1960s and 1970s Denver pop culture open thread
I had so much fun reading the Casa Bonita comments from fellow Denverites and ex-Denverites that I wanted to continue the conversation. Consider this an open thread about Denver popular culture.
Suggested topics for starters: Jakes Jabbs, Starr Yelland, KWGN channel 2, Celebrity Sports Center, The Yum Yum Tree, Blinky's Fun Club, Buffalo Bill Museum, Heritage Square.
Ah, Blinky. His depressing-ass thrift store is still there, next to that other thrift store with antique dental surgery equipment and obsolete science apparatus.
Celebrity Sports Center: Oh, lord. Seeing my lady classmates in bikinis at the tender age of 13 and suddenly finding that interesting and not cootieriffic at all. And that one water slide that snaked out of the building, then back in? Wondrous. I still live in Denver, and this is a Whole Foods now. Sad.
KWGN: There was a period in the mid 80s where they ran R-rated movies, unedited and commercial-free. Now I think they're some sort of WB-affiliated channel with nary an original idea in site.
Commercials: Jake Jabbs (the answer to the childish riddle, 'why should you never bend over in American Furniture Warehouse?'), Dealin' Doug, Big Mike Naughton, Rocky's, Pleasure's, and about a zillion others I can no longer recall...Denver was Hollywood for bizarre, locally-produced TV commercials. I seem to recall that G.W. Bailey from 'Police Academy' was in several local commercials...
White Spot: Did anyone else ever waste evenings at the White Spot downtown for some reason? Or Perhaps Paris on the Platte? (still there! shockingly.)
Finally, FunPlex; your source for crappy indoor underage entertainment in the southwest suburbs. I think it's still there, too, although it seems to have taken on a decidely gang-related vibe...
Thanks for the memories, Octopede!
Was Channel 4 the station that had a mid-afternoon movie that they introduced with a psychedelic abstract animation and the orchestral theme song from The Who's "Tommy?"
The Shane Company!!!
I will forever remember the exact location of "The Shane Company" (1/2 mile east of I-25 on Arapahoe) and their iconic hours of operation.
Sadly, thoughts of going back to Lakeside to ride the "Wild Chipmunk" only occur to me during the broadest of daylight hours and have me wondering how my parents could have ever allowed me to roam around unsupervised for so many hours.
Thanks for showing Denver some love.
Hah! I honestly don't remember, but that sounds about right. (I lived in Evergreen and out crappy rabbit ears only picked up 2 and 6 and 12). Which reminds me... Channel 12, the used-to-be oddball PBS channel... I used to stay up late and watch Nitzer Ebb and Sisters of Mercy videos on Teletunes. (fanning self) O lawdy! the memories!
Biiiig Mike Naughton....iiiiissss...Ford!
And what about Exit Lincoln, Exit Ford - but exit the Giant Medved Autoplex?
And Rocky's claim that their cars were special because they were all washed in Rocky Mountain spring water....ahh, I miss Denver.
Fun Plex used to be in the amazing basement of the Cinderella Mall. It's now down on Broadway and Downing...it's a fun place still.
Celebrity Sports Center was amazing! I used to go there all the time when I was a kid. I remember the "Barracuda" slide being particularly good. I got pretty excited when I saw the bit on Casa Bonita yesterday. It really brought back some magical memories of Black Bart and sopapias!
I came here to say this thread is useless without The Shane Company, but I happily see that I'm not alone.
The Shane Company located on Peoria Street, one half mile east of I-25. Open every day, Monday through Friday till 8, Saturday and Sunday till 5.
Channel 12 is still the oddball PBS channel. :)
The funny thing about South Park..the element of truth to some of those things. It's scary at times.
The original Elitch Gardens actually had gardens...it's Elitch Gardens again (Six Flags sold it) but it hasn't worked on its newest identity yet.
Anyone been to the cowboy hat park...or who remembers the airplane park on Belview (now pirates cove?)
Some nice photos of Lakeside here:
http://xrl.us/oqr5x
What beautiful signs!
Actually, it was Funtastic Nathan's in the basement of Cinderella City. I still remember those slides... And they had that weird photo-sensitive room where you contorted your body to make the best silhouette when the lights turned on and then off.
Ahh...Cinderella City. I still remember Cinder Alley with Zeezo's Magic Castle...
How about the original location of Elitch Gardens? They moved the whole thing to a new, bigger, corporate theme park set up with Six Flags branding and it's a bit soulless now compared with the cheesy 70's fun vibe of the old park in my opinion.
More commonly just called "Elitch's", they used that old site as a location for the movie "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead", dunno if it's still there all abandoned and creepy looking or not though.
There's still the old Lakeside amusement park, and even though it hasn't aged very well either, at least it still has some nice vintage neon and classic rides and whatnot even though it feels a little downscale compared to the newer park.
@TERRANWANNABE: Correction: Exit Kipling, Exit Ward, buut exit the Giant Medved Autoplex!
And if you haven't seen the recent Rocky's commercials (the last 5 years or so), you don't know the kitchy-ness you're missing.
(Grew up in, and still live in Arvada)
Me: Scored with Englewood chicks in every dark corner of Cinderella City.
When I was a kid American Furniture Warehouse "went out of business" every three or four months.
My friend Brian went on Blinky's Fun Club for his b-day in 5th grade. I remember how excited he was to show us the video on his Betamax.
Anyone besides me deposit their BubbleYum/DNA on the gum tree at Elitches????
@MARKG: They kept the gazeebo from the old Elitch Gardens, but the rest of the area has been turned into housing, plus a 24hr Fitness and Sunflower Market (sorta like Whole Foods, but without the pretentious attitude and high prices). It's actually very nice there now.
Also, Six Flags sold the new park, and the new owners seem to be doing a bit to bring back some of the old charm (albiet slowly).
Lakeside, on the other hand, could use a hearty shot of cash in it's left arm. The family that owns it (and the surrounding miniscule "city" of Mountainview) is letting the place slowly rust over, while milking every last penny they can out of it. My wife and I talk about how the first thing we'd do if we ever hit the powerball lottery is buy Lakeside and make it back into what it deserves be.
I just found out a few years ago that Arvada has a main street! A cute old-timey main street, with a good sandwich deli if I recall correctly.
There is a great article in a recent Colorado Historical Society magazine (Colorado Heritage Autumn 2007) http://www.coloradohistory.org/publications/publications.htm about Celebrity Sports Center. It details how Walt Disney created it as a test bed for a new venture in family entertainment. Also, you can't talk about Blinky without talking about his fast food venture: Bronco Burger, on S Broadway in Littleton.
My first job was working at Lakeside in the parking lot for the awesome sum of $0.98 per hour. We'd finish up late in the evening and either sneak into the stock car races (track closed in the 80's after a spectator died when a car leapt the outer barrier..pretty cool actually) or go into the park and ride for free until the place closed. I rode the roller coaster (The Cyclone) 10 times consecutively on one fine summer evening. Ah...
Who remembers the Scotchman drive-in at Federal and I-25? A great hangout for motorheads, their hot dates, and geeks like me who loved to ogle the cars and chicks.
MarkG: it's Elitch Gardens again now...but they haven't got their own branding yet.
The old Elitches now has condos and stores...the old pavilion and theater are still there.
Funtastic Fun on Downing is owned by the same guy who owned the one in Cinderella City...he did his dry cleaning at my grandparents store.
Let's see anyone remember Bear Valley and the $1 theater with the crazy lights?
I grew up in the mountains, I've lived in Denver (re Arvada) for 6 years now. Spent a lot of time in Denver.
Channel 2 and Binky's fun club...I used to watch this channel all the time...we didn't get fox or 20 in the mountains. Sigh.Nostalgia
Holy cow: Teletunes! (Remember their record giveaways? Make a phone call in the middle of the night, then go pick up your promo loot at a used record store in downtown Aurora - on a block that's now fancy condos, but used to be pretty run-down, lots of pawn shops and strip clubs...)
Funtastic Nathans! Cinder Alley! (And how about that weird Polish restaurant in Cinderella City - I think it was the last man standing before they tore it down... Or the surreal madness that was the Cinderella City underground parking deck, after it started to warp and twist and had to be closed...)
The Airplane Park! (I didn't know other families called it that!) How about Boat Park? Can't remember exactly where it was - off Santa Fe and Arapahoe someplace, I think - had a pond with an ark...)
Anybody for the Breakfast King?
And the White Spot, Muddy's, Paris... Oh, my wasted youth!
Anybody remember an abandoned building down on the Platte which kids called The Birdhouse? It's behind Coors Stadium, and I think it's now zillion-dollar studios - but it used to be a creepy place for punks. And the 16th Street viaduct - used to be able to jump off it onto freight trains, or just hang out above the sight of the adults... Good times!
Along with Blinky's Fun Club -- Noel and Andy! Anyone? Lady with a puppet? Mighty Mouse and other old cartoons, drawing demonstrations, an ongoing mail-in art contest... I'm the oldest one here, aren't I? Crap.
Bubble gum tree...ah yes...at least 40 or so times a year...we'd buy a pack of gum just to chew while waiting in line for the log ride.
I had no idea that Bronco Burger was Blinky's place! Scariest clown ever... if I remember correctly, had kind of a sharp Scotch smell about him.
Oh the Boat Park! I forgot about that one.
Any old denver skaters remember the jamaica bowl at 38th (now MLK) and colorado blvd?
We should have a thread where folks can ask questions about what's true in South Park...giggle.
Teletunes has never been replaced for me. So many weekend mornings I was glued to that thumping intro. Anyone else have VHS tapes full of bad-quality recordings of music videos they wanted to keep?
I don't know if it's still on the air, but I used to listen to a Ft. Collins music station: KTCL? That was the best. It was usually DAYS before I'd hear a song repeated. Of course, now I can choose from any station in the country with a streaming cast.
How about the Organ Grinder restaurant? Loved it as a kid, went past later and it was shuttered.
I was going to ask if Cinderella City was real (I just have sparkly memories of being there once as a kid), but I see that it is much remembered.
Good morning to you, good morning to you, good morning dear children, good morning to you!
Jake Jabbs hit on my mom on an airplane once.
The Cinderella City drive-in movie theater is gone now, as of about a year ago.
3 words:
Levine's
Furniture
Warehouse
Remember the home made mom-and-pop TV ads?
A friend of mine who grew up in Austin has been wanting to go to Casa Bonita since the South Park episode aired. Despite my best efforts to dissuade him, he never relented in his enthusiasm. So I finally offered to use a kindercare night out with my (much) younger sisters as pretext for a visit to the famed family paradise.
He's a vegetarian, which was difficult for him, since the menu lists no vegetarian dishes and the girl at the register5 did not seem to know even what such a thing is. When he finally asked if they could an all-cheese-enchilada plate, she said, "You mean the 'cheese deluxe'?", which turned out to be nacho cheese sauce wrapped in three corn tortillas and smothered in nacho cheese sauce.
After dinner, he nearly had a claustrophobic anxiety attack in Black Bart's cave and was none to happy with the woeful state of disrepair in the gaming room. However, he seemed moderately impressed with the diving show.
In the end, I think he still keeps Tiny Town at the top of his Denver-area novelties list.
Also relevant to this thread: I think I saw the blond guy from the sleazy Pleasure's commercials at the King Soopers at 9th and Downing on Sunday night.
@brokenrobot - We might recognize eachother. I don't remember it being called the birdhouse. I think we called it the silos or something. Slept there once in a big pile of foam chunks.
Ok, maybe I'm nuts but "Tickle's Playport"? It may have just been an Eighties aberration in Colorado Springs.
It was sort of a fun house indoors at malls.
The Museum of Natural history and the Planetarium were classics. Celebrity Sports Center.. Good lord! I still have dreams about driving by that place on I25 on our way to ski.
And while we're at it, let's not forget The Original Elitch Gardens.
Anybody remember Denver's answer to white castle, the $0.39 hamburger stand? They were mostly in the old 'Der weiner schnitzle' A-frames, painted white with a blue frame in the 'generic' style. Food came wrapped in white paper marked 'hamburger', 'cheeseburger', 'soft drink', etc. Kinda like Repo Man actually! You could get a hamburger, fries, & a drink for under a buck.
There's still a Hamburger Stand on Broadway, and it's still dirt cheap
The O'Mera ford lady anyone?
@28 yes KTCL was fantastic! Unfortunately it moved to Denver and became pretty bland and normal, but back in the 80's it was incredible. I wish I could remember their slogan.
It broke my heart when Celebrity closed. I have so many wonderful happy memories of that place.
And teletunes. GOD this thread makes me SO happy. Haven't lived in CO in many years, but all my happiest memories are there. God bless you people.
If I were around during the 60s or 70s, I'd be more useful here, I suppose, but as a former inhabitant of a town near Denver, the one person that I miss more than any other, is Franklin D. Azar, the Strongarm.
http://www.bobandgeorge.com/karnak/index.php?comic=150
The Denver Convention Center is fabulous! It looks so small from the outside, but if you try to walk around it, you get lost. It's just as thrilling inside. There's so MUCH space!
elich's was AWESOME. and lakeside, too.
i didn't know that bronco burger had a blinky connection. how frackin' awesome is that?
i'll add another thing to the list: are there other people besides me who cannot hear the big dramatic middle part in styx's song "come sail away" without seeing the channel 2 "eye in the sky" news helicopter zooming to some breaking news story? they played that commercial ENDLESSLY! nowadays i wonder how they got away with using such a popular song for their commercial. i doubt the styx boys got any royalties for it.
OMG, this thread is giving me fits of misty-eyed nostalgia. I L-O-V-E-D the Yum Yum Tree with every fiber of my tiny heart. Blinky scared the hell out of me and I still couldn't stop watching him and Celebrity Sports Center might honestly be the first thing I think of when I think of my childhood.
Pretty much everything else I wanted to add has been covered, but since some of the other awesome parks were mentioned I did want to throw in Dinosaur Park. Also, and this is moving more into the 1980's, I loved Photon on 225 and Mississippi almost as much as I loved Celebrity Sports Center.
oh, and #5 (OCTOPEDE): you lived in evergreen? that's my HOMETOWN!! high five, brutha! the little bear RULES.
@32 We called it The Silos too. It's super expensive lofts now isn't it?
I remember when my little brother was born we went to see Blinky's Fun Club live(!). My grandparents wanted to see their newborn grandchild and the show was also shown in Billings, MT where they lived. I went into the Blinky's Antique store to relate this story to Blinky himself, but he was such a gruff jerk I didn't.
I remember when American Furniture Warehouse was on 58th and broadway, right next to I-25. Ol' Jake Jabs has this fetish for exotic animals for those that don't know, and every weekend they'd have a huge petting zoo out back for the kids.
Funtastic Nathan's was so awesome. They had those weird plushy dome things to climb on, like no less than 5 bouncy rooms, and that huge pipe that ran the length of the ceiling of the place that kids could climb through. I've never seen a kid's attraction that was better than it. Funtastic Fun (the new incarnation) isn't nearly as good, but the giant bear is there. I don't think you could climb on it when it was at Funtastic Nathans, but I could be wrong.
Heritage Square always a little sad, but their Alpine Slide is cool. Google pictures of it. Heritage Square also has a pretty decent Go-Kart track too, well, it was good when I was a kid.
Lakeside nowadays is SCARY. It's like a gangland hangout. I remember when we'd go see the car races at the racetrack next door. Do you people know that they created their own city for the amusement park and ractrack? It because of a liquor license issue with Denver city I think.
Anybody remeber Lakeside's Fun house before it was torn down? With the crazy fat lady singing on top? She did that because it was dangerous, but in a fun way. They had a giant platter they'd put everyone on and spin it, the last person left on "won", playground-style. There were ridiculously steep slides, and moving floors, and a whole bunch of other good things. It's a pity I can't find pictures of it anywhere.
Or how about the old Boardwalk Arcades? There were two of them. They were HUUUUGE. It was the first arcade I had ever seen that you bought a magnetic card and charged it. You played games by the hour, and not by the quarter. Made beating those wallet-sucking games like Ninja Gaiden and Gauntlet much more feasible.
And the old Elitches, what a place. Millions of flowers everywhere with roller coasters in the middle of them. I remember the gum tree by the Log Ride line, it was kind of disgusting. Unfortunately the ground where put the new Elitches is worth more than what the park takes in in 3 years. Every year that they open again I'm surprised.
What memories.
Teletunes first aired as "FM-TV" six months before MTV debuted. Nevertheless they where pressured to change their name to "Teletunes." Along with KTCL and Wax Trax Records Teletunes would complete the trifecta of the Denver Goth/Punk music scene in the 80s.
There was also the revolving weekly dance venues of Thirsty's, Tracks, The Church, Stars, and Pogo's in Boulder. With everyone ending up at either Muddy's Coffeehouse or Paris on the Platte.
Before Colorado changed their drinking laws around 1988 you could order 3-2 beer if you were 18 years old. Or, once you hit 19, you could drive up to Wyoming and buy hard liqueur and fireworks. Ah, good times.
I remember being at Furrs Cafeteria one night with my family. An old man comes up to us and starts being a bit too friendly to us kids. Just before my dad is going to step in we figure out that it's Blinky, without his makeup on.
OK how about Calvin's on 15th and Market street downtown? I think I had my first drink in a bar there and no I was not yet 21. It's a PF Chang's now. Come to think of it most of downtown Denver (or "Lodo") is corporate and soulless now. But The Wizard's Chest is still around! And thriving too!
Oh this is awesome!!! It got me thinking about some memories. Here they are in no certain order (Sorry if some are off topic).
*Of course Cinderella City (They had the best record store in town)
*Ferrell's Ice Cream Parlor (When you order that big honking sundae and they came in with the sirens and bells)
*Shakey's (sp?) Pizza and Godfathers Pizza.
*Bronco Burger (MMMMMMMM...... Burger)
*Movie theaters anyone? Cooper, Continental, Century, Cinderella City Drive In. Now those were some big screens. They don't make them like that anymore.
*When there was nothing past County Line road except Daniel's Park
*Hagging out at the Nautilus Arcade in Southglenn Mall and spending hours on Defender.
*Being able to drink 3.2 beer at 18 and hanging out at "After the Fox" and "Thirsty's"(sp?).
*Having Runzas for hot lunch in elementary school.
*Taking a drive in the mountains and it seemed like the only house you saw was the "Sleeper" house.
gawd, we climbed to the top of the birdhouse/silo in the middle of the night, with only bic's to light our way. actually made it back down safely and realized we lost our car keys. Had to go back to the top (climbing the narrow stairs on walls of the shaft up to the roof - 10 stories?) - No keys. Made it back down again and realized I left them in my jacket on the hood of the car.
This was after a long night at My Brothers Bar...
The Popp Shopp- great selection and cheap.
Shakey's fried chicken and pizza- Amazing fries that were actualluy thick slices of seasoned potato.
Jolly Ranchers- Wheatridge plant had store attached where you could get bulk seconds for 99 cents a pound.
Gart Brothers Sports Castle. Nuff Said
After the Gold Rush. Teen Night on Tuesdays I think it was.
Fourney Train Museum- Amazing collection of classic cars, dioramas, and of course trains.
@#1
Paris on the Platte? HAH! wow, I was just there last night. Loud music, too many scenester kids and weak coffee, but one of the best damn coffee shops to spend and evening in with friends.
I'm only 23 and I remember Blinky the clown from TV. the main memory I have of him is the birthday...thing he'd have at the end of each show where he had a lot of kids stand in front of some rainbow as he sun the birthday song to them. I remember some kids got sad, and some absolutely spazzed out with glee.
KWGN Channel 2: Anyone remember when they ran "Creature Features" late on Saturday nights? We'd stay up late and scare ourselves watching the old 50s "atomic mutants" monster flicks.
White Spot: When I worked as an overnight producer at one of the Denver TV news operations, my news reporter met Jesus Christ in the downtown White Spot one memorable midnight hour...he even pulled out his ID card to prove it.
Casa Bonita: My wife worked her way through college making those famous sopapillas, and telling insistent people "There are NO more tables by the lagoon." 30 years later, our kids don't especially like the food but they love finding Mom's name on a dusty "Employee of the Month" plaque in some dim back corridor by the mine shafts. Appetite Tip: NEVER EVER get old Casa Bonita alums talking about what REALLY went on back in the kitchen!
Saber Tooth Tiger at the Museum of Natural History: Put in a penny, get out a throaty, gurgly guttural roar. Scared me years ago as a kid....now it's a grrREAT ringtone on my cellphone, recorded during a recent visit. That roar cuts right through any crowd noise.
KHOW Radio (or was it KIMN?), every Friday at 5pm, kicked off the weekend playing "If I Had a Wagon, I Would Drive To Colorado!" from the Up With People group.
I still hear it in my dreams. "The Shane company, direct diamond importers. Just off Arapahoe road on Emporia Street, one half mile east of I-25. Open every night, Monday through Friday 'till 8, Saturday *and Sunday* 'till 5."
I also remember Casa Bonita. It was magical, and South Park did it justice. Delightfully tacky. I wonder how much I'd like it as an adult?
Elitch's was also really amazing, although I remember watching the Wildcat's track sway every time the train went over it. Very scary, indeed. I was also there the first season they had a looping coaster, and I remember thinking how, "gosh, they could really do more with this concept." Lakeside was always sort of like the one you'd go to if you couldn't get into Elitch's for whatever reason.
Who else remembers Water World? Twenty years later I *still* haven't found a better water park. We used to go during summer day care.
Anyone else remember when Cinderella City was the largest mall in the country?
I cracked my head open on the edge of the pool at Holly Park in Greenwood Village, and I took off the bandage early to go swimming at Celebrity Sports Center (although I stopped just shy of getting on the Dolphin, Barracuda, or Shark water slides.)
My dad tells me that one time, on the Heritage Square alpine slide, I kept telling him to slow down...but I had actually just learned how to read and was reading the signs aloud on the way down.
Born in 1978, I do *not* specifically remember the clown pictured at the top of this article...but for some reason he's alarmingly familiar to me and he reeks of Denver.
Ross
@41, 43 Bennito, I somehow knew you'd show up here. Good call on Dinosaur park, even though I never went there until way later.
It's good to reminisce about all these great old places.
And, just to add one more: Wax Trax on 13th. Talk about mis-spent youth.
Dropsy, you're not the only one here old enough to remember Noel and Andy.
How about endless reruns on channel 2 of Gilligan's Island, McHale's Navy, and I Dream of Jeannie? Or the Saturday morning horror movies? They had Godzilla, Gamera, and all those others that ended up on MST3K long before MST3K was a idea.
How about BOB POST CHRYSLER PLYMOUTH on South Colorado? (Those old enough to remember will know why that *has* to be all in caps).
Movie theaters? The old North Star drive in in Thornton actually had the biggest movie screen in the world!
That Sleeper house is still there. I think some church now owns it.
Damn you Mark, I get off work come home to read BoingBoing and have to see that damned evil clown.
Apparently he is still alive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ewlkxvFuI&feature=related
No clips of his creepiness on YouTube but I did find this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPYeewiD3Dw
For those of you who wasted most of their nights in High School at Muddy's I found this a few months ago
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=69185202
I seem to remember in High School that the White Spot was bought buy a gay man and everyone I knew called it the Cum Stain. (yea we were a bunch of asshole punk rockers)
I remember Teletunes but does anyone remember Home Movies? I work for a public access TV station now and I can't even believe that this show used to exist. Every week new movies sent in by just anyone.
I thought the boat park was way down on south Broadway near a Safeway. I saw a big rat swimming through the pond at the boat park one night. And the plane park was Bellview park in Englewood.
I used to do puppet shows at Nathans Funplex when I was in middle school, not something I admit very often.
Is anyone else old enough to remember the fountain in Cinderella City before they closed it? And what was the name of that record store in the basement that was also a borderline head shop? I bought My first cassette tape there, go ahead and laugh it was Quiet Riot.
KTCL is still the standard I hold any radio station to, and not one has come close. I remember one morning going to school and hearing Public Enemy, the Grateful Dead and The Sex Pistols in one set. But I also remember being able to listen for hours and not hearing a single song I knew.
I know this is mostly about childhood memories, and a lot of people have touched on a lot of things that I remember growing up in Englewood. But in high school the best local band for me had to be the Warlock Pinchers, and it's a crime that no one has mentioned them yet. (or Wax Trax, or sneaking into Rock Island when you were 16, or that horrible all ages club INXSS)
All of you ride Cock Horses IMHO :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z20UYhP8vIQ&feature=related
(last link NSFW)
I still have scars from being in the pit at a Pinchers show.
I lived in an old apartment next to Gates Rubber a couple years back, and I took a walk down to Blinky's with my 1 year old daughter in a sling. I remember watching Blinky on before Mr. Rodgers every morning when I was in the young elementary school age, so I thought it would be an interesting experience for her.
"If you're not buying, get out." I think were his exact words. Freaky, but somehow life affirming. Even clowns get old and cranky...
Then there are all those wasted late-adolescence nights down at Paris on the Platte, waiting on crappy coffee served by surly goths, in the sketchy part of town, now surrounded by yuppie condos and a wine shop (A FUCKING WINE SHOP) where the book store was! That book store had one purpose only (to smoke weed while hidden from the rest of the coffee shop).
I had the privilege of taking a walking tour of old swansia and the meat packing district about 8 years back with local historian Ernesto Vigil (of Crusade for Justice fame) as part of a labor history class I took at UCD. I haven't looked at Denver quite the same since...
I took my kids to Lakeside on Labor day, and it's still weird and creepy, still a decaying husk of an amusement park, like a corpse of a freak long dead, now preserved and shown at peep shows. We saw a couple ladies snorting coke in the parking lot...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/vespaboy/starride.jpg
The long dead starride, now intermingled with a tree, as if they half disassembled it then forgot the rest forty years ago...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/vespaboy/mkspaceride.jpg
My kids in a weird 1950s space ride, complete with guns to train the next generation of warriors to fight the communists in space...
Thanks for the topic! I live in Denver, and have for the last 10 years (my wife is a native of 29 years), and I really love this amazing city near the mountains!
I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that photo, and when I read the list of Denver pseudo-celebs, a gush of childhood flooded forth from deep in my brain. The weirdest thing about all my reminiscing is that I grew up in a small town in Western Nebraska. The local TV stations were so small and so few that the cable company imported the local channels of the closest "big city, "Denver, CO. I grew up bathed in Denver TV without having been there until I was 11 or 12.
@21, brokenrobot
Yeah. Blinky always seemed like the transient clown that actually was a transient.
And I actually won a record off of Teletunes once, but I had to go up to the Wax Trax in Boulder (there's another one...the once-great Wax Trax empire, anyone? I guess that's more early 90s than 60s/70s) and they had no clue what I was talking about and I got shit.
And Breakfast King: Good diner or the best diner? Complete with mouldering old Gates Rubber factory out the window...
@JORNIN
I spent many a night, after HS, at Muddy's. Some of my fondest memories. Thanks for that link :)
Also, I have a Warlock Pinchers CD. They rock!!
Rock Island was great back then. That was when it was a sketchy part of town. For some reason I always ended up throwing up that night.
ahab
Anyone remember when the Gothic used to show movies?
Does anyone else remember hearing that some kid went down to Lakeside and started throwing M-80's in the lake with all the fish? I heard that's why they closed down the lake access. I've always thought that someone needed to take Cory Doctrow to Lakeside, all those cool, low rent, art deco neon signs. I remember spending hours in the Funhouse, I'm sure that was closed down by some insurance adjuster.
And yes I remember puking in the wave pool at Water World, that place was insane.
@52: OMG, yes, the Museum of Natural History! Dinosaurs! Glowing rock specimens! And the nature scene dioramas!
I lived in Colorado Springs only briefly, but I remember Casa Bonita well (and those sopapillas, yum!)
@54 Ha, Carlos of the Basques! Good to see you among the riff raff. I wonder how many other people here know each other and don't realize it.
Does anybody remember that Shakey's had these balloons that blew up into a bowling pin shape and had a clown printed on them and big cardboard "feet" that you'd slip over the knot? I loved getting those.
And was it the Yum Yum Tree that had the huge pile of pumpkins every Halloween that you could take?
Wow you're really making me homesick for Denver, Mark!
I'm so thrilled there are so many Teletunes fans here. I was a VJ for them for a few years, so I may be a bit biased with that one!
I have years worth of Teletunes episodes on VHS that I should put up on Youtube. As hosts we really had fun putting on skits, interviewing bands on location and basically being on-camera music geeks.
I interviewed Budgie from Siouxsie and the Banshees in the foyer of a ladies bathroom at their venue, Primus in the basement, and ska bands in dark alleys. Shonen Knife was my first interview and I don't think they knew much English at the time so we talked about their shoes and candy.
I remember being in skits involving a time traveling bath tub, killer squirrels stalking me at haunted Cheesman Park and me stuck on the railroad tracks.
Good times. Good times.
ah celebrity's: where it always smelled of bleach and kids constantly pooped in the pool. That one big slide that started sort of outside on Colorado Blvd was pretty cool though. And the game room rocked.
I remember the giant teddy bear at Funtastic Nathans and crying when i had to leave.
Cinder Alley had all those fun machines that pushed tokens and toys out. BEST. TOYS. EVER.
Blinky scared the crap out of me in person. I went on the show for my birthday and would not go on stage.
I remember riding the small, speedy wooden rollercoaster at Eliches in the rain and almost flying off the track.
This thread cracks me up - because a huge number of these 60s and 70s things were still around in the 80s and 90s when I was growing up (I'm still in Denver btw).
Commercials:
Jake Jabbs and his whole family on the commercials with tigers. Aparently some law about owning wild/endangered big cats and having to use them in a public service capacity. Always made for fun commercials with baby tigers climbing over sofas though
Dealin' Doug - may be a newer thing, but ye gods, he's still around, and one of the more wealthy people in Denver.
Shane Company - I was in Dayton, OH, and heard a Shane Company ad there too - I was so offended! The only place is on Imporia Street, One half mile east of I-25!
Someone mentioned the O'Meara Ford lady - ugh, whoever's bright idea it was to put her on TV should be throttled.
Places:
Celebrity Sports Center - Didn't get over there to that part of Colorado Ave. often, but it was crazy.
Nathans Funtastic Fun, Cinderella City, Cinderella Drive-In - Definitely had a couple birthday parties there at Cinderella City. That whole area of Englewood is different now. No more Drive-In, no more mall (its the Englewood City admin building and a Home Depot now on Hampden, Condos and the Light Rail station along Santa Fe.)
Fun Plex - is now on its 3rd name/owner - closed and became Fat City for a while (nice bowling alley stuff, otherwise about the same), now its something else. Laser tag and Indoor Put Put golf! Many days spent there.
TV/Radio
Blinky and his Fun Club were still around when I was a kid, but not for real long.
Channel 2 during the day is still about the same... though channel 20 has picked up a lot of the crappy-weekend-afternoon movie stuff.
Radio Personalities - Lewis and Floorwax are still on The Fox 103.5 - KBPI lost Dean and Rog after they did something obscene at a Denver area mosque - Dave Logan is doing 1stBank ads and on 850 KOA (still the strongest AM radio source in the west I believe)
Ah I could go on and on...
@AHAB
Yea I bought my first (and only) sheet of acid at Muddy's. I even asked the waitress if she knew where I could get any and she hooked me up.
You only have one Warlock Pinchers CD, there are two.
The first time I snuck into Rock Island I was juggling with a bunch of Ren Fest Geeks passing torches under that rotting viaduct.
Oh, and then there is Red Rocks! And the iconic U2 "Under a Blood Red Sky" concert that was filmed there.
My first concert was Depeche Mode. What was your first or most favorite Red Rocks concert?
Oh yeah forgot about that one
(bad robot voice)
K B P I ROCKS THE ROCKIES
There's a Compass Drive-In right near you/
With two big features, count 'em, two/
Delicious food for all the family
Kids under 12 are free!
Tonight a Compass Drive-In is the place to be!
Man, I just keep thinking of new ones. How about the High Line Canal? We spent tons of lazy summer days in Eisenhower Park using a rope swing to jump into the canal, which is pretty gross in retrospect since it was essentially storm drain run off.
Is KAZY still around? I remember riding our bikes to the end of the High Line canal path once to go to the KAZY studios.
Oooh, and Rainbow Music Hall!
OMG
I saw Weird Al at the Rainbow.
I am such a F'in Nerd
WAX TRAX:
I worked at the Wax Trax in Boulder for awhile too when I was in college in the '90s. It was the closest thing to the High Fidelity record story experience as you could get. We were sort of expected to be rude to customers who made crappy music choices.
I distinctly remember when the uber-conservative men's group The Promise Keepers had their conference in Boulder, and one of them came in looking for Christian music I sold him a Ministry CD. heh.
WHITE SPOT:
It was where us ravers and go-go dancers went late at night for a decent slice of pie. It was usually the only place you could spot a drag queen before it became trendy.
UZI:
The only fetish fashion store in Denver for a long, LONG time. Mari ran it and she and he partner made their own rubber corsets to cater to strippers, Goth kids and club kids. She also ran a performance group of dancers and club kids as well.
GOTH CLUBS:
Does anyone remember Rock Island? I was a regular for sure at Pogo's. That little club in Boulder seemed to go through a different name change each year.
KUCB:
It was the "coolest college radio station you couldn't get legally off-campus" at CU Boulder. As a DJ and the Music Director there for a few years, I have to say that was one of the funnest and most educational music experiences of my life. Not every station can boast having live interviews with Ogre from Skinny Puppy, Poison Ivy from the Cramps, Marcia Brady, and the band Butt Trumpet!
DENVER/BOULDER BANDS back in the day:
Warlock Pinchers!
http://www.myspace.com/warlockpinchers
Foreskin 500!
http://www.myspace.com/foreskin500
@eggonstilts: I think I was at that same Depeche Mode concert at Red Rocks!!! I remember being in front row seeing Nitzer Ebb open up!
Ya know, Nine Inch Nails just played there last week:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nineinchnails/2842013639/
Happy Birth-a-day to you. I love Blinky. He dead?
How about the ORIGINAL Time Warp on Pearl Street in Boulder? The 2 guys who ran it? Wayne & Kent. No lie. They took Stan Lee to see "Raiders of the Lost Ark" on opening day.
17th & Pearl... The Denver Folklore Center?
The Green Spider Coffee Shop?
The House of Tarot?
The Psychedelic Shop?
The Rugged Room?
The Avalon?
Just Askin'
Celebrity Sports Center, omigod. Another rockin' good time when I was a kid.
Denver really was like a mini-LA/Hollywood/Disneyworld/Universal Studios when you were a kid.
And a shout-out to the UA Continental, one of the finest 3-story theatres in these parts. Perhaps the finest.
And WaxTrax, another fine reason to go to Denver in the 80's.
Yeah - you guys have hit upon just about every item on my list high-points... even down to the Warlock Pinchers... but somehow, no-one has mentioned Fashion Disaster! Back in my day, you had to drive downtown to get NA-NA creepers or 16-eye ox-blood doc's. These days, you just have to go to Hot Topic at the freekin' mall!
KAZY - We used to call it "k-O-Z-Z-Y" because it seemed like you could turn it on @ any time, and after every 3rd song, Crazy Train or something would come on. KTCL (Ft. Collins?) and KBCO switched my world view quite a bit. Teletunes? That was for poor kids whose families couldn't afford cable. Oh, and it was far superior to anything on MTV!
Earliest childhood memories are from Casa Bonita - I think because it was so surreal w/ the setting and the divers and all. Bought my 1st guitar down the street at Rockley Music! 20 yrs later and I still have it.
I have to echo the comment about Celebrity Sports Center and lady classmates at 13 in their swimsuits -- like a rite of passage. Water World was another awesome aquatic hang out.
Blinky always seemed kind of tragic to me, but even as a kid, I knew he was a good soul.
Reading Westword while hanging out on the 16th street mall... Awesome memories.
I live in Illinois now, and when people see the MEDVED badge on my jeep, they ask me, "Are you a paramedic?" :-)
Chucky Cheeses... animatronic b-days and triple homicide!
Ronnie Redneck
Mayor Peñut
The Hooligan
Kacey Fine Furniture
The stunning trompe l'oeil mural by I-25 they painted over with a hideous rendition of Andres Gallaraga
Imi Jimi. It's a sad story if you know it, but I came in the first day they opened and hung out there almost daily for a few years after that.
I remember Elitches, Lakeside, Buckingham Mall, Ferrell's Ice Cream Parlor, Casa Bonita, some old magic shop (can't remember name) and Laserium at the Planetarium
This thread is a riot, especially since I just moved back (to Boulder) after being gone for nearly 20 years. Almost all of the things I remember have already been mentioned: Paris on the Platte, Wax Trax, Celebrity Sports Center, Elitch's, Casa Bonita, the classic commercials, etc., etc.
The only thing I could remember that I don't think has been mentioned yet is the old Showbiz Pizza. One time, we saw Craig Morton (the Broncos' QB) there with his family...as did everyone else in the place. His wife was not a happy camper as he signed dozens of polystyrene plates.
#68, #75: I was at the same Depeche Mode show - remember that crazy hailstorm earlier that day? It was like the most costliest hailstorm in the country up to that date, and the show still went on. In fact the weather was gorgeous after about 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon.
WAX TRAX. Holy cow I can't believe I haven't thought of that place in years. I spent SO much of my meager earnings there. On 13th street, right?
I worked in downtown, near where the ballpark is now - there used to be a cafe there called the Mercury Cafe where I saw Alanis Morissette play to a room of people. By all rights she should have been playing bigger crowds, but I guess the tour was scheduled before she "blew up". This was summer of '95.
And someone mentioned My Brothers Bar. Awesome! I drank my first legal drink there, though I'd already been having a beer with lunch there occasionally for a couple of years since I worked in the area.
@64: OMG, Bonnie, I totally remember you from Teletunes. I was a total Rock Island/Ground Zero playa (if by 'playa' you mean bumming cloves and requesting that same godawful Front 242 song over and over and over and over...). And the Pinchers? Yeah, one of the first shows I ever saw on my own dime was them opening for The Dead Milkmen at the Gothic, back when bits of plaster would rain down during sets. Awesome.
And, yeah, I was totally at that awesome Depeche Mode / Nitzer ebb show at RR (back in the boondocks where all the drunken frat dudes were)... I remember Nitzer Ebb broke their beat-machine and just drummed and strutted before finally slinking off stage.
I grew up at the Rainbow Music Hall: The Police w/The Specials, X, Randy Newman, Thin Lizzy, U2 (3x), Black Flag w/The Minutemen, Ramones, Warren Zevon, T-Bone Burnett, etc.
For those who still lament the dead mall, I just uploaded my song “Cinderella City” to m’ MySpace page. The lyrics accompany it.
Please allow me one more piece of shameless self-promotion. My Denver novel: A Western Capitol Hill.
American Furniture Warehouse still has the animals come by. I took my daughter there to get her picture with a tiger...must be a bad mom. :)
Kacey of Kacey Fine Furniture just died...it's pretty sad actually.
The Lakeside fun house...my mom got stuck on one of the roller slides once.
Furrs!!! We used to go there all the time. I remember being freaked out by the wall paper.
Jolly Ranchers! We used to get in the car line every Halloween for the free bags of candy. I used to live in Golden near the factory and we'd go every weekend.
Waterworld still there, still going strong...lots of competition now...Elitch's has a water park, and there's Splash & Pirates cove...plus countess random wavepools/slides.
Buckingham Mall is pretty rundown/empty...though a traveling carnaval stops there every year.
Mercury Cafe: Still there, fantastic food, and Thursday night swing.
Frist off Teletunes was FMTV first before KBDI sold the name. I put up a list of youtube videos that I remerber from that time under FMTV, "This is not my beautiful wife."
Anyway, how about Prom restaurants? The Magic Pan in Larimer Square. The Boulderado
Wow. This might be the first time in my adult life that I've felt nostalgic and a little proud about being from Denver.
This is perhaps a bit niche, but anyone remember Roller City on Alameda? Now a Salvation Army or a Goodwill, I believe, but the source of much 'tween angst for me.
@50:Jolly Ranchers- Wheatridge plant had store attached where you could get bulk seconds for 99 cents a pound.
I was so heart broken when they closed the plant. Fire Jolly Ranchers never tasted the same after that.
Fourney Train Museum- Amazing collection of classic cars, dioramas, and of course trains.
Moved but still around: http://forneymuseum.org/basicinfo.htm
@Bonnie:
I distinctly remember when the uber-conservative men's group The Promise Keepers had their conference in Boulder, and one of them came in looking for Christian music I sold him a Ministry CD. heh.
Thank you for that. Bill McCartney and the Promise Keepers. *shudder*
N @37 - KTCL was owned by Alf Landon's widow. I still have a tape from about 1963 of when Mom and her Brownie/Girl Scouts were on, and I told the announcer that I was not a girl scout. The station was KZIX then, and later KIIX, then KTCL.
The great radio stations in Denver were KMYR (which became the miserable KHOW) and KFML (whose frequency is now KIMN-FM, as far as I know, pitching Muzak-lite from the KCOL studio in Fort Collins). KFML has fan sites on the web (as does KIMN) where you can hear some old station breaks in their early-70s glory. KLZ-FM was pretty good, too (I remember once or twice they put "Teddy Bear's Picnic" on the turntable) -- they changed their name to KAZY for some dopey reason.
I made it to Elitch's one time, around 1979, when they put free coupons in the paper. A friend and I and his date collected a handful of them, then found that it took about five to get a ride, so we each had one ride and flipped a coin for the other one, then went home. At least I saw the place. I rode the roller coaster a week or so after a Denver policeman was decapitated on it.
In 1975-6, I used Blinky in a comic book story, "Jimmy Cool vs The Creature from Channel Two," in which Cool goes up against their afternoon movie host, Tom Shannon. Blinky is Shannon's enforcer. In part two, he meets the Reruns (Gilligan, McHale, Gomez Addams...). Search YouTube for Blinky, and see him chatting away in his shop. I used to stay up for their Creature Features, eager to watch a double- or triple-feature of old Universal and American International flicks, only to wake up to a screen full of static.
The Forney Transportation Museum used to be in Fort Collins, where the Forneys lived. They figured they could make more money in Denver some time in the 70s.
Wax Trax was great. I still have all the used vinyl I got there, and an issue of PUNK magazine (then we moved before I could buy more). I remember their turntables -- one had a sign that said, "Like, Out of Order, JACK."
Then there are the older memories, of Fred 'n' Fae on KLZ-TV, singing the "Tum Tum" song and showing serial chapters and "The Funny Company." They came to Fort Collins once to give away photos. I stood in line and when they handed me a picture, asked if I wanted an autograph. I was game for anything extra and said sure, and they rubber-stamped their name on it. I wasn't pleased -- they ruined my picture!
Jesus...Blinky's Fun Club. I watched that guy every morning! Most of my memories of Denver revolve around pizza joints (Showbiz...The Organ Grinder, which was walking distance from my house when I was a kid..), morning kid shows, Elitch's, and shoplifting. I didn't know I'd be so nostalgia-y today. :)
Mile High Comics?
Elitch's! I saw a production of Harvey there with the dad from Silver Spoons, the maid from Diff'rent Strokes, the wife from Amadeus and some dude from Dukes of Hazzard. I was completely starstruck.
Anyone remember listening to the post game show on the radio after the Broncos games and hearing, "They spell it N-E-L-O-W-E-T, but it's pronounced, nel-o-way..."? They lived in my neighborhood, and the OTHER Sleeper house was in my neighborhood as well.
Dealin' Doug - GUH!
pablo_marx said: "I came here to say this thread is useless without The Shane Company..."
I truly don't mean to be a turd in the punchbowl of Denver-specific nostalgia but only today, after reading this thread, have I discovered that the Shane Company is a national chain. I, too, have those cheeseball radio ads memorized from the 80's ("across from the Dunfey in San Mateo, open weekdays till 8, Saturdays and sundays till 5!")...except I grew up in California.
They're based in Ohio.
If this had been an SF bay area childhood nostalgia thread I probably would have ALSO posted the Shane Company. Sigh. we've all been duped.
never been to denver but now I wish I had a time machine set to 1977 so I could go.
I spent many a nights at Muddy's during high school and after. My picture made the wall twice. By the time I was 21 I found myself at Calvins. I miss those places as well as the 15th St. viaduct and chinese fire drills while waiting for trains to go by. Rock Island, Stars, INXS, Normans, the Fizz, Scandals, the Grove, 13th Street Cafe, the Pegasus, Fashion Disaster. Teletunes!!! I miss LoDo before it was even called LoDo. You didn't go to lower downtown after dark - but we did!
I miss the gum tree while waiting in line for the log ride at the old Elitch's. Thank God Casa Bonita is still around. I like Davie's Chuckwagon too.
The list goes on...
Oh, oh, who remembers Laser Floyd at Gates Planetarium? They had a specially modified projector that produced the fastest-rotating star field in the world. Awesome!
I remember Laser Floyd, but also the superior Laser Rock - Boston, Styx, and who knows who else.
Thanks for setting the record straight about FMTV and MTV. Yes, FMTV existed before MTV. And it wasn't that they changed their name to Teletunes to avoid legal problems. It was because they sold the name to some other program in another part of the country. Ah, the almighty buck.
Ohhh #100, you stole mine! I loved going to Muddy's and Cafe Euphrates! Those were some serious years during my teenage years... and going to Paris now makes me feel sick to my stomach... it's just not the same!
And to clarify, everyone... it was FUNTASTIC NATHANS ;) I still have an 80's style t-shirt from there. The whole rainbow, cheesy logo... so fun.
And while I'm on my coffee house places... certainly someone here frequented Denny's on Evans and Colorado when Euphrates & Muddy's closed and Paris got old...
- Fine dining at "The Broker" chain
- U Turn Man
- Applejacks
- The Eskimo Club
- Coors Tours
- Mori's, when it was the only thing in empty lodo
- Cruising Colfax (which I avoided)
- Anyone remember summers at sandy Sunset Beach, the (4th) largest (outdoor) pool (surrounded by sand) in America?
- The Rockies (ice hockey team) and that song
I'm sure I'll think of more later.
Wow, what flashbacks...I'm waiting to hear some situation I was actually a part of.
Here's a great memory I have about Celebrity:
Warming up in the upper level arcade (many more traditional pinball machines), then heading for the lower level, improved variety arcade area, where I'd often make a b-line for indy-800, which could accommodate 8 racers at once. There was a "black night" pinball machine down there that I just thought was the coolest.
How about Maxwell's deep dish? (I think I have that right)
Crusty enough to remember Noel and Andy and the thick marker pen drawing demos. Cripes!
TV after school specials, and wasn't channel 2 that aired the John Byner show and you could actually count on seeing some topless women forced into the story?
Heritidge Sq and the mini train, and here's an obscure one: the funhouse or whatever it was called that was probably just a big brown trailer but inside everything in the space was altered to tweak your perceptions (water flowing uphill and a ramp that looked level but felt like you were either walking uphill or downhill).
And let us not forget the original orange crush.
Holy crap- I had a wiki childhood/punk adolescence with way too many of you! Shout out to Roller City, though I liked Skate City in Arvada a bit better they had a black light for couples skate. As a tween girl Sunday nights on KIMN were the best, American Top 40 followed by Dr. Demento then Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I used to listen to Allan Berg too, he had a lot to do with my formative political years, I was devastated when he was killed.
Thirsties, Ground Zero, Normans and Pogos? My misspent youth! I can't believe we were allowed to drink at 18. Half of my friends didn't make the cut for the grandfather clause, there was big money in getting your "lost" driver's license replaced back then.
@74, and @88, I totally remember the Promise Keepers gig, I worked on the hill too at the Yello Sub- all the old dads came in one afternoon and the girls and I were pissed, we put on the Sex Pistols, jumped up on the tables and made out. Foreskin 500! I hear that Punk Rock Dave actually owns a wine shop now.
What about all the great Denver dive bars? Lions Lair, Pete's Kitchen, El Chapultapec...
Hey and for you FoCo kiddies, anybody else catch Tony Hawk skating in Old Town, he must have been about 13. Would love to find the where abouts from anybody from Team Stupid too, I know a couple of the guys worked on some early hydrogen car prototypes, before they blew up their house...
Wow, good times is right!
I can't ever remember my phone number, but when I'm 90 I'll still know exactly how to call the Denver Post.
Call 825-2525, the Denver Post guaranteed classifieds!
GO ROCKIES!
Celebrity - stopping in the Shark/Barracuda and waiting for friends; endless running up the ramps and slowing when you knew a guard was around the next turn; and the shooting gallery - nuff said.
As I understand, two of the most venerable institutions of my youth are now rooming together - Tattered Cover and Twist and Shout?
Monkey Island in Washington Park for midnight capture the flag.
Original Chipotle on Evans - there opening day!
Anyone get dragged out in school to go to Four Mile Historical something or other?
There are only a couple things in this entire thread I haven't done/been to in my youth in Denver -
It makes me want to go home...
OMFG this is SUCH a cool thread!
I remember Cin City very well, as I worked 2 different jobs there in my youth. And to this day I still wear the brass belt buckle I bought in the headshop on the basement level for a measly $2.
... and KFML - really opened my eyes to what music should be about (when they didn't space out and forget to cue up the music).
... and drinking beer in Wash Park on a summer afternoon back before it was banned.
... and hanging around Celebrity.
And speaking of that neighborhood: Anyone remember the Riviera (before it got turned into a family-friendly restaurant)? Oh well, at least the new mgt had the sense to keep that awesome sign.
I nearly shat myself when I suddenly saw Blinky on BB. I never liked his show when I was growing up (in the 70s and 80s). He creeped me out then.
And yeah, Celebrity was awesome. I actually still have it as a recurring setting in my dreams, and I think I only went there twice. I don't even like swimming, and never have, but I loved the water slides there.
What a wonderful thread!!!
buscas empleo aqui lo encontraras http://www.aquiempleo.com
Dropsy, thanks for bringing up Noel & Andy. I was beginning to think I had made her up completely.
Here's a few more:
The Organ Grinder: Crappy pizza on Alameda with a huge, HUGE organ in the center of the dining hall.
The Straw Hat: More crappy pizza @ 80th & Wads where they would project cartoons on the walls.
I still remember sitting on Santa's lap at the Denver Dry each Xmas. It was at 16th & Glenarm. Gone now.
Anyone remember the fun house at Lakeside? The creepy laughing animatronic fat woman outside? I had several bloody noses from that place, trying to walk through the spinning barrel.
Lastly, about poor Blinky. Russell was a nice enough man. I met him at the end of his career while I was at PBS. He was very civil, but reeked of booze. I guess the clown cliches keep coming.
P.S. Praise Zod for the creator of this thread.
I went to grad school at DU '71-'72. Rode endlessly on bus routes 9 & 13. Hung out at Capitol Billiards on Sunday afternoons. Loved to eat at Joe's Buffet, home of the Original Mexican Hamburger. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Got a tattoo at Don-the-Tattooist on Broadway. Also liked to eat at a Thai place (Chada Thai?) where the menu was on a giant chalk board & the best bet was always "Let Lili Do It." We would go out in Larimer Square in the early days of prettification and walk home to Capitol Hill at 1:00 a.m. without a worry. There were still traces of the place that Kerouac described in On The Road, gin mills and stumble bums, but Urban Development was well underway and parts of the city looked bombed out, waiting for new buildings to spring up. One day, my brother & I were sitting on a bench by the federal buildings, and a truck stopped near us. A bunch of workers jumped up, rolled up the grass, and hauled it away. I've always wondered if they were legit landscapers, or turf rustlers. Could have gone either way.
I could go on and on with this thread (and I'm resisting the temptation to do so, just so you know), but does anyone remember "POW!", the after school television intermission call-in "game show" hosted by KIMN's Danny Davis? I am sure other cities had their own version, but I remember using the speed redial feature on my parents' newfangled touch tone telephone over and over in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to compete in what surely must be the lamest "videogame" ever: you (the caller) yell "POW" into the phone, causing a little ball to shoot from a moving cannon on the left side of the screen and, if you're lucky, destroying something on the right side of the screen. You had something like ten shots to complete your objective, but there seemed to be little to no relationship between the sound of the player's voice saying "POW" and the ball shooting across the screen, which meant most callers just screamed "POWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOW" and completely shot their wad. I'm glad I never got through.
Gosh, I must know a lot of you, at least by sight. I used to work in a book shop in lodo before it was lodo, which reminds me of another book shop, City Spirit Cafe, what a great place.
Muddy's til 3 in the morning crushing on Amy the waitress, and way too much time spent at My Brother's Bar.
They should have let the 15th St. Viaduct fall down in its own good time
I've never been compelled to post; but this is to good to pass up.
Remember the creepy-yet-still innocent animatronic displays all through Buckingham during Christmas? I can't count the times my cousins cried when we went to check them out. Sometimes, the Palace Guard's plaster smiles set to a small electronic hum still pop in my head.
My wife wonders why I like killer clown stories and puppet movies...
What about Bandemere (sp?) Speedway? Just take Alameda to Rooney Road and follow the signs... Sunday, SUNDAY!!!
@103: Denny's on Colorado Evans: Liquidsky hangout...we used to drive down from the mountains just to go there and hang with the liquidsky folks. :)
Going to Buckingham's at Christmas...my grandmother used to take us every year!
Mile High Comics...spent a lot of money there...wait I'm a geek...I still spend money there. :) There's a few of them still around.
Not quite Denver but did anyone go to NorthPole as a kid...all I remember is the huge potato sack slide.
I remember being scared of the Organ Grinder. I loved Celeberty...but I was so young I didn't know what it was called.
This thread has just telepoprted me back in time. Lived in Denver from 64-85.....you all have covered almost anything I could have named with one exception. There was a mall somewhere in SW Denver that had a miniature circus model that was massive and incredibly detailed. Anyone...?
I want to reply to every comment with YES! YES! YES!
An update on some stuff for you Denver Natives that left and haven't been back.
Wax Trax is still on 13th and Pearl and still going strong. Fashion Nation is still across the street, alas, Imi Jimi's is gone (as someone mentioned).
KTCL sucks now.
Paris on the Platte is still there, but it's not the same with industrial decay all around it. They still make Broadway Wakup shakes and they're still awesome.
The Mercury Cafe is still there, and still does all kinds of cool stuff, I still want to take Tango lessons there.
My Brother's Bar is still kickin, and pretty much just as you knew it.
Muddy's of course, is long gone. They threw small raves in the space for a couple of years, and now it's some horrible upscale martini bar or something that's always empty from what I've seen.
#111: One of my biggest missions in life is to find pictures of that Lakeside funhouse, I've been looking for a long time. Got any;)?
Uhh what else, Everything else is kind of just gone.
Being a Denver native that's never left, it's kind of sad to see this stuff. This city was so much better with Teletunes, and the fledgling music scene it once had. Now, it really kind of blows. There is no music/club scene here anymore, it's all become pretty banal. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, maybe I just grew up and don't have time for that stuff anymore. Really though, that's the only complaint I have about the city. Yeah, it's a bit more upscale (economic growth!) but Denver is relation to the world is a fuckin utopia. Come visit, I bet you'll want to stay to live.
Oh, and I own both Warlock Pincer CD's ;P
I had no idea that the crowd I was surrounded by as a child would all grow up and and join me as members of the boingboing army.
Last time I was in Denver, Dave's chuckwagon diner is still there on Colfax. Steak and egg breakfast for $3.00
Does anyone else remember a huge spiderweb rubberband room at Funtastic Nathan's where there were layers of webbed inner-tube like bands you could climb around on like you were a giant spider?
And am I the only one who's mother incessantly listened to "Troubleshooter Tom Martino" for hours every day?
I remember the sabertooth tiger head at the Museum of Natural history where you could throw in a penny and hear it roar. And I remember going to Gates Planetarium on prom night in 1995 (I went to Wheat Ridge High School,) to see Laser Metallica.
Paris on the Platte and Muddy's, and going afterwards to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show...again.
I remember Blinky's show always had a game where kids would throw a ping pong ball into a series of buckets that were further and further away, and the furthest bucket you threw it in you got a bigger prize. I never got to go on the show, but I always envied the kids that did. I hear he's a bit of a jerk in real life.
My favorite radio DJs were always Kerry and Kearns on KBPI. If I remember right, KAZY became ALICE sometime in the early 90's, on the day they switched, we all tuned in to hear the usual good rock and roll, and they played nothing but "Alice's Restaurant" over and over again all day long.
I'm suddenly missing Denver now more than ever.
Anyone else remember Blinky's other character/show, "Captain Dooley"? He had a sidekick puppet named Wilbur and they also had a holiday special they'd run called "Christmas Is'a Coming!"
I did an internship at KDVR (which co-workers called "Cadaver") during the mid-80s. We showed movies like Charles Bronson's "Ten to Midnight" dubbed from laserdiscs and kept in the full-frontal nudity! Sunday night was filled with paid commercials or what they referred to as "bugs on babies" shows...
Who are all you people and why did we all hang out at the same places and watch the same shows? I bet we all have met at one time or another. Muddy's, Paris (when I was in High School we used to drink in the field across the street, sadly now condos and other yuppie things), Wax trax, white spot, Teletunes, Lakeside (that I now live by and still go to),and Warlock Pinchers. I love Denver.
Question: Who didn't put their gum on that tree at Old Elitch Gardens? Do you think that they remove the gum off the trees at the end of the season, that would be a lot of gum.
Remember Miss Kitty's? My family used to drive past that old scary porn theater on Colfax!
Here's one I haven't seen yet. On or about the corner of Larimer Street and 15th (I think) there was an awesome old business-supply (and other stuff) store. I remember they had a handmade posterboard sign advertising something like "canvas grenade-sight cases" that was in their window for years and years. I went in once, and a man probably 90 years old shuffled around to help me...it was like in a movie, except instead of mogwais you could find carbon paper or typewriter ribbon. Not that I ever needed anything there, it was just a what-would-become-LoDo fixture for my first ten years in Denver or so. It held out against Larimer Square surprisingly long, but finally succumbed when I was away. Sad.
For the nonce, though, the Rocky Mountain Seed Company and Rockmount are still both in business; equally historic reminders of LoDo's commercial/warehouse era...
Muddy's, in both its locations, was awesome. *sigh*
Lakeside still is. Yeah, it's a bit shabby, but they encourage you to bring in your own food, unlimited rides for as little as $12, a hundred years of history and rides, incredible art deco designs, affordable food and drinks, lines that range from zero time to a few minutes max... It's not the new Elitch's, but it neither costs $50 nor has Elitch's strict food/drink policies or lines. And it's no "gangland", unless by "gangs" you mean "Latinos"... Was it on this site the word "beausage" was mentioned? 'cause Lakeside's the very essence of that.
Yay the creepy 15th street viaduct, both on the Rock Island end and the Paris on the Platte end!
Anyone remember a band called Monkey Siren? I liked them. And there was a group of artists before I was in Denver, called the Mud Men...would wear faux-tribal masks, coat their bodies in mud, and go around downtown gibbering at people.
MCNICHOLS ARENA (aka Big Mac)!!!!!!!
My first concert was KISS in 78'. I was in 5th Grade. Lol!
@109 The Riviera Club!! My folks took me there literally as long as I can remember. I remember going nuts waiting for them to finish the last few sips of their beers because they liked to just sit and soak in the biker/80's yuppie ambience.
I'm old enough to remember the old Denver Bears AAA club at Mile High and the original Colorado Rockies hockey team.
Did anyone else ever frequent the Deadbeat Club?
If you went to East, then I'm sure you would skip 1st period to have breakfast at It's Greek to Me ($1.99) on Colfax then grab a smoke on the south lawn.
Well - the morning is gone. Amazing to read all of this.
What was the name of that burger joint in Cherry Creek that you sat in booths and used a phone to call in your order. I loved the whole damn thing as a kid. It was close to Shakey's.
#124: I worked at Kitty's for a time in the early 90's. As a cashier, not as a janitor (I'll leave you to come up with what a janitor does at a porn store with TV booths).
I never thought there would be this many people in Denver on BB. Maybe we should have a meet? That might be a trip.
Ok...I haven't read every comment yet, but have we talked about:
The KIMN Chicken
Alan Berg
Y108
Zezo's Magic Shop in Cinderella City
Water World (still there?)
Stapleton Airport
Cafe 13
Hal & Charlie (Huck & Chuck)
KBPI Rocks the Rockies (The TV Commercial with the woman lip-syncing the robotic voice)
Oh, The White Spot, how many hours spent there guzzling crappy coffee and "studying". My brother and my friend were both on Blinky's Fun Club (Happy Birth-a-day to you, cha cha cha). My first college room mate dated a cliff-diver from Casa Bonita, and lots of students in our high school marching band worked there. Did any of you know that the South Park office (where they make the show) is called "Casa Bonita"?
Football: Remember the "Orange Crush" and there were commemorative orange soda cans for each of them? Oh, and Rich Karlis, the shoe-less kicker? Steve Watson.
And Cinderella City at Christmas for kids was overwhelmingly delightful/frightening. You wanted all year to go, but then when you got there all of those animatronic glazed-over children and the giant Santa throne..yikes!
Denver is where my heart will always be, no matter where I live...because of all these odd details that only Denverites would know!
Oh....and my dad used to call into AM radio shows and answer sports talk questions to win gift certificates to the Yum Yum Tree! Awesome.
After a brief search this link is about the best article I can find mentioning Tom Hollar and Imi Jimi. This was heartbreaking to me considering I spent a few years as a teenager thinking Tom was about the coolest guy on the planet. He was always so friendly and down to earth. Imi Jimi was an oasis in the boneheaded, hipper than thou Denver skate sceene.
http://www.westword.com/2006-03-30/news/ghost-of-a-chance/
Sniagrab anyone?
#133: Sniagrab still rules, and do you remember the giant conveyor belt/ski slope inside the sport's castle? They had skiing lessons year-round on it. This was before even before snowboarding.
Tony LaMonica? Is that right...SkyCopter9 or whatever on 9News.
What about the crazy guy that dressed as a ?Civil War soldier and hung out in front of the 7-11 on 13th (?) -- he was on an early episode of COPS!!
Remember the department store "The Denver" ha!
#131,
I haven't thought of Alan Berg in years. The day he was killed he spent all day at the Denver zoo meeting people and signing autographs and whatever. I was the last kid he talked to at the end of the day and he answered all my questions about being on the radio. He was killed that night, and my mother took me to his memorial service.
And I totally forgot all about the KIMN chicken. It was like a radio mascot of big bird.
#131,
I haven't thought of Alan Berg in years. The day he was killed he spent all day at the Denver zoo meeting people and signing autographs and whatever. I was the last kid he talked to at the end of the day and he answered all my questions about being on the radio. He was killed that night, and my mother took me to his memorial service.
And I totally forgot all about the KIMN chicken. It was like a radio mascot of big bird.
Lions Lair is where I cut my teeth as a young rocker/drinker. Don't forget the Cricket on the Hill. I spent way too much money and time frequenting smelly bars in the 90's.
Anyone remember the bands Ruby Hue, Mean Uncle Mike, Babihed, The Fluid,
Sorry just thought of another one. Anybody remember Stormy Rottman from 9 news?
He came to our elementary school to speak. I used to watch him all the time.
@131 OMG the KIMN chicken!!!!!!!!
And does anyone remember the restaurant at Stapleton with the rocks on display as you went through the line? We cried so much when that went away. DIA is such a shithole!
Does anyone remember "Come on and take a free ride... On the 9 News express!"
Mike Landess. Ed Sardella. Oh god there are so many more whose names I can't remember.
At one point in the 90's they switched the 3 major networks -- 9 will always be ABC to me but now it's NBC or CBS? I don't even know.
KBPI radio progression:
'BPI and KAZY were awesome competitors for years. We had 2 awesome radio stations. Anyone remember Steven B and the Hawk? sadly, they have both passed away now. Way better than Dean and Rog or the Locker Room, or any of the morons that Clear Channel puts in there now...Unlce Nasty is the only thing on the station that is at all real, and that is only when he does his late night "metal shop".
Anyhow, in the mid 90's, KAZY was bought out by J-corp. Some sort of competitor/precursor to Clear Channel. They took the station "all-digital" which meant that KAZY started to suck. The win after all those years of competition went to 'BPI. For a short time, 'BPI was independent and awesome. Then Clear channel/J-corp bought KBPI too. Moved them to KAZY's old slot on the dial, and started "Alice" at 'BPI's old slot.
Denver radio has sucked ever since.
KTCL-remember Suzy Wargin? She got her start there. I went to school with her at CSU. She's on local TV now-Channel 9. much hot.
grew up in Evergreen/Lakewood, spent college years in Ft. Fun, and back to Evergreen. Denver is quirky, odd, strange and unique in so many ways...
Rocky Hockey! Bears Baseball! Dan Issel and David Thompson on the Nugs bench! Gradishar, Armstrong, Odom, Morton, Little and Upchurch!
The Gart Sports Castle! remember the indoor ski lessons?
And of course, let's hear it for the Blizzard of '82...and its sequel in 83!
@139 YES Stormy Rottman THANK YOU!
The Rok Tots
Hell's 1/2 Acre
Oh...and the lame band "Dotsero"!! Haaaa. I found out years ago that Dotsero is a Colorado town. I know this because driving out to LA once, my friend got attacked by a bee while driving and we exited the ONE exit to Dotsero so she could recover.
Satire Lounge. The Golden Nugget. There is a documentary about Colfax Avenue...try googling it. I think I got mine using Amazon.com, but I can't remember for sure. There are a few signature homeless people, business owners, patrons, city planners, etc...and lots of amazing history that goes waaaaaaaay back to the pioneers.
Find out what the GOV. has in mind for displacing the "Land of the Lost" (as we used to call Colfax).
Cruisin' the 'Fax. Remember how news-worthy this became when they banned it!?
John Nickel's "A Nickel's Worth" -- sappy news center 4 stories about "real people" or whatever. gross.
Local newsmen-only 1 name: Bob Palmer.
He just died last month. Great guy. Actually had a small role (as a local newsman) in the awesome movie "The Vanishing Point".
Anyone remember the Rainbow City Music Hall?
Had the chance to see some great bands there before they made it big - INXS, Midnight Oil and more.
It's now a drug store.
Such a loss.
Argh. I can't stop.
This dvd is actually pretty fantastic. Lots of commentary from the folks who shaped Denver into what it is today with a good focus on the 70's up to today. It has kind of an industial video feel, but worth the time or a few bucks for those who really love Denver. For the locals, they show it on Denver Comcast channel 8 every once in a while so check your listings.
http://www.amazon.com/Downtown-Denver-Heart-Havey-Productions/dp/B000WEPRS4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1221065996&sr=1-1
Speaking of Teletunes,
I remember seeing a freaky-ass video that weirded me out from about the time I was 9 until 12.
I can't remember the band, but the song was "Lullaby for a Swinging Larvae." It had a creepy dwarf dancing around, a child who was kidnapped by a giant, and some weird backtrack recordings.
BTW - I didn't grow up in Denver. I was in a small town about 90 miles Northeast.
KAZY - Gettin' the Led out! They also used to play 7 entire full length albums every Sunday night.
I always thought of KBPI as the little brother to KAZY.
The Fluid was the best band EVER! Just found their clip on Youtube from a show I mostly remember too! http://www.youtube.com/thefluidvideoarchive I totally remember Mean Uncle Mike, I had a massive crush on Mike Ward all through High School, shout out to @121 lets hear it for the Farmers!
Was anyone else creeped out by the Crown Hill mausoleum? It's right in the center of West Denver like a little Taj mahal and lit up at night, you can see it from anywhere, talk about an eyesore, gave me frickin nightmares. http://www.city-data.com/picfilesc/picc3317.php
this is a great thread -- there is no sense to this, I'm just rambling ...
The original "Time Warp" was the Mile High Comics flagship store in 1980-82, when I worked there. (Chuck Rozanski sold it to Wayne sometime later). I WAS THERE at the theater, SAVING STAN LEE'S SEAT, at the Raiders of the Lost Ark premiere -- a highlight of my life, for certain.
Other memories:
*KWGN Ch. 2 used to have "Mr. First Nighter" on Sat. nights -- a cloaked horror host who would introduce generally classic Universal horror films. I trace my love of movies directly to that.
* I'm also betraying my age by remembering Fred and Fay -- in the 60's, they had a children's show which had primitive music videos -- i.e., Fred and Fay would mouth along to pop records, sometimes with sets and makeup and things.
* KFML - FM was a hippie radio station that, in the 70's, had High Street -- an improve comedy group. Once a week, you'd turn on the Channel 2 10 o'clock movie, turn the sound down, put KFML on the radio, and listen to them doing their own soundtrack to the movie (they once turned some turgid soap into a time travel/science ficion piece). I suppose it was even better if you were chemically enhanced.
* KFML also had John Dunning and "Old TIme Radio" first, playing classic radio drama. That's what made me a radio rat, which I remain to this day.
* We loved Lakeside and Elitch's -- but I most remember riding the train circling the Lakeside Lake late at night, playing tonsil hockey with the Girl who Made Me a Man a couple weeks later.
Good times!
After Alan Berg came Rollye James, eclectic talk radio and music trivia junkie. She's still on the air. www.rollye.net
Traildust Steakhouse (perhaps too 80s)
The Call-in burger joint (you phoned in your order from your table to the kitcher) was called Round The Corner, IIRC.
Crown Hill had to be in Wheat Ridge. Olinger's is the undertaker with the large "HOLLYWOOD"-style sign right on the side of I-25.
Oh and best Denver band EVER? Obviously the Warlock Pinchers.
Blinky's awesome thrift store, right next to a walk-up Masonic Lodge
what about the original St. Mark's coffee on 14th and Market? I loved that place in high school!
I also wanted to mention that since leaving colorado, I have had memories of going to petting zoos inside the mall where I grew up in the suburbs...which I guess they don't really do in other places ;)
How about the "Gold C" coupon book? A friend I sent the link to this thread reminded me of that. Great deals on Waterworld passes, Breeze Ski Rentals, Copper Mountain lift tickets...
Mary and Lou's. Remember THAT joint? Loved it. Below street level and dimly lit so you couldn't see the true color of the Soylent meatloaf.
I wonder what happened to Muddy's coffee house.
And Peter Boyles. Man, now THAT dude should be the mascot for Denver. Peter Boyles with mentor/sidekick Baxter Black. Three words:
FACTORY OUTLET STORES!
But Denver never really had anything as corny as Sergilla, Albuquerque's own trailer-home-selling Mexican Godzilla. Sergilla rules.
Mary and Lou's was great, it was often there or a trip to Chubby's after clubbing
(now I gotta go to Chubby's)
You guys remember about 1987 when the FBI or DEA was pursuing some guy through Denver and when he hijacked a pickup one of the news helicopters started tracking him and landed in front of the truck, only to have the feds roll up behind and shoot the guy 40 times... on live television?
When I started reading this, there were 133 posts. By the time I finished, there were 155.
BLINKY AND BUCKLES: Blinky had a sidekick for awhile! I was in the live audience once when I was about 5. Buckles squirted me with his flower lapel pin. I snuck behind the puppet stage and saw all the lifeless hand puppets. Aha! My suspicions were confirmed. A stagehand came over and told me to get back to my seat.
DUCKWALL'S (on Alameda, in Lakewood), Where my dad caught me shoplifting. He went back and paid for the stupid little toy, and then kept it on his dresser for years (it seems), and I was never allowed to play with it.
TOP'S COFFEE SHOP: I noticed all of the frilly toothpicks stuck in the drop ceiling, and I wondered how they got there. My dad figured it out. And in a wonderful lapse of judgement, he told me: You shoot them out of the drinking straws!
@50: JOLLY RANCHERS: Yes. They made one flavor per day. We would drive by and our salivary glands would seize up from the smell.
@1,51: I played an open mike night at PARIS ON THE PLATTE in 1992 (sorry, wrong decade for this thread). And old guy came up to me and said, "Stay pissed off."
THE DENVER WAX MUSEUM: Who's old now, Dropsy (@22)?
@57: GATES RUBBER: I had an evil 5th grade teacher. The only kind thing she ever did--in her entire life, I'm sure--is she gave us all hard rubber balls from Gates, which is where her husband worked. (Yes, Mrs. Wade, I'm talking about you.)
THE PARAMOUNT THEATER: Where I saw MAGAZINE with YOUNG WEASLES, and Gluons.
TEEN LINE: It was a weird bug in the Mountain Bell phone system. You could call a particular number for free from a pay phone and there would be a beep-beep-beep like a busy signal, but between the beeps was a conference call with a bunch of teenagers. "[beep]Meet[beep]us[beep]at[beep]7-11[beep]..."
@125: Yes, I remember MONKEY SIREN. I knew Glen Taylor, the Bela Fleck of pedal-steel guitar. (Again: Wrong decade for this thread.)
Finally: OPEN LIVING SCHOOL! Did anyone else happen to go to that experimental public school in Edgewater, where you didn't have to do anything if you didn't want to? The teachers had to spontaneously create curriculum around whatever seemed to interest the kids--paper airplanes, for instance?
Mary and Lou's was great, it was often there or a trip to Chubby's after clubbing
(now I gotta go to Chubby's)
Mary and Lou's -- this was the place with the lottery ticket scratchers hung all over the place, right?
In was Bonzo (from Chicago) that had the buckets...not Blinky.
Denver music has picked up big time in Colorado (you must not listen to alternative/punk). 93.3 is the big proponent of that now.
Y108! Hey Steve [something] make me a weiner. Those crazy songs..lol..that's the only one I kind of remember.
Crown Hill is in Lakewood. I used to pass it every day on my way to work (Coors).
KPBI is still there and every once in a while they play the robot sound it's kind of Rap/rock mostly now though.
The Fox plays what KPBI used to...I mainly listen to 93.3 and JACK.
"Mary and Lou's -- this was the place with the lottery ticket scratchers hung all over the place, right?"
Yep, just a diner on Broadway, when the only reason to be there was the Mayan
One cannot talk about 70's Denver pop culture without mention the now defunct "adult palace" on Santa Fe.
http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2008/09/10/live-girl-show/
Chubby's! I remember the old one on 38th avenue where you could get huge burritos smothered in green chili in the front and...really cheap...unboxed...slightly used TV's, stereo's, car stereo's etc in the back, as long as you didn't ask too many questions.
I had friends at Open Living School. They loved it. Isn't it now the Jeffco open school?
I need to get off this thread. It will eat up my entire day...
KTCL and Teletunes were so closely related at one point and all of their stuff was imported, underground, or at least edgy. KTCL from the mid-90s onward is just another Clear Channel station.
I remember KBPI once tried to vary its format and they played Love and Rockets, "No New Tale to Tell." How bizarre that butt-rock station would play something interesting.
Paris on the Platte was pretty hilarious. You had to be pretty intent on looking artsy, intellectual, or hip just to show up... and then you turned 21 and never stepped w/in 1,000 feet of the place.
But I see that place every time I fly into Denver 'cause it's down the street from My Brother's Bar, best beer garden EVER.
Wow, so many weird memories . . . I moved back to Denver after stints in NY and LA.
Do you remember . . .
White sands swim beach?
Denver drumstick (with the toy train up by the ceiling and your chicken drumstick came in a container decorated with a rocket ship)?
Scotty's burgers (with the worst french fries ever made)?
Ebbetts Field? (Great little nite club with a history of some of the best concerts ever)
Someone asked about the burger place with the phones at the table . . .Was that Round the Corner?
And does anyone remember some of the old attractions at the zoo? Sea lions in the cliff dwelling diorama? The old bird house by the lake? The really smelly pachyderm house (which is still there btw)? crocodiles in the moat around monkey island?
And, OK, Red Rocks. Lotsa great shows. Talking Heads where David Byrne jumped into the audience and sang Life During Wartime while standing next to my brother and me. Springsteen in the rain? Getting in line at 4 in the morning to get good seats?
Does anyone watch Animal Planet? ER Veterinarian Kevin Fitzgerald is a denverite who was one of the original cliff divers at Casa Bonita.. I can only tell you that it was worse that you remember.
How about ice skating the amazing building that IM Pei designed for May D&F. Can't believe anyone had the balls to tear that down. So sad http://www.dshistory.com/stores/may_df_denver/ice_skating_on_zeckendorf_p.html
Weekends began when the guy on KHOW (Hal? Charlie?) yelled "I LOVE YOU DENVAAR!"
I loved KTCL and remember FMTV before the name was sold..("They're American planes, made in America: Smoking, or non-smoking. Ahh ahh ahh oh ahh.")
I know a few of you grew up in Arvada: How about the Harvest Festival -- I remember when my soccer team go to march in the parade, in our cleats and everything! High school, I remember 3.2 beer at After the Gold Rush or Confettis. Aferwards, we'd head back to the top of the hill on Carr and ogle the School of Mines' big lighted "M" and the Sex Lights.
#167 I spent HOURS of my youth there.....my dad worked close by.... Plains Conservation Center anyone? That was a standard stop on the field trip circuit for Aurora Public Schools.
Denver had the most awesome record stores-JB & H, Sound Warehouse, Don's Dusty Discs in Thornton! All gone now, sadly...
Ch. 9 also used to have a crappy kiddie show in the 70s..they put some felt thing on the boom mike they would lower to talk to kids that looked like ears and called this thing "ears"! I'll bet I am the only one who remembers that.
The news people were a hoot-Reynelda Muse (who later commuted to her new job in Atlanta at a cable upstart called "CNN" from Denver!). Carl Akers! Janet Zappala! I rode on a bus in the early 90s in NYC with former ch. 4 star Madelyn McFadden (on her way to her short-lived "Inside Edition" job). She looked kind of like Pat Benatar and was a rising star for a while. Remember "ActionCam"? Ch. 9's ENG news camera? They had ads that used "A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy!
Denver "news" was awesome. If they weren't whipping everyone into a frenzy about how 90% of Denver's population were affiliated with the Bloods or Crips, then Wendy Bergen was filming pit bull fights in her on basement and calling it a KUSA exclusive.
Funny how nobody's really owned up to living in the suburbs. I went to high school in Littleton and lived in Aurora and couldn't get out of the burbs fast enough when I turned 18. I think about 50% of Denver's population is kids that moved there from Englewood, Edgewater (God forbid) Greenwood Village, etc.
Who remembers the 7-Eleven on 13th and Pearl (or was it Penn?) down by Wax Trax? I loved watching Cops when the filmed in Denver and how that Sev was like ground zero for vagrants committing petty crimes in Denver.
Anyone ever shop at Twist & Shout's 80s location, when they had enormous volumes of live bootleg CDs and records, big enough for federal marshals to notice?
@171 If i remember correctly Vinyl Junkie (accros from wax trax on 13th) was shut down for selling bootlegs. I had an almost unlistenable Jesus and Mary Chain bootleg I purchased there that I absolutley loved.
Round the Corner!!! Yes, that's it!
I remember waiting in line in the rain for the first Star Wars at the Cooper Theater! I wuz just a littl'un... sigh.
Youth in Boulder:
Mile High Comics! and then Time Warp! (1 block from the house I grew up in, and next door to the Sanitary Bakery, the memory of their blueberry chip cookies just set my mouth a waterin')
3.2 beer from 7-11 with forged HS IDs!
Kenny Be and T. Motley
Young Adulthood in Denver:
The best thriftstore in the world: Salvation Army in Commerce City or ARC in Thornton?
The Rok Tots! The Fluid! Boss 302! El Espectro! Jux County!
El Taco de Mexico!
Lion's Lair! Skyline! 7 South!
Thanks for the memories, all! And I did recognize at least one person on this thread that I do know: @106: Hi, Shawn! ...but I know there're more!
@166 Michael - Yes, it was Round the Corner Burgers - ah man I forgot how great that place was.
Does anyone remember the pizza at Bonnie Brae cafe or the ice cream shop across the street?
The original Tattered Cover bookstore in Cherry Creek.
Watching Twice Wilted at there band space/living quarters in the warehouse district in LODO.
And does anyone remember that old guy who use to hang out at shows and at Muddy's passing out fliers of up-coming shows?
@174 I was wondering if anybody was going to mention Twice Wilted / Tar Mints - Kurt, hope you are reading this - too many late nights in the warehouse district. I lived at 30th and Larimer and various places on Walnut when it was a ghost town all weekend long, unrecognizable now
What was the name of that big beautiful single-screen movie theatre in Glendale(?), might have been on Colorado Blvd. Had loge seating, was really ornate. I remember seeing "The Empire Strikes Back" there during its opening week (okay, technically that was 1980)...?
I worked at North Valley and Northglenn malls, understand they're both long gone now.
All-you-can-eat iced shrimp at the Broker...
@158: I lived up Ward Rd from the Jolly Rancher plant for a while... ah, the aroma!
@PISOMOJADO
That was the Cooper Theater.
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/824/
They actually had a smoking section in there :)
I saw Empire there too. I won a trip to Walt Disney World on opening night of "Empire Strikes Back".
#173: El Taco de Mexico is soooo good. Tacos Pastor and huge glasses of horchata. Mmm. Never had family, friends or girlfriends that actually liked that place, so I'd usually eat at the bar reading Westword. The only places that rivaled that joing were Tacos Rapidos (obscure, Federal and Evans), La Favorita (restaurant now defunct) and of course Benny's.
Lion's Lair was fun, but I preferred the 15th Street Tavern, aka Dirtiest Bar in Colorado.
Two places I don't miss that much, but have nostalgia for: Rock Island and the mysterious downtown bar just called "BAR" by a neon sign in the window. Place had a one-armed man that served an awful Polish and sauerkraut.
Places I actually miss: PS Lounge, Goosetown, Bluebird.
Wow, great thread everyone and a really fun topic. I moved here in the summer of '82 (right before the blizzard) and have lived all over the area (Arvada, Lakewood, Evergreen, and Denver) ever since. Here are some of my memories...
-Yes, KBDI, Channel 12 used to be a lot better, more edgy. Besides Teletunes, does anyone remember the Home Movies show and how they used to broadcast live from the Boulder Mall Crawl? I think it's a pale imitation of KRMA now.
-Celebrity Fun Center, good times. Why can't we have a place like that now? I liked the pool and water slides the best, but they had a great arcade. For some reason, I can still recall the arcade's smell.
-How about the Denver Gold, the USFL team? My folks took me to see Alabama (for some reason) and one of their games one time.
-The UZI store? Wow. I lived with Mari's brother for about a year. He always had a lot of Foreskin 500 albums around.
-So many great record stores...JB&H was great, I think I've been to every Twist & Shout iteration, the first time I went to Chicago as a kid I was like, "There's a Wax Trax here too?"
-Casa Bonita, god, the food is so awful but I'm always down to go there a few times a year. We went all the time as kids. I even had my 33rd birthday party there.
-After the Gold Rush-um, OMG, I think that was one of my (recently divorced) Mom's favorite haunts. My Mom really liked KIMN and I really liked the chicken.
-The Gothic, I'm glad it's still around, but its vibe has changed considerably. I remember seeing Ministry there in 1990 and Nirvana open for Dinosaur Jr.
-The Wet Spot-sooo many post-drunk breakfasts, so many stories. It was sad to see it close down because of the memories and the fact that it was one of the last (maybe the last) example of a California-style diner in Denver. All of the Pete's restaurants are still really good. Muddy's and Paris on the Platte (and Poudre) are/were cool. Benny's is still just about my favorite place for Mexican.e for Mexican
-I was almost too young, but I need to give a shout out to Cinderella City, Nathan's, and The Organ Grinder. I have vague, but very pleasant memories from each.
Jake Jabbs and Dealin' Doug are sweet, kitchsy parts of our culture but, to be honest, I could go the rest of my life without seeing another one of their commercials. Why does Doug Moreland have to yell all the time?
-Finally, I was away when this happened, but can someone tell me why the Big Three networks stations played musical chairs at some point? I remember how channel 4 used to be the NBC affiliate.
#176 & #177: Actually I believe it was "The Continental" But I saw Empire Strikes Back at the Cooper. Both were great theatres.
#179: Notice how much "bling" both Jake Jabs and Dealin' Doug wear? I've been in Doug's old office, and it was decorated like Circus Circus in Las Vegas with less taste. I love watching his hands on the commercials, there's like $50,000 worth of jewlery there. It's the singular reason why I wouldn't ever buy a car from him.
@#90
Buckingham Mall doesn't exist anymore. It was torn down this summer, and they're building ANOTHER city-center style shopping center with a "main street" surrounded by big box stores.
One of my earliest childhood memories is being in a tap dance show at Buckingham Mall and my paper reindeer antlers falling into one of the fountains.
@180
It was the the Cooper. See my link and the comments.
I had walking pneumonia and we went to see it on opening night. Maybe they showed it at 2 diff theaers but I did see it opening night at he Cooper. Just my $0.02
@Battlestar_Schott or #148:
Yup that was one of the weirdest vids that Teletunes ever ran - "Songs for Swinging Larvae" by The Residents
Here it is for more nightmare material:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3m70cSgAI0
I'm proud to say that we played a lot of videos that MTV wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole -- really gorey/creepy stuff from Skinny Puppy, Ministry, NIN, Tool and so on. And we really gave props to local Denver bands too. I think thanks to this thread I'll put up my collection of Teletunes VHS tapes onto Youtube. So stay tuned!
MORE MEMORIES:
*Imi Jimi:
What happened to the owners of this skate shop was indeed a tragic story about how street violence can affect and bring together an entire community. I remember going to the murder site in the parking lot nearby and leaving flowers with all the other endless flowers and gifts left at the makeshift shrine.
*Fashion Disaster:
That was the ONLY place to get the latest Creepers, spider tights and Morticia dresses. When I hosted Teletunes I had us shoot on location there for a Halloween episode. In fact, I think we shot the next Halloween special at Central City's massive cemertary.
*Emporium Of Design:
At the time in the '80s and early '90s it was the only place you could get a non-traditional piercing in Denver. Navel rings and other below the belt piercings were done there, as well as the usual tattoos. A bunch of biker guys ran the place, and it was kind of endearing to get a navel piercing from an old timer who looked like he could give ZZ Top a run for their money.
*Time Warp:
A great little comic book store on Pearl Street in Boulder that ghad an amazing array of comics including a lot of alternative stuff that didn't have a single superhero in it. I discovered the world of Bettie Page from that shop since they were the only place I could track down copies of the fanzine The Betty Pages.
* Muddy's and St. Mark's coffee houses:
Serious coffee for the most diverse java lovers ever. I would get fashion inspiration there as I would quietly sip my vanilla latte at the corner table at both places playing with any of the board games scattered around.
* The Fluid
I'll have you know I still have their purple glitter band sticker on my bass amp.
* Stapleton Airport:
I remember as a kid when we went to pick up my dad from business trips and we'd drive under the runway bridge that planes landed and took off from. It seems so thrilling as a kid, that's for sure. I kind of miss the old airport.
* The Gothic
Before the big fire, it was one of the best places to see an industrial band. I remember seeing everyone from Skinny Puppy and Ministry and Die Warzau there to even Danzig, Henry Rollins and about a zillion KTCL bands. There was a bowling alley right next door and if you were smart enough you would hang out there before shows and see your favorite bands bowling. I have to say the members of Skinny Puppy were some of the most impressive bowlers I've seen in action.
*Tattered Cover Book Store
Three floors of books, or was it more? All I know is that this book nerd was in heaven whenever she went for a visit. I would get lost in the stack and just sit on the floor and read. I remember standing in line in the store for 3 hours to have Anne Rice sign my copy of the Queen of the Damned, then thinking for the next week that I made "a connection" with her from her glance. I was such a dorky goth kid.
*Boulder Mall Crawl:
Every Halloween the entire town of Boulder, and a lot of Ft. Collins and Greeley and Loveland kids, not to mention Denver folks, would invade Pearl Street in costume drunk off their butts to wander up and down the street and party. Think San Francisco Castro Halloween party but much smaller. Because so many people would be drunk and lose their shoes, some of us would gather all the lost shoes we'd find and then sell them back to people at a $1 a shoe at the end of the street. Worked like a charm.
Okay since Fort Collins is being lumped into this thread too, here's a few more '80s memories.
* Old Town
Heck yeah I remember Tony Hawk as a teen skating in front of the skate shop for some event. We were all smitten before we even knew he was going to be a megastar!
* Northern Hotel
We were all convinced it was haunted since there was a massive fire there years before. There was a punk club on the first floor, then it was closed down thanks to a mosh pit that ended up breaking the front window. Then it was a seedy bar. Now it's a coffee shop. The top floor of the Northern was turned into small dance club with a DJ on certain nights and a used bookstore below it. I think there was even a belly-dancing studio somewhere on the top floor. Either way, it was THE place to be in Fort Collins if you were a Death Rocker or punk kid.
* Ft. Collins Youth Center
After the Northern shut down, everyone moved over to the Youth Center in Old Town on Saturday nights for alternative music dance night. Even more low rent than Northern, it was more or less a basement with multiple rooms -- one for dancing, one with couches to hang out, and one with a patio and patio furniture so you could smoke cloves.
* Fort Ram
This was a dance club that had an all-ages alternative dance night on Wed nights I think. Every death rocker, punker, skate kid and future raver went to show off their outfits and dance mopey to the Cure. They served gigantic cherry cokes for the underage kids, while the creepy adults drank booze in the 21 and over area. I had my first real kiss on that dance floor, and also burned my bangs thanks to an overzealous boy trying to light my clove ciggie. Ah memories.
* Vinyl 10 cents a pound sale?
I can't remember which record store it was, but every year they'd get rid of their old records by selling them by the pound. It was a great deal for those of us wanting to learn how to beat mix in spoken word instructional records in with Moog classics and German metal. I bought a "Talk to your Plants" record along with some really bizarre futuristic mood music at that sale.
* Fort Collins High School
If you wanted to hang with the punker kids, art school wannabes, goths, skaters and openly gay kids, you'd go hang out with the students on the grounds of Fort Collins High School. At the Burger King next door, you could see kids at the tables putting together their zines, giving each other sloppy tap tattoos, making mix tape covers, and sustaining on free coke refills and cheap fries for lunch.
I worked at Tattered Cover over the holidays last year, mostly at the new one on Colfax, but occasionally down in LoDo. The new location is housed in the old Lowenstein theater across the street from East High School, and it's really pretty cool. Though we did constantly get people coming in and telling us they miss the old store. I've only lived in Denver for about two years, so I never went to the old store, but people certainly felt strongly about that move.
also, @#38 - Heck yeah Frank Azar. That little comic you posted the link too made me literally rotfl.
Denver seems like it used to be more fun back in the day.
Thanks Mark! this has been too much fun, better than my high school reunion by a long shot, I took the inevitable step and created a facebook group, mostly I want to see some of the old videos! It's called "Friends of Blinky" and would be great to catch up with ya'll there! http://www.new.facebook.com/groups/edit.php?customize&gid=33898908273#/group.php?gid=33898908273
Great thread. Rocky's Autos hats for everyone.
Psh, you kids and your three-story Tattered Cover! I remember when the Tattered Cover book store was just a tiny little hole in the wall in Cherry Creek. Blink and you'd miss it. I swear they used Timelord technology on that thing to get all the books in that little space.
#129
Round the Corner... I loved that place! I always wanted to order when I was a kid. I'm sure the employees were highly annoyed by a little kid on the phone.
I'll throw this out there, though it's a different crowd but I liked going to Tracks (the old one behind the now-Coors Field area) and Rock Island. Especially cause they'd both let me in well before I was old enough to go to either place
@37: My husband and I just said, at the same time, "KTCL translator link K276BJ."
@126: My first concert was Kiss at McNichols too.
@184: Gonna ask my daughter if FCHS has changed since you were there.
Pretty sure Blinky's daughter runs Steve's Snappin Dogs on Colfax. (Can that be right? Must check.)
More NoCo memories: Rick wants to know if there are any B-Boys out there.
Where is Scooter Tom now?
And hi to that one Elephant Boy.
Ringing way too many bells.
Vertivision: a cool show on KBDI (the beady eye) shot and broadcast in portrait, rather than landscape mode.
I still go to Lakeside every year with my kids. I love the strong smell of axle grease on all of the rides-- I figure if they are well lubed and haven't broken in the last 40 years, they won't break today.
A buddy of mine saw Jake Jabbs do karaoke at Whispers on Havana a couple of weeks ago. Whispers used to be Icarus, and you have to love a bar named for a guy who did not make it home b/c flying felt so good.
Denver is my main love it/hate it. Today was beautiful, so I love it.
@191 Mod Kris? Yo, it's Shawn G. come see us @ facebook! http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=33898908273&ref=nf
#190: I didn't go to FCHS but all my pals did. And that's when it was in its original building -- that looks like a county court house. I think the new FCHS relocated and CSU took over the old building for the horticulture dept. There's green houses all over the front lawns now.
I went to Rocky Mountain High School (which I always thought was such a funny inside joke with the name). We had a taxidermied wolf in the lobby -- Go Lobos!
Gart Bros. is a good one, but does anyone remember when Gart Bros. was Dave Cook? And they were one of the spots you could go to buy tickets for shows. I remember going to the Dave Cook in University Hills with my older brother to buy tickets for Motley Crue at the Rainbow!
Re: FMTV and Teletunes.
First, gotta clear this up: "Songs for Swinging Larvae" by Renaldo and the Loaf. Labelmates and kindred spirits of the Residents, but not the Residents. Actually, the first music videos I ever saw was a program of Devo, the Residents, Elvis Costello, a few others, 16mm shorts, at maybe the Gothic when it was still a movie theater? It woulda been about 1980/81, I was in 7th Grade, my mom took me down there from Boulder to see it. Blew my mind. That Renaldo and the Loaf clip was one. I was already turned on to Devo, but man, getting sent down the Residents/Renaldo road really put a mark on me. Love that vid: lifechanging. I was already a hungry music geek, and when FMTV/Teletunes hit, it was like manna from heaven.
Second, longshot: on Teletunes, there was a locally produced video by a band called The Pink, the song was TV Man. I'd be SO HAPPY to find any information about this band, and completely delighted to get a recording of this song... anyone got anything? Google has been failing me for years on this one; I'd say this is my best shot ever!
Thanks again, Mark! Probably ran into you at Time Warp on Pearl in High School. I might have a Boingboing in my stash somewheres, I know I have a few issues of Der Moderne Times.
Oh I am soooo psyched! I have been lonely for Denver for so long...the Denver that was.
So Me Caroline. Denizen of 1970s Capitol Hill. I remember Colfax when it was just filled with Hippie Kids and I remember that the Gay Boys used to stand on the State Capitol steps at night and the johns would drive round and round the circle. I remember the government building that lit up like a honky tonk for Christmas. The great old Painted Lady mansions that my friends and I had our apartments in. I remember the Folklore Center and that Head Shop called Desolation Row. I remember Denver Books and Wet Spot. My friends and I used to hang out there and once the waiter who served the coffee had a hypodermic needle behind his ear. I remember sneaking into the Brew as an under aged. but married, girl child and dancing with all my friends and the bar tender giving us a round of beer. I remember the bakery area in King Soopers displaying baked items of a Brass Bed, and my visiting Mother being so confused. And how my daughter always stopped by for a cookie after school and a sample of cheese at The Big Cheese. I remember the sexy cashier boy who had a belt buckle shaped like an unbuttoned fly. I remember Muddy's where my friend Lara was a waitress. I remember the Ogden and Rocky Horror on Saturday nights.
My ex, Shane, used to run the short lived Zipper Tapes and Records on Colfax, the spin off of Big Apple on the corner of Emerson.
The Denver Museum of High Art.
The Zoo.
The Natural History Museum
Bo Diddly at the Mercury Cafe, an old man in a leather hat stepping out of the crowd to play with my friends band JOMAMA.
If any one ever lived in Althea Apartments between 16th and 17th on Emerson, you will be interested to know that they filmed a ghostly-Gothic movie there called 'The Forgotten One'.
We always thought Binkie was pretty scary.
I remember the movie/radio dub, called HIGH STREET.
The 99 cent breakfast on 13th street. HOUSE of DRAFT, which everyone called House of DRUGS.
All the Lovers and the Partners. D.P.--all my love! We climbed the fence from Cheeseman over to the Botanical Gardens one afternoon and had a ball in the section of garden that represented a Rocky Mountain Meadow. And looking down on Denver lights from the heights of Lookout Mountain.
My crowd didn't make old bones, and a few died this decade, and others moved away...and the one member of my tribe still in Denver has Parkinsons
So there really is no going home again.
But God, I loved it so much...the first big city this little southern girl ever lived in.
The Satire for Chile Reneos. Hot plate! Hot Plate! O MG--who could forget the tattered and faded maniquin that stood in summer sun and winter blast on the marquee to Sid Kings.
I was finally able to find an article on the new google news service launched this week about a train wreck that happened literally right next to my house where two trains collided head on. I was 4 at the time but can still remember the trains hitting each other and the many people who came over to watch emergency crews from our Deck.
Article here: http://newspapers.umsystem.edu/default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?BaseHRef=CMN/1985/08/04&EntityId=Ar00901&Skin=Google&ViewMode=GIF
And oh yes, Blinky's Fun Club on channel 2 was awesome. He is like the Mr. Rogers of Denver.
I only went to celebrity sports once and all I remember was that the pool was really bubbly like your toilet looks after you just took a leak. We walked down one of the closed water slides and got kicked out. My friend's dad (another famous Denverite - a firefighter who was shot and killed by someone he was trying to rescue) was none to pleased.
aw, my comment never got through the mods. damn this anonymous. ive tried and failed on two occasions to create an account.
anyways, great to see mentions of 15 street tavern. ive seen many a band on their way to being big at that place when they were barely a dick on a stick.
and the creepiest cemetaries in the state, the Bald Mountain cemetary above central city. A+ bonnie.
someone mentioned tiny town way up there, didnt see it mentioned again.
YES! i remember the spider web castle and funtastic nathans like.. that thing was amazing. that place couldnt exist today with the safety standards i would assume.
seriously, organize a denver boing boinger meetup, fark has meetups all the time, and never in denver. do it at like hi-dive or lions lair or some other place mentioned in this thread all the time.
i think hi-dive and sputnik are keeping the local music scene together, along with... crap.. that one place further down broadway.
this thread hurts.
#158! You remember all the things I remember! Oh no wonder you remember! It's you brother!
The Wax Museum! How I loved the display of Alferd Packer! Teen Line! How did that happen anyway?? Open Living School (parents who sent there kid there would probably "unschool/homeschool" today)! When Grandma taught me to embroider, Duckwalls had scads of embroidery thread. Tops Coffee Shop with the "Color Me Hungry" clown on the coloring page, and the free toy from the treasure box after every meal. I don't remember the toothpicks in the ceiling but then I wasn't the spaz you were, baby bro (same reason I didn't get to go to Open Living School. Wah.). Evidently Open Living School still exists: http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/high/jcos/geninfo.htm I wonder if it is still run by idealistic hippies
How about Leon the Neon Giraffe? Is he still there? And Yes! Roller City! You could skate to all the "good" tween records (Partridge Family, Bobby Sherman,Jackson 5, my favorite "Dizzy" by Tommy Roe and Melanie's "Brand New Key"). And YES I remember the Fat Lady at Lakeside I loved her! That fun house would never be allowed today especially that roulette wheel/thing that you sat in the middle and the centrifugal force would spin everyone to the outside (no safety belts, no seats, your body hurling onto strangers).
Heavy Early on KAZY. Alan Berg on KOA.
Wax Trax.
Beastie Boys and Run DMC at Red Rocks in about 86. Beasties spray painted on the stage and missed the meet n great cause the had to hide from the promoter.
Red hot Chili peppers & Fishbone doing a joint encore at Rainbow Music Hall in about 87.
Mr Twister at Elitch's - the best woody of all time.
Colorado Springs side note: Anyone remember Germer's commercials?
Mr. Twister at elitch's and Roller City FTW, too. i'd love to join the facebook blinky crew, but i just don't want to make another social networking account for one thing, sigh. a yahoo group, perhaps?
Isn't anyone going to suggest a Happy Mutants night at Casa Bonita (or Lakeside next season)? Surprised it got to 200 comments without that happening...
best thread ever on Boing Boing, thanks mark!
I can only agree with everyone
I live 2 minutes from Airplane (belieview) park, the airplane is gone
many mentions of the breakfast king, mmmm pancake sandwich
and funtastic nathan's? which is now funtastic fun on broadway and dartmouth, i had 4 birthday parties.
I love denver and this post makes me love it even more.
Big Sur Waterbeds, on west colfax, next to Casa Bonita.
That's drilled into my head from endless afternoons spent watching channel 2.
Warlock Pinchers: I loved the amount of merchandise that band put out. Any band that had collectible matchbox cars and beer cozies really had their act together.
I spent a few months off and on/in and around Denver during the 1970s. Except for a bar frequented by poets and actors (run by a guy they called "The Greek"), and a Beat Generation bookstore out on Colfax, it was Cleveland with mountains.
Casa Bonita was a shuck.
Great times...
Let's see.
The Original Taco House (All you could eat for 3.25)
Tanglewood Open Living School back when it was behind Denver West office park.
Feeling like a spy, biking through the Federal Center. (They had guard gates and everything).
Sloan's lake, across from Wheat Ridge HS, the smoking pit for us angsty suburbanite youth.
Club 1383 on Broadway (Is that right?)
Feeling "edgy" driving through Five Points at 3 a.m. coming home from Muddys.
Muddys, where my friend discovered the Goth culture and I discovered Bookstores and Coffee.
Working on Lowrey AFB with Americorp*NCCC for a year.
Discovering that the lights along 6th Ave. East of Colo. Blvd. were timed to 35 mph (So you could make them all if you went 70)
Going up to Boulder along Highway 93.
Saurdays, the soda-pop strip joint (Only had to be 18 to get in) on East Colfax.
BoJo's pizza in Idaho Springs.
The commercials for "WA-ZEEEEES"
The place that inspired Funtastic Nathan's (the place with the pedal go-carts)
TPing the ped. overpass on I-70 (And speaking to some nice men in uniforms)
Watching the nice men in uniforms stop talking to us and interact with a gently rocking car that had steamed up windows.
Showbiz pizza (Chuck E. Cheese was an upstart wannabe)
Going to my first and only Bronco game, age 7, with an Orange Crush t-shirt on.
Buying Chinese Stars at the little stores along 16th street mall.
Welchester Tree Grant Park, and the witches' grove on the South side of the creek.
Getting free socks from a Denver Bears game.
Biking through Confluence Park.
Villa Itallia mall and the scary two-theater movie house there.
Growing up instinctively "knowing" how to drive in a foot of snow on the freeway.
Simms Landing, and once you passed it, there was nothing until you got to Golden.
Ward Road hill, so big that you actually felt your stomach drop as you crested.
How about Malibu Fun Center? Anyone remember that?
Ha ha...this thread is still rocking!
Did anyone else ever take the elevator that was outside Paris on the Platte's doors? You could go down to a strange basement that was filled with old theatre props and appeared to have an area sort of shaped like a grave.
We once took a book from there and on the drive home something (can't remember what) freaked us out and we decided the book was evil and we threw it out the window on 6th Avenue.
Anyone else out there ever in "Colorado Honor Band Association" -- that used to meet Monday nights or Saturday mornings at the church on 1st and Grant, I think?
$5 All you can drink till 11pm at the Aqua Lounge
Who were the red beret guys that were "keeping the peace" between gangs etc.?
Does anyone remember "Ramone's" Mexican restaurant on West Colfax? YUM.
Going downtown and sliding down the banisters of the escalators on that building with the 2 story plaza...until MJ was wearing wool pants instead of jeans and got going way too fast...not enough friction. The security guard tried, but he never caught us.
The Wind Harp.
The Summer that women could be shirtless in the parks...Must have been 77 or 78. Got my Nibs so burned!
Wallabys
Elrond's
Jasmine's Garden
The Krsna Temple on a Sunday afternoon. Yummy!
Scary Colfax Bums
I grew up in Denver/Wheat Ridge during the 50's and 60's.
Do you remember:
cherry creek reservoir?
the Original Mexican Cafe?
Sloans Lake ice skating?
PT's -- yea, male strippers
King's on Colfax (cheese frenchee sandwiches)
Ebbett's Field
The Cinerama in Glendale
Ice skating at Zakendorf Plaza at the Downtown
May D&F and the ice cream parlor walk over between May D&F and the Hotel next door?
Regis College's 3.2 bar on campus?
Wheat Ridge High School was not across the street from Sloans Lake. They were across the street from a lake on the Crown Hill Cemetary property.
No mention of the Denver Zephyrs yet? For shame! I caught my first and only flyball at a Zephyrs game.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Denver_Zephyrs
Also, Blinky the clown used to buy the glue for his nose at my dad's pharmacy. Top that!
#195: Oops my bad for misrepresenting the Residents. The video looked more like a David Lynch film to me at the time anyway. ;-)
I think we only played it once on Teletunes. I'll have to look at my old playlists.
Now I'm beginning to wonder if my old age is making me mix up the Gothic with the Ogden Theater. Which one had the bowling alley next door?
#212, The Gothic of course, in Englewood!! It's next to the Dart BoARd and Bowling Alley, pretty sure. The Gothic ruled. It got all the fun shows. Still does sometimes.
I'ma go ahead and nominate this for The Best Thread Ever as Far as I'm Concerned. Matter of fact -- it's the winner. I haven't been lived in Denver for years and yet now I want to go buy a Warlock Pinchers hoodie and get a Social Distortion tattoo.
I think I'm going to upload flyers for shows, Teletunes playlists and photos from Denver/Boulder/Ft. Collins in the '80s to mid-'90s just because of this thread!
here's a start:
http://flickr.com/photos/bonniegrrl/sets/72157607235566573/
Maybe we should start up a Flickr group for everyone here who wants to submit old photos of pop culture stuff from Denver over the years?
Aw yes the Denver Gold. I knew one of the cheerleaders.
Tattered Cover...the old one (4 stories of books with a restaurant on top) closed down 2 years ago...now there are 3 none of them in Cherry Creek.
BeauJeaus Pizza...colorado style pizza..dinner and dessert in one!
#182 -
Sweet Jesus - that video is even scarier than I remember it.
Thanks for posting a link!
You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar!
Speaking of the show "Home Movies" look what I found on Youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/user/homemoviescolorado
Homemovies ran from 1981 to 1991 on KBDI TV in Broomfield/Denver Colorado. Not just low budget but no budget.
More info here:
http://hometown.aol.com/hammelbill/Homemovies.html
Nobody's gonna give me props for the "Gold C" Coupon book that came out every year?!! Haha. I thought for sure that would get a reaction.
Does anyone remember this radio jingle for Keystone?:
Its snowing again, I'm headin' back to Keystone"
In the early 90s there was some Denver bar that had "Kitt Katt Club" or something like that...where they had a piano bar. One night while I was in there, Jake Jabbs sang a song...or played trumpet...one of those. He was pretty puffy and red. DRUNK.
So did Teletunes turn into Musiclink, because I grew up mostly in the 90s and that is the music video show they had on KBDI at midnights (it alternated with an electronica show called BPM). Music Link had great videos and interviews with awesome alternative musicians. I still remember the interview they did with Wayne Coyne from Flamming Lips at the orginal Chubby's Mexican Restaurant on 38th Ave. and the odd Fiona Apple interview where she kind of went off on this tangent about how she felt exploited by the Criminal music video.
I remember when Channel 12 showed nothing but TWILIGHT ZONE episodes. And the pledge drive where they showed NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD... and had zombies manning the phones.
They also ran a Haunted House (I still have the postcards) where they had mad butchers swinging chainsaws at real beef... in a warehouse that's probably a yuppie condo hell by now.
And Teletunes? Was *awesome*. Did the MTV thing so hard (I think it was first called FM TV) that MTV made them cease and desist with the name.
#219 Grade school kids still sell Gold C books. Every year.
Oh, and the Moog synthesizer. My dad took us to a demonstration of it at the Gates Planetarium. This must have been pre-1975.
I am totally going through the stuff in Mom's basement this weekend and oulling out scanables for the flickr site!
We used to think baby boomers were so pitiful with their endless nostalgia...
I visited Mile High Comics a time or two, but the Boulder store was really the #1 location -- in that endless basement, back of Lois Newman Books. I was manager of the ill-fated Fort Collins store for much of 1975-6. Before that, I did some trading with Jim at A-1 Comics, and before that, I filled in a lot of Ditko Spider-Man comics for 30 and 35 cents each at Book Barter Bob's.
"TV POW!" I saw something like this on the Oakland cable station, with Pat McCormack, the world's worst kiddie host, making kids feel bad for losing, and for having names that sounded funny to him. I always wanted to see a version of the game that involved him holding a gun to his head.
Going back to the 60s, I wonder whatever became of the giant six-pack of Duffy's beverages that we used to see when we drove into town from Fort Collins.
I was at a book store here in NY this week, and lingered over an ancient black and white postcard of Lakeside. I might go back and pay the five bucks so I can stare at it at home.
Yes, Jupiter, I remember Cap'n Dooley. I think they played "Out of the Inkwell" cartoons on his show, only they weren't the good silent ones, but the weak remakes from years later.
And if we're going to talk about KIMN, let's have a moment of silence for the best DJ of all time, Jay Mack. He was in the news a few years back when he had a heart attack while a record was on, and a listener got concerned with the silence after and called up and saved his life. That gave him some more time, but his health was never all that good after the car crash he was in.
"The Denver"? Wasn't that the Denver Dry Goods in a streamlined incarnation? There was one of those in Fort Collins, too, and my doctor's office was above it. The place burned down in the 60s and killed the fire chief, who was a family acquaintance. He was a disk jockey on KZIX (later KIIX, later KTCL).
AHAB, we used to sing "Don't know why / there's no sun up in the sky / Stormy ROTMANNNNN!"
Gotta stop now before this gets unreadable. More later. (note to self: start back in at 143)
by the way... I have a pile of old KIMN Hit Parades from the 1966-1970 period that I was going to scan. I got three of them into my flickr set, with song titles and some DJ pictures -- maybe I'll get back on that project while waiting for my ship to come in. (I just have to find them again, having moved recently.)
A friend of mine owned an electronics shop on Colfax, and lived in back until the day some guys drove down the street shooting into stores. He lost his appetite for it.
We used to go visit my uncle, and when we drove home, the Crown Hill mausoleum (if that's the big white tower in the memorial garden there) would be all lit up and impressive as all get-out.
KWGN's "Mr. First Nighter" never introduced anything that I saw. They had a canned intro with him slouching in and out of the building while they played "Traumerei" on an organ. And his assistant was named Robert.
I remember an ad for Rath's Weiners they used to show on Fred & Fay. It is suspected that Fred was one of the "Indians" singing "Eat Rath's weiners, come on strong / heap big energy all day long / Rath's Black Hawk weiners, for lunch or snack / heap big flavor in every pack!"
I loved High Street on KFML, turning the suburbia dystopian soaper into a tale of witchcraft ("She turned me into a frog!") and turning the TV ads into ads for Dan Fong photography and such. John Dunning -- yes! Started off doing an hour on Sunday with Harry Tuft, and it expanded to about three within a year or so.
Teen Line -- yeah, you called -any- number that you knew would be busy (your own number would be great for that), and there'd be a bunch of kid's voices trying to talk between the beeps. In 1978, I worked at an answering service in Fort Collins, and we had a direct Denver line, so I'd call Ear Whacks for the joke of the day. It wasn't so much a mere joke as it was a small bit of audio theater.
The guy on KHOW was probably "Hot Dog" Harold Moore, formerly "Hal Baby" Moore of KIMN, who bought out the great KFML predecessor, KMYR and turned it into a cruddy carbon copy of KIMN. He like to say "Denver... I love ya!"
I used to enjoy the radio ads for Maudie's Flea Market, too, aka Maudie's Incredible Department Store, or just Maudie's. It was a mass-produced head shop -- they had a branch in the Fort, too, so I got to see it in its glory days. "It's a water pipe." "Who'd want to smoke water??" "I bet you'd try, Lippo! You smoke tobacco in it -- or carpet fuzz -- or your milkman -- or whatever you want!"
We saw MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL there on its Colorado premiere at the Flick in Larimer Square. Everybody was handed a coconut as they went in, and my ticket stub won a soundtrack LP.
Fort Collins -- The Northern Hotel! I lived there for a few months in late 76-77. Had to be in by 11, or I was locked out. I lived in three different rooms there, including 401, which no longer exists. They had an awful piano I used to practice on. When I first got there, I said I needed another chiffarobe, so they took me into the burned wing to pick one out. On Friday and Saturday night, drunks from the disco downstairs were shouting in the street. Finally moved to a quieter location: Ill Manor.
Bonnie - I was in the first class to attend Rocky Mountain High, and they had a contest for the name. My future roommate Paul suggested RMHS, and it won. KIMN thought that was the coolest thing ever, and they used to do promotions for the school. There was a rumor that John Denver offered to give a concert, but student council turned him down because they didn't want anybody to think the school was named after his song. Which it was. But the rumor was probably just BS. Dave Mattingly and I did a comic together in the school paper. He ran for student body president on the apathy ticket and won after he withdrew from the race.
Ebbets Field -- I recorded a livecast by Proctor & Bergman from there, around 1974. There's a place online that streams those old livecasts, but I've lost the URL. P&B kidded with the KFML announcers before the show for a while, and every now and then somebody coughed. After the third time, I figured out why.
"Beat Generation bookstore out on Colfax" -- I remember Black Ace Books, but I think it was somewhere else. It was run by two old Beats who'd known Kerouac, Kugelman & Bent. I knew about them because my (then-future) wife's landlord had had a poem published on some beat anthology, a decade or two earlier.
Submitted for your listening pleasure:
Apples in Stereo
Freddi-Henchi Band
Dusty Drapes and the Dusters (with slide guitar guru Junior Brown)
Earth, Wind and Fire
Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids
Hey, Kip W, you been livin' my life, as I'm a Ft. Colllins boy and former Mile High (Boulder) employee, remembering KFML, High Street, John Dunning and Harry Tuft! Are you sure you aren't me?
I used to listen to KHOW, usuallly Charlie and Barney (i.e. Rosemary Barnwall) in the mornings, and "Hot Dog" Harold Moore at drive time. Hal always closed with the end of the Abbey Road album ("and in the end .. the love you take .. etc.")
Mr. First Nighter did do live original openings in the beginning, but gradually lost steam. It became a canned opening with a live announcer, then just the canned opening and no announcer. It always screwed up my weekend because the movies would end about midnight or one and I'd have to be up at 5 to deliver papers (the Ft. Collins Coloradoan, as a matter of fact).
Now to introduce a new stream: in college and post(76-82), I was one of the early programmers of KGNU in Boulder, when the studio was located in a bungalow on Boulder Creek. (Revolutionary Mime Theatre of the Air -- that was me and my writing partner and some hangers-on, plus girls we wanted to impress. Later, we joined Radio Stew).
The early days there were quite weird -- I once came in to do the morning show, only to find the all-night guy had been smoking dope all night, strewed pizza boxes all about, and left a turd floating in the toilet. And when anyone had nothing to program, they'd just invite Philip Glass to come in and talk (he was living in Boulder for awhile and seemed to have nothing better to do ...)
The station volunteers largely seemed to be old hippies and people with no visible means of support. And I remember when one of the old hippies was mixing the soundtrack to "Apocalypse Now" with all these 60's era antiwar songs, and everyone thought he was doing something really profound ... those were interesting days.
All of this is making my life pass before my eyes!!
About Blinky- I was on his show when I was five.
Red Rocks - First show I saw there was John Denver!
Loved Farrells in Cinderella City. They had a giant bowl of ice cream that they would bring out on a stretcher with a siren!
Kissed a girl on the wild chipmunk at Lakeside. I was twelve. Even then it was the dirty little step child to Elitch's.
Got kicked out of Organ grinder because we shared our 3.2 beer and only 2 of us were 18.
Celebrity had big fans and sailboats you could learn to sail in. Never saw it done though.
The Cooper theatre was the only theater showing Star Wars in 1977. Saw it opening day after reading about it in Time Magazine at school. Great theatre, but gone. Barnes and Noble in its place.
Remember the waterbed ads with the mime? I'm embarrassed to say I did mime with him a few summers.
Had Freddie Henchi as our prom band. Was pretty cool. Saw that they played downtown in Lannie Garrett's place this summer!
Thank you for this thread. I too am missing Denver terribly right now, the Denver of days past. I was meant to be born there but my mom went to visit her mom in Oklahoma when she went into an earlier than expected labor. My brother and I were whisked back to Denver to spend the next 10 years and I returned for 10 more when I graduated high school.
As one mentioned earlier, my heart will always be in Denver.
Ellsworth Elementary
Crazy George
Albert the Alligator in the pond at City Park
I remember the ice cream parlor that is being mentioned as the Soda Straw which later became the Harvest.
Blinky and Noel and Andy. I'm glad I resisted the temptation to enter his store as his jerkiness would rip part of my childhood away. My brother and I wanted to be apart of the birthday club like no one's business but only managed to get our name's read. When he was making an appearance at the Shakey's in Cherry Creek (near the Cherry Creek Twin, which hosted the world primere of the Rock Hudson stinker, Avalance), we begged to go and I remember Blinky picking me up and I froze. Up close he looked like the Joker.
before Twist and Shout there was Underground Records on Pearl which sold bongs and had cats all over the joint. You had to lift them out of the way to look at the vinyl. They had THE greatest collection of vinyl bootlegs I have ever seen. Even the feds took notice which led to Underground's demise.
I am old enough to remember Noel and Andy and also listening to Reynelda Muse give a commentary after the Son of Sam was arrested.
It was on KWGN that I heard Elvis died!
Ah, my first real job was *working* in the ice cream shoppe on the bridge between May D&F and the Hilton. I still remember the leftover Belgian Waffle stench.
The Hilton was also the scene for the biggest event of my geek life: Denvention II. Talking to C.L. Moore and Gordon Dickson were the highlights of my fannish life, but some went Bobbing for Authors (in a hot tub event) and have better stories to tell....
For me the big SF movie event happened December 7, 1979, three blocks from my high school: ST: TMP. Man, everyone I knew in fandom attended, and those were the only people I wanted to know, outside of school. Working for Chuck and Nadine at the mothership store, for trade credit spent on used SF paperbacks and Starlogs; the early Star Con Denvers; the mild Central Denver/South Denver clash of the two ST fan clubs, the wafting disdain the trufen of SF lit had for us; the cons at the old Hyatt Regency, when it was space-moderne rather than used-up crackhouse; the making do with SPACE:1999 and that funny movie with the wookies....
No one mentioned the court-ordered busing, or how Chicano teen culture was as much part of Denver as black teen culture, or post-interment Japanese-American culture, so I thought I should.
That and the pawnshops, flophouses, dives of all sorts, and the gay scene that had my hairdressers sandpapering the crotches of their jeans. Oh, and the oil boom that made Texas assholes move in, and made us put NATIVE stickers on our cars. That, and the big-ass Rolling Stone lips on KIMN t-shirts. And the folks who weren't on quaaludes and pot being on cocaine.
Hell of a time....
#152 Thank you for coming up w Round the Corner.
There was a steak house on (I think) Cherry Creek and Colorado called (I think) The London Broil that in like '75 turned one of it's 2 rooms into Denver 1st Disco (they added a little stage and a disco ball)
I watched in horror as my mother and step father shuffled to The Hustle.
Bonnie Brae Hobbies + Estes Rockets + that big park w a lake close to Bonnie Brae.
(this thread will go on forever(
Oh. And going to the Cooper on my bike to see THX1138 I got hit by a drunk driving from a Bronco Game. (I was fine, the cops were right there, and I got to sit in the back of one of the cruisers while the arrested the guy. Missed the movie though.)
Altadenablog, I wish I was still a Ft. Collins boy. When I left in 1980, I thought it was for a year or two. I don't even get back every year, which is the unkindest cut of all.
I should have guessed that Mr. First Nighter started out doing real intros -- I don't know how I missed those. I was a real Creature Features fan, recording one or two of the movies in audio, even.
Dusty Drapes and the Drapers! I used to love Dusty's ad for Celestial Seasonings, when it was a local operation. ("There's eleven of 'em -- one for every day of the week.)
Blue Balaclava, ST:TMP was a hot topic of conversation in the Comic Center (then the Fort Collins Comic Center -- Chuck hadn't yet started branding all his stores with the same name) where I sold "Stamp Out Star Trek" buttons along with the more conventional souvenirs and sometimes borrowed my sister's TV when they were showing the Space Hippies episode. Everybody had high hopes for it, but that gradually evaporated in the endless "golly gee!" tracking shots of the Enterprise model. I wanted a "John Denver, Go Home!" bumper sticker.
White Fence Farm.
240: Props on the Gold C get!! Gold C... fine purveryor of bright red sunburns from Water World, overpriced lift tickets from Keystone... Worth its weight in paper.
White Fence Farm, home of the mediocre and overpriced chicken dinner.
Here's a memory of the Mayan. Went there one night to see the Jim Jarmusch joint Ghost Dog and apparently it attracted the "if-I-talk-to-the-movie-screen-it-will-certainly-affect-the-outcome" crowd. In the scene where Ghost Dog goes home to find all his carrier pigeons murdered, this girl in a pink Puma tracksuit right behind my seat says "AW, HELL NAW, HELLLL NAW, THEY DIDN'T NOT JUST SHOOT ALL THOSE BIRDS!!"
Kip W,
Reading the Unca Harlan smackdown of the movie -- and then being angry, and then being even more angry because he was *right* -- was one of the highpoints of my developing a sense of proper critique. Even the things you love have to go through scrutiny, else how will they stay the things you love, if there's no intrinsic quality involved?
The summers at City Park were cruising in slo-mo; WAR's "Cisco Kid" on every radio that didn't have Ohio Players or Parliament/Funkadelic or Earth, Wind and Fire, on 8-tracks.
When wee, wondering if a Black Panther was going to come to my elementary school... and if we would get a chance to pet it.
Parents who did not give a damn taking the kids in a station wagon and a huge-ass Tupperware bin of popcorn to the drive-in, to see a double feature of Hammer horror flicks. (There's one where someone's reduced to a tub of blue pudding that I'll never forget, and never know the title...)
The gigantic F.U. the state gave the world in rejecting the Winter Olympics, which we'd won. The stardom of that cranky old fart Gov. Richard Lamm, who should have been euthanized a decade ago. (Other Coloradans can explain that joke, and considering how old he is now, it's a knee-slapper.)
Before Jon-Benet, Spider Sabich and Claudine Longet. Before Kobe, Michael Balfe Howard and the train of slumming celebs that made Aspen their playground and sewer. Dolly Madison peach ice cream, served in paper boats covered in paper then placed in a bag, still better in memory than B&J. Federico Pena breaking the rule of Mayor-for-life McNichols, all over a damn blizzard....
I found this late last night by total coincidence, surfing for inspiration for a Coloraro pop culture trivia quiz!
Here's some things I haven't seen mentioned that *I* was reminded of while surfing through.
Westland - a shopping center in Lakewood, off Colfax, precursor to modern malls because there was a covered roof over the walkway between the two rows of stores. But what I remember most was Fort Westland, a playground that used big logs as the fence and for some things inside, like the slides.
Western Auto - This was a chain in several western states. My mom worked for them, so that's probably why I remember it.
Bredan Butter - A creamery at (I think) Broadway and Mississippi, that looked like a little cottage/castle. Just down the road from the Gates factory.
King Soopers - I remember when they were a brand new chain, and we wondered if they could take Safeway on.
Who else remembers there were dinosaur signs on the light posts at the JCRS (?) shopping center, to help you remember where you parked your car?
I remember going to one of the super fancy old movie theaters downtown (maybe the Paramount?) for special movie days during school holidays. They were gorgeous inside, with huge marble stairways and chandeliers and bling to the max.
Later downtown memories: Sometimes instead of changing buses when going home from South High in the late 60s, I would go downtown instead. There was a big used bookstore at Lincoln & Colfax I loved to browse through. Sometimes I would go to the Petroleum Club building to see the KHOW DJs in action. I was a big fan of the station, knew all the DJs and their schedules, and would call and chat with them on the phone. They were all very nice about it, even though they probably thought it was odd.
On the last day of school (elementary, late 50s/early 60s) all the kids got long rolls of free tickets to the rides at both Lakeside and Elich's. We would sit around our backyards planning exactly which rides would be the best to go on, if we could get our parents to actually take us.
Anyone remember TV weatherman Starr Yelland? His son got killed by standing up on one of the roller coasters.
In the 50s, there was a kid show with Sheriff Scotty. One day my mom told us there was a new show coming on a different channel (KLZ-TV) that we might want to try. So shout out to Kip W, that's when we became Fred n' Fae fans!
What a great thread this is!
In the early 70s my parents took us kids to Elitch's which was near my grand parents house and Blinky was there. I was waiting in line at a ride (can't remember which) and my mom came up to me an asked if I wanted to have my picture taken with him. I said no because I was scared (I was 9 at the time) and two of my sisters got their picture with him.
Thank you for the memories, I moved out east and haven't thought of these things for about 25 years at least.
#236: I TOTALLY forgot about the NATIVE stickers we'd put on our cars. I remember going to CU Boulder and people's cars from Texas and California would get keyed. We were really tired of people who didn't know how to drive in snow coming into our state trying to yuppify it.
Yeah, because Boulder is America's heartland. Wait. No.
@#229 kip w:
NORTHERN HOTEL:
Wow you LIVED in the Northern Hotel!? So did you ever see any ghosts? There was supposedly a woman and a young girl that haunted it, but I never saw anything. They had the alternative music night in part of the burnt wing if I recall. Perfect for us goth and punk kids. I went back recently to check it out and it's been totally redone into fancy apartments and shops inside.
http://flickr.com/search/?s=int&w=all&q=northern+hotel+fort+collins&m=text
RMHS: That's so great about the history of the naming of Rocky Mountain High School. I always wondered about that. Of course, when I asked none of the faculty would say if it was about the John Denver song or not. I still wear my high school class ring with kitschy pride just for the name alone. I wonder if the taxidermied Lobo wolf is still in the lobby? I was a writer for the school paper -- Rocky Mountain Highlighter -- I think it was called.
When I was a kid in the early 80s I remember going to a restaurant in Denver that blew my mind. It was a large open space and there was dining on the floor and in balconies around the edges. I think there were various waterfalls, fountains, and light shows going on. Also I think maybe there was a music show involving a pipe organ and lots of bubbles being blown. Does that make any sense and can anyone tell me what that restaurant was?
#248 Was it in Larimer Square, it's been bugging me too and I think it's the same place that became the creepy office supply store...
Dolly Madison was wonderful, they'd use a spatula to scoop the ice cream onto the paper dish. On Fridays my Grandpop would get us a half gallon and a mushroom pizza from Dinos (same family who owned Ramones on Colfax)
yay -- so happy to see this thread continuing. i have another one:
U-Totem
anyone else remember them? BEFORE 7-11 and other quickie marts??
also, #227, you make me laugh out loud and sing about stormy rottman. thank you!
Tales of the Northern Hotel and its ghosts here:
http://www.hauntedcolorado.net/FortCollins.html
Gotta love Youtube users who post old concerts from the likes of Warlock Pinchers at the Gothic Theater circa 1992!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk8klmWYJcs
Denver rock legends the Fluid play One Eye Out at the Gothic Theater, March 27, 1993! I think I was at this show!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OejCAidJWak
okay one more:
Warlock Pinchers interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzkRKQYS0SA
Blue Balaclava, I remember just how nice it was that we turned down the Olympics. Didn't want 'em. They would have made the place miserable. So satisfying to see the expressions: how could you not want this Wonderful Thing we offered you? Heh. Heh heh heh.
I remember the mayoral race which (I quipped) was going to replace Mayor Bill McCheese with Egg McMuftig.
Neonnurse, I thought of you when I read this thread -- all your great photos of Lakeside! Oh yeah, Bredan Butter. Cute place. Oh, and there was a Western Auto in Fort Collins, and one in Newport News, Virginia too!
I remember one day when Starr Yelland, host of Dialing for Dollars on KLZ, looked a little bemused as he informed us that they were doing something highly unusual and showing a movie again, by special demand from their viewers! And thus it was my sister and I (and my pal Randy, who I wouldn't meet for a few years) first saw Lemonade Joe, which is now on my iPod, from a DVD I burned myself just for that purpose.
Bonnie, yup. The Northern was a cheap place to flop, even with the renovation they were doing (where they found the glass dome that had been covered up for years). I can believe it's been fixed up. I also used to spend hours in the other end of the block, in the Avery Building, where the Red Cross office used to be, while Mom worked there as a volunteer. I'd roam around, cadge lollipops at the Columbia Savings, stalk the empty hallways in the building, watch the traffic lights change on College and Mountain, and type or draw comic books. I keep thinking, now that I can afford it, I should see if I can order an RMHS class ring. Glad to hear they changed the name of the paper -- it was called CANIS LUPUS when I was there, and I thought that was the dumbest name ever. Oh, never saw any ghosts in the Northern. The other residents were creepy enough. My roommate and I were looking forward to seeing THE HOBBIT, and we loaded up and drifted to the TV room, and there was some awful woman who was going to watch some dumbass John Wayne movie. We tried to talk her out of it, but no dice. "I been waiting for this."
We had one room in the Northern that was vast. It must have been at least two rooms originally, and the bathroom had originally been the bathroom for the whole floor (it had an outside door to the far corridor, but that was nailed shut). There was a tub and sink and toilet in one corner,and the rest of the room was suitable for storage. Great place to park the bike.
After that, we moved to a house that had once been owned by a friend of my family, but which had fallen on harder and harder times, being rented to worse and worse people as it fell apart. I named it Ill Manor. People walking by used to pick stucco off of the outside with their fingers. There were holes in just about every wall (some from an ax, some from a shotgun) and a psychotic melted-crayon painting over the non-functioning fireplace. We cleaned a ton of stuff out of it when we moved in, including dried up dog turds in the basement. It changed owners while we were in it, and when we moved out, they tried to stick us with the cleaning deposit. Luckily, we visited the former realtor and found a list we had made of things that were wrong with the place. They had professionals clean it up, and it was across the street from Safeway and Colony Market and Poudre Rexall and 7-11, down the alley from a laundromat, on the block with a coffee house, two blocks from Rocky Mountain Records, and easy walking distance from CSU -- and they couldn't get anybody else to move into it. So they tore it down and made it into four more parking spaces for The Point.
One more thing: Flag Day at the Centre Theater, where kids got in, got handed a mini-American flag to wave, and watched some such jingoistic fare as JOHN PAUL JONES with the incomparable Robert Stack.
They tore down that theater to build the office complex beside the Denver Hilton/Adams Mark/Sheraton, and it's been tacky ever since.
And no one remembers how Stapleton's planes used to shake the glass of Park Hill's windows. Or even how all that big-shot Stapleton store development was nothing on the Dahlia Shopping Center, where people could *walk* to the store, the library, McDonald's, Duckwall's.... it was more than a Superfund site, back then.
I always loved how KTCL Radio in Ft. Collins was housed right above the Army Surplus store and right next to Chucky Cheese Pizza. I always wanted to walk up those stairs and hug the DJs who introduced me (and the rest of conservative Fort Collins) to the music I still love today -- U2, The Cure, The Cult, Robyn Hitchcock, Lloyd Cole, The The and so on.
Stapleton used to seem like a wonderland -- there was a game room full of mechanical simulator games, like a pretend skiing game, a bowling game, and one where you're piloting a little plane through an obstacle course. None of that computer stuff, mind you. And for some reason, poor boy that I am, I was being favored by the gods of small change and getting extra dimes from the change machine and everything -- I believe I was putting in two nickels and getting two dimes. It's been a while.
The Woolworth's there was outstanding. It went from, I believe, 15th Street all the way to 16th, with entrances on both streets. I went there in '79-'80, and the basement had a great selection of superstition supplies, including spray cans that gave you GOOD LUCK. I really liked the lenticular pix of Jesus on the cross -- wiggle it and he suffers. How did I not get one of those? I went back in the mid-80s for a last visit and headed down to look for the stuff, but none of it was there any more. I did, however, find a table of Mexican VHS tapes and got a killer El Santo movie where he spends hours (it seems) going down some river in the sweltering heat with his mask on. There's a pair of twins in the movie, played by the same actress. One is good and wears white and has huge endowments. The other is evil and wears black and has huge endowments. She's the more interesting one, because she does this evil dance. Oh, man, does she do an evil dance! It really develops her character.
Denver had a great classical station too. It's still there, but it's not the same. Gene Amole used to come on just before 10:00 am, when science will tell you your energy is at one of its low ebbs, and he'd say, "Well, the good folks at Vollmer's Bakery have just been by, and they left me with a plate of the most delightful Black Forest Cherry Tortes, which I will now describe to you..." I, of course, was sitting at my drawing table at the Forest Service, looking at my Tupperware dish of dry cereal, sixty miles from Vollmer's, contemplating whether it would be easier to walk to 7-11 for a Twinkie, or just stay there and kill myself.
Gene was one of the great announcers, ever. He once finished a piece and informed us, "That was from DeFalla's 'El Amor Brujo'... that's Spanish. It means 'THE' Amor Brujo..."
The light-up cross on the hillside would often be the last thing I'd see of Denver when we drove back up to the Fort.
Ahhhh, 60s and 70s in Denver... I grew up in Evergreen, so the entire Denver metro area was referred to as "down below," as in, "we're going down below to pick up an order at Sears." In addition to your great postings above, I remember...
Shakey's Pizza by the taxidermy shop off 6th and Colfax, with live banjo and piano.
Raspy-voiced lady on O'Meara Ford touting "vains and vain conversions!"
♪♪♪ There's a nice surprise for you at Spedding Chevrolet! Off the Boulder Turnpike, at the Valley Highway! ♪♪♪
KHOW's Huck n Chuck ("Hot Dog" Harold Moore and Charlie... Martin?) did a radio theatre serial "Pomp and Circumstance" on the morning show in maybe 1972?
Noel and Andy - Noel's husband was on the ski patrol at Geneva Basin with my dad. She showed us how she did her drawings, without the Andy puppet on her hand.
The Yum-Yum Tree restaurant and the Halloween haunted house in Villa Italia
The head-shop in Cinder Alley
The foiled Colorado 76 Olympics! I saw a guy wearing a 76 Olympics promotional ski hat last year at Winter Park - would love to have one of those!
Breaking into the Tivoli Brewery and exploring the vats and the cellars full of Denver Beer bottles, long before it became a mall.
3.2 bars and fake IDs at age 16 to get into them - After the Gold Rush, and a disco that I think was in Arvada called... The Odyssey? Something like that. I don't know; I was really drunk at the time.
Sneaking into Red Rocks to see George Thorogood, Joe Walsh, Moody Blues...
Drinking beer and getting lost in the Clear Creek Caves.
Getting injured playing rough in the Lakeside funhouse, or just riding the rides. My parents warned us about the Wild Chipmunk, as Starr Yelland's son died "horsing around" on it.
I bet I'll think of more...
My first crush was on a KIMN radio DJ. Does anyone remember the KIMN egg drop?
I miss Woolworth's every time I have to go the way the hell out to get basic things, or have to go to more than one store for stuff, or when I get a hankering for pizza made with crumbly sausage and crackerboard crust, or when I want to see every goddamn style and color of Red Heart yarn ever made.
When all the Woolworths died, that left a gap in my shopping ease, I tell you what.
I miss Gove Jr. High, both the old and the new school.
I miss Gene Amole, who taught me how one could die well, with the right help. I needed that knowledge too soon.
I miss the North Pole, where I didn't think Santa lived, but it was a place he visited, for the people.
There was a ice cream restaurant on Colorado that had the Fireengine sundae, with sparklers and fire sirens going off, which I could have visited every week, if I could.
Oh, I just remembered something I was going to put on here the other night.
Dick Lewis. Ol' Dick Lewis.
See, in the early 60s, like around 1962, there were local Mickey Mouse Clubs. Denver had one. They showed reruns of the real thing, and in between segments, there were local bumpers, and they were hosted by Mr. Smarm Himself, Dick Lewis.
I don't remember a whole lot of it, but they did little things like pie-eating contests. A half dozen or more kids in mouse ears with their hands behind their backs had to try and eat pastry shells with, I dunno, probably mostly whipped cream and some fruit inside, and there'd be the jolly host, egging them on.
And he'd do ads for local merchants, and never failed to say, "Tell 'em ol' Dick Lewis sent ya!" Oh, we hated him. What do you suppose he did after that? I don't know, myself, so I can't furnish any great punch line here. ('He went into politics!' 'He became a transvestite!' 'He joined some crazy cult.' 'They just found him dead.') Nope. Dunno.
So many memories after reading this! My best memories:
cruising colfax
party at red rocks
organ grinder
staying out til all hours, parents never worried
all day sunbathing at wash park(instead of school)keggers and toga parties.
Scary places like the Antlers Hotel, behind the Colfax Safeway. I just had to walk by it on my way to the store, but those kids were scary. They used that place in the movie 'Things to do in Denver When Your Dead." Also Warren Zevon wrote a song with that title.
Walking to see the downtown Christmas lights after Thanksgiving Dinner.
We lived in a 3rd floor east facing apartment, and the classical early morning dj used to wake us up saying, 'Hey Man, are you digging that sunrise. Eventually people were calling in to rate the sunrise!'
Althea Apartments.
Mustards Last Stand
Bonnie Brea
Rafting down the Platte
The Flick (movie theatre in what is now called LoDo)
A&W Papa Burger and Rootbeer sold in the gallon jugs
Mr. Taco
Drive-In's The North, The South, The West & The East
Fitzsimmons & Lowry Air Force Base
Dolly Madison
Owl Drug Stores and buying Chic-o-Stix & Black Cow's
Schwinn Stingray's
All Star Wrestling w/Mean Gene
I remember when I was young, The Indians standing on the corners of downtown in full dress. That ended too soon for me.
Blinky's TV home? Is dayed:
http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2008/09/channels_2_and_31_merge_and_th.php
I don't see how two stations with separate programming (CW and FOX) is going to survive with any differences.
Kip w@262: "Tell 'em ol' Dick Lewis sent ya!"
I used to watch him when I was 4 or 5. He would say "Go tell your mom right now to buy a case of **** soda pop. Go tell her now!" and I would run to my mom and tell her to buy some, pleading with her because Dick Lewis really wanted me to.
Do you remember the brand of soda pop? I think it had a smiling elf as a logo.
Remember the fake punk band - The Kamikaze Klones? I wonder what happened to them? They often opened for real punk bands when they played at the Rainbow.
Their big song was "Dork at the Party"
http://www.collectorscum.com/volume3/rockies/kamikaz7.jpg
Here are a bunch of Colorado postpunk bands that I remember:
http://newwave.50megs.com/discography.html
And here's a video of the Klones playing in July 2008!
http://www.vimeo.com/1460559
#265: Mustards Last Stand! I loved that place. They had the best dawgs! Dang, now I want a Chicago-style dog....
grew up in Denver/Wheat Ridge during the 50's and 60's.
Do you remember:
cherry creek reservoir?
the Original Mexican Cafe?
I have fantastic childhood memories of the Original Mexican Cafe, when it was on Osage Street. The original owners, Richard and Mary Hamilton, were dear friends of my parents and their daughter Christina and I are about the same age. I remember running around the restaurant raising hell when we were TINY little kids. There was an amazing banquet room upstairs I swear was haunted. Christina and I used to sail old desk chairs across the wooden floor. And we used to sneak up there and eat piles of grated cheese stolen from the kitchen and huge glasses of TAB cola and baskets of sopapillas. Good times!
They also had a restaurant on West Colfax, near the JCRS shopping center (and Casa Bonita!) but I don't think it was open too long.
And the Hamiltons seem to have fallen off the planet! I would LOVE to get back in touch with Christina - I haven't spoken to her in probably ten years. I know it's a long shot, but if anyone knows her - she lives in Grand Junction, I do believe - please try to put us in touch!
I'm also glad to hear this thread is still going strong...best.thread.ever! Especial thanks to Kip W, I've enjoyed your very unique perspective.
Re: #182 - Um yeah...neither Jake Jabs nor Doug Moreland would be classified as men that my mother would approve of. Like I can imagine either of their houses being filled with beyond Trump gaudy gold leaf/lamé everything, numerous stashes of significant amounts of coke, a collection of man-medallions, etc.
Re: #222 - Awww, there it is! Thanks for finding that Bonnie, . I wish they had complete shows up somewhere tho...like the Mall Crawl episodes.
Re: #269 - I was wondering if someone would mention the Kamikaze Klones. They were quite a bit before my time but Jimmy Murphy (the lead singer) served as director for a couple of plays I was in at Evergreen High School. He somehow convinced me to participate in an improv touring group he put together (The Kamikaze Kids). He had the most adorable children and his wife made really good Kentucky Fried Tofu. Anyway, it was fun to see him again.
I have a favor to ask.
Could you all take a look at this video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym30i3BUXWg
and see if you know this man? He has amnesia but has many memories of Denver - especially businesses along E Colfax. The memories appear to be from the late 60's to early 70's.
Thanks for looking and any help identifying him!
I did take a look and he kind of looks familiar, like a downstairs neighbor that joined the Krishna Temple maybe...I will email my ex and tell him to look at this thread, he knew so many people and he ran Zipper Tapes and Records, which was between Emerson and The Ogden Theater next to Denver Books. I hear from a friend who visited recently that Denver Books is still owned by the same guy, Doug, and maybe you can ask in there.
I had forgotten the white cross on the mountainside, and about the Colfax Indian Tribe. And all the mumbling psychos on Colfax. There is a website that is devoted to Colfax (lots of pictures) http://www.colfaxlove.com
@#261 - blue balaclava - the name of the place you are thinking of is the Soda Straw, it was much like Farrells in Cindarella City. It eventually became the Harvest, which also alas is gone.
@Bonnie - nice memories of Teletunes and Uzi... sadly missed producing shows for you as I came along and worked for Teletunes about two weeks after you left, Suzette and I still are in touch too! I did work with Rocky for like a minute. I think Rich still has all the videos in his basement or something. Don't you miss his little cards explaining the gist of the videos. I wish I grabbed one just for keeps.
Here are some of my favorites... some mentioned here some not....
- Thirsty's (many a night of debauchery there... still have a 'BPI rocks Thirsty's pitcher I stole one night, shoved under my oh so punk rock trenchcoat)...Jehovahs Nose and Wrangler... that means something to only one other person on the planet... she will see it eventually
- Rainbow Music Hall - growing up literally a block away was amazing, saw some great shows and not so great shows there
- Woolworths on 15th was my favorite lunchtime hangout when I worked in the PR department for the Denver Symphony when I was like 15. I bought a goldfish for my desk there
- What about the "Thinker" in the bank in Cherry Creek before the mall? Creeped me out...now it makes me sad I didn't appreciate it
- anyone remember the tunnel that went under 1st avenue between the Denver and Sears? (it existed and when we rebuilt the area I saw the cement filled entry on the Sears side)
- Zeckendorf Plaza next to the May D & F(anyone remember the Celebrate 76 promotion with Lego? They built a huge mock up of the White House with Legos and put it in the middle of the store)
- University Hills mall
- Fashion Bar
- Magic Pan on Larimer Square now a Z Gallerie.... mmmm crepes and Yay to you who remember the Flick
- Cinder Alley was probably the best spot in all of Cinderella City IMHO
- Bauers was the ice cream place in the Hilton, there was one also in Cherry Creek and also on Curtis (which is sorta reopened but not in the same vain, now it is a pure restaurant not a candy shop and ice cream emporium)
- What about Top of the Rockies at the top of the Security Life Building, best elevator ride on the outside of a sky scraper ever (now it is converted to apartments and the elevator is gone
- Mardi Gras anyone? Post being the Yum Yum Tree post the Yum Yum Tree moving from Colorado Boulevard next to Tangs Imports
- The original Muddy's under the Olinger's sign? Prior to it moving this is where my junior and senior years of high school were spent drinking coffee and eating black bread with olives, so bohemian
- the viaducts.... getting to Rock Island was so much cooler when they were up
- the fake preist guy begging for change (he did it even when my parents were teens, he was around a long time)
- Nuestesters in Cherry Creek before it became the Tattered Cover
- and speaking of fancy retail... Montaldos
- Calvins !!!... thankyou everyone that mentioned it, I hope you are talking the Calvins Before and After - Calvins, not the pool hall Calvins, but both were good
- Celebrity Sports Center - developed by Disney for reals....I still have tokens. Many of my friends worked as lifegaurds there, I have ashtrays and glassware too
- The RIV! ...nice remembering that... Glendale made them keep the sign by the way, they weren't allowed to tear it down.
- The creepy manniquens at Forney's ... yes the place was really haunted
- The Wax Museum (thankyou for remembering it all of those who did, didn't you just get colder when you walked into the Alfred Packer display?) right next to the original Children's Museum and our family's favorite chinese restaurant in the best VFW hall ever... The Lotus Room
- Cruising on Colfax, actually was busted and issued a open container ticket for a 3.2 White Mountain Wine Coolers on Colfax right across the street from Casa Bonita
- Normans
- Old Cherry Creek North
- Lyle Alzado's restaurant and Lyle Alzado for that matter...oh the Orange Crush days of the Broncos
- Rocky Hockey - Don Beck - I still have his jersey somewhere packed away
- Peaches Records by DU
- Wax Trax is actually celebrating their anniversary this weekend (Sept 20th, with the Frantics playing an instore)... spent much of my record store clerk money there, worked at a different store *cough cough* musicland in Aurora Mall *cough cough* but spent most of my money at Wax Trax
Thanks Mark for the thread, this is terrific! Someone out there should plan a meet up!
-
- No mention of the National Western Stock Show? I was born and raised in Colorado Springs and that was pretty much the only reason we'd go to Denver. I know that it's still ongoing, but the Stock Show was like a window into a whole other world. When I was 6 or 7 I got burned by a cigarette while a large crowd was walking over the pedestrian overpass between the main complex and the annex with the stock yards and RV show.
- Heritage Square...I bungee jumped there.
- Villa Italia Mall
- Some burger joint with a fat boy carrying a burger as the logo (Big Boy's, maybe?)
- The planetarium at the Museum of Natural History; they used to have Pink Floyd nights
- Going to the Museum of Natural History for every damn field trip for years. I saw the Ranses II exhibit about 4 times (and an IMAX movie called Chronos - can't believe I remember that!)
- Stapleton Airport and the highway that went underneath the runway
- visited a taxidermist who was located inside Rocky Flats. My dad had to use some kind of clearance to get inside. He had an elk head mounted. I wonder if it's radioactive.
- the KOOL concerts at Mile High
Awesome thread!
Alfie- I used to live in colorado springs and totally remember Tickles fun factory. That place was a precursor to Chuckie Cheese's. And they had the photo wall, you stood up againt the wall and your image stuck there and glowed in the dark!!I loved that place!
The Restraunt with the big burger was Big Boy specifically though it was called Azars
Some other notables from the great city of Denver
- The Denver Avalanche-Indoor soccer team
- Red Slipper restraunt at Cherry Creek and Colo. Blvd.
- Writers Manor at I-25 and Colo. Blvd.
- Bonnie Brae Pizza
- 94th Aero Squadron overlooking the runways at Stapleton
- 96 KPKE
- Large Giraffe on building at the Taxidermy place on HWY 36 going to Boulder.
- Original Water World slides (Bonzai pipeline and the Hot Dogger-The Hot Dogger splash down pool was last I knew a hot tub they were still using.
- The ramp that went from the 2nd story of Aurora mall to the first floor that was in the middle of the mall.
- Before Funtastic Fun was called Funtastic Nathans it was called Nathans Physical Whimsical.
- Bobcat gas station on Colo Blvd and Alameda
- The fountain at Cinderella City mall
- Montgomery Wards building on Broadway (Then getting imploded in the early 90's)
- Railroad car restraunt at Alameda and Leetsdale.
- Hodels drug across from Celebrity Sports Center
- Skate City across the street from Villa Italia
Mark, sorry I haven't been checking in -- I thought it was dying down and was starting to feel like it was just me.
A brand of soda with an elf? I'm thinking maybe Squirt. My mom took the girl scouts/brownies to some bottling plant in Denver, and I think they got some kind of small giveaways with a mascot who had an elfin face and a bottle cap permanently wedged on top of his or her head.
Otherwise, I'd guess Duffy's, "The Fast Answer to Thirst." ("How do YOU feel?" "I feel like a Duffy's!")
On an irrelevant tangent, the Big Boy's in Houston when we lived there was Kip's Big Boy. I always intended to take a picture of their sign -- neon, two or three stories tall -- and never did. Whatta shmo. I deserve all my bad luck, just for reasons like that. (Speaking of which, I met a man named Bill Turnbull at a Denver con -- MileHiCon or PenultiCon -- and he was friendly and said he had an outfit making pictures and doing theater, and I should come check it out, and I could meet Bill Scott. You know, "Bullwinkle." And because I had no transportation of my own, I never did it. Could have met Bill Scott. I need to study Yoga so I can figure out how to kick my own ass.)
I've been living on the East Coast for 15 years now, but I still love Denver through and through, especially the Denver I grew up in from 1970-1995.
I spent my formative years growing up in the west suburbs of Arvada and Wheat Ridge, though I moved to downtown Denver as soon as I was old enough to do so. As a kid I spent many an hour in the Lakeside funhose (and lost in that glass maze), riding the haunted Gold Mine at Elitch's (which I liked more than the Splinter, actually), dining out at Davies Chuck Wagon Diner, and having a blast in the weirdly recessed Johnson Park (on the Greenbelt). Celebrity Sports Center was a special trip - but one we took often. Not only did I love the huge video game arcade, but it is where I rode my first waterslide. I was completely terrified getting on the thing, but after the first ride I spent the rest of the day running up the stairs and sliding down the tubes.
I also remember Cin City, of course, but I spent more time riding parking lot kiddie train at Westland Mall (when I was very young it was the first cool shopping mall), roaming Villa Italia, and catching as many movies as I could at the Westminster 11. Of course, I preferred going to the Cooper or the Continental, but my grandpa would drop me off at the Westminster Mall after school, so that's where most of my movie viewing took place. Though my earliest movie memories involve the Cinderella Twin drive-in (Bambi) and the Lakeside Twin (Flash Gordon).
Skate City and U.S. On Wheels gave me with so many lame birthday parties and lonely couples skates...sigh. Here's a great photo of the Alameda Skate City when it opened.
Classy date night in Arvada: dinner at Valente's and parking on Lookout Mountain.
One of my first jobs was at Casa Bonita, where we all had to share tips with the entire restaurant, and almost every night teenage servers would hold keggers after work. I remember one night we had to take all the palms off the palm trees and run them through the dishwasher. Not fun, I tell you.
Then I ended up working at Watson's, the pseudo-50s soda fountain bar in the Tabor Center which hosted lame sock hop concerts on the weekends (though I always preferred the original store on Lincoln). For some reason, I thought the Tabor Center was the pinnacle of cool when it opened in the late 80s. I have since completely reversed that opinion.
I then moved to movies and worked at the Mayan and Esquire theatres - though my great love was always the Ogden, before it shut down for several years and was finally revamped as a music venue. They used to show all the weirdest movies there, and had that amazing John Waters no smoking promo. In high school, I even played Eddie in Rocky Horror at the Ogden, which was fun not so much for being in Rocky, but because I got to explore all the nooks and crannies of that beautiful old building. We used to always hit Muddy's after the show.
Then I worked at Wax Trax (a bit at both the Boulder and Denver stores), which is still one of the best record stores in the country - especially for used stuff at fair prices (Jerry's Record Exchange is way up there as well). And yeah, the employees at Wax Trax had a rep for being surly, but most of us tried to be nice - a few bad apples, and the store's punk rep, was mostly to blame. And the co-owner Duane is also one of the nicest guys I've ever worked for.
And finally, good old Paris on the Platte. As a teen I so loved the skanky feel under the 16th Street Viaduct. A night of dancing at Rock Island followed by several Crowbars at Paris was a night of teenage "rebellion", and the closest I could find to an actual "big city" feeling. And so, I couldn't help but want to work at Paris in my 20s - which was only possible because the French cafe manager finally quit, as he would only allow women to wait tables. I was one of the first males allowed to serve late night coffees at Paris, and I did so while proudly wearing skirts, smoking clove cigarettes, and composing rants for the Hooligan while on my break. Ah, affectation. The building Paris is in used to be a coffin factory, by the way, and there is supposedly an underground tunnel that leads to Olingers. One night while staying alone super late to earn extra money waxing the floors, I was so frightened by weird vibes and noises that I ran screaming from the building.
While working at Paris I met the guys in Denver goth band Seraphim Shock, who sold me their old tour van that I eventually planned to use for my move to the East Coast. Their music didn't work for me, but I loved their stage show. I also loved the Warlock Pinchers, but only saw them live at their final show - which was completely insane, of course. However, I have many many memories of seeing Baldo Rex and The Denver Gentlemen (with a pre-Auto Club Slim Cessna) way too many times.
Anyway, I may not live in Denver anymore, but it is a huge part of who I am, and I'm always proud to say that the Mile High City is where I grew up. Thanks for starting this thread and reminding me that it wasn't all in my head!
Not all in your head? Oh, man, I'm sorry. I thought this was fiction, and I've just been making things up...
But seriously, how close was the place to Olinger's? Paris on the Platte is completely outside my experience, and I don't even have much of an idea where it was. A tunnel to that epic funeral home sounds like such a great idea -- if it's still there, they could run little hearses through it for a goth theme park.
Wow. This is amazing. Boing Boing should host a party somewhere, with FM-TV and Teletunes videos on the big screen. And a memorabilia auction -- I gave up smoking 15 years ago, but still have my After the Fox and Pogo's ashtrays...and my Muddy's and Thirsty's matchbooks. Can't hold onto those forever, you know.
Just wanted to correct and apologize... it's been so long since I've went to MHC regularly, that I forgot Mr. Rozanski's wife's name is Nanette. My apologies....
@281 & 283 -- SKATE CITY! much of my favorite childhood memories revolve around that place. in fact, i bought an upright arcade machine of omega race specifically because a friend and i used to play that game the first thing every time we went there.
thank you so much for posting that cover of skate city, residentclinton... it's like a memory was pulled out of my head and printed on paper. love it love it love it. i'm gonna send it to my video game friend right now....
#287 - That's a good number for a Denver comment. The main road through Fort Collins was highway 287, and we used to go down to Denver on it before they put I-25 through. If we went north on it, we'd be headed to Cheyenne.
The road went past a wonderful natural rock formation called the Natural Fort, whose wind-worn cubbyholes and such allowed one bunch of Indians to hold out against another for a good long while before they were finally starved out or whatever.
When they built the new road, the geniuses in charge sat down and thought real hard of how drivers going both ways could appreciate this wonder of nature, and the smartest one of all said, "Hey! If we blast the road through the middle, then people going either direction can get out and clamber about on the little pieces we don't actually destroy!"
Everybody in the group agreed that this was the smartest thing they'd ever heard, so that's just what they did, destroying half or more of the natural fort, in order for tourists to enjoy it.
The end.
Hello. I was just reading something about Mystery Science Theater and the name "High Street" appeared in my brain. I looked up High Street and this thread was Google's number three hit. My hometown is a few miles north of Denver (Boulder). I've been away from Denver-Boulder a long, long time. Anyway. Here are a few things I remember...
Fred and Fae and musical spoons and (am I correct here?) yo-yo man.
Moving a little north. Spruce street indoor pool in Boulder (polio pit). "The Sink"...located on "The Hill".
Back to Denver. AM radio disk jockey (name??) sudden departure to "Pepperland" mid-way through his radio show. I think the disk jockey returned to radio a couple of days later and then disappeared a second time...second time permanent.
"The Coliseum" ice show and circus and rock music venue and temporary deafness...post-Grand Funk Railroad concert.
Watching a very large cop hover over rockin' (and prostrate) Iron Butterfly guitarist. And, watching most of the Denver Pop Festival patrons leave Mile High Stadium stands for Mile High Stadium field. Why? Well, to enjoy the water spray from Mile High Stadium sprinklers. Turning on the sprinkler system to "disperse the crowd"...now, THAT was a good idea.
Listening to Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) at Red Rocks play flute. Ian Anderson playing flute AND ignoring the fact his head located within a cloud of tear gas.
A little later. Attending Metropolitan State College. The "campus" was downtown Denver and my room was somewhere on Capitol Hill and every Friday morning (on my walk to school) I would give a few dollars to the drunk panhandlers located outside a liquor store on Capitol Hill and they would buy me a bottle and I would give them a couple of dollars for their trouble.
Learning you never decide to drink and smoke on a rock ledge below the parking area on Lookout Mountain...well, not unless you LIKE drinking and smoking while other people are using your rock ledge for a urinal.
Rusty
The massive mural inside The Sink is awesome!
It'll take me awhile to peruse this all. Just discovered it. Being from Seattle, I found myself in a White Spot out towards Colorado Boulevard in almost winter of 1972, and decided to stay and start going by my first name, Dan. Among other things I ended up living various places--that is, after staying at the free church, etc. Lived downtown, then a rooming house on I think Emerson, Worked at Emerson Street East owned by the 'mob' they'd say, but they weren't bad bosses, then I lived over a drug store on Colfax across from the Cathedral, the jerky pharmacist was the 'manager'...I got kicked out and lived with the assistant manager, Danny, who, with his girlfriend and Dog, Elan,-- lived with another Dan, so when I moved in there were three of us.
Puerto Rican Dan and myself moved into the famous Antlers Hotel. BoingBoing is the only place I have found reference to THIS particular Antlers... I hung out at the White Spot on Colfax mostly, and the manager would hire me to wash dishes when the regular dishwasher would (routinely) quit. So I'd read my books, then go to work.
Anyone on here ever hang out there? Also I knew some guys who I kinda admired..perhpaps ill-advisedly.... A guy 'Clarke' who seemed intelligent to me, but got himself into lots of trouble, I now think he might've been a bit nuts...but there was Tom, who knew Clarke..Tom was much cooler, played guitar, was good looking and when I returned to Denver in 1975 for a visit, learned he had died....Richard was my friend who knew them too...Richard and I met the famous poet Alan Ginsburg one day. Later, Richard hitched with me to the Rainbow Family Gathering where I knew some people. Hey! I got some memories of Denver...anyone respond to what I've said so far?....I'll be back! Dan. by the way, I'm NOT living on the street anymore..it was so different then, right?
Rusty, glad to hear somebody else talk about Fred 'n' Fae! And, oh, yes, the musical spoons they used to flog on the show.
Not sure about Pepperland, but years after his fame on KIMN, Jay Mack was working a night shift on a station and a listener became concerned when he didn't come back after a record. Listener made calls, Mack was found with a heart attack. They got him to the hospital, and he recovered. Sad to say, he didn't live long enough after that. There goes the greatest 60s deejay in Denver.
Dan, when I went to the Rolling Thunder concert in (uhm) '76, I was walking around the far end of Hughes Stadium and I could see that a man was on stage, talking. I was seeing Ginsburg. I can't say I heard him, though, except as a vague muttering, due to distance and the sound system. There he was, a living legend, and I couldn't tell what he was saying. I'm not sure I even knew who he was until afterward, when it was too late.
Not Round the Corner (I always took my kids there in the 70's and 80's)-This hamburger place was in-63-67 as I was in University in Denver--and was approximatily where the old Neusteters parking lot was--It was sooo good --What is the name?????
That one I don't know. I do remember going to a speech meet down in Denver and Gunnar, the bus driver, obliged the requests of veteran team members by taking us all to Jim's Burger Heaven, which had the largest burgers (by diameter) around. They were also perhaps the thinnest, with a hole or two as well. It was kind of a treat, though.
There were two high schools in Fort Collins that year. I used to see the Fort Collins High School team from time to time. One time, Bob Ostertag showed me a 12-tone rag he was in the process of working out for himself. I wonder if he ever wrote it down.
(Back To The Top (/future?)... (Spec.Ref.: "Starr Yelland") . . .
[From the rapidly fading--yet, somehow, increasingly verbose and detailed--memory of a former "Child of the Foothills of the Rockies" who "grew up" on the "other"--that is, Northern-esque--end of the Boulder/Denver Turnpike from '53 to '73]...
Starr Yelland was the Ultimate, All-Purpose, early, local, TV Celebrity. (not counting, of course, Fred and Fay and/or possibly the [Creature Features] host and entourage).
I can't seem to recall exactly what Starr Yelland actually "did" . . . Other than to permanently etch himself (or at least his moniker) into the gray matter of those of us who witnessed his frequent appearances--after the 6:00 AM Test Pattern (the one with the Proud Indian Head in the middle and the countdown) and The Farm and Weather Report.
In any case, the Yellandmeister popped up frequently when you turned on that old 5-Channel-Reception, B&W Proto-TV--with the rabbit ears and the constantly-being-tested-and-replaced internal components (including, of course, those semi-mysterious vacuum tubes).
It is no wonder, then, that an Especially Shocking Local Safety Reminder(!!!) (rumor) regarding Roller Coaster Safety (spec. ref: the coaster at Lakeside Amusement Park--the same coaster on which, once upon a time, an entire group of cars allegedly flew off the track and into the lake, below) involved the DECAPITATION(!!!) of Starr Yelland's [son/nephew/brother/third-cousin-twice-removed/whatever] because the lad ignored the warning NOT TO STAND UP in the car.
Bad Deal. I guess . . .
Yet . . . Somehow, it helps me to remember Starr Yelland . . . And is the perfect segue to another local "media star"--mentioned, above, by "Rustycar"--Jeff Starr (of "STARRRRRRRPOWERRRR!!!!" and "BROOOOOOOMFIEEEEEELD!!!! [sucks]" fame on the other AM "Rock and Roll" station (besides KIMN--The Denver Tiger).
"Jeff Starr" was the AirName of the DJ who made the "Is Paul Dead?" calls (to the overseas operator) and disappeared into ProtoCyberspace (leaving the record being played clicking on the turntable for all to hear). I know this is true because we were sitting in the third row of the Motorena Drive-In Theater--just east of Boulder, on Arapahoe--when it happened live--on (dead) air.
I have to go now . . .
But don't forget that besides "Musical Spoons" and yo-yos Fred and Fay were the World's Number One Promoters of 1) Weiner Wagons and 2)Duffy's Soft Drinks . . . .
See Y'all Later!......
(Wonderful thread, BTW. Thanks!)
I'm grateful to Starr Yelland for bringing us Lemonade Joe, though I only found out a short while back how much they cut that print to show it. The real Denver pseudo-celebrity to me was Tom Shannon from KWGN, who I immortalized as a villain in one of my comic books (hand drawn, never reproduced, of course).
I can think of three pop stations in Denver: KIMN, KHOW, and KTLK (my personal favorite). Then again, there was the beloved KLZ-FM, which most folks on this thread recall as KAZY.
I wonder, if I dug through my papers hard enough, if I'd find an old issue of "HI GANG!", the handout newsletter from Fred 'n' Fay (ask for it from your kind, jolly merchant!)...
Great thread! I was a Highlander Boy (unique to Denver) from 1966 - 1971. We sold "Boy Bonds" annually - "Buy a bond, build a boy!" - which were tickets to see a Denver Bears baseball game, where we did the pre-game show.
I sold tix all over Denver and Boulder. We used to have corners downtown. I sold on the corner of the Brown Palace, the Hilton, and remember pitching people coming in and out of the movie theater which was playing A Clockwork Orange. A little kid in a military uniform on that corner at the height of the Vietnam war. How surreal....
We were also the color guard for the national anthem at the Sports Boat & Travel Show. I used to love wandering that show for hours, lusting after the Honda ATV (the fat tired tricycle thing). And mini bikes were everywhere!
Man, it's bugging me - my brother used to take me swimming at this outdoor "beach/lake thing off of Federal Blvd. (or Sheriden?), and I can't remember the name of it.
I have vivid memories of:
1970's:
Villa Italia
Blinky
The Denver
Lakeside Amusement Park
1980's:
Muddy's
Norman's Hideaway
The Grove
Tabor Center/16th Street Mall
Wax Trax
It's been bugging me since I discovered this thread, the name of that swimming place. I called a friend to see if he might remember it - and he worked thaere, LOL!
Aloha Valley Beach
I have sad news.
Blinky's store? Is no more.
The goods are still in there, but signs say "STORE CLOSED". Details here:
http://tinyurl.com/5oa6bl
Blue Balaclava, this is Kip W -- bOINGbOING doesn't seem to know who I am any more, and when I click on Reset Password, it's probably sending something to my old address, so I'm effectively locked out.
End of an era. No more Blinky store. Wow.
Kip W,
I can't find any reason that the system won't let you in. Are you commenting from your usual IP address?
You should probably just create a new account. If that doesn't work, we'll try something else.
The system is automated. I can ask, but I don't think that we have that capability.
You shouldn't have lost it. I've moved, and my IP changes every couple of months without affecting me. I checked your usual IP and it's not banned. That's the only reason that I asked about that. This system is buggy. We have very regular commenters who have never been able to register. For now, you can just sign your comments and I'll keep an eye out. Otherwise, re-register your name with an underscore, or add Hussein as your middle name, or something so the system doesn't reject it.
I'll see what I can do, but these things don't usually go very quickly.
WOW! There some "old School" in this list. I set out to Google "graffiti wall paris on the platte," hoping to find some old picture.
80s
Rock Island and House of Toast when the viaduct went right over it - 1614 15th St.
Ground Zero
The Fizz
Inxss
The Void
Club LA
Normans
Wax Trax in the day, Across the Trax
Imi Jimi
Fashion Nation
(ALL OF 13th Street!!!)
Teletunes
http://www.geocities.com/antlion7/waxtrax.htm
Sisters of Mercy playing Ogden in Denver November 2008
Antinous: back! Thanks for the help.
Welcome back.
Found this site looking up High Street...loved it and KFML, which I remember being on only sunrise to sunset on the FM side of the dial, usually fading out with the sun and a spacey instrumental...whence I discovered guitarist Michael Gulezian's song "Café on the Rings of Saturn."
As for bands, does anyone remember Judy Roderick and 60,000,000 Buffalo?
LOVE this conversation. I live in LA now and have for a couple decades but the Denver of the 60s, 70s and 80s is a huge part of who I am. I was even on Blinky a couple of times back when his studio was at 540 Lincoln (since torn down and I think Fox is there now?) Lakeside is amazing- I still make a point to go there if I am in Denver in the summer (sad to see the Funhouse and Laughing Sal gone though) but here is a question- does anyone remember the Sun-Day concerts at Mile Hi stadium in the 70s? I remember seeing a show with Tommy Bolin right before he died on the same bill with Frampton and Gary Wright. Also a show with the Beach Boys, Santana and Fleetwood Mac right when the white Fleetwood Mac album (just before Rumors) came out. Amazing. Also a fantastic day getting baked in the sun and baked on weed in the field with Ted Nugent and a slew of other bands around 1979 or so? I have so many great memories of Denver. Anyone remember "The Flick" theater on a corner of Larimer Square? Or when the Ogden used to show a different double feature like Kubrick's Lolita and Dr. Strangelove every day?
This was an interesting thread to read. I found ti while trying to find an old friend and boss that I knew from University of Denver and Emerson Steet East. I moved to Denver in 75 to go to DU. I lived for a while in North Denver on 50th Ave just west of Federal and worked at the Pop Shoppe on Sheridan and at Lakeside in the concession stands in both the Park and at the Track. I made the awesome sum of a buck fifty an hour because I was 18 and could legally sell 3.2 beer. Most of the kids were under 16 and made less than a dollar an hour.
When I started school during the Summer session in 75, I started working at the Student Union at DU. I worked both the snack bar there and the little 3.2 pub. Every day the regulars would come in at 4ish to watch Star Trek and complain about not being able to get drunk on 3.2 beer all the while getting drunk as skunks.
I remember going to see Firesign Theater at Ebbets Field in downtown Denver and a couple of times trying to pile as many people as possible into a little Opal 1900 to go downtown. I think the record was 8; five in the back seat and 3 in the front. We'd also go and cruise the loop between 15th and 17th streets. I can't remember the cross streets we used to go down to do the loop. I remember flirting with a bunch of in a jeep who decided to see if me and my girl friends would follow through with the flirt. Scared me and my friends to death. I think that's the last time I went cruising.
I left DU in 77 and returned in 81. That's when I started working at Emerson Street East as a hostess and cover charge girl for the Friday Night Jazz Scene. The general manager at the time was a guy by the name of Bruce Ratcliffe. This is the person I was trying to track down when I found this thread.
KipW do you have a brother name of Kim? If so I may have gone to school with him at UNC.
One thing I haven't "heard" anyone mention is the Bluebird Cafe and Ichabod's Books on Broadway.
And, a bit of Fred n' Fae goodness:
http://tinyurl.com/583z5c
The Shane Company -
Tom Shane has to be approaching 90. His ads used to say, "You have a friend in the diamond business. The Shane Company, downtown on the third floor of the Security Life Building at 16th and Glenarm." That was when the Arapahoe Road site was grazing land.
Security Life Building was the tallest one west of the Mississippi for a long time and the tallest in Denver unitl the late 70's and the oil shale boom.
Arapahoe Road -
Was a two lane, mostly paved natural roller coaster. The road was built with little to no change in the landscape and we could get some serious air in our cars at 60 mph.
I-225 ended in a four-story high, half mile long pile of dirt just south of Mississippi.
Buckingham Square Mall -
It was built in the very early 70's and had a new fangled MULTI SCREEN CINEMA, the Buckingham 4. It was actually 5 screens with The Outhouse showing art and foreign films. The had chocolate dipped frozen bananas at the concession stand. One of my buddies and I attacked the fountains in the place with regular frequency. We took those little plastic capsules that contained cheap toys dispensed by gumball machines and loaded them up with dishsoap and toss them into the fountains. The capsule would churn around in the water for a while before breaking open and creating a foot or two of foam and bubbles. The delay would always allow plenty of time for escape. When we started to get bored with the escapade we mounted an asault on every fountain along the mall and the main prize of the center court fountain with the bridge that arched over it. We triumphed and were never caught.
Round the Corner burgers was one of the last holdouts during the death throws of Buckingham Square. The company has morphed to become the new Good Times Hamburgers and Frozen Custard chain. The cool thing about Round the Corner was ordering from your table over a telephone and then being buzzed back when the order was ready at the counter.
KHOW radio - "The Greatest Air Show on Earth"
Hal Moore (now on KEZW in Denver) used to have the official kick off of the weekend on Fridays at 5:00 with the song "If I Had a Wagon" and sign off an hour later yelling "I LOVE YOU, DENVER!" He was followed by Little Johnnie Harding who had a ritual sing-a-long song, "When You Smile" every night where he would sing to the LA, LA, LA chorus. At nine the programming when to "music for lovers" and a pair of patch cables were plugged in for simulcasting on 630 AM and 95.7 FM for the overnight until 6:00 when Charley and Barney took over the AM side.
Other radio - KIMN, KTLK, and KLZ (occasionally) fighting for top spot on the Top 40. KOA broadcasting cooking shows mid-day and Pete Smythe with his "barbed wire network" one man variety show at night. Pete was the original male train announcement voice at DIA. The station KTLN and it's star and co-owner name sake Katie Ellen. Hard rock KAZY and KBPI. KPPL that was, during its short life, always in FCC hot water for moving its studios and transmitters without proper authority. KOSI with non-stop elevator music on FM. The KVOD Gene Amole era with commercial classical music and glass wind chimes and a live mic on a bird feeder during announcements. All sponsored by EMW Furniture and Davis and Shaw Furniture.
Parking and necking on Lookout Mountain along Lariat Trail with the great views of the city lights before all of the spots were closed off. Tokin up and Car humping with your date in the parking lot of the Mother Cabrini Shrine and leaving the "skins of the fruit of love" on the ground when you left. (DEW, baby, you know who you are! 35 years on and memories of you still light me up!)
The Scotsman drive-in and the cinnamon Cokes. ARE YOU LISTENING Coca-Cola marketing? This is one you haven't tried and you TRIED NEW COKE. (That guy is burning in HELL)
Elitches vs. Lakeside... after 100 years Lakeside wins! Elitches: $10 parking, $40 gate and $3 Pepsi in bottles....ARE YOU KIDDING? Lakeside is finally cool and a deal: $2.50 gate and $18 unlimited rides.
Cruising 16th and 17th Street before the mall. Denver Cop Buster Snyder would sign and date two full books of tickets every Friday and Saturday night before his shift 'cause he knew he would hand them all out and didn't want to waist time. Suspension modified? Ticket! Tires hanging out from under the fenders? Ticket! Pipes too loud? Ticket! 8-Track too loud and the wrong music? Ticket!
The Turn of the Century Nightclub and the all-star acts they booked at Hampden and Yosemite was great. I still am in love with Lannie Garrett from the first time I saw this sexy redhead singer there. I am sooo glad she has her own club in the D&F Tower. You still got it Lannie!
Red Rocks Amphitheater BEFORE the stagehouse cover which destroyed the natural rock backdrop and the total open air feeling. So what if a multi-millionaire pansy-ass rock star got wet so did all of us! Deal with it.
All the Drive-in Movies: Havana, Westland, 70 East, Northstar, Cinderella Twin, 88th, Edgewater and all the other great places to discover each other's naughty bits and sex play. What movie? Man, TW, you had the biggest pair of hooties I have ever seen. They were bigger than my head. Get your foot off the break pedal!
3.2 beer. Beer with training wheels, how cute!
Metro State College BEFORE Auraria Campus. 25 minutes between classes and classrooms scattered all over downtown.
Auraria campus BEFORE Auraria Parkway? Lawrence and Larimer ran through the campus. Jaywalking was a high risk, organized sport.
Advertising:
Anyone remember Leon the Neon Girrafe? He was a animated neon sign for a furniture company on West Colfax. Still there in front of a thrift store but no movement and no neon.
Johnnie Harper Ford 38th & Wadsworth sponsored the Saturday Morning Oldies show on KHOW with "Music to buy new Fords by."
US 6 was the way into the mountains before I-70.
Sports teams? The Denver Bears baseball. The Rockets basketball owned by the Ringsby family. They still use the logo for their real estate company and the name came from having Martin Marietta in the area. The Denver Spurs hockey that played at the Colliseum.
Here's to the good times. Peace, man.
talking about radio -
remember Quadraphonic stereo? The radio stations that broadcast it all snapped up Q for their last letter. KOA-FM became KOAQ.
How about Fred and Fay TV program that came on after school, sponsored by "Knotts Berry Farms fresh frozen boysenberry juice". Also remember Cramner Park on Claremont with the sun dial, just down from Hill Jr. High (where Mr. Jones taught metal shop and Mr. Ayers taught craft shop).
The 3.2 bar scene at The Overflow (Colo. Blvd. and Virginia, owned by Jack Lohman), The Shire on 13th and Franklin owned by Warren Slane), La Pichet, The Galexy, The Pub in Aurora? Other real bars (over 21) in Glendale such as The Library, Sign of the Dove, The Good Life (owned by Bronco Bobby Anderson), and others that escape me. Also, rember the Bull & the Bush in Cherry Creek, The Store in Aurora (burnt down when I was in Viet Nam.) and the Mad Russian on Colfax.
Cherry Creek Inn (Red Supper Club) where I was a busboy and the Denver Drumstick restaurants where I also worked as a fry cook and busboy until Esther the "hostess" fired me.
The racing scene where we used to cruise at Donalds Drive Inn (we used to call it the Lid) on Colfax. Street racing out by Buckley and Tower road when there was nothing there.
I remember taking the ski train from the Union Station thru the Moffett tunnel to Winter Park and back to Denver for a day of skiing.
Like the Denver Post used to say on every paper on the front page (I had a paper route at Lowry) "Tis a pleasure to live in Colorado"
Someone told me about this blog from another blog on Yelp Denver. http://www.yelp.com/topic/denver-denver-nostalgia
I couldn't read this whole thing it was so long! but I read snippets here and there and was transported back in time once again. I'm still in Denver. Born and raised. I noticed a few things people had a little off. The roller skating waitress drive-in burger, sloppy malt and hot cookie cinnamon cokesjoint on north Federal was called the Scotchman. Wasn't the restaurant in the Cherry Creek Inn Hotel called, "the Red Slipper"? I think the First National Bank Building was the tallest building in Denver (remember the restaurant called the Top of the Rockies on the top floor?). How about Orange Nehigh soda, RC Cola, Grapette, Duffy's Lime Rickey. I think everything we talked about on Yelp must be on here but you might check it out.
Cheapsuits, you are so right. It was the Red Slipper Room, not club. I should have know that because I worked there for a couple of years and the Mitre'd was a German guy by the name of John. I was a busboy and still remember him yelling into my earphone (we wore earphones)saying water on table 54, water on 54. Great memories.
Older malls are definitely on the out in Denver. Denver's first mall, Lakeside Shopping Center is now gone, Cinderella City, Villa Italia, Northglenn, North Valley, Crossroads in Boulder, Buckingham in Aurora seems like it might be next and the Aurora Mall seems to be struggling to stay alive too.
Anyone into music might miss Melody Music off Acoma, Wells Music, downtown across from the old JC Penney's, Ball Music in Lakeside, Bobby's Music on Broadway,Colfax Music Center, and Gopher Baroque on Colfax, there were a lot of others but those come to mind.
I have great memories of the Yum Yum Tree, Noel & Andy (on Channel 7), and the Denver Drumstick. I could watch that train for hours, while gorging myself on Texas toast and gravy. Fond memories of Teletunes, too. This thread has had me crying I've been laughing so hard.
Hey, I don't see much 60s stuff here. How about the following:
1965 flood, most of Denver west of I25 was devastated, the only time I ever saw Sand Creek full.
Montgomery Wards on Broadway, I actually shopped there.
Aurora officially ended at the gateway signs on 6th ave.
Shopping at the May D&F on 16th and lunching at the restaurant in their basement, it had mirrors on opposing walls to make it look bigger.
Watching airplanes land on Havana at Stapleton.
Watching them put up the I 70 viaduct.
I 25 when it was the Valley Highway.
The Denver Boulder turnpike. The only turnpike I have ever seen where when it was paid for they took the toll booths down.
Pete Smythe on KOA talking about East Tin Cup
Pre Blinky anyone else remember the Fred and Fay show on KLZ? I went on there for my Birthday.
Some Aurora stuff.
The Pub bar in Montview, downstairs disco.
Anyone remember the bar on Yosemite next to Lowry? Ah the fights..
the Century 21 dragstrip before and after they closed.
Tower road, great for anything a teen would want to do, also the KOSI towers for the same.
The railroad between Lowry and Buckly.
The bowling alley in Hoffman Heights, ah misspent youth.
What was the name of the country bar on Colfax?
The Blue Onion on Colfax and the Havana Inn on Havana, when it was the only restaurant on Havana (I remember the tacoburrito).
Cherry Creek Dam when it was out in the sticks (now adays they would call it BFE)
The Gold Nugget! My friend Kathy-oh was a waitress there in the late 70's. I was newly separated from my husband, who worked at Big Apple Records and later managed Zipper Tapes and Records, a step child of Big Apple and almost right next door to it. I used to go hang out and mope and drink when Kathy worked. The secret was that all the old guys were on their way home from work and stopped off for a cocktail and many of the girls that were hustling them for drinks and bux were gay. The bar tender, a big girl called Shannon could tie a knot in a cherry stem with her tongue.....
Hey 291 aka Dan
Check out the film 'Things to do in Denver when your Dead' the Character Treat Williams plays hides out at the Antlers.
I found this doing thread while researching the wax figures that the Forney acquired in the 70's. I was just at the new location on Brighton and saw Mark Twain but Alfred is in storage.
In the late 70's I went to an 'alternative' school for a semester for special (stoned) kids--Randall Moore-- and we'd go to Celebrity to play foosball for gym credits.
My best friend and I won the contest to rename what was then 'alterna TV ' . We came up with Teletunes. We got to be be VJ's for the night. We split the award with another guy that came up with the same name. There weren't that many videos to choose from, we may have played Trio's "Da, Da, Da" twice.
A few folks and myself have started a website to chronicle 150 expressions of Denver by as many people as possible. We started posting on Denver's 150th birthday and we're on week three. We are posting current stuff, historical stuff and everything in between. There are some great stories on this thread that would make great posts; check out buckfifty and send us something! We're planning on doing some events too, a Denver Trivia night would be great!
www.buckfifty.org
oops, it was FMTV, then Teletunes.
then... Alterna TV? I don't know where that came from.
oops, it was FMTV, then Teletunes.
then... Alterna TV?
I don't know where that came from.
Hey,
This thread hopefully will start some enterprising soul to write a book, movie or travelog.
I was born at St. Anthony and lived within walking distance of Lakeside (which search led me here). I was looking for information on the the fun house. I remember there were several wooden slides, the tallest of which must have been vertical for about 6-10 feet at the start. Had to be brave!
We moved to Denver SouthEast (Thomas Jefferson High)
I remember:
Elitches had the mini-golf at the Tennyson and 38th walk in entrance. I loved that course and the picnic areas behind it.
PS don't eat 2 hot dogs and then get on the Elitches Tilt-a whirl and Octopus right after (yuck)
Burning Trash in a back yard incinerator (yes it was legal then)
Denver Drumstick was the absolute best
When Cherry Creek was a nice Creek, the Hatch Cover, Tatered Cover and the Cherry Creek Duplex Cinema
The POP shop
Skate City
Northstar Drive In (it was huge)So many Drive INNs!!
Driving to Grand Junction over Loveland and Vail pass in the winter (Yikes)
When I70 Ended at Sheridan, then Wadsworth
The saturday ski bus to A-Basin, yes lift tickets were $12, bus was $8
When Glendale was the happening place (much like LoDo is now)
The Reggae bar on Leetsdale near Colorado (can't remember the name)
Fashion Bar
Peaches Records on Evans
Creature Features
Blinkey (I was on camera telling Blinkey I had to pee!)
Dates at Around the Corner
Red Rocks Seals and Croft
Jethro Tull at Big Mac
Continental Theater (think Sound Track/Ultimate Electronics is there)
Cooper Theater (Watch Le Mans the movie on their revolutionary wide screen)
Prom night at the Marriott on Hampden and I25
I used to ride my motorcycle (a Bultaco Matador) where Goldsmith Center is now and yes the Denver Tech Center did not exist and was a great place to ride my motorcycle (unless you got caught)
Keg parties everyhwere, on Friday and Saturday, in parks and in houses when unsuspecting parents where away
CinderAlley was the coolest
So many memories, most surfacing because of this thread. Thanks to everyone who posted, someome please find pictures of the inside of the Fun House at LakeSide!!!
Love you Denver!
Do you remember:
Miss Jeanie's Romper Room...I think it was on channel 2 back in the early '60's.
The Gold Rush and After The Gold Rush bars.
TV news folks, Karl Akers, Stormy Rottman, Weatherman Bowman.
Flying on United Airlines and getting a real metal "pilot's wings" pin, like the pilots wore.
At May D&F the toy section was on the third floor as I recall. We lived in Greeley, so it was a real treat to visit May D&F and pick out a toy from such a large selection.
The Denver Petroleum Club had cool swizzle sticks in the shape of an oil derek. They had a great seafood buffet on some Friday nights. This is when they were on the 12th and 13th floor of the building near Broadway and Colfax.
Ice skating at Zeckendorf plaza near May D&F.
Apple Annie's at Yum Yum Tree-the dessert place.
Noble Roman's Pizza on South Broadway.
Centennial Race Track in Littleton.
Lazarium at the Denver Museum: Pink Floyd, The Cars, lots of beer in the parking lot before the lazer light show.
The "Spy in the Sky" one of Denver's first traffic monitoring helicopters who would report traffic conditions over the AM radio. Also the tower at "the Mouse Trap" where traffic could be monitored.
Lyle Alzado's restaurant.
Scotti's Burger's in North Denver.
Stucky's store South of Loveland on I-25.
I love on the East Coast at the edge of the continental united states now..but I don't know if was the Times or the City of Denver, but to me it seemed to be the coolest place on earth.
So many great memories here! I remember some of these 3.2 bars from the late 70's and early 80's:
My Sweet Lass on Detroit St. in Cherry Creek
The Godfather, a dive with a live band on Evans near Broadway
Mr. Lucky's in Glendale - if you were a female you could get in if you were at least 18 but they'd stamp your hand with a red stamp and you could only order soft drinks that would be served in red cups - if you were a male you had to be 21 to get in. So we'd sneak our own bottles in and poured them into our red cups in the ladies room!
How about Panama Red's / Packers on Parker Rd. in Aurora? These weren't 3.2 bars, but Panama Red's played current music and Packers played oldies music.
The movie theater on Colorado Blvd that is now Ultimate Electronics was Century 21, which was down the street from the Cooper. The Continental was the other large screen that is still on Hampden and I-25, but they've built 10 other small screens around it. At least they've kept the large screen and it's the only big screen theater left in Denver.
I remember the Cherry Creek Shopping Center before the mall was built there. It was kind of like a mall but there were outdoor sidewalks. When I was very young in the 60's, one of the stores on the south side was some kind of toy store, and you could climb up a ladder to get to the roof and there was a carousel on the roof that you could ride. This store later became Collin's Dress Shop. Does anyone remember this?
I also SO remember the underground tunnel that went under 1st Street from Sears to the other side of the street to the parking lot where the shopping center was. Someone had mentioned that when they revamped the area, the tunnel entry was cemented.
In the summer of 1979, there was place off of Iliff near Wabash, which were just fields at the time, called Fox Hills and every night there were kegs and tons of people partying out in the middle of the fields.
Some other memories that I haven't seen mentioned here:
Bobby McGee's restaurant / bar
Movie theater at Hampden/Yosemite
Holly Inn restaurants famous for their tacoritos (Holly South, Holly West)
Le Bite's - a "healthy" fast food restaurant at Iliff and Peoria
G.D. Ritzy's
People's Restaurant
Angie's Pizza at Leetsdale and Monaco
Larimer Square:
I loved seeing "art" movies at the Flick.
What was the name of the store that later became Soapy Smiths?
I also, played music (in the early 80s), at Josephina's Pizza, and a hippie coffee shop around the corner called Cafe Nepenthes.
Does anyone remember Doc Weeds or the Broadway? They never did check my fake id.
And:
Aylords drug store
The ads for Levin'es Furniture Warehouse
The Apartment
Trax
The Trader Vicks
Johnny 111
I could go on
Ahh I remember Mike Shanahan as Coach of the Denver Broncos as if it was yesterday....wait, it was yesterday.
Anyone remember a couple of guys "Baxter and Hawkins" who did the Morning show at either KAZY or KBPI? Their Hiney winery skits were pretty funny.
I also remember a band in the late 70s that played a few bars called Timothy P and the rural route 3. Their rendition of "Red Neck Mothers" as Led Zeppelin would do it was very funny.
I haven't heard anyone comment about the 9th and Corona King Soopers. When I worked for KS it was a badge of courage to work there.
King Soopers...my daughter went to school at Dora Moore across the street. After school she would hit King Soopers and get her free cookie at the bakery...if they ask her where her mom was, she just point at some passing lady. Also, she liked to hit up Big Cheese next door for the free sample of cheese of the day, and to buy a handful of nickle candy made with honey and sesame seed. She got a real gourmet taste for cheese that she carried with her through life.
do you remember do you remember
chicken unlimited downtown
the denver drumstick -- ah grease
cutting school to tour the Coors brewery
going down to Stapleton to watch the planes take off
the yum yum tree
ah those were the good old days....
ivyjk
Well, I'd bet there are some good stories from folks who visited the strip clubs from that time. Here's some that I remember.
Sid Kings, some folks have already mentioned this one. I never went there but I remember the lady statue on the roof, different outfits every time I went by.
Aloha Beach, went there once with my coworkers. Wow, the girls there did some really interesting things.
There was a club on Federal that catered to the 3.2 crowd, don't remember the name of the place. I took my brother there for his 18th birthday.
Shotgun Willies a lunchtime favorite with the people from Sterns Rogers.
I heard about some of the shows for the ladies from that time, amy memories?
We've got a new denver website we're creating called buckfifty at buckfifty.org, and it's got a pretty good collection of denver stories on it. Lakeside, Mercury Cafe, Sid Kings, Viaducts, Muddy's, and about 30 more so far. We're going for 150 posts, and we're looking for more if you've got 'em.
Check it out, buckfifty.org.
Resident 1977-1986 on Capitol Hill
Friday nights with KGNU and Radio Stew
The Larry Cox Show on KCFR
July 4th Fireworks at Mile-High
The long cold walk to Bronco Stadium in the snow.
Weekly movies at The Ogden on Colfax
Hummels's Deli in Cherry Creek (long before the Mall)
Red Miller, Craig Mortin and Orange Crush
Lakeside Amusement Park/race track - with the REAL Fun House as seen in the Our Gang movies.
Tennis at City Park and the paddle boats
Going to the Botanic Gardens in the winter time to warm up.
Great Stuff! Thanks!
WOW! what a cool thread! I grew up in Aurora, my dad worked at Stearns-Roger on S Ash St. So many of these posts are smacking me upside the head with a nostalgia sandwich. My big brother Terry raced his slot-car at Celebrity while my dad bowled upstairs with the Stearns Roger team. So much has changed. I'm from when Alameda ended at Potomac, Cinderella purists scoffed at Buckingham Square, and the only things beyond the new 225 were farms and an Albino Man.
It was a great city to grow up in.
Does anyone else remember Denver's grindhouse drive-in "The Lakeshore"? It was just just up the street from Sloan's lake. All night marathons of sex-plotaton, black-plotation, Monsters, slashers and all. Trashy cinema of all sorts. My lordy. I remember seeing "rabid" with Marilyn Chambers. She had a monster in her armpit. The companion flick was "The Corpse Grinders" Affected my taste in film forever. yeahhhh
Songs for swinging Larve was played quite a few times. My kids sure remember it. Scared the heck outta the lil' buggers
Starr Yelland was channel 7's weatherman btw.
Anonymous @312 - No, no brother. I often wished I did. I have a tape of the Proctor & Bergman show from Ebbets Field. I wish I had a recording of their in-studio banter with the KFML jocks before the show. Some wonderful extempraneous gems. One of them coughed and explained that he had a rare tropical disease. A half minute later, the DJ coughed, and they said, "I see you have it too!" That's when I realized why they were coughing. There's some place online that plays those shows as podcasts, and if I could ever find it when they're doing that show, I'd get a better copy -- mine was recorded 60 miles away on a cassette recorder from a table radio. Ouch.
Blue Balaclava @313 - Here's where I pay for not checking the thread. The Fred 'n' Fae stuff has already been pulled from YouTube. Gddmnsnfbtch!
Cheapsuits @319 - Sorry to hear about Wells Music. I used to go there looking for classical sheet music. They had one (maybe still do?) in the big mall in Fort Collins where my dad had a studio. He also moved pianos for them, and once in a while I went on a job to help, like when he had to get one up some steps.
Maudie's... ah, I already mentioned it. Excuse the senility, folks.
There was also a large Quanset hut looking building that sat at the intersection of Eppinger and Gaylord in Thornton. It was the north end meeting hall of the Highlander Boys. At that time there was also just to the north of that building a gutted out old bomber type plane that the city of Thornton seemed to think was a safe piece of playground equipment. And the rotating Duffys soda sign that sat atop a pole just south of Alameda on Federal... And how about the changing colored light top to the Public Service Co. building Downtown.. I wonder who ended up with that Duffys sign ????
I don't know if the last post went through so I'l try again. There was a comment about the Highlander Boys some time back. Sorry but I just set up this account. There was a quanset hut type of large bulding that sat at the intersection of Eppinger and Gaylord in Old Thornton back in the early sixties. It housed the Highlanders back then. I wasn't a member but I passed it all the time. Just to the north of that building was a small park that Thornton felt was the best place to put an old gutted out bomber type of airplane on some metal pedastals. Can't see how some of us weren't killed or scarred for life playing on that thing. And what about the Duffys rotating six pack of sodas that sat on a pole just south of Alameda on Federal. And the lighted top that changed colors on top of the Public Service Co. building downtown. The Western Federal Savings building was the tallest back then..
Geez, I did a search for the Jolly Rancher Factory and this thread came up and I spent an hour and a half reading it, on my mobile, no less.
Although I am only 31, this still brought back memories that made me smile. I grew up in Denver and still live in CO, further south...
Some of the things I remember in addition to the ORIGINAL Elitch Gardens, The Wild Chipmunk, Casa Bonita-only 2 miles from my Grammas house with it's Gorilla dive show and tv dinners, The Organ Grinder, Paris on the Platte, Celebrity, Shane Company "one half mile east of I25 on Emporia", Stapleton, Big Mac, Water World, Blinky,
Central City when it was a Ghost Town and good family fun
The Three Amigos, Jackson, Johnson and Natiel
Digging the Dam, Cherry Creek Dam Hill on I225 where we would go as seniors and dig our high school initials in the grass ACHS 95 Baby!
Gunther Toodys, kick ass vanilla cokes and goofy waitresses
Pepsi All American High School Drags and Haunted Speedway at Bandimere
Putt Putt Mini Golfing
Grizzly Rose during National Western Stock Show time
The National Western Stock Show itself
The smell of bread off of I25 and 58th where the Hostess Factory is
The Mon Chalet, although I have never had the pleasure of staying, I understand it is a pretty interesting fantasy hotel that has been around forever off of Peoria and Colfax
And when the city was clean enough that you could actually eat the snow and not die...
I know a lot of these are post 60-70 era, but I couldn't help but think of them when I read this...
Oh heck, I also forgot to mention....
The BEST lasagna in the world, Dinos, and Dinos other place in Lakewood, back when Dino actually made it...not so much now and Gordos Mexican off 6th and Sheridan...they are all three still there, but the lasagna has never been the same...
I was a Thornton-based Highlander from '66 - '72. That quonset hut was there that whole time. I forgot about that airplane! We weren't allowed to go there - I guess for safety reasons.
Around 1980 I went to a martial arts seminar at that site and - no more quonset hut! I think they tore down the Highlander building downtown off of Spear Blvd. at around the same time.
HIGHLANDERBOY ~ can you fill me in on some history of this "unique to Denver" organization? All I can find is pre-military christian org. I'm doing familly history, my dad and uncle were active in the 1930's & 40's. Thanks....
Mark - this thread is great! Lots of memories:
Morey Jr. High had indoor swimming pool where I had my first swim lessons. Dora Moore school was my first pre-school. Eagleton elementary, where my dad went as a kid also, now torn down and bldg. replaced.
Buried our first dog on the road up the "hogback" - where you could sit at the top and see separate clusters of lights of all diff. cities (Englewood, Denver, Arvada), and could still see dinosaur tracks in the rocks. Gone now.
Casa Bonita used to be a 2-story dept. store (Eakers).
The sign "Villa Italia" was on the corner of Wads. and Alameda for years before being built - the mansion across the street (Bonfils) was a great mystery surrounded by dense hedges, now torn down.
l6th St. was "the" place to drive on Sat. nights, beginning at May D&F (which was also "the" place to see Christmas windows - now torn down)
Stapleton Airport, if you were bored, could go out on the roof of the terminal and watch airplanes or eat in the old control tower (I forget the name-Sky Chef?) Now torn down.
Red Rocks-concerts you could arrive in late p.m., spread a blanket, and enjoy the day (drinks and eats in your cooler) waiting for the show.
The Denver Theatre-gold and red velvet everywhere, huge organ that appeared from below the stage (now torn down)
The Mayan Theatre-every Tue. night drawing for free groceries.
Taylor Supper Club-W. Colfax (torn down)great curved red leather booths, Airplane Supper Club-Alameda & Federal (great breadsticks-torn down)
Denver is no longer the place I remember - all torn down!
Having grown up in Golden and Denver in the 60s -- up until the age 8 -- here's a few memories that could touch a nerve:
-- Starr Yelland's daughter standing up in the roller coaster and falling to her death.
-- Sportscaster Lynn Sanner's illness playing out on TV every night.
-- Serial episodes of The Barracuda on Blinky's Fun Club every day.
-- Floyd Little (enough said).
-- The way that Weatherman Bowman would draw puffy clouds on his nightly forecast map.
-- The smell of the Coors Brewery when taking a tour.
-- Helping Hands signs in neighborhood windows, which told a child if he was in trouble, he could ask those persons for help.
Hi NAG,
I don't claim to know too much of the pre-history, other than what I read on the net. Here are some leads for you:
http://denver.yourhub.com/Lakewood/Stories/Milestones/Birthdays/Story~5083.aspx
http://www.lib.umd.edu/LAB/COLLECTIONS/voxpopco.html
There are some artifacts from the '40's in the Denver Public Library.
I have some souvenirs but they're all from the late 60's - early '70's.