Denise was running to the edge of a rock and I saw her falling off the edge in my mind. It obviously didn’t really happen, but from that time on I’ve been afraid to go to an edge and overlook unless there is a railing and also to witness someone else doing it.

    Darlene

  4. There is no question that this was 1986. It was definitely Spring break and it was AFTER my parents separated, which was in the Summer of 1985. I also remember doing homework for my new 8th grade English class (taught by Mr. Focht) on the plane. Furthermore, just take one look at me in the pictures. You can see the progression of how I had slimmed down from the chubbiness and awkward age of 1985. And finally, the pictures are dated April 1986 on the back. Mom’s memory is faulty on this one. But the question is, Darlene, was it you or Mom who got the car stuck in the dirt? I was thinking that you weren’t there that morning and had gone to church. You sure seemed dressed for church in that photo of us from Easter morning.

    Brad

  5. It was 1983, and Paul Lynde got the car stuck in the dirt.

    Chris Tangeman

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