May 28, 2008
Aah! To Do It Again

Yesterday once more.  Walpop.com, a blog,  recently detailed the “Top 25 Things We Wish Would Make a Comeback”. Their “We Miss” list ranged from Grape Nehi Soda to Gary Larson’s “The Far Side” (Calvin & Hobbes would’ve been my pick), window vents on cars to cursive handwriting.  But with the exception of Screaming Yellow Zonkers, a 60’s snack food, and Jell-O salad, their Top 25 didn’t really strike a chord when it came to moments I really had a hankering to re-live.   

But, as an absolute sucker for lists, it did cause me to itemize events, and people, it would be marvelous to experience one more time.  

Jumping front and center: 

Ralph and Clyde.  “Clyde played electric bass”, sang Waylon Jennings. In Grand Junction during the 70’s and 80’s it was indeed true.  Western Colorado’s brotherly duo set the standard for after hours entertainment in our neck of the woods.  

The Donut Shop-12^th and North.  When one imagined the cholesterol count to be dangerously low, for me a regular occurrence, it only took a Donut Shop stop for coffee, a glazed and a cruller, to remedy the problem.  

The Electric Light Orchestra— Today’s Acura commercials trip a trigger with the chorus of “Hold on Tight To Your Dreams” 

Gene Amole’s column in the Rocky---He of the one word ledes.  While long time Denverites best remember the late Mr. Amole as the velvet voiced morning host of the Ruby Hill based classical station KVOD, Amole’s thrice weekly Rocky Mountain News column remains, to this day, the best in prose by a Colorado based columnist. 

A immediate repeat of this past winter’s ski season.  For once “epic” was an understatement, so c’mon Mother Nature, do it again. 

Asparagus picking along the ditch banks.  We raised a family at 1^st and Patterson.  Across the road from our house a beautiful subdivision, Northridge, was created.   But in the process they sure ruined a wonderful asparagus crop that popped up every spring along the dirt road to Farmer Jones house. 

Elway to Smith and McCaffery.  Terrell Davis for fifteen yards behind the blocks of Schlereth and Zimmerman.  It seems far more than a decade ago our Broncos were the class of the NFL. 

The Ivanhoe.  The bar/ dining room was part of a 3^rd and North motel operated by former CBS musician Skip Nelson and his wife Lucille.  Be it after city league basketball, before the rodeo when it was held on the football side at Lincoln Park, or just a TGIF kickback, the Ivanhoe was Grand Junction’s funky hangout thirty years ago. 

The Coors Classic—The world’s best bicyclists competed in Grand Junction.  It was a two wheeled extravaganza as cyclists raced over the Colorado National Monument in the morning followed by an early evening downtown criterium.  Phinney, Carpenter, Hampsten and Grewal, Colorado’s own and the world’s best.  Before conquering the Olympics they won the hearts of locals here on the lee side of the Rockies.