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.

• [mdesignboutique]

  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.

  • [Anonymous]

    The “ALL NEW, BRIGHT BLUE, KIMN CHICKEN REAR WINDOW CAR STICKER!”. Ring any bells?

• [cher&cindy]

  (You’ll need a nap after reading this one) and please correct me on any mistakes I might have made, I have CRS.

  Well, I have to start off by saying that this was truly a walk down memory lane. I have a bunch to say. I guess I’ll start by answering some questions:
  #427 – The “Old Grist Mill”
  #321 – The “Happy Cat”
  Now, for some trivia:
  The phone number for “Teen Line” was 222-0008
  #440 – I remember that drug store having the best soda fountain,…. kind of like the one at “Pearl Drug” on 13th & Pearl. I used to ditch Sunday school there, drinking lime phosphates.
  #333 – I used to go to that little bakery every morning before school at Dora Moore. Still the best “Twists” I’ve ever eaten.
  #347 – I wonder if we both went to the same schools at the same time. Do you remember Mr May at Moore? He was my favorite teacher in my life. And, do you remember Mr Glaviano and Mr Bailey at Morey. My friend married Mr Bailey. And, was Miss “BITCHINATI” the girls dean when you were there?
  #434 – “Ways Out” man. LOL
  #412 – This was post “Rugged Room” days. We used to spend every weekend at the “Family Dogg” which later became “Posh”, pushing change through the double doors to the guys so they could get in. Terry M comes to mind :o). I saw the “Music Machine”, who did the song “Talk, Talk”, there.
  #435 – I was just telling my husband about “Magnolia” the other night and he looked at me like I was crazy.
  Some of you will remember the clothing/head shop on 16th called “The Hip Bone” where we used to go after hanging our on the wall at “Zeckendorf Plaza” before they put the points on the wall so no one could sit there anymore, (big breath),… to see Michael & Otis and listen to great music like “Tim Hardin”.
  #291 & #312 – Do either of you remember Tommy & Terry that used to hang out at “Emerson Street East” before it became a gay cowboy bar?
  Anyone here used to go to a little cafe on Colfax & Ogden (or so) called “The Black Light”? We used to go there after a day of roller skating at “Mammoth Gardens”.
  Then there was the “Sugar Shack” by East High where “The Soul Survivors” who then turned into “Sugarloaf” who sang “Green Eyed Lady” used to play.
  Someone mentioned the “Chad & Jeremy” concert at “The Trocadero Ballroom“. I was there. I still have “back stage” pictures of Wayne Newton, Paul Peterson from “The Donna Reed Show”, and James Griffin, pre “Bread” days, when they were all there.
  Speaking of concerts, I also have pictures of Johnny Crawford, Mark on “The Rifleman” , when he was in concert at “East Tin Cup” in 1960 or so.
  My second job was at “Spudnut” at Cinderella City, after working at “The International House Of Pancakes” on Colfax & Yosemite, where I got fired for being too young to work.
  I remember hanging out at “The Aloha Valley Beach Club” before it was topless.
  My best friend in elementary school’s mom was an exotic dancer at “The Tropics” .
  Later on we used to go to the “Aurora Lounge” to hear Belinda Carr sing.
  My favorite disk jockey was Don Bell from KIMN late night radio. We spent many an hour with him after he got off work, drinking coffee at the “Old Grist Mill” on Speer Blvd. Then he got married and moved away. :o(
  Good ole “Lakeside Amusement Park” where I can’t forget feeding those awful Carp in the lake popcorn.
  To this day, I have nightmares about being locked up in the park, by myself, all of the rides are going and tilted toward me, and my only company is the laughter of the “Fun House Fat Lady“. Wonder what that means. Still makes me wake up in a sweat.
  The best Chicken Fried Steak in my opinion to this day was from “The Scotchman”. It was a long drive from East Denver, but it was worth it. That’s where I saw my first “streaker”, in the winter, no less.
  Speaking of winter, I sure miss those “Hot Tamale” stands on the corners downtown. We don’t have those here in Ohio.
  I was once hitchhiking home to Denver from S Carolina, and the owner of “Jolly Rancher” candy picked me up in Topeka Kansas in his Mark IV and gave me a ride all the way to my doorstep. Nice guy!
  Now, for my questions:
  Did “La Pichet” become “My Sweet Ass” and then “My Sweet Lass”?
  Does anyone remember the band, “Nasty Benjamin” who used to play there and at “Mr Lucky’s? Wonder whatever happened to them.
  What was the name of the little Mexican Restaurant that was across the street to the east from “Cherry Creek Shopping Center” in the 90’s?
  Anyone recall the name of the band that used to play at “Friday’s & Saturday’s” and at “Mr Lucky’s” where the drummer used to light his drums on fire when they played “Beginnings” by “Chicago”?
  Does anyone notice how out of sequence “Every Which Way But Loose” was when it came to locations? Like, one minute they’re at the ”Zanzabar” in Aurora, and in the next scene they’re at the “Cheyenne Mountain Zoo” in Colorado Springs, then the next minute, they’re at “Kitty’s Corner” on Colfax. Was space travel possible in those days?
  And, last but not least, did any of you recognize any of the bikers at the truck stop at the beginning of “Vanishing Point”?

  Well, that’s all I can come up with for now, but I’m sure I’ll be back. I soooo enjoyed reading all of the trivia from “My Life” in Denver, Colorado. Thanks.

  • [kip w]

    Johnny Crawford appeared at a rodeo in Fort Collins in the mid-60s, after “The Rifleman” was off the TV for a while and he was a little older. A bunch of us went to see him in person. He was talking up a young pony that was offered for sale. He kept turning to me because he thought I was kicking him, but it turned out to be another kid.

    I didn’t know at the time that Johnny had been in the original group of Mouseketeers, but didn’t return in the second season. Or that he’d go on to show some skin in “The Naked Ape.”

• [ahab]

  @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”.

• [Gordon Cole]

  Happy Birth-a-day to you. I love Blinky. He dead?

• [JayMJones]

  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/

• [Michael A]

  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.

  • [Anonymous]

    My first job was at the Drumstick on East Colfax… Didn’t pay much but I was able to buy my first car…..

    • [Anonymous]

      My first job was the Drunstick on Colfax and Locust also….And correctly put it did not pay much but I was able to buy my first car as well….

      • [vett6t7]

        That’s amazing. My first job was at The Denver Drumstick also, only it was the one on Colorado Blvd. and Florida Ave. The hostess fired me and Jim the kitchen manager, asked me if I wanted to work for him as a fry cook cooking shrimp, french fries, and onion rings. I said sure and felt like anyone could be a busboy but being a fry cook,I now had a career going. I still think they had the best chicken around and had a spectacular strawberry short cake.

• [Tirjasdyn]

  The Shane Company!!!

• [Katie M.]

  Wow, reading this thread has been SO. MUCH. FUN! Here’s some additions…most of them from my stomping ground of Capitol Hill, and are from my late teens/early 20′s before I left in 1993…

  I lived for a time right off of Colfax on Humboldt…my apartment building had Vollmer’s bakery on one side, and the “Top Run” fire station on the other. It was a cool little place until bought out by an evil slumlord.

  From there I would visit…
  Lion’s Lair – Hehe, their “kitchen” was a little toaster oven, and their menu was frozen eggrolls.

  Pete’s Kitchen – The best place to feed your hangover. I’ve never had a patty melt as good as the ones that I’d eat there.

  Rock Island – I remember Sunday’s…$1.00 Rock and Teas. And walking home at 2:00 in the morning, hoping I’d make it there alive.

  XXIII Parrish – I thought the place was ridiculously pretentious, but I’d go see my friend’s band “40th Day” there in the Garage. And yeah, I walked home from there too.

  Boiler Room at the Tivoli – Peanuts, Yards of Beer, and Karaoke. Good times.

  Acapella’s – Worked there a while…I hostessed, bussed, waitressed, bar backed, and loved every minute of it.

  Juanita’s/Juanita’s 8-ball. Best Mexican food/Best Pool Hall

  Raggedy Ann’s Vintage Clothing – Bought most of my clothes here.

  Denver Turnverein – Same area, but this was more from when I was a kid. My Dad was a member of the men’s choir for many, many years…when it was still a German Society meeting hall.

  Esquire Theater – Saw many a movie there. Great little theater.

  LaserRock at the Planetarium, followed by House of Pies – ’nuff said. :)

  Campus Lounge in Bonnie Brae – Grew up for a time in Bonnie Brae, and used to love going to this place when I got older. Nice central meeting place when planning a big to-do.

  Now, I need some help…There used to be a used record store on Colfax, just a few blocks up from Lincoln street. There was a used book store on the corner, a comic book store in between, and then the record store. Does anyone remember this place, or the name? I remember I had a HUGE crush on a guy named Steve that used to work there. Oh, and I bought a lot of records and cassettes there too. :)

• [mdesignboutique]

  Sniagrab anyone?

• [twobeeshawn]

  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

• [DeuceMojo]

  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!!”

• [Anonymous]

  A few more random restaurants: Ella Mays on Leetsdale just east of Alameda, Maxwells in Glendale, Footers on 11th and Ogden next to 7-11, Ice Cream Works on 9th and Downing…Baurs in Cherry Creek became Matty’s (sp?) before becoming Lyle Alzado’s…How about A&W Drive In with statue’s on top (papa burger, mama burger, etc) across the street from McDonald’s (with no seating inside) on Colorado and Mississippi. And after slot cars at Celebrity they had a bumper pool game arranged in a miniature golf style…And Chef Henry’s Deli before it became Benny’s on 7th Avenue. There was also a great miniature golf course open during the summer in the parking lot of Cherry Creek Shopping Center just off of Cherry Creek North Drive. Pooh Corner Book Store in Cherry Creek…And the original Aspen Leaf on Detroit (on the west side of Detroit before moving across the street to the east side).

• [JTenkely]

  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.

  • [Anonymous]

    Yes, I can quote the shane company ads verbatim. Still 30 years later. Sadly they’re a national chain. I thought they were just in CO?

  • [RapidEye]

    I bought my wife’s engagement diamond and our wedding rings from that store – only the best for my bride!

• [libequafrat]

  The Taco House at about 58th and Federal Blvd. In the yellow building. Their mexican hamburgers were great.
  Guerra’s at 61st and Federal. Their chiles rellenos with a cold Bud. Mm Mm good.
  Rosen’s deli on w. Colfax. Best reubens on the planet.
  Yorkshire Fish and Chips in Perl Mack.
  God i’m hungry.

• [octopede]

  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!

• [blue balaclava]

  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….

• [twobeeshawn]

  #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)

• [stantonl]

  Okay – I can no longer resist!

  Fred ‘n Fae memories
  They started out on KBTV Channel 9, as I recall, and the “Tum Tum” song words went:

  So clap your hands and make this sign
  To prove that you’re on channel 9
  And you’ll be a very good friend of mine
  On Club… House… Gang!

  The “sign” was a straight up index finger joined at the top by a circle made from the thumb and index finger of the other hand, forming a “9″.
  But then they moved to KLZ, channel 7 when I was in first grade or so, and they easily changed the finger position to form a seven, but the words had to change:

  So clap your hands and make this sign
  To prove that You’re a friend of mine
  And (…DON”T RECALL THIS LINE…)
  On Club… House… Gang!

  Fred ‘n Fae had many sponsors, one of whom was Duffy’s soft drinks. They had a slogan:
  “George Washington may be the father of our country, but Duffy’s is the pop!
  I didn’t get the pun until I recalled this one day as an adult, many years later.

  They used a sock puppet before pets.com. He was a silent one: Wally the Weather Gator. He would hold up little signs in his gator mouth with words like FAIR or SHOWERS.

  They lived in Westminister, acc to my cousin, who said they were neighbors of his, and that they were not nice people in person. I have no other authority than hearsay from a cousin on this one.

  KIMN was the center of life!

  Recall DJ Ray Durkee?

  Operation Insomnia – a contest where each DJ takes a turn and broadcasts until he drops, and then the next one takes over. Listner who guesses the winner and closest to how long he lasts gets a prize. I don’t recall who won. Anyone?

  Caliente! A call-in contest where there was a fake horse race with odds on four or five horses drawn from a pool of about eight names reused over and over. I recall Greely Ghost, Brighton Bullet, Academy Dancer. Don’t recall the prizes.

  Name it and Claim it.

  Request it and Win it.

  Farley McClute and Niles Lichness.

  Commercial song:
  There’s no greater fun
  Than owning a sports car
  Kerland sports car center has just the car for you
  Over a hundred cars, you will find
  Every make and every kind
  SPOKEN, SEXY GIRL VOICE:
  I’m crazy about my sports car
  And driving is a dream
  I bought my car from Kerland too
  I notice what you mean!
  GUYS SINGING AGAIN:
  For greater selection
  And for greater fun
  Kerland sports cars, fun for everyone!

  Look at the cars!
  Look at the people that are heading for The White Spot
  It’s the right spot, in the night spot
  They serve the best people, day and night!

  Drink Grapette, my friend
  Drink Grapette, amigo
  (to the tune of Aye, Aye, Aye)

  “I like Shakey’s because the pizza is delicious and the atmosphere is a gas!”

  Competitors:
  1. KTLN, 1280 AM couldn’t do it. Switched to talk format (KTLK).
  2. KBTR and Dave Diamond. Did well for a while, then faded.
  3. KLZ-FM. Better sound (FM stereo), real competition. Then I moved away.

  Best radio station in America for many years. We were very lucky!

  The giant cowboy. Still there on about 58th and Federal at a trailer park.

  The Dick Lewis shows. As a pitchman, he was way too far over the top.

  An early kid’s cartoon show with a young woman and a giraffe puppet, his neck sticking out from behind a curtain on a puppet stage. What was his name?

  Officer Goodey? Probably spelled wrong. DPD rep to schools and kids. Sweet guy.

  Carl Akers, Weatherman Bowman, Starr Yelland – the big three.

  Thanks for being there, everyone. God, I miss that place!

• [libequafrat]

  Sorry, I meant Fred and Faye lived west of Goat Hill, not east.

• [Antinous]

  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.

  • [Antinous]

    I’ll see what I can do, but these things don’t usually go very quickly.

• [terranwannabe]

  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.

• [one up]

  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…

• [Gordon Cole]

  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.

• [krisbb]

  @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.

• [Johnny One Spur]

  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…

• [K Tm S]

  i grew up in pueblo, but lived in denver in the early nineties.

  my dad lived there since the early eighties, so we made frequent visits… spent a lot of time at larimer square, elitch gardens, organ grinder pizza, the museums, the tiny comic book store in cinderella city, buckingham square, etc.

  due to the fact that pueblo cable mostly consisted of denver network stations, i knew more about denver businesses than i did of those locally.

  i remember the dutch windmill on the south of town, and the giant yellow jenga sculpture at broadway and i-25. saw r.e.m. at mcnichols, joe jackson at red rocks, the church and old 97′s at the bluebird, the posies in-store at wax trax… good stuff.

  i was an assistant manager at the sound warehouse on colorado in glendale, where my main job was trying to contain my amazement at how much the employees stole from the store.

  copious amounts!

  the ‘highlights’ of working there were:
  - an in-store visit by ‘utah saints’. no one showed up, and they were both about five feet tall.
  - pissing off some knuckle-dragging denver bronco by calling him to tell him his videos were overdue. he called the manager who summarily chewed me a new butthole. i didn’t know the guy from adam.
  - renting a video to judy collins. sadly, i can’t remember which video… send in the clowns.

  i had a swell pad at sixth and marion, $450 a month (!). used to walk to the esquire, safeway, queen soopers and cheesman park, where i’d wonder ‘why are all these guys staring at each other?’

  i can still remember the noelle and andy theme song… give me a call and i’ll sing it to you.

• [Tirjasdyn]

  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.

  • [Anonymous]

    I think that was Nathan’s, not Fun-Plex. Damn… is this right? Was the full name of that joint in Cinderella City Nathan’s Fimzical-Whimzical or do I need to put some mixer in this?

    • [Erich Pelletier]

      Nathan’s Physical Whimsical! Or some such thing. Thank you for confirming that I wasn’t imagining the place (I only got to go there once).

  • [Anonymous]

    That was Nathan’s Funtastic not fun plex.

• [Gwyllm]

  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’

• [DeuceMojo]

  #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.

• [elenamancini]

  I read the words “Casa Bonita” and immediately, I was standing under that tree. Sigh… And wasn’t there a place called The Loft, sort of a mountain climbing bar? Outdoorsy, TALL. There was a great pet shop in Cinderella City, too. Dockter’s, maybe. And I still think of Round the Corner’s hamburger with Swiss cheese, sour cream, and mushrooms. Never had a ‘burger like it — all the way up to my elbows and ear to ear. Somebody has already mentioned KBPI. Couldn’t have lived without it. I lived in Denver only one year in the early ’70s, but I met the best friend of my life, still my best friend, there. Thanks, Denver.

• [Neopolitan]

  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!

• [pinholeman]

  Wow, I really didn’t have time to read all of this, but it brought up several things I didn’t see mentioned, although they may be in here somewhere…

  Celebrity Lanes – ( My personal favorite things was Slot car racing!)

  The Fort Restaurant (My first job. Remember Suzy the Bear?)

  The Concert Curl Skate Park (Still have a lifetime membership even though its long since gone.)

  Arapahoe East (The closest ski area to Denver that lasted about a year.)

  Fox On The Run (My first 3.2 night club experiences, on Colorado Blvd.)

  After The Gold Rush (Another amazing 3.2 club..NOT)

  Thanks for the crazy memories everyone….

• [Anonymous]

  Now I’m feeling old… I hope these memories actually happened:

  - KWGN used to be KCTO , and had a mascot named “Casey Teo”
  - The great Platte River Flood (my grade school just barely missed being washed away… Darn…)
  - Centennial Racetrack and Centennial Drive-In Theater, with a flea market every weekend
  - Shakey’s Pizza had live banjo music
  - Listening to Pete Smythe on the radio in the morning before school: “Open up the …(something something…) Open for business, At Pete Smythe’s General Store”
  - The park that was bulldozed to build Cinderella City had a train made of welded steel tubing and a surplus military jet on posts as climbing equipment
  - Ghost stories about the stone shelter in Daniels Park
  - “Pojo”, miniature golf played on pool tables (was that at Celebrity?)
  - Alferd Packer’s grave in the Littleton cemetery
  - Very bright Aurora Borealis visible in ’63 or ’64(?)
  - The square concrete umbrellas lining Littleton’s main drag

• [Anonymous]

  That “Dutch Windmill” was H. Brinkers. Our parents would take us there for brunch every once in awhile. It was right by The Country Dinner Playhouse and up from that The Traildust Steakhouse where they cut off your tie if you wore one in and would tack it to the wall. That place burned down a number of years ago and I don’t believe was ever rebuilt.

  I once got my finger caught in the door at The Denver Drumstick on Santa Fe and freaked out the whole restaurant. That place eventually turned into a Western Sizzlin’.

  My dad met my mom at Cinderella City as a janitor back from Vietnam. She worked at that snack bar across from Joslins. No Cinderella City, no me.

  We would go to Cinderella City religiously on Saturdays, as my grandma lived a few blocks from there. Village Inn shortstack baby! With apricot syrup. Yuck. Loved it back then though.

  Remember Wag’s restaurant just across from the fountain? Remember Taco Bueno just across from the fountain as well? I loved Taco Bueno! It turned into one of the first Arby’s with the confusing (at the time) touch screen ordering method (mid 80′s — touch screens were literally magic then!). Farrell’s was right between the two. The hokey underground, dark and dank parking lot of which is basically Cin City’s claim to fame. That shit wasn’t steady! Showbiz pizza out in the parking lot.

  Southglenn mall closing down for like a year for asbestos removal. That sucked. I was a mall rat in those days. The mall now long gone.

  The Blue Bonnet, Benny’s, El Chapultapec.

  God do I miss Denver Mexican food. (Even though the pec isn’t for food obviously, but jazz. They still had awesome late night bean burritos)

  Waiting in a long long line on a two lane Bowles ave (?) the day Southwest Plaza opened – everybody eager to check the new mall out. A few blocks from Columbine btw.

  Highline Canal.

  Like most of you, oh I got more!

  Oh, the huge white Montgomery Wards on south Broadway. My mom would take us there at Christmas time to have “breakfast with Santa”. Long gone too.

  How about the little, what was it “Bread and Butter” castle in the shadows of the dingy Gate’s rubber factory on Broadway too? They tore that down to make a lawn.

  Griffs Burgers.

  The North Pole Burgers.

  Jim Bundy’s Festival Restaurant on Evans and Broadway — my dad’s favorite restaurant. Now it’s a Good Times I think.

  Crestwood Inn on Littleton Blvd. Long gone. Awesome place. Had a sweet fountain outside.

  The Peppermill (out of vegas) in DTC and Westminster. Swanky swanky 70′s style. Fountain and little pond inside.

  I see, I am still going on. I’ll stop. But Jesus, the memories just keep coming!

  • [Anonymous]

    Hungry Dutchman

• [Enochrewt]

  #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.

• [weischris]

  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.

• [iveexa]

  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.

• [mdesignboutique]

  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!

• [coldrecd]

  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.

• [ivyjk]

  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

• [pablo_marx]

  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.

• [twobeeshawn]

  @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

• [blue balaclava]

  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.

• [Anonymous]

  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!

• [Tirjasdyn]

  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?)

  • [Anonymous]

    I thought it was a sombrero?

  • [Anonymous]

    Where WAS that cowboy hat park? My Dad (who consequently, was stoned my entire childhood) told me there was a gold nugget under that thing

  • [Genia Ursery-Nichols]

    But the PBS station USED to be channel 6

• [dvx]

  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.

• [styrofoam]

  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.

• [kalenski]

  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.

• [Mark Frauenfelder]

  Some nice photos of Lakeside here:

  http://xrl.us/oqr5x

  What beautiful signs!

  • [tomthum]

    I can never forget the fun house

• [Mark Frauenfelder]

  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.

  • [blue balaclava]

    DUFFY’s, man. The only pop that mattered, until Orange Crush bogarted the meme-space and Duffy’s went down to fruit-punch concentrate. *snif*

• [TheMatt]

  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…

  • [Anonymous]

    ?Yes. Nathan Elinoff was my landlord when I first moved to Dtown. We had a 1880 pastors’ house backed up to the Funtastic Fun location at Broadway and Dartmouth. Indoor ferris wheel out the back door. Nathan told me tales of the old Cinderella mall, how it was such a huge attraction back in it’s day. Now, the drive in is gone, and the mall is flattened. Nathan’s current location on Broadway is still notable… He hold’s the realm between ChuckE. and Fat City, as the cheaper and more afforadble kids party place. He’s got the only supersize teddy bear in Denver. If he had more robots, this place would be a smash!. He’s a great guy, trying to find a way out. He’s had a raffle for his entire business, but it didn’t meet the minimum sales needed. Whatever, Nathan Elinoff has some Denver tales to tell, he’s awesome.

  • [Genia Ursery-Nichols]

    Aww Zeezos!

• [cher&cindy]

  Oops, forgot one:
  Did any of you hang out at the arcade on Broadway, around the corner from Colfax? A few folks come to mind from there, like, Bill L (had a sister named Mary Ann), Bob L (had a brother named Frank that got killed), Terry M, and Jay P (was a Denver cop last I heard), Jerry W, etc, etc, etc.

• [nag]

  THANKS Highlander Boy!!

  I was afraid you would not be checking this site…appreciate your answer – nag

• [markg]

  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.

  • [Erich Pelletier]

    The old Elitch’s location is now full of closely-planned housing communities. One of my friends from college lives there. We visited for a 4th of July party this summer. It was sort of surreal knowing where we were (though there’s really no sign left of anything to let you know it was Elitch’s, at all).

    • [trevorep]

      The old theater building and carousel house are still near 38th and Utica.

• [Orange Maine]

  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.

• [WillWork4Food]

  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

• [shannou]

  Wow, what a nostalgia orgy!

  I’m surprised nobody mentioned Flossy McGrew’s. It was the best vintage clothing store of my youth!

• [TJ S]

  @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)

• [train guy]

  Hey,
  I was just reading some of these newer comments. Anybody remember the really great weatherman(sarcasm)on ch.2-kwgn? Warren Chandler was his name. What a laugh! Someone mentioned a Mr. Steak. Ft.Collins has the Moot House now. Can anyone tell me if that was originally a Mr. Steak? Anyone remember the Collins house in FT.Collins? They had awsome grilled cheese sandwiches back then.

• [libequafrat]

  Hey, richardj,328:

  Had open campus at Scott Carpenter Jr. High and walked to Scotti’s.
  Every Wednesday burgers were 10 cents. So much better than cafeteria food.

• [buddy66]

  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.

• [BarbwireWitch]

  So how many of you remember the 80′s ? Maybe The Broadway,After The Goldrush,Angellic Rage, Alagandis (the only place besides home Sweet Home to buy “gifts”) ring a bell.Oh how I miss the Denver Heavy Metal Scene, and where are Mark Barsotti and Dan Gasner?

• [JayMJones]

  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????

• [bornpetrified]

  my mother once foolishly walked into the tunnel of revolving barrels in the Lakeside Fun House and immediately fell down; my sister and I walked really far ahead and pretended we didn’t see. (We were in the 12-14 age group at the time)

  Tortilla Flats was the #1 place in Littleton for Mexican and where we would always take visiting relatives. There was a photo of the owners and the two women had enormous bouffants. The brother of the wife opened Las Margaritas way out in the middle of nowhere, south, surrounded by prairie…and did a booming business, which is how Littleton was then: lots of very isolated businesses that did really well, I don’t know how.

  What was the lumberjack restaurant near Tortilla Flats, across Santa Fe from Arapahoe-”Heritage With Ashtrays”-Community College? I never went; my parents did and told us how great it was to throw peanut shells on the floor and then wouldn’t take us. Thanks a lot, man.

  • [ronnieboy]

    Paul Bunyans. Anyone remember the Oxford Hotel downtown Denver? Saw Steve Martin for $1.00…

• [oldmanfury]

  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! < \old man voice>

• [TroofSeeker]

  In 1969 a buddy and I hitchhiked the 1200 or so miles to visit his cousin in Denver.
  We went to a ’3-2′ bar, where 18-year-olds could drink diluted beer. The bar was big and very crowded, the music was rockin! Barry and I decided to dance, so we asked a couple chicks and went out on the dance floor.
  We were a couple long-haired wild-ass SoCal hippies, and I guess our dance style was rather different from the Denver Shuffle, because before long everyone else stopped to watch, even our partners, and soon I was dancing alone in front of hundreds of kids.
  I didn’t have to buy a drink all night.
  Precious memory.

  • [Anonymous]

    Remember you could hitchhike and pick up hitchhikers?1?

    • [kip w]

      Hitchhiking, yeah. Dangerous before the 70s, and dangerous after the 70s, but my friends and I used to pick up hitchers. Up in Fort Collins, somebody came up with the FCCCP — Fort Collins Community Car Pool — where you’d get a card you could hold up to try and get a ride. I don’t recall ever hitching anywhere. Too paranoid.

• [Jarrad]

  #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.

• [Mark Frauenfelder]

  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

• [TJ S]

  @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.

• [Mark Frauenfelder]

  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.

• [Anonymous]

  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.

  • [Antinous]

    Kip W,

    I can’t find any reason that the system won’t let you in. Are you commenting from your usual IP address?

    • [Antinous]

      You should probably just create a new account. If that doesn’t work, we’ll try something else.

      • [Antinous]

        The system is automated. I can ask, but I don’t think that we have that capability.

• [Anonymous]

  Do you remember Bear’s Stadium, the Denver, Aladin and Paramount theaters in their heyday, street cars (you can still find tracks in a couple of places), Edgewater Inn pizza, Gordo’s, Wheatridge Dairy, and Sam’s? Casa Bonita was a Joslin’s at JCRS with a Penney’s at the east end and a Denver Drumstick on Colfax that had an electric train near the ceiling that ran through all the dining rooms. Carl Akers and his historical reports on different parts of Colorado. The National Anthem at midnight, and one station had an extended Anthem with a verse in a minor key while American History in photos was shown. The Christmas displays in the windows of the downtown May D&F. Cruising 16th. Yelling out your phone number between busy signals and jotting down those you could make out in hopes of finding a new friend in a different part of town (seemed so adventureous).

  • [Anonymous]

    Yes, Edgewater inn for pizza………wonder what was so good about it. Couldn’t you order your pizza and then do a drive thru thing to pick it up?

    • [Anonymous]

      You are thinking of Valente’s Italian Restaurant with the drive-thru window. Edgewater Inn had no drive-thru window.

  • [kip w]

    The station sign-off I liked best was KWGN’s, with the whole ritual of the brief sermonette, a short final statement that included an invitation to tune in (or turn on) to KDEN, then naval footage to the tune of “Eternal Father.” Many times, I’d be enjoying “Creature Features” and then I’d blink and it would be two hours later and I’d see “Eternal Father” and know I’d missed everything again.

    One night in the 70s I was despondently turning channels for some action after everybody’d signed off, and found something where there was no local station — picture only, of some movie with bumpers similar to KWGN’s (and WGN’s, as I found out later) and ads for a car dealer I never heard of. There was eventually some clue that told me I was getting a station near NYC through some atmospheric fluke that favored video (AM) but not audio (FM). A couple of minutes after I figured it out, the signal went away just like somebody’d closed a door on it.

    Oh well, not exactly a Denver story, was it?

• [Anonymous]

  does anyone remember the Plainview Inn? I believe it was chinese and located on W. 38th Ave? thanks – an “old native”

• [Kyle Armbruster]

  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!!!

• [Jarrad]

  #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.

• [gregor_y]

  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…

• [Mark Frauenfelder]

  Here are a bunch of Colorado postpunk bands that I remember:

  http://newwave.50megs.com/discography.html

• [HighlanderBoy]

  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

• [Anonymous]

  So many memories… A few of mine:

  Children’s Theater at Bonfils – late 60s/early 70s

  Going downtown to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on the big screen at the… was it the Paramount? Fancy old movie theater, around 1968; and Dr. Doolittle at the Continental around the same time; both of those were magical movies, as was Willy Wonka a few years later

  Winter ice skating at Washington Park and some lake up in evergreen – where was that?

  Georgia Boys for barbecue – still my gold standard, in aurora and littleton

  Fanfair – funky big store on Havana

  Buying furniture with S&H Green Stamps until it closed in the late 60s I think

  Early childhood: the ’65 flood; fire around that time at the transformers near George Washington HS where we went to spectate; and scary hail storms

  4th birthday with Zeezo the clown and a neighborhood full of kids

  Romper Room with Miss Jeannie, then Jack Lalane (who turns 95 this month and was in his 50s back then) on channel 2

  Burning trash in the incinerator until they were banned (late 60s?)

  Going to see Blinky and Captain Dooley at channel 2, both played by Russell Scott; I thought he was pretty cool. Is it just me or was Blinky actually singing “Happy BARF-a-day to you….”?

  Being on Fred and Fae for my 5th bd on channel 7, and making the loop tape they played at the end of the show for a week – my mom was so proud! Show later replaced by Noel and Andy; sort of a local version of Shari Lewis (Burr Tillstrom was awesome, btw, if you get to see any of their old kinescopes – hilarious)

  Catching early episode of Astro Boy on tv with friends

  Summer musicals at Cheeseman Park – I think I only saw the last one (Sound of Music) in 1972

  Biking the trail along Cherry Creek

  Seeing Lou Reed at Rainbow Music Hall, ca 1979

  The Broncos’ first winning season in ’73 and first Super Bowl in ’77; going to the games with my dad and listening to Bob Martin on KOA

  The Rockies NHL team, which moved to new jersey to become the Devils

  The Rockets ABA team and their epic streak in 1970 with Spencer Haywood, probably the first sports phenomenon to hit Denver’s pro teams

  94th Aero Squadron restaurant near Stapleton – up there with Casa Bonita for coolness; also Victoria Station and the Yum Yum Tree of course

  Furr’s Cafeteria at Buckingham Square and (?) Cherry Creek Shopping Center, and the Royal Fork on Colfax

  Seeing the Bad News Bears with a station wagon full of 8th graders; and the first Star Wars at Century 21

  First date at Farrell’s

  Seeing the late Alan Berg of KOA radio in person, standing on the patio of the hotel at Arapahoe and I-25, late 70s; He started on KWBZ, which broadcast from “Cin City” as my mom used to say, and you could watch the live broadcast as you shopped.

  I’ll try to think of more.

  - Todd

• [S2StewS2]

  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?” :-)

• [tomthum]

  Hi everyone,
  I started a facebook page for people who grew up in Denver in the 1970′s please come join.

  http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_182987661759518

• [peeweethree]

  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.

• [coach]

  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,

• [Mojave]

  #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.

• [Anonymous]

  Wow! Lots of nostalgia. Here are some I haven’t seen.

  Lived near Washington Park in ’64/’65. Remember listening to “The Sandman” (bedtime stories) on the radio. Also, buying a nickel’s worth of liver at “Bills” (tiny grocery near northeast corner of Wash Park). With that and some string, could spend an afternoon catching crawdads at the northeast pond.

  Bonnie Brae Hobby Shop and Estes Hobby Shop (on Estes St. south of Colfax) were childhood favorites.

  The line-up on Friday night tv included Johnny Quest, the Addams Family and the Munsters.

  Someone mentioned rocketship shaped boxes at the Drumstick. I remember fire engine and boat shaped boxes myself. Anyone else?

  Anyone remember a Purina outlet on Colfax (I think near Wadsworth) that sold hay, goat chow, sheep chow, etc.?

  In Evergreen, there was The Charburger (across the street, toward the lake) from the Red Ram (now Little Bear). Evergreen Crafters (still there, but ‘temporarily’ across the street) moved into Charburger’s space, so we’d head up to A&W (was near Safeway) for burgers and the gallon o’ rootbeer someone mentioned. My favorite place in Evergreen was the Texaco across main street from the Red Ram. They stocked guns, ammo, archery and other sporting goods. Boy’s paradise. Also, we caught many a tadpole and frog at Evergreen lake (in the marsh about where the new warming house is). Wonder where the frogs went.

  Does anyone remember the name ‘Magnolia Thunderpussy’ listed for years in the white pages phone book (late ’60s/early 70s – I think)?

  Celebrity had the ‘Fun Pass’ in the early ’70s – $4 for all the bowling you could do (we’d play for half the day, until thumbs we’re black from the ball), swimming, skeeball, etc.

  Back to Evergreen: there was a musuem of sorts in Bergen Park with a gazillion woodcarvings of mostly cowboys and that genre of settings. I think this site later became a clock museum for a while. I’d love to learn more of the wood-carvings place and their creator.

  On to the mid- to late ’70s, fake IDs and 3.2 beer. Could you imagine, now, places selling teens all the beer they could drink ($4-5) on “Drown-Nights and allowing them to drive home (down Lookout Mtn from my ‘fav’, Sams)? If we went the safe route (down I-70) we’d see how far we could drive through the gravel in the runaway truck ramp without getting stuck.

  Lots of great drive-in movie sites mentioned. But I also liked the Oriental (and maybe Ogden, Mayan, Esquire?) theaters when movies were $1 (or was it 75 cents) before the Ogden started the offbeat twin-bills (great, as mentioned previously) and some others went porn for a while.

  I saw Larimer Square places mentioned (Soapys, The Flick, Josephinas, etc.) – how about the Rathskeller (or Bratskeller or whatever it was called)?

  Ended the ’70s lurking between Zanzibar on E. Colfax to Lane’s Tavern on W. Colfax and much in between (Rodeo, O’Rourke’s Cantina and feeding the pirahna at the Riv in Glendale, Rock Island and 23rd Parrish downtown. Also, there was a bar at the northeast corner of Holly & Florida where I saw Timothy P many times (#332). They started a 2nd happy hour at midnight (so you could get a cheap buzz on before driving)! Anyone recall the name of that bar, or one out west on Morrison Rd??

  Lastly, in the early to mid-80s, King Soopers started collecting recyclables. You got a dime for a grocery bag full of newspaper. And, they sold hotdogs for a dime. Always thought this was a wonderful combo, both for myself, panhandlers and truely hungry down-and-outers and you #376.

• [Bonnie]

  The massive mural inside The Sink is awesome!

• [BarbwireWitch]

  The White Spot (at broadway and 10th, 9th?) was THE place I ate breakfast after work. Then I moved to South Broadway and found Mary & Lous (now The Hornet) and what happened to the Atrium and Merchant Guitars (Steve Merchant where are you and your sister ?)

• [joejoeyjoe]

  Chucky Cheeses… animatronic b-days and triple homicide!

• [liminalist]

  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

• [Mark Frauenfelder]

  And here’s a video of the Klones playing in July 2008!

  http://www.vimeo.com/1460559

• [Anonymous]

  Ah, how I miss Denver….

  ow YOU Have a friend in the diamond business. The Shane Company,direct diamond importers. Just off Arapahoe road on Emporia Street. 1/2 mile east of I25. Open every night monday through friday til 8. Saturday and Sunday til 5.

  25 years later and I can still repeat it word for word.

  Teletunes (seems like they were always planing Duran Duran girls on film and U2 under a blood red sky).

  Red Rocks under a blood red sky

  Casa Bonita and those crappy sopapilla..and Black Bart’s cave.

  Cranmer park keggers in the 80s (now that I think about it..how did hundreds of under age kids overflow that park… sitting around drinking beer from a keg without anyone asking – hmmm.. is something wrong here). I loved it!

  Cinderella City

  Wild Chipmunk at Lakeside…I am positive that the ride gave me whiplash. Many many times..

  Celebrity fun center..the first place that had Dragons Lair(that animated, cartoon-like game).

  Rainbow music hall (my first concert – Greg Kihn Band. Or was it the Fixx. I know I wore a skinny piano tie).

  Drinking crappy 3.2 watered down coors light at a ripe young age of 18 (legally at least).

  Walking to the theatre by Sears in Cherry Creek before it turned into “Cherry Creek”

  Having my homecoming and trying to impress my date at Chatteau Pyrannies (sp). Saved for months and barely had enough cash for a tip.

  Pagliacci’s Italian restaurant on West 33rd. Also Carmines on Penn (I think they’re both still around..but I miss them).

  Bonnie Brea Pizza, Rock Island, Ground Zero, WaxTrax, Paris on the platte.

  The original sports teams – Orange and Blue Broncos (orange crush and into the Morton/Elway era..”Sammy Winder up the middle…again”). Denver Nuggets (Issell, Hanzlek, TR Dunn, Evans, English, Schayes, Vandeweigh). Denver Bears.

• [Anonymous]

  Jim’s Burger Haven, ummm…! The laxative sandwich.

• [azroadhog]

  This is great!
  How about After The Gold Rush? 3.2 bar off 6th & Sheridan. Drank gallons of 3.2 beer there. Also some horrible concoction of beer and tomato juice…

  The Ground Round!

  How about when you could actually climb the rocks at Red Rocks?

  Dialing for Dollars on Channel 7…

  Papa Joe Luby….

• [JayMJones]

  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.

• [jupiter8]

  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!

• [Battlestar_Schott]

  #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!

• [buggles97]

  Anyone remember Soda Straw ice cream parlor. Sparklers in your ice cream on your birthday. Ahh…the memories.

  • [Anonymous]

    I remember The Soda Straw on West Colfax next to McDonalds. Had many a banana split there with the sirens and the singing. There was also a similar place at Ciderella City called Farrels.

    Remember The Organ Grinder and Crystal’s Pizza?

• [Anonymous]

  “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.”

  Actually you’re referring to “funtastic” with the giant stained teddybear

• [rainskei]

  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.

• [Anonymous]

  Katie,

  The record store you are looking for is Jerry’s Record Exchange :)

  • [Katie M.]

    @Anon #509 – Jerry’s Record Exchange! That’s it! Thank you so much. It was driving me crazy not being able to remember the name of it. But I knew if I could find an answer it would be here.

• [Tirjasdyn]

  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

• [BrokenRobot]

  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!

• [Dropsy]

  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.

  • [Anonymous]

    Wow, this site brought back some memories!!! Yes, I used to watch Noel & Andy, I loved that Sharpie pen she stuck in Andy’s (or was it Noel’s?) mouth and drew up a storm. I loved Cinderella City as a kid, esp. the poster shop where I bought ‘underground’ pictures of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and a newer sensation-Billy Squier! Of course, the ice cream parlor at Cinderella City was THE BEST, and of course Shakey’s Pizza or Celebrity Fun Center had a tie for 2nd best places to have birthday parties at. We used to go ice skating on that lake in Arvada…I worried it would crack. Visited Casa Bonita, freaked out in the ‘cave’ and laughed at the side of peas served with tacos. Went to some Denver Bears games, and then the Denver Zephyrs, they had to pay the fans to attend, practically.
    Remember the Organ Grinder on Alameda? I don’t think it’s ever been demolished. I was on Blinky’s Fun Club TV show on my 4th birthday…he always sang the birthday song funny–like he was having an epeleptic fit between words. Went to the original Elitch Gardens and Lakeside (they had a roundy-round racetrack at Lakeside too, which was a blast on Friday nights) more times than I can count. So….a LOT of memories, and that’s just a start:-)

  • [Anonymous]

    I won a Tonka truck from Noel and Andy. My drawing was of a ginger bread house In early December of… I think 1973. LOL.

  • [Anonymous]

    I totally remember the Noel & Andy show. My Mom had a preschool and we used to watch that show every single morning so we could do her craft project of the day. She was a great cartoonist too. That show was a huge influence on my confidence in creativity actually

  • [Janine Smukler Martin]

    I totally remember noel & andy. The mighty-mouse with “crackatoa katie” (Spelling is off, I know). My favorite was listening to her cut paper.

    • [blue balaclava]

      Krakatoa Katie, she ain’t no lady
      when she starts to shake her sarong….

      I dug Blinky, but I craved for one of my drawings to be shown on Noel and Andy — that was the big time.

      Also, way back then the kids begged their families to drive by the (new) Channel 7 building, to drop off their change in a fireman’s boot for Jerry’s Kids…

  • [Lynn Gonzales]

    i loved noel and andy during the week and saturday morning CARTOONS

• [lant205]

  buscas empleo aqui lo encontraras http://www.aquiempleo.com

• [blue balaclava]

  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

• [Anonymous]

  I only lived in Denver for a few years but there are plenty of things I miss about it. I was a rock musician gigging around there in the late 1970′s. Anyone remember Sammy Demo. I think he is back in town after doing years as a radio comedy guy. We used to play The Desert Fox, Club 38, Daner’s, Mr. Lucky’s, M80′s, My Sweet Lass to name a few. Some friends are still gigging around Boulder and Estes Park. Our booking agency was American Music Enterprises (AME). I don’t think they are still around. I hear Mr. Lucky’s is a parking lot or a highrise appartment building. I once got robbed in Glendale.

• [Tirjasdyn]

  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.

• [Bonnie]

  #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!

• [libequafrat]

  Hey #348;
  It was Starr Yelland’s son. He was 17 years old. I don’t think he fell to his death, but was severely injured,(head?), and remained in a coma for two years until finally awakening. A few months later he died suddenly. I recall my mom and dad saying he stood up on The Wild Cat roller coaster at Elitches.

• [BrokenRobot]

  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.

• [ahab]

  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.

• [82_28]

  I just turned a bunch of peeps in Seattle onto the Zombiez (that is the spelling btw). Many of that crew went on to bigger and better things, even though the Zombiez, had they kept their shit together, would have gone on to conquer the world. Remember when NO DOUBT OPENED for them at the Mercury? I was front and center. Imagine the zombiez being a bigger band than no doubt! Went out and bought the CD the next day at Angelo’s in Tiffany Plaza. Darren was in Geggy Tah and played drums for a time with Ani DiFranco. Kaveh, the most amazing bass player in all of history (while not the zombiez bass) went on to host some shows on, damn, KUVO. And now is with the “hip-hop orchestra” Dakah, the leader of which is Geoff Gallegos who was the leader of the Zombiez horn section back in the day.

  Remember “songs from the short bus”? It was cassette only and it was put out when they were all attending Chatfield HS. Man, if only I could get my hands on that music again! My friend Matt Barr did the original cover art for the Evening at the Zoo CD. Then they changed it up. Ahh, the zombiez. Never missed a show!

  A couple of my bands opened for them back in the day too. Oh man. . .

• [kip w]

  Anon @475, get ready to drop and give me ten. Here’s Robert Preston’s all-too-memorable Chicken Fat 45 from the 1960s. They used to play this on KCOL in Fort Collins as well. Whether it was there or on Fred & Fay, I used to fiercely resent this song for trying to make me exercise!

• [Tirjasdyn]

  Oh the Boat Park! I forgot about that one.

• [Tracie5]

  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!

• [annahell]

  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.

• [annahell]

  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.

• [CarolineSays]

  Queen Soopers at 9th and Corona. My daughter used to get a free cookie there on her way home from school.

• [Sheilah]

  Old Elitchs on 38th Tennyson
  Valley Highway
  Mr Lucky’s
  Monaco Drive Inns
  Celebrity Sport Center
  Montgomery Wards on Broadway
  Yum Yum Tree
  Mile High Stadium
  May D& F
  Three Sisters 16th St.
  Woolworth’s & the pizza
  Denver Auditorium Area
  Vila Itilia Mall
  Stapleton
  The blue lights
  Cooper Theater
  Gates Rubber Company
  Cherry Creek Mall the open air one
  Dolly Madison
  Tasty Freeze
  McNicholes
  A&W on 40th
  Lowry AFB
  Neusteter’s
  The Lift
  Cinderella City
  My Sweet Lass
  Crest Theater
  Skakeys Pizza
  Mountain Bell
  Casa Bonita
  KDKO Dr Daddio
  KBPI Funky Frank
  Blubird Theater
  Boulder Denver Turnpike
  The Train in City Park
  Bus # 64 on 34th
  Denver Dry Goods
  Joslins
  Top of The Rockies Restaurant
  Sonny Liston
  McDonalds Dahlia shopping center
  Azars Big Boy
  Yellow pages
  Millers Groceries on 34th
  York Cleaners
  Furs Cafeteria
  KIMN
  The Lakeside fun house
  Starr Yelland, host of Dialing for Dollars
  Fashion Bar
  Peaches Records
  Bobby McGee’s
  The Trader Vicks
  City Park paddle boats
  Tamale King
  Ogden on Colfax
  & Waysout

• [Anonymous]

  I saw a reference to cruising Colfax in the 80s and remember the thousands of people that used to line the streets and hang out in the Winchel’s parking lot. Does anyone remember in the late 70s when we used to cruise South Broadway? One of the turn around spots was After the Fox nightclub.

• [Anonymous]

  How about Dolly Madison, on 38th ave, across from the old elitches.

• [n]

  @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.

• [5000!]

  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!

• [Impact]

  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.

• [Anonymous]

  To be sung at a high octave:People get nice surprises at Spedding chevrolet , off the boulder turn pike at the Vally Highway—–there’s a nice surprise for youuuuuu at Spedding Chevrolet.
  Spedding was later shut down in the 70s or early 80s for turning back speedometers.

• [Anonymous]

  @Peeweethree RE: Bronco Burger … The one on Broadway in Littleton had that HUGE smiley face with the tongue that liked its lips… creepy.

  @Brokenrobot RE: The Boat Park … That is Stern Park on Broadway and Stern, a few blocks south of Arapahoe Road. Drove by there today.

  @Dropsey RE: Noel and Andy … I talk about them all the time, and the people I work with look at me like I am an idiot. Glad to know someone else remembers them :)

  @Subhan RE: Hamburger Stand/Der Weinerschnitzel … I worked there in High School. They are owned by the same company. It was cheap for the customers to eat there, even cheaper for employees.

  Ahab RE: Runzas … I don’t think they even serve these anymore. Mark Hopkins Elementary made the BEST ones.

  @Tirjasdyn RE: North Pole … got lost in the mirror maze more than once.

  @Jarrad RE: Tom Martino … he has a TV show as well as his radio show now.

  @Ted Johnson RE: Gates Rubber Company … I lived right by it (on Grant St.) and occasionally we would find rubber balls rolling down our street.

  @NeonNurse RE: The Creamery at Mississippi and Broadway … I could see it from our house (on Grrant St) next to Gates. At night the lights there made the building look like a face. The two towers had lights that looked like eyes… and when they draped lights at Christmas it looked like it was smiling.

  @Stevensdrums RE: Traildust Steakhouse … It did burn down :(

  * Spending all afternoon at Southglenn mall, having only $10 to spend, and still came home with a few bucks in your pocket.

  * Sledding at Ruby Hill

  * Steve Kelley on KIMN

  * Hal and Charley on KHOW. My mom knew them back in Iowa, but then so did half of Denver.

  * The Yum Yum Tree… the original Food Court!!! :)

  Such great memories!

• [stevensdrums]

  Wow! This is taking me down memory lane. I grew up on the edge of Aurora and Denver. Does anyone remember Crystal’s Palace right near Buckingham Square? It was a pizza place that had tons of video games and a movie theater. I think it was actually owned by the same people as Casa Bonita.

  How about the McDonald’s on Leetsdale that had the big airplane in it!? That was the coolest and was before they had playgrounds at fast food places.

  Budget Tapes and Records!

  I do remember that lady on the O’mara Ford commercials!!

  How about Slim Goodbody?

  FRANKO mentioned:
  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.
  It was actually 9 News (ABC at the time) that had that commercial and it was to show how badass there award -winning camera crew was!!! I can’t hear that song without thinking of the commercials as well! LOL
  How about “Spy Man” or “Stan the U Turn Man”? That freaky guy that lived near 1st and Colorado Blvd. If you did a U-turn in front of his house, he would come out of the bushes and take pictures of you. It was a really creepy and fun thing to do in high school.
  Round the Corner is the restaurant with the phones to call in your burger order!!!

  How about channel 9′s weathermen? Sunny Roseman and Stormy Rottman!!!

  I remember waiting in line for concert tix at the Dave Cook Sporting Goods at Buckingham Square. Van Halen and the Jacksons Victory Tour in ’84!

• [Anonymous]

  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.

• [eyebum]

  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!

• [n]

  @139 YES Stormy Rottman THANK YOU!

• [Anonymous]

  My first crush was on a KIMN radio DJ. Does anyone remember the KIMN egg drop?

• [mdesignboutique]

  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!?

• [DeuceMojo]

  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?

• [Anonymous]

  I left Denver in 1994 and haven’t been back since, but, all of these posts definitely bring back fond memories of my childhood in the 80s and early 90s. I’ve heard the area has changed a lot since then…

  Here are my top 20 my personal favorites:

  (1) Seeing the Zephyrs play at Mile High for about 5 bucks a ticket;
  (2) McNichols Arena;
  (3) Casa Bonita (and the parrot that laid plastic easter eggs with rubbish toys inside them);
  (4) Funtastic Nathans–especially the cave;
  (5) Waterworld;
  (6) The original Elitches/the log ride/the Hawaiian rainbow ride/the Viking ship;
  (7) Big Fun (with the black rubber band spider web);
  (8) the original Quiznos before it became franchised and crappy;
  (9) the “marshmallow pit” at the Aurora School of Gymnastics;
  (10) the sabre-toothed tiger at the Natural History Museum;
  (11) the “Hall of Life” (the museum in the old Red Cross Building where they had a bunch of interactive exhibits);
  (12) driving on County Line Road;
  (13) the “flying saucer house” and the Mother Cabrini Shrine up on I-70;
  (14) the PDQ convenience store chain;
  (15) Skate City;
  (16) “Monkey Island” at the Denver Zoo;
  (17) The Wizards Chest;
  (18) The old Tattered Cover bookstore;
  (19) the haunted house at Tabor House;
  and (20) the Gart Brothers Castle over on Broadway.

• [JayMJones]

  Any old denver skaters remember the jamaica bowl at 38th (now MLK) and colorado blvd?

  • [tahoeskier]

    We called it the “Health Bowl” because it was on the grounds of the old sanitarium; it became “Jamaica Bowl” towards ’83-’84 due to the rasta colored graffiti. But yeah, skated the crap out of that place!

    • [Genia Ursery-Nichols]

      It was called the DALHIA I think in the 80s

• [mdesignboutique]

  John Nickel’s “A Nickel’s Worth” — sappy news center 4 stories about “real people” or whatever. gross.

• [blue balaclava]

  And, a bit of Fred n’ Fae goodness:
  http://tinyurl.com/583z5c

• [Enochrewt]

  #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.

  • [R. N.]

     Actually the Continental was located off I-25 and Hampton. You might be thinking of the Century 21 that was down the street from the Cooper on Colo Blvd. Remember that place? But I think the Cooper is correct. I did see both Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back at the Cooper. If I remember right, Continental ended up laying Star Wars, etc., when it was re-released a year later or so. Remember that?

• [hendmik]

  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.

• [Battlestar_Schott]

  How about Malibu Fun Center? Anyone remember that?

• [bluesboy22]

  Whoa … what memories! I’m wondering if anyone has any info about the bands in the early/mid/late 60s. I used to go to the Rugged Room, if anyone remembers it (on Alameda?). There’s one band in particular I would like to find out if any recordings exist. Anyone remember “Fuzz”, from Thornton? “Lothar and the Hand People”? KIMN radio had a battle of the bands at the Denver Arena downtown (gee, I think that was the name of it – it’s now part of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts). Maybe there’s a good website with this kind of info on bands?? Thanks for the memories everyone!

  • [vett6t7]

    bluesboy22, I have a 27 pg printout that I took off the internet in 2003 from a website called http://www.mountainmusic.net which is not around anymore. It has bands from Denver, Boulder, Colo. Spgs and other cities. It starts with The band Action Brass and ends with the band Zephyr. It give the members and information that they were able to obtain from research. It’s very interesting for me having grown up in Denver/Aurora in the 60-70′s. On the first page it shows 2 pictures of bands, “The New World Dictionary, 1967″ and “Sugarloaf”. Bob MacVittie was the drummerin Sugarloaf who I went to Aurora HS with and he was also my senior patrol leader in Boy Scouts at Lowry in the very early 60′s. Anyway, the Fuzz is listed as a popular Denver Band from 1965-1968. Gary Seastone- Lead Guitar/vocals, Peter Taylor – Lead vocals, drums, Don Sterkel – keyboards, Henry Vera – rhythm Guitar, and Don Yamamoto – bass. That’s about it. Hope this helps.

    • [Anonymous]

      Thanks vett627 for the mention of mountainmusic.net. Yes, gone; but most of the content is still available via The Wayback Machine at http://replay.web.archive.org/20030203020157/http://www.mountainmusic.net/ . Includes your list of bands and some other other good stuff as well. Site was apparently the work of a Michael Stelk.

      • [vett6t7]

        Thanks Anon. I checked out the link and I replaced the old address. Has a wealth of information and really brings back memories. I made note of the other link as well. Thanks again.

• [Tirjasdyn]

  We should have a thread where folks can ask questions about what’s true in South Park…giggle.

• [CarolineSays]

  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

• [ballookey]

  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.

  • [cvacano]

    Thank God you mentioned the Organ Grinder! I was really starting to worry. And how about Roller City, across (more or less) from Villa Italia. Remember the old, OLD Villa Italia? With the big irregular stone tile floor on the west hallway, and that weird little cove with the tree in the middle and the funky gift shop? Wow! Memories flooding back.

    How about standing in a line that circled the Cooper Theatre three times to see Star Wars (because to see it anywhere else was just WRONG)?

    • [Lynn Gonzales]

      my first kiss was at roller city thats to funny

  • [Genia Ursery-Nichols]

    Cinderalla city was real! I had my first date there in ’89! So was villa Italia!

• [Cecil]

  Ok, wow. I had to start a BoingBoing account just to be able to comment on this thread.

  Family moved to Denver in the mid-’70s. My dad worked for a company called Legis50 and my mom was a realtor, selling space in this newfangled Tech Center thing. Our house was at Dry Creek and University and the sidewalk literally ended at our block, and over that it was nothing but Phipps Ranch.

  I remember eating at the Ground Round (kids paid what they weigh, right?), Hans Brinker’s, seeing Superman at the movie theater on Colorado Boulevard and Mexico (I think) which is now a Best Buy or something.

  We moved up to Fort Collins in ’79. Dad worked for CSU in the journalism department, mom became a librarian at Cache La Poudre Jr. High (right next to crazy Pete Peters’ Aryan Nations church, yikes). Lived all over town–we rented a house from Mr. Beaver of Beaver’s Market fame for a while, right across from the graveyard and the statue of the fireman with painted eyes. Went to Fort Collins High (old building) and smoked a ton of dope in the alley next to the frat houses. The gazebo!

  My dad used to take me to the Tack Room at Horsetooth Lanes. I’d play pinball and drink cokes while he sat at the bar and had a few with his fellow old silent vets. Ice cream at Farley’s fountain. Cinnamon rolls from Vern’s…ah, Vern’s. Before it burned down, it was the single weirdest place in America. Buy some ammunition, a magazine and eat a home-cooked breakfast under 75 years of dusty taxidermy. I’d help mom do book inventory in the summer and we’d always stop for a Vern’s cinnamon roll. Sniff.

  Sitting by the train tracks in the middle of the night, watching it sway past. Punk rock shows at the Grange and the empty building next to Front Range Records. Many people have mentioned the Warlock Pinchers, good lord, we’d drive down to see them any time we could get away. I once dove from the stage at Rock Island, drunk as a lord, and no one caught me. I landed on my head. Ouch.

  Mentions of the Northern Hotel earlier: my older brother lived there for a while, too. It’s always my template for imagining any old, weird flophouse. We went to church with ladies who remembered its glory days, including one who had even lived there in the pre-World War I era.

  Barton Bulldogs. Little League baseball on dirt fields in Timnath. Fishing for bluegill in City Park lake. Holy…man, I could go on. And on.

• [libequafrat]

  So you’re the one. I’ll meet you under the bridge and we’ll settle this once and for all! Lmao!

• [pork musket]

  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.

• [CarolineSays]

  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.

• [eyebum]

  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”.

• [Bonnie]

  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

• [Ed63]

  @#356 posted by Sheilah:

  Waysout!LOL OMG hahaha haven’t thought of that in years. The Crest theater, now THAT is how you watch a movie :-) you had to me near my neighborhood. Went to Stedman, Hallett bused to ash grove…

  • [Anonymous]

    ways out!!! Only a denver thing. Possibly a black denver thing too. Moved to cali after east high and said Waysout. Got blank stares. Thats when I knew I was from denver

• [bluehz]

  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

• [libequafrat]

  Hope I sent that last one to the right post. Anyway, My wife and I went to my home town, Denver, in 1986 or ’87 and got a craving for hot dogs in the wee hours of the morning. I swear, we drove all over town and couldn’t find a freakin’ hot dog! Der Wienerschnitzel was gone and there wasn’t even a microwave dog to be found. That was an Erma Bombeck trip. Need to write a book.

• [Anonymous]

  Loved this site. Just went through the entire thread. Lived in Ft Collins while at CSU (1974-1979). Recognize a lot yet learned a lot, too. Here are some things I did not see posted.

  –Media issues associated with filming of TV Miniseries “Centennial” based on the Michner Novel. Then watching this on “NBC’s Big Event” 1978-1979. Just saw the entire series on DVD last year.
  –Attneding Denver Bears baseball win at Mile High Stadium over Oklahoma City 89er’s associated with July 4 1979 Independence Day Celebration. 89ers had a 14-4 lead in the 4th inning. Denver scored 8 runs after 2 out in bottom of 9th to win. Mile High remained full for this boring game as this was the place to see Denver Fireworks,after the game. Next day I recoreded Have Mark Holtz’ call from KOA on tape–he mimicked the call for Bobby’ Thompson’s homerun when the winning homer run was hit. Holtz went on to become a famous Texas Ranger baseball play by play man and is now deceased.
  –FM radio KTCL, KLZ, KAZY, KADE (am) & KBCO. My radio stations! I have casettes containg broadcasts from KTCL, KLZ & KAZY.
  –Emerson, Lake & Palmer coming to Moby Gym in February 1978.
  –Laserium in Denver
  –Filming of the movie “One On One” starring Robbie Benson & Annette O’Toole. Attending the basketball shots at Moby Gym. The movie was originally going to be called “Catch A Falling Star”. Still not available on DVD.
  –Dirty Sam’s and later Sam’s Old Town Ballroom
  –Drinking and socializing on the upholstered furniture at the Moot House. Cheese for cheese and crackers was “awesome”. A buddy stole a yard (for serving a “yard of ale”) from there. He got the glassware out of the Moot House and home where he promptly stumbled and broke it.
  –New Grass Revival at “Mishawaka Inn”.
  –”Al’s Cafe”, right across from my first apartment on North College. No consistency in the hours opened or closed. Most from this period remembered it as the “Ever Open”–a place to sober up. But it was “Al’s Cafe” first.
  –Messanine at Northern Hotel. Where I first played the video game “Pong”.
  –Chesterfield, Bottomsley & Potts when it opened and initially only sold 3.2 beer. We called it “CB&P” and FAC’d there regularly. They eventually received their liquor license but all this was well before the sports bar it became. Originally, one could grill their own steaks here. First recollection of “Big Screen TV” here. Where I saw Carlton Fisk’s famouns home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series
  –Opening of Finest Records and Panhandler’s Pizza.
  –Upper Crust Pizza.
  –The Junction, Guiseppies, Out Of Bounds, China Palace, Prime Minister & the original El Buritto (I used to bring plastic garbage bags full of Tortilla Chips, and Hot Sauce from here to parties)
  –Eagles at Red Rocks in Summer of 1975
  –Beach Boys & Chicago together in Summer of 1975 at Hughes Stadium
  –Hari Krishnas peddling their philosophies and beliefs throughout Denver’s Stapleton Airport
  –Leaving a signed $1.00 bill on the wall at the Horsetooth Inn
  –The baseball sized hail on Ft Collins Northside and Softball sized hail on Ft Collins Southside that fell on August 1, 1979–3 years to the day after the Big Thompson flood
  –Transfort and the small busses
  –Four-way drive trail atop Cameron Pass prior to completion of Highway 14 over the pass
  –”Sark It To ‘Em, Rams”. Sark Arslainian was CSU’s football coach from 1974 thru 1981. The slogan was on bumper stickers of cars when I arrived in the fall of 1974. Sark’s 1978 team went 8-2-1 and came so close to winning the WAC and going to the Fiesta Bowl. However, the 1981 team was the first team to go 0-12 in NCAA football history.
  –Seeing Aaron Copeland conduct the Denver Symphony in the Student Union Theater at Colorado State.
  –College Days (or was it “Daze”), the third weekend of every April.
  –Fort Collins had 43,000 people living in it in 1974
  –Mysterious explosion at around 7:30am in the spring of 1978 downtown.
  –United Bank at 401 S. College and the first ATM in town

  And yes, I too remember the hamburgers at Round the Corner, Colorado Sun-daaaaaays, Starr Yelland and other media mentioned.

  • [kip w]

    I have “One on One” on tape, off of the TV, from some time in the 80s. Nothing like watching somebody go in a door in the student center and come out in Moby Gym!

    Upper Crust Pizza — or, as the lettering on the sign made it look like, “The Yipper Canst.” A friend treated us there one time. We ate, then stood at the counter for five minutes or so, waiting for someone to take our money. When we finally walked out, our host said quietly that they never did come for the money, so we walked faster.

    Bowling at CSU: First time I went bowling. On the last frame, K__ set his ball on the floor, got on his knees behind it, and pushed it with both hands. It rolled slowly, slowly, to the pins, and knocked them all down. K__ said he lost all respect for the sport with that. I finally started bowling again thirty years later.

    Seeing Joe Pass play a free concert by the CSU lagoon. Hearing Ruggiero Ricci playing Brahms as I was in the hall at Lincoln Center during an intermission for “Rashomon” and thinking I should have gone to the play another night and attended Ricci’s concert.

    Watching Mischa Dichter (I think that’s who it was) rehearse a Rachmaninoff concerto from the catwalk above the stage at Lincoln Center. The concert, I found out later, went badly, because the piano’s action was sticking. My piano teacher was the technician for it, and I’d bet it was not his fault, because he was a perfectionist who knew what he was doing.

    I placed third in a logo contest for the 1980 College Daze, whose slogan was “Spring into the 80s.” My drawing had a happy student, blindfolded on a pogo stick, hopping toward the 0 of the “80s,” which was an open manhole cover.

    The mysterious explosion was due to a gas leak by the row of buildings near the Elk’s Club. I was out walking around after it happened, talking to people and trying to figure out what was going on.

• [MisterB]

  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.

• [frrrrrrrrp]

  3 words:

  Levine’s
  Furniture
  Warehouse

  Remember the home made mom-and-pop TV ads?

• [mabwiddershins]

  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.

• [Altadenablog]

  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.

• [Rummager]

  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.

• [aldreher]

  I recently attended a wedding in Denver. Before the evening had finished I found myself reliving my childhood memories. I had accidentally found 4 other ex Highlander Boys. Paul Otis, Jim Anderson, Jesse & Jim Caton. Since that initial meeting we’ve all stayed in touch and have accumulated many photos, stories and memorabilia, which we are using to build a web site.

  We’re in touch with other ex HB’s like John Sedbrook, Randy Pierce and Tom McClanahan, but need many more contacts, photos and stories.

• [Xavibury]

  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.

• [sandrift]

  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.

• [train guy]

  Anybody remember the Gondolier on North College? It’s now I believe a pawn shop. Anybody remember the Hermitage Inn restaurant between Loveland and Ft.Collins?

• [blue balaclava]

  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.

• [atreehuggingirl]

  I cant belive I just spent the last 2 hours reading this! I was thinking about the Yum Yum tree and couldnt remember exactly what it was…but remember now. What a great thread…sooo many memories brought back!

  Just a few I didnt see, or maybe missed

  Sledding at Ruby Hill, my dad would drive us up to the top and pick us up at the bottom…all day long. With a thermous of coco and mittens drying on the dash.

  Going to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Ogden on Colfax.

  Peaches records and TAPES ( remember those) on evans, I remember being with my dad the day he bought Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon.

  Great memories, keep it going

• [ballookey]

  #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.

• [Battlestar_Schott]

  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.

• [JayMJones]

  @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.

• [Gulley Jimson]

  #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(

• [Anonymous]

  I am trying to contact the Kamikazi Klones anyone have a line on them?

  [e-mail]

• [JayMJones]

  @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.

• [octopede]

  @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.

• [JayMJones]

  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

• [train guy]

  Hey Hitman,
  Weren’t you also up here in Wyoming for a while on the radio doing sports? Colorado is still the best I still miss being down there. Will be back one of these days. All the good memories of the past

• [Anonymous]

  I lived in Denver during summer of 1974, since Father Worked as a Architect on a new Ski resort being built nearby Dillon. Anyways
  I remember the first TV Commercials for the Mexican restaurant Casa Bonita..where advertised by Actor Ricardo Montalban..right around the time of this ‘fine Corinthian Leather Chrysler Cordoba Car commercials”. The Restaurant interior was designed by a Hollywood Set Designer…However, the food was too Americanized not Hot-enough or Spicy Enough but quite Tasty. The Owner did later make TV Commercials about apologizing for something or other.

• [CarolineSays]

  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.

• [Mark Natanson]

  Bet no one remembers The Golden Ox, The Creamery, Cinnamin Cinder, The Barn and Orbit dance clubs, Twilite Golf Course, Aylard’s, White Sands, hayrides at Glaziers Barn, JRs malt shop, Doyle’s Pharmacy. How about Teddy’s Drive-In at U Hills, Gart Bros., The Regiment. When Crazy Chuck blew up the bridge to Monkey Island and burnt down Good Shepards. Holubar, Woodstock West, riots at Wash Park, Straight Johnsons, Tico’s on Evans (mmmm), The Bullfighter, El Paso del Norte on old Larimer, could go on forever.

• [mdesignboutique]

  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.

• [danthomas]

  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?

• [Alfie]

  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.

• [Gregory Ego]

  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.

• [Denverbarb]

  At the very beginning, someone mentioned the Yum Yum Tree. All of us went there at one time or another, but for the life of us we can’t remember exactly where it was. Does anyone?

  And who was the DJ on KIMN with the weird name? He moved to Hawaii and actually showed up in a few “Hawaii 50″s.

  Barb

• [tomthum]

  Okay here goes my memories:

  Casa Bonita: went there a few times a year. loved the sopapillas , thank you to the wife of a earlier poster who was there making them. Even as a kid I remember the food was bad. It was a long ass drive from town as I remember too.

  BLinky: The beard and the jacket… Nuff said.

  Blinky’s fun club: watched it religiously everyday.

  Shakeys: Oh yeah soooo fun… big glass window you were supposed to see the pizza being made. Never anything going on behind the window. The hats were great. I had one for years…. fake straw hat, how rebelious.

  Celeb Fun center: Hated swimming, but was a full out trouble maker in the game arcade… used to smoke pot in the parking lot and then play video games for hours.

  Furrs Cafeteria – oh my god. we used to go there every week. what can i say i dont know of anything like it now. It was a classic. there was a cool magic shop in the same mall. The old slydini’s place. My stepfather was a wanna be magician and Slydini was the guy who developed the trick with the crumpled napkin thrown over your shoulder so the audience could see but you could not…

  Cherry Creek Mall that was it… What was that place across the street Strombergs or something

  I worked at Ricks cafe as a busboy and bar back for many years. Can you say cocaine?

  Floyd little – lyle alzado- orange crush….we had the best fans in the leauge period.

  My brothers bar
  The mexican place in glendale behind celeb center??? with the pirahna…adolf

  Yum Yum Tree once a month…. I would eat chinese…

  Lakeside: Oh my god. We would feed popcorn to the carp in the lake. They would come to the surface like dogs and eat popcorn out of your hand. the fun house was the shit! The wild chipmunk…. didnt a bunch of people get killed a while back on the old ass broken down wooden roller coaster… I was smart enough to never get on that thing. but the chipmunk was a kick.

  Mama elenas anyone … i worked ther too for like all my youth.

  PUTT PUTT GOLF yessssss!

  Was in the biz so I hung at Goodfriends, racines,ricks cafe, and every other fern bar in town oh yeah I worked at Chesby’s later it was the old “new yorker bar”

  and Zach’s I worked there too

  Hmmmmmm

  Wahoo McDaniel he was the QB for the broncos for a year i think and then wrestler. Speaking of which remember that guy with the sunglasses that did the wrestling show on saturdays…

  Thosee early wrestling days were fantastic americana.

  What was that mexican place by red rocks? the little town just down from red rocks….

  Red Rocks… spent half my youth waiting in line there for front row seats…saw everybody..
  the dead, the dixie dregs, santana, stevie ray vaghn, dylan…. so many shows.

  Does anyone remember the thrift shop out on Brodway. The owner was that cool guy Ronnie and his wife/gf? He drove a Nash.

  Skinny ties, sidewinders…. damn…

  The cricket on the hill, Ebbits Field, The Pearl street, (wonder how Marilyn is doing),

  how about 3.2 beer Yuck….. I could drink gallons of it and not get drunk.

  I guess I am done.

• [franko]

  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!

• [40coupe]

  kip w is right…the huge Duffy’s soda sign was on the SE corner of W. Alameda & S. Federal. Federal Blvd., of course, is also US 287, which is likely the route he took from Ft. Collins.

  The earlier KIMN Top 50 sheets were printed on pastel-colored bond paper. Different color every week, so you’d know which ‘latest’ Top 50 you were looking at in the Woolworth’s Record Department.

  The KIMN studio was on the west side of N. Sheridan Blvd, between W. 17th and W. 20th Avenues, across from Sloans’s Lake and the Trap/Skeet shooting bunkers. Yes. People actually did fire shotguns out over the lake, aiming East.

  Frank Sinatra, Jr did a gig at the Organ Grinder pizza parlor in the Alameda Shopping Center, promoted by the local chapter of The Sons of Italy.

  Johnny Green and the Green Men were a local hit at the La Pichet, on W. Mississippi Ave., thanks to their matching green outfits and dyed green hair.

  The Rugged Room, and it’s counterpart, the Posh. The Posh was at Alameda and Tabor, downstairs, and was a pop-only teen lounge.
  Just across Tabor was Roller City West.

  Pardon me while I tap my memory bank and return with a couple more…

• [subhan]

  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.

• [Tirjasdyn]

  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.

• [Anonymous]

  @#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.

• [Exactor]

  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

• [HITMAN IN OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND]

  1976 Was the year that I was brought in to do nights 7- Midnight on KDKO Denver from WJPS in Evansville, Indiana
  I was called the MIDGET on the air….and was working at KDKO when we co sponsored a Marvin Gaye Concert and he was a no show and I lost my gig because of his no show…I was fired and moved on to a station in Colorado Springs for awhile then 38 more years of radio broadcasting from Denver, Colorado Springs, San Diego, Baltimore, Ocean City, Maryland etc…..anyhow just thought I would see if by chance anyone remembers the
  MIDGET from KDKO….I was there when a fun guy by the name of Dr. Daddyo was there, loved that guy…peace

  JJ Hitman McKay
  [e-mail]

• [Battlestar_Schott]

  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.

  • [blue balaclava]

    Renaldo and the Loaf, man — that was a day when Teletunes embraced the entire Ralph Records/The Residents video catalog:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaldo_and_the_Loaf

• [Anonymous]

  I have to correct my anonymous post on 11/26…Yum Yum Tree was on Cherry Creek NORTH and Colorado Blvd.

• [Tirjasdyn]

  Mercury Cafe: Still there, fantastic food, and Thursday night swing.

• [zoester]

  @#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!
  -

• [coach]

  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.

• [Gulley Jimson]

  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.)

• [RustyNails]

  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

• [Steelorb]

  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

• [ahab]

  For those that are interested and have a Facebook account I would suggest joining the “OldSkool Denver” group. Lots of nostalgia there :)

• [Anonymous]

  I used to go with my Dad out to a place on East Colfax called Sliders and Nails. It was a White Castle knock-off.

  There was also an indoor slot-car track somewhere near Wash Park that I did a couple birthday parties at in the late 70′s early 80′s. I spent a bunch of time at a hobby shop right by Chez Artiste near Cinderella City. Can’t remember the name, but the owner was a ringer for one of the engineers in Petticoat Junction.

  I just moved back after being gone for 20 years and precious little of all these memories is left. Sad…

• [Panther440]

  Wouldn’t trade my childhood memories of Denver for all the tea in China !
  Why ?
  - ski train to Winter Park (Eskimo club)
  - family dinners at Stapleton Airport restaurant
  - Fred & Faye show
  - KIMN radio
  - 15th/16th Street cruising and super-cop Buster Snyder
  - the laughing fat lady, spinning turntable and rolling barrel rides at Funhouse, Lakeside Amusement Park
  - taking picnic dinners to Lakeside and riding the old wooden Chris Craft boats around lake at sunset
  – Chad & Jeremy (first concert) at ‘Troc’ Ballroom at old Elitch Gardens
  - .32 beer and ‘woodsies’ at the tunnels in Clear Creek Canyon
  - Taking dates to Inspiration Point at I-70/Sheridan
  - Red Rocks Park and ‘hatchet lady’
  - racing cars DOWN the lariat road on Lookout Mtn. after leaving Sam’s
  - both first and last concerts at McNichols Arena (ZZ Top)
  - making love in concession storage room at Mile High Stadium right before Broncos game
  - Carl’s Pizza on 38th; Chubby’s Mexican on 38th;
  Northwoods Inn; Dino’s & Ramone’s W. Colfax; Brewery Bar II; Edgewater Inn pizza; carry-out Golden Bird chicken in 5 Points; Punch Bowl tavern on Welton St. downtown, etc., etc., etc.
  Ahhhhh, how sweet it was !

• [Anonymous]

  WOW! Almost everything I was thinking of is posted!!! I have memories of Writer’s Manor on Colorado Blvd, and Mexico, and cutting throught the parking lot to go to the “old” Safeway on the way to Merrill. The security guards used to chase us, but never caught us.

  The Portofino apartments and the huge “lion” archway. Some of the scenes for “Over the Edge”, Matt Dillon’s first movie, ever, were filmed there. The rest of the movie was filmed in Aurora…watching that from 1978-79 is strange!

  The old Cooper was awesome, remember the lines for every movie….saw Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi there! My favorite movie though was Chariots of Fire….on that screen….awesome.

  Crusing Colfax was OK, but sitting in the parking lots was awesome.

  The Cherry Creek “spillway”…now a park….getting hammered/stoned while the police were driving around…until the girl was raped there.

  KPKE, and KAZY….later KBPI….for those sweet jams. I moved from the country to Denver in 6th grade, first 2 songs I heard were Zeppelin “WHole Lotta Love”, and the Stones “Start me Up”.

  The arcades were everywhere in the 80′s.

  Cinderella City…sheesh I miss that place…remember the Japanese guy that used to do your name upstairs??

  I used to walk Colorado Blvd in 6th and 7th grade, ditching school and find things to do all day, then sneak into Wirter’s Manor to see “Rich People”.

  The Rainbow Music Hall….Amazing to say the least. Who didn’t play there? Not a bad seat in the place, and the security used to let you smoke whatever you wanted. Can’t believe that place is gone. Concerts at the Coliseum and McNichols….and Van Halen at Folsum Field in 1984…..

  Remember the “Leprechan” Bronco’s mascot collecting carts at the King Soopers on Monaco? He worked there.

  Skate City on Chambers and Hampden…Mission Viejo…the community of the future…lol

  The “Devil Worshippers” on Gun CLub road…..and the old houses and silo’s…..we got chased so much.

  Thirsty’s, Mardi Gras…and all the 3.2 places. Whenever anyone turned 18, we would get them hammered and take them to Saturday’s…..hilarious….

  I could do this all day….but I am at work..lol…sheesh…..Denever rules!!!!

• [DrPete]

  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!

• [pork musket]

  There’s still a Hamburger Stand on Broadway, and it’s still dirt cheap

• [kip w]

  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.

• [Sam]

  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.

• [Anonymous]

  Going to the Chilli Pepper before Bronco games.

  Seeing Star Wars for the first time at the Cooper Theater with the rounded screen.

  I loved the YUM YUM tree. My grandma would take me there and afterwards if I was good, we could go nextdoor to Tang’s imports for some rice candy.

  How about going tubing at Deckers?

  The W building was the tallest building in Denver.

  Crepes at the Magic Pan on Larimer.

• [toddseventies]

  Worked at Out of Bounds, Hungry Dutchman and Yum Yum Tree, had a blast. After work ~~~The Lift, Mr Lucky’s, After the Gold Rush, Figaro’s in Glendale, Celebrity Sports ~~ bowl late at night & POGO. Barnabys on Leetsdale had the best food. Parking on Cherry Creek Dam and at Buffalo Bill’s Grave. Portofino apartments. And the magic of Red Rocks. All night drive in’s. The all day Sunday concerts at Mile High. Those were some special days with some special freinds, where are you guys ??

• [Anonymous]

  If not answered already, the railroad car restaurant on Colorado and Alameda was Victoria Station. The Yum Yum Tree was located on Cherry Creek South and Colorado.
  Also, haven’t seen anyone mention the great slot racing cars in the basement of Celebrity Sports Center before (I think) it became an arcade. How about Hummel’s and Gigi’s in Cherry Creek Shopping Center. The bank with “the thinker statue” in Creek Creek Shopping Center was Columbia Savings and Trust. Anderson’s was the Toy Store in the Cherry Creek Mall with stuff on the roof.

• [JayMJones]

  The O’Mera ford lady anyone?

  • [Anonymous]

    That woud be Bonnie

• [n]

  @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.

• [mdesignboutique]

  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.

• [Anonymous]

  Anybody remember Big Fun at Monaco and Leetsdale where the Hobby Lobby is now?

• [ugleah]

  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.

• [kip w]

  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.

• [82_28]

  Across from ACC “Heritage with ashtrays” (where the creators of South Park went to high school) was Northwoods Inn. Or was it Paul Bunyans? I think it was Northwoods Inn though. Near Tortilla Flats and later that weird Riverside Mall that turned out to be an abject failure. What was the name of that health food store there?

  I’m so glad this thread is still going! Thanks for the heads up, Mark. I sent it out to all my family last year or whatever. I am seriously going to have to come up with a story now. After I read this overwhelming treasure trove of memories.

  • [ronnieboy]

    That’s right…Northwoods Inn….heck, I’ve slept since then! Anyone remember the clothing store ‘Up Your Alley’ in Cinderella City? How about Shotgun Willie’s before it became a strip club? Olympic in Boulder?
    Yeah, the Rainbow was a great venue. My band ‘Dawson’ played there as well.

• [vett6t7]

  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.

• [RedMage13]

  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

• [Mike]

  @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*

• [libequafrat]

  Daniels Park was a gorgeous place. Hiked all over the hills and bushes taking lots of “smoke” breaks.
  In the fall, the bushes turned color and looked like New England except with short trees.

• [HighlanderBoy]

  There now is a Facebook group for the generations of Highlanders to reconnect, post pics, stories, etc.

  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=288733510141

• [Mackenzie]

  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!

• [bangusjangus]

  How bout these for some older memories, Shakey’s Pizza on S.Sante Fe, The Drumstick with the little train that would go around the restaraunt along the ceiling? Old Skating rink on Welby Rd up in Thornton? I cant remember all the old drive in’s there were a few though. I do remember seeing Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Torso at Sloans Lake Drive had to have been 1978 and Mad Max and Blues Brothers at The West on west Colfax. I do rememeber the fat lady at The Funhouse at Lakeside. Cruisin up to Look Out Moutain parkin with my girl those days are truly missed. Roller City West on Alameda by Vill Italia Mall. Many many more I could go on forever.

• [cher&cindy]

  OMG,(she’s back).
  Fond memories of “The Denver Folklore Center”. We used to sing there once in a while, me and 2 guys, both named Allen, so we called ourselves “2 Hits & A Miss”, kinda catchy, eh? Pete Seeger snuck in the back door one night and watched the show and then got up and gave us a free concert. How lucky were we?

  • [Allen C]

    I remember it well. Did you know that the Folklore Center still exists and it’s still owned by Harry Tuft? There’s no performances there, but Harry still holds “open mic” nights at the Swallow Hill Music Association.

    • [cher&cindy]

      That’s very cool. Do you sing there? Why do I get this feeling that I know you? :)

    • [cher&cindy]

      That’s so cool. Do you sing there? Why do I get this feeling that I know you? :)

• [Anonymous]

  I know blinky the clown personaly and he’s the nicest person ive met, i watched him all the time when i was little and to this day he still looks the same, to blinky,thanks for signing the bird house that i bought from you for my parents. They both think your great
  violet

• [Anonymous]

  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

• [vett6t7]

  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”

• [TChav]

  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.

• [shnarg]

  Can you still drink beer at 18? In the late 50′s I did a lot of that at the 3.2 joints (tho I wasn’t 18 yet). One night on Larimer street (way before gentrification) I smoked my first joint (the guy who gave it to me was just out from a 3yr stint for possession), saw a bloody knife fight, saw two Paiute women have an amazing pissing contest in front of a bar. They pissed right over a car.

  That same year the Shriner’s had a convention and we chauffeured them to where the whores were. Also that year a significant portion of the police department was busted for burglary.

  What a town…

• [Steve A]

  The Restraunt with the big burger was Big Boy specifically though it was called Azars

• [Steve from Aurora]

  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.

• [cheapsuits]

  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.

• [WJPurdy]

  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.

• [Bonnie]

  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.

• [TChav]

  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!

• [oldgovecobra]

  This site has brought back so many memories that there’s no way I can acknowledge all the commenters who helped kick my memory into high gear. Pardon any redundancies of earlier postings…just adding my own interpretations…

  I lived in Denver from 1973 to the end of 1981 (end of kindergarten to the middle of 9th grade)– interesting to see how many things I remember so well resonate with so many of you here. My memories:

  –Denver Bears games at Mile High. When I was 14, I got a season pass for $7 (!!!), and that was the year they won the American Association championship. Felipe Alou was the manager, and the Bears had a 5’3″ shortshop, Harry Chappas, on loan from the White Sox. Three current major league managers (well, one is getting fired) on that team: Terry Francona, Brad Mills, and Jerry Manuel. The players were totally approachable and signed autographs graciously.

  –Only went to the Yum Yum Tree once or twice

  –Casa Bonita…an indoor theme park with the equivalent of Van De Kamp’s frozen Mexican entrees. But I loved it as a kid. I think I had two birthday parties there. South Park nailed that place!

  –DU…my dad worked there. Anyone remember Petey the Pioneer with the coonskin cap? Saw many a hard-fought DU hockey game. Their baseball field was a dump, unfortunately. Liked the campus overall, though…

  –I wasn’t old enough to get the point of Alan Berg; I just remember him as an angry dude who shouted at everyone on the radio. He was murdered a couple of years after I moved to California, and I learned his story then.

  –Shakey’s Pizza! We always went to the one near Cherry Creek (on Fillmore, I think).

  –Blinky’s Fun Club…I know he’s not the basis for Krusty the Clown, but Krusty reminds me of him. I remember watching him as a kid when he was singing a song on his show, and thinking, “Hey, he’s playing a guitar with no strings!” Noticed the low-cost production even then…

  –Mustard’s Last Stand…hot dog stand near DU; Varsity Lanes on University and Colorado Bowl on Evans and Colorado Blvd.

  –Celebrity Sports Center…spent many an hour there; this thirtysomething ped hit on my brother and me while we were bowling (I was about 12)– offering to “coach” us. He was creepy from the get-go (“Well, you can call me Jim, or Ted, and other people call me blah blah blah”); fortunately, my mom came to pick us up while he was, um, making his pitch. That’s when I learned of CSC’s rep as a perv hangout..

  –Went to the Organ Grinder on West Alameda on a school trip trip…pizza, silent movies, and the pipe organ…

  –Elitch’s on West 38th…never went to Lakeside– even then, it had a rep as rather scungy (I’m referring to the facilities, not the people who went there)…

  –I, too, remember the robo-voice “KBPI Rocks the Rockies.” I played baseball for the Police Athletic League Pioneers, and because our jerseys were used for baseball and football, all my favorite jersey numbers were taken. I eventually took number 96, inspired by the prog rock station 96KX. Later on, I became a fan of the jazz station, KADX, and in the late ’70′s, I listened to disco/funk/soul on KTLK (I think I got that right)…

  –In junior high, I went to see the Jazz at the Philharmonic-style jam session concerts at the Paramount Theater downtown, put on by Dick and Maddie Gibson. Got to see Benny Carter, Kai Winding, Al Grey, Plas Johnson, Emily Remler (a great young guitarist who sadly died young from heroin addiction) and Dizzy Gillespie, among others…

  –I remember when the Bluebird on East Colfax was a porn theater. Now it’s owned by a classmate of mine from Gove Junior High (now vacated)…

  –Anyone remember ads shown during movies on late-night TV for Sunrise Homes? Probably around ’78 or ’79. They had some little jingle and some Jack Tripper look-alike who would lean back on a couch like Steve Dallas from Bloom County and talk about random stuff for what seemed like two or three minutes at a time. I can still hear the jingle: “Sunrise, when you’re looking for a change..Sunrise Sunrise Sunrise (repeat and fade out)…”

  –Jake Jabbs!

  –R & R Coins (I believe), with the owner bursting out from under a pile of gold coins…”Hot Damn!”

  –UTotem on South University Blvd. Got hooked on both Asteroids and PacMan there…

  –When I was a kid, the rumor was that Starr Yelland’s kid was killed from getting his head smashed in after standing up on an Elitch’s coaster…hope that wasn’t true. Other broadcasters I remember were Stormy Rottman and Ron Zappolo.

  –Round The Corner burgers! I always got the one with barbecue sauce, and I remember ordering from the phones in the booths.

  –Azar’s Big Boy at Colorado Blvd. and Buchtel Blvd.

• [Anonymous]

  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.

• [kip w]

  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.)

• [82_28]

  I suppose everyone’s seen this already right? Hands down, the best spoof of the bunch for the hideous “California Gurls” video. Chalk full of Colorado/Denver inside jokes.

  Lakeside, that shit ain’t steady. LOL

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYGpelWYFx0

• [franko]

  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.

• [ahab]

  @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

• [Bonnie]

  Tales of the Northern Hotel and its ghosts here:
  http://www.hauntedcolorado.net/FortCollins.html

• [blue balaclava]

  http://duffysrootbeer.com/Now___Then.php

• [HighlanderBoy]

  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.

  • [Anonymous]

    Ex-Highlanders are starting to organize. I invite you to join. Contact me at [e-mail]
    Visit the new HB site http://www.highlanderboys.org

• [5000!]

  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.

• [twobeeshawn]

  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

• [Anonymous]

  Can I get a “Hell Yeah!” for the Psychodelic Zombiez?

  • [82_28]

    Hell yeah you can!!!! Crazy crazy shit this thread.

• [franko]

  oh, and #5 (OCTOPEDE): you lived in evergreen? that’s my HOMETOWN!! high five, brutha! the little bear RULES.

• [Akbar Biberkopf]

  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

• [Altadenablog]

  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!

• [CarolineSays]

  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.

  • [Anonymous]

    Caroline. You’re right. The Antlers was scary, but I lived there. I’m surprised I haven’t been able to find many other references/memories of it online. I lived with another friend named Dan after we moved out of a third guy named Dan’s apartment when he turned into a cat burglar and jerk. As I recall the drug dealers lived on the top floor, the users on the second floor (we saved a guy’s life once who overdosed) and my buddy and I lived on the basement. One day cops came by, I learned later. Some addict girls on the 2nd floor threw out all their stuff into bushes outside as the cops questioned the manager about something. Then when the girls searched for their junk, it was nowhere to be found. Also, I remember two dealers. One tall black guy who I heard no one should mess with, and a skinny white guy who wore a kind of cowboy hat, a serrape, and boots, and carried around an Air Force survival .22 Caliber, the kind where the barrel breaks down and fits into the stock. Oh yes, he also had a dagger that hung from his side kind of out towards where his hand was, in case he needed it. Despite all that, I remember him having an okay personality. I wasn’t into doing business with cats like that, so I was just a guy on the street to him.

    • [CarolineSays]

      There were so many kids sleeping in the park between the state capitol building and the civic center. I came as a 17 year old ‘child bride’, as we were never street people, but we were definitely hippies and had lots of fun. We probably knew the dealers of which you speak, and maybe our paths have crossed, at one time or another. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but the Antlers was used in the movie, ‘Things to do in Denver When Your Dead’. Treat Williams is hiding out there, and doing speed. Also Thing to Do in Denver When You’re Dead is a song by Warren Zevon. You can find it online somewhere. Happy Trails!

• [Anonymous]

  I was on Fred and Fay in the early ’60′s. I was on Blinky’s Fun Club in the early ’70′s because my younger siblings were too scared (ok, and I wanted to be on TV…) and Yes, he was really creepy.

  How about Jewelart in the shamrock mall at Cin City?

  I worked at the Shane company on Arapahoe Rd. and Tom Shane is a real person and a little creepy too, now that I think about it. Really short.

  The White Castle-like place I know of was on South Broadway, by Cin City, called Rocky Bilt.

• [Anonymous]

  train guy: I live in wyoming, but grew up in ft.collins. graduated in 88. Still remember blinky’s fun club. All th old commercials such as O’ meara, and all them. Love Colorado. Will be down there for the brewfest next weekend. I remember th old elitches, and the chair lift rides around the whole park. We used to spit down on people.

• [5000!]

  @32 We called it The Silos too. It’s super expensive lofts now isn’t it?

• [Anonymous]

  After Alan Berg came Rollye James, eclectic talk radio and music trivia junkie. She’s still on the air. http://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.

• [Enochrewt]

  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.

  • [Anonymous]

    Fantastic Nathan’s was the best! I loved the wall you would stand against the lights would flash and leave your silhouette on the wall in the dark.
    Giant barrel you would run in.
    The endless ball pits and slides!
    It was the best kids place EVER!

    This is more 80′s…

    Big Fun wasn’t bad either.

    And if there was a Boardwalk USA still around I would be there dumping my paycheck into Street Fighter and Ninja Turtles, just like I did my allowance as a kid.

• [kip w]

  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!

• [neonnurse]

  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!

• [Anonymous]

  Hi Barb

  The Yum Yum Tree was located off Alameda & Colo Blvd.

• [kip w]

  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.

• [NYCruzer]

  ENGLEWOOD SPEEDWAY

• [bargain basement gal]

  omg help!
  Does anyone remember the name of the cafe restaurant, it was on the 2nd floor of the Westland Mall May D&F department store ?
  thanks! :)

• [Rummager]

  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!

  • [Mark Frauenfelder]

    I worked at Mile High Comics. First when it was farther up Pearl Street behind Lois Newman Bookstore, then when it moved next to Sanitary Bakery. Good times!

    • [kip w]

      Kamerad! I worked for Chuck, as assistant manager in Fort Collins, and later as manager. Well, I’ve already droned on about it, but I just wanted to offer the fraternal handshake.

  • [Anonymous]

    Eesh! Sanitary Bakery! I forgot all about them! How could I? Comics and cookies. Those were the days.

• [Bonnie]

  @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!

• [Bonnie]

  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

• [goldenguy]

  Well Cher and Cindy almost anyone would remember the Happy Cat Bar especially if you were kicked out and invited never to come back. That was a memorable place. We used to get fairly well loaded there and then go up to the Village Inn for a little food.

  The Blue Onion did have a sort of a rounded front, if I recall. It is still there, but obviously under many different names over the years. I only remember that they had a piano bar and the people who played there were fairly good. Or at least you thought they were after enough drinks. Maybe we did cross paths. You didn’t by any chance have a fling with a guy in the front seat of a VW bug in the Blue Onion parking lot, did you? Just kidding.

  I do also remember the Chicken Delight in Aurora. Remember their radio ad “Don’t cook tonight, call chicken delight”

  The first place I lived in Denver after getting married was the Sands Motel on East Colfax across from Fitzsimmons medical center. We got married and came to Denver with no place to live, no job, no money and no friends here. Nothing like starting anew.

  I don’t remember the Coach and Two on Alameda. I do remember that the Galaxy Club was on Alameda just east of Sheridan. That was a fairly swinging 3.2 beer club that featured local bands. Some day I will remember some of the band names. Most of the were featured on KIMN radio. Remember their studios used to be just west of Sloans Lake somewhere around 20th Ave, I think.

  • [cher&cindy]

    OK, wasn’t there a country bar, or lounge out there by the “Sands”? Do you remember the “Aurora Lounge” and Belinda Carr’s band playing there for years?
    AND, I’m still trying to find out the name of the band that used to play at “Friday’s & Saturday’s” and at “Mr Lucky’s” that the drummer used to set his drums on fire while playing the drum solo from Chicago’s “Beginnings”. Do you remember “Nasty Benjamin”, used to play at “Lucky’s” & “My Sweet Lass”? AND, how about the “Tropics” (I don’t remember what they changed the name to, but it was a really nice nightclub.

  • [Anonymous]

    Were the local bands the “MoonRakers” and “Fogcutters”? They were popular in the 1960′s.

• [eggonstilts]

  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.

  • [Anonymous]

    Thirsty’s, Stars (was it on Larimer?) The Church. What about 23rd Street Parrish or El Chipoltipec.

• [downriver]

  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 ????

• [ang]

  Does everyone know about the Warlock Pinchers (back from the dead) show on New Years Eve (12/31/2010)
  It’s sure to be an old-school Denver reunion!
  warlockpinchers.com

• [CarolineSays]

  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

• [Anonymous]

  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.

• [Bonnie]

  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

• [Anonymous]

  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?????

• [Anonymous]

  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?

• [Anonymous]

  Does anyone remember Roller City in Thornton/Federal Heights? Spent many Friday nights there.

  • [kamesho]

    Didn’t get too far north back then, but I remember a Roller City in Littleton. Arapahoe road or something

• [Rick.]

  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. :)

• [blue balaclava]

  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….

• [kip w]

  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.

• [Anonymous]

  It was a hot summer day as we stood in line waiting for to get on the log ride. I was there because it was the annual Hi-Mar Swim Team summer excursion to Elitch Gardens. We had been in line forever as we had to walk step by step to get through all of the wooden partitions before we could get to the steps. As we came up the steps to the final left turn the line stalled a bit. Without looking I stretched my arm out and rested my hand against a tree. Yes… I place my hand on the infamous gum tree. I screamed like a little girl as the rest of my group laughed and were disgusted at the same time. So thank you all for sticking your gum up there. It was fun for you, but sheer terror for me. (What I would have given to have Purel hand sanitizer back then.)

• [whizbo]

  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.

• [DeuceMojo]

  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 < ?>, good times. At least some developer didn’t raze the site and put up another Hornet.

  Like happened to 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.

• [Anonymous]

  I remember so much. Littleton high was a safe plaaaaace ,1970. I Remember when Jefferson STarr for KTLK radio was “investigating” the beatles and got kidnapped right off the air. O how they searched for him. High street movie on Fir. Stock car races on sat. Crusing the mall crowd in your hot rod before it moved downtown-Hi Officer Snyder! The topless donut shop on federal. Going to Celebrity at $AM say and Sun after work(8=4 closing shit at the Crestwood). The Yum-Yum tree. Cin cit and why they didnt have liquor- Billy Graham was a large stock hol;der. The owrld ened E of Colo blvd Drag racng out on County lin rd. The yearly group functions at lakeside and elitches-all rides included with entry! Compass drive inns.The UHF channel that sowed uncut R movies! The missle silos up on 6th ave in aurora!

• [yeknomusa]

  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…

• [Bonnie]

  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.

• [Vertigo700]

  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.

• [goldenguy]

  Well, as many others I was looking for information about the Yum Yum Tree ans came across this site. There are many great memories here.

  I also remember the Zanzabar on East Colfax in Aurora. Seems like there was a Clint Eastwood movie made there. Also just up the street to the West was the Blue Onion. They had great drinks and a wonderful piano bar. I remember having an intimate encounter with a nice young lady in the front seat of a VW bug. Now that was memorable.

  The bar that was on Yosemite, just outside the gate of Lowery AFB was the Happy Cat bar. We used to go there on Sunday afternoons and drink beer and play the pin ball machine. Everything was good until a friend of mine with a cast on his leg kicked the front legs off the machine. We were invited not to come back again.

  There was a bar in Lakewood on West Colfax between Kipling and Simms called Lane’s Tavern. They used to have 2 beers for a quarter. They would encourage you to buy 8 at a time since that was a whole dollar. The beers weren’t very big but you could get fairly murdered there pretty cheap. I remember that for the men’s bathroom most guys would just go out back and stand along the ditch that ran behind the bar. It was run by a neat little guy who wore a bow tie and his wife. When they got really tired they closed and went home. The bar looked like a log cabin. It stayed there for several years after it closed. I heard at one time there was an effort to preserve it. Next thing I know the bull dossers were there and it was gone.

  Does anyone remember the Zuider Zee seafood restaurant that was located down by Cinderella City. I believe that it was the original restaurant in Denver with a wind mill. They used to have an all you can eat cat fish fry on Friday nights. I also remember that they had excellent beer in these frosted mugs.

  I used to live out by the Jolly Rancher factory. It was always a really cool smell which was different daily. They also had a thing where every Halloween they would give away bags of candy. All you had to do was drive through their property with kids in the car and you got a 1 or 2 pound bag of assorted candy.

  There was a Fina gas station on the corner of 52nd and Ward Rd. (Now a Phillips station, I think). Gas was 26 cents per gallon then.

  Another place that comes to mind that I don’t think has been mentioned is a bar called Your Father’s Mustache. It was on Larimer street, I think. The Queen City Jazz Band played there. They would have “Penny Champaign” night. There was a restaurant next door. I remember throwing up more than once on the front window of that restaurant. The band would play “Roll Out The Barrels” and the bartenders would run through the place with empty beer kegs over their heads. It was all fun. I think it closed around 1975.

  Does anyone remember where the Galaxy Club was located. It seems to me that it was off of Federal on a perpendicular street at about Loretto Heights college. My wife to be was going to LH at that time so I remember that the Galaxy wasn’t too far away.

  I also remember cruising through City Park before they put in all of the one way streets to stop the cruising. I actually met my wife there.

  There was also a fairly good restaurant called the King’s Table. I think it was in a motel on the south side of Colfax somewhere just East on Sheridan.

  • [Anonymous]

    Wow, we had to have crossed paths somewhere along the way. The “Happy Cat”, omg, who would remember that place. We used to live right behind it in those duplexes and we were 14, so we didn’t have a lot of choices of where to hang out. I worked at the “Village Inn” pancake house then, until they found out that I was under age and they fired me. Ha, ha. And all of us girls went out with the guys that worked at “Chicken Delight” in Aurora. We used to go with them on their deliveries,…that was a no-no! Wow, those were the days. Taking the bus every saturday to go downtown and hang out on the wall at Zechendorf Plaza, and go to “Woolworths” for a slice of pizza.

  • [cher&cindy]

    PS, that last comment was from “cher&cindy”. I forgot to sign in. Wow, I went into labor at the “Blue Onion”. It was a round building, correct?
    Do any of you remember the “Coach and Two” out on West Alameda, I’m thinking. Or the “Town Crier” in Montbello. I used to tend bar at both of those places,..they were owned by the same person. That same person was part owner of the big promotional company there in Denver, so I got in backstage to every concert in Denver for a year or so. Job perks, ha, ha!

  • [Anonymous]

    two or three of my family members were in the Queen City Jazz band! so cool to hear someone mention them!

• [AVoidoid]

  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!

  • [Anonymous]

    I agree. I recently went back to Denver, Capitol Hill, Lodo it’s dead. So sad too that town has so many stories. I miss the viaduct, Rock Island, City Spirit, Muddy’s the list goes on. All of my memories are frozen in time there.

• [Anonymous]

  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.

• [Steve A]

  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

• [Anonymous]

  I kept thinking I had an original one: Mustard’s Last Stand, Peaches, Mary & Lou’s, U-Totem. But they all showed up. I was a kid in Denver in the 1970s-early 80s, living right by DU. Bought my first candy at the U-Totem, my first record album at Peaches ($5!), my first designer jeans at Fashion Bar, snuck out for the first time to go to Celebrity Sports Center, got my first kiss at Southglenn Mall, smoked my first dope in Bonnie Brae Circle, had my first major car accident on 1-25. Yeah.

• [MisterB]

  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?

• [kandish517]

  I went to a Foreskin 500 concert at the Gothic Theater when I was in 10th grade. I stood right up in front at the stage and the lead singer was spitting melted cherry slurpee into the crowd. I was an awful sticky mess on the ride home to Boulder, but I really thought I was such a bad ass. I loved those 3 bands for $5 concerts. I adored Teletunes, KTCL and Wax Trax. Seems like I spent all my earnings on music, junk food and very crappy weed during those years. Does anyone recall the sort-of hot air balloons at the Westminster Mall that slid up and down on the cables? It seemed like most of the metro Denver shopping malls had lots of water fountains. Weird random Denver memory…

• [ldm357]

  Found this looking for whatever happened to Ichabod’s Tavern on E. Evans. Found many a new beer there. And yes, the girls at Aloha Beach did some very interesting things, as noted by MisterB!

  Anybody remember Freddie’s or Dahner’s Metamorphosis on W. Colfax? Lots of good bands there in the 70s, although the only one I can remember is Ace Pancakes … Fred’s Arvada Lounge … Zenobia’s, the Greek place on Capitol Hill … the Hotel Cosmopolitan and their Sunday champagne brunches … seeing the first Star Wars at the Cooper … Gibson Jazz at the Paramount … pre-corporate KTCL … KADX the Jazz Station.

  A good time to be in Denver, for sure!

• [Anonymous]

  I am looking for anyone who remembers FMTV, the “video” show of music videos right before MTV was a real deal.

• [ahab]

  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.

  • [Anonymous]

    AHHH! Ferrells Ice Cream Parlor. No one I ask remembers it. I used to go with my grandparents. Shakeys Pizza!!! Watching them make your pizza and watching the guys p[lay the piano and banjos. How about “Night Flight” at 52nd and Wadswort. Used to be a 3.2 bar, but now it is a movie theater. Who can forget Cinderella City at Christmas time. All the pretty decorations from the movie Cinderella.

• [PISOMOJADO]

  What about Bandemere (sp?) Speedway? Just take Alameda to Rooney Road and follow the signs… Sunday, SUNDAY!!!

• [Bruce The Original]

  I grew up in Loveland through the 70s and early 80s, and made several trips to Denver with the family to visit cousins. This site has recalled many amazing memories…

  Elitch Gardens – My father worked for the HP Plant in Loveland, so there was at least one trip to Elitches every year. I remember when they built the ‘Gold Rush’ ride, a glorified ski lift with animatronic stuff. Still fun though. Until I turned 9, my favorite was the electric car ride in the Kiddie Land area, where the cars were like dune buggies, and models of nursery rhyme characters were out on the course. Only went on the haunted house ride once, and I remember three areas, the basement-looking room with the electrical work boxes that sparked at you, the black/white room with the strobe light, and the leaky pipe that shut off before the train car went through. I was terrified of the coasters, so I never rode them. After moving out of state, we came back for a vacation and I finally rode them. Alas, the fun I missed on those..

  Lakeside – Was only there once, but I fondly remember the funhouse. Several times I would exit just to go back in and go through the entrance stuff (sliding foot pads, gimicked floor area, etc). At the time they had a spinning ride called the Heart Breaker, don’t know if that’s still there or not.

  Cinderella City – We probably went several times, but I was only old enough to remember the last 2 trips, both around the holidays. I remember Cinder Alley’s exhibits looking in pretty sad shape, one of the figures had even lost an arm. That mall had a Pachinko store at the time (a fashionable gimmick item for the 70′s).

  Celebrity Sports Center – The commercials always caught my interest… (Bowling! 80 Lanes!) The water slides were decent, though the best trip on them was actually in the winter. The mid-level slide (Barracuda?) wasn’t working at first when we got there, so we rode the upper one (Shark) several times until they got the mid-level one operating. The warm water on the cool slide surface made the whole trip foggy, which was great.

  Happy Joes Pizza Parlor – Like Shakey’s, this place was a pinstripe-covered establishment with a big window to watch the pizzas being made. I made the mistake of telling a server that I’d had a recent birthday, and she came out later with the uber-loud clown horn, made me stand up, and after coaxing the restaurant to sing, the lights would flash and a loud siren would go off… terrifying at the time. That might be more of a Loveland memory, but I think it still counts.

  Casa Bonita – As a kid, I never remembered the food much. Visiting on vacations as an adult, it was ok I guess. The place was all about the entertainment, puppet shows, cartoons, the cave… Every time people say they’re going to Denver, I tell them to visit Casa Bonita if they haven’t, and I always challenge them to try and find the fireflies. The glowing bats in the cave room are easy, but the fireflies are not always seen. On an old family video tape, there’s a commercial playing in the background at one point that had the tail end of a Datsun dealer’s ad, and then followed with a Casa Bonita commercial, something about a “Feast”-avle, with the parrot at the end.

  Organ Grinder – Only pizza place I knew of where you could get slices of tomato on your pizza. Seeing some of the pictures online was awesome, remembering the tons of lights and the sheer size of the organ. Even though I was taking organ lessons at the time and should have been fascinated more by the instrument, the mini-arcade stole a lot of my attention. Pity it closed down. Is the building still there? Did they ever do anything with it?

  Childrens Science Center – I have no idea if that’s the name of the place or not, may have been the Childrens Museum. I just remember it as the first ball pit I could go into. My family had taken a vacation the previous year, and many of the little amusement places we stopped at had ball pits, but I was too tall to go into them. The place had a soft-walled maze to go through, had a wheelchair you could ride around on, had these water areas with powerful sprays inside pipes, and you could put ping pong balls into some of the pipes and the water would carry it all over the place… lots of good stuff.

  Blinky’s – Ahh, the signature birthday song. I think it was more BERF-Day than BARF-Day, the way he sang it. I’d actually like to know who arranged the song he used for that, whether it was written especially for the show or whether he found it somewhere.

  Noel and Andy – This show made Mighty Mouse my lead super hero long before I’d heard of Superman or Batman. I couldn’t draw worth a lick, so I never submitted anything, but I was fascinated by her drawing. Come to think of it, outside the first segment or two, the Andy puppet never really did all that much…

  I didn’t see this mentioned anywhere above, or maybe I did and just forgot the name, but does anyone remember a grand prix go-cart racing track? Seems like it was near I25 enough that you could see it from the interstate. They had go-karts with Formula-1 style bodies on them, and you actually ran timed races. I never went to this place, though I did go to a go-kart track between Loveland and Fort Collins, which I think finally closed. Anyhoo, I think the place in Denver was named Malibou Grand Prix, or Malibou Sports Center, something like that. Anyone remember this, or am I just tripping out?

  Anyone remember drinking soda pop made by The Pop Shoppe? We got it at the local Walgreens, and it was always so good, or at least I thought so.

• [kip w]

  Antinous: back! Thanks for the help.

  • [Antinous]

    Welcome back.

• [Colorado Rabbit]

  Does anyone remember the restaurant with the windmill (Hungry Dutchman?) that sat along I-25 south of Denver? Lived in Castle Rock as a kid and remember passing that place when our parents drove to the King Soopers every couple of weeks for groceries.

  • [Anonymous]

    Yes, the Hungry Dutchman. The waiters remembered your order, did not write it down!!!! We had a table of 10. He did it. They also poured coffee from holding the pot way high.

• [Bonnie]

  okay one more:

  Warlock Pinchers interview
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzkRKQYS0SA

• [Anonymous]

  Pizza at Straw Hat Pizza showing the old movies. KHOW Charley and Barney 630AM on the radio. Noel and Andy on the morning TV drawing today’s weather. Burgers at Bronco Burgers and Dogs at Orange Julius at Buckingham Square, in 1971. Sunday nights at Love’s BBQ Pit on Havana and Mississippi or Apple Tree Shanty on Colfax. Peoria used to end at Mexico, our house was 1 block north of the dead end. You could see Cherry Creek Res from there, and you could ride a motorcycle all the way there on dirt roads. The only thing between our house and KANSAS was Buckley ANG Base with only one of the giant golf balls. I-225 was almost complete.

• [TheMostHorrible]

  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.

  • [tomthum]

    dude
    i used to go to mile high every week for the auction!!!!

• [Anonymous]

  I remember when all the “skaters” would hang out at the 16th Street Mall bus turnaround. And since it was before cell phones, if I wanted to find a friend… I could call the pay phone there. Pay phones, there’s another one.

  Safety Town (est.1964) at Buckingham Square. Kids walked and rode battery motorcycles through a little town to learn about traffic/pedestrian safety etc.

  Until somewhat recently one could walk outside at the top of the capital building, and tour the mint by walking through it! As of right now, the capital has the outside roped off and the mint has reduced the tour so that people no longer cross over the minting process?

• [Anonymous]

  I remember riding the “Glass Elevator” at which building I forget, afterwards going to the Ice Cream parlor that was between a Hotel and another building bridging the street below. too bad Denver is just L.A. east now.

• [ztwin]

  Medved still uses the “Exit Kipling, exit Ward” in thier ads.

  The Cyclone at Lakeside has been closed for repairs all season and they just got it reopened for the last couple weeks of the season.

  I remember the Organ Grinder Pizzeria on Alameda east of Federal. I loved that pipe organ and wonder what became of it when the place closed.

• [Bonnie]

  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.

• [mayham]

  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 ;)

• [Anonymous]

  What about The Bong Bong in LoDo. That had a list of famous people use to live in the apartments upstairs. There was also a bar, I can’t remember the name, something like the Silver Stirrup, about where Park Ave crossed Larimer, that Buffalo Bill use to live.
  My friends band Icarus use to play there.
  Or The Rainbow down on Evans. Last show I saw there was Little Feat with The Beat Farmers playing warm up. I think that was about ’86.

• [patangello]

  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!

• [mdesignboutique]

  White Fence Farm.

• [defuser]

  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…

• [82_28]

  “Anon • #416 • 8:31 PM Thursday, Nov 19, 2009 • Reply

  My mom went on a couple dates with Jabbs in the mid ’90′s. I will never forget when he called our house and I answered the phone and immediately recognized his voice. I almost busted up when I envisioned him sitting in one of his own lounge chairs – perhaps a few tiger cubs fussing about him…

  The centerpiece “balloon fountain” at ye ol’ Westminster Mall was quite a classy display.”

  Hahaha! Hilarious. We were once at that Chili’s on County Line and University and saw Jabbs and a woman there (mid 90′s — not the woman, the era rather). We both paid our bills at about the same time and we decided we would follow him home to see where he lived. He shook us off his tail somehow. It wasn’t anything creepy mind you, we were just a bunch of bored teenage boys. Somewhere in Highlands Ranch though.

• [RustyCar]

  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

• [mdesignboutique]

  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…

• [train guy]

  I just found this site yesterday. It’s really neat. Any body remember in Ft. Collins there used to be a restaurant on Harmony & I-25? It was called the Fence Post. Any one remember the country kitchen? I still like the Ever Open Cafe. They have the best long horns. I like going there when I come down to visit. Any one remember the Kwik Pik store on West Vine Drive & Sunset? I remember it being robbed a couple of times. I think it is a gun shop now. I believe we used to have the hamburger stand as well. Winchells was a good place for donuts.

• [P.S. Jr]

  My mom went on a couple dates with Jabbs in the mid ’90′s. I will never forget when he called our house and I answered the phone and immediately recognized his voice. I almost busted up when I envisioned him sitting in one of his own lounge chairs – perhaps a few tiger cubs fussing about him…

  The centerpiece “balloon fountain” at ye ol’ Westminster Mall was quite a classy display.

• [Tirjasdyn]

  @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.

• [Anonymous]

  Looking for pictures of the old Peaches Records and Tapes on Evens and saw “Blinky” and just about croaked!! He was VERY creepy, in real life and on TV. Anybody else remember Daniels Park WAY south of town? Had my first (of MANY)underaged beers at Pizza Inn, how ’bout you? Schlitz Dark, YUMMM!

• [Bonnie]

  #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.

  • [Antinous]

    Yeah, because Boulder is America’s heartland. Wait. No.

• [libequafrat]

  @381 STANTONL:
  Fred and Faye lived on the shore of Hidden Lake,(AKA Mudd Lake in the old days, according to my parents.) It is located just north of Baker Grade School and east of the Goat Hill District. That’s my home town. The giant cowboy, up the hill from Bonanza Flea Market and just south of ‘The Taco House’. They served what they called a Mexican hamburger, that was a huge burrito served round in a nine inch aluminum pie plate topped with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and salsa. Delicious!
  @377 ED63:
  My oldest sister took me and another of my sisters to see The Beatles’, A Hard Days’ Night at The Paramount, I think. Downtown and plush, I remember that. She must have been desperate to see that movie having taken along a 9(me), and 13 year old at her suggestion. You’re right, That is the way to see a movie. Sadly it’s mostly gone.

• [Someday63]

  Just found this site today – lots of great memories reading through the posts. Grew up in the Springs in the 70s and 80s and then Denver in the late 90′s and 00′s. So many of the place mentioned above bring back memories. One place I’m trying to find where it was located was a pizza joint on Colfax called Paisan’s my wife and I went to Denver in the late 80′s to spend the night – it was snowing like crazy and we didnt really know our way around and went out to eat. Drove for mile on Colfax and found Paisan’s. It was a good weekend and I when I moved to Denver in 98 I couldnt figure out where it was – I know it went out of business. Fortunately, the IHOP on Colfax was still there – that was a story in the 80′s

• [skiboy352001]

  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.

  • [lunachick]

    oh my gawd!!such great memories here..shakey’s,the yum yum tree,after the gold rush(did anyone ever go to “after the Fox’ OR “Mr.Lucky’s”)ok,that might’ve been t/80s…the pop shoppe,YES!celebrity !!ah,cinder alley where all the “heads” hung out.what about head-hill in wash park(i played topless volleyball there one summer and trhe cops loved to watch but didn’t ticket)or budget tapes and records?Independent Records or peaches on evans?and yes,i loved the mustard dogs at the der weinerschnitzel.tele-tunes…”fishheads,fishheads,rolley polley fishheads…eat them up..YUM!!”

• [Mojave]

  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…?

• [cher&cindy]

  To this day, the BEST chicken fried steak I’ve ever had was at the “Scotchman Drive-In” out on North Sheridan or Wadsworth Blvd. P.S. I Saw my first streaker there while having dinner. ‘Bout choked on my CFS.
  I remember when the biggest decision a person had to make each weekend was which drive-in movie to go to, and there were a bunch to pick from.
  Question: Which was it first,…The Posh and then The Family Dog, or, The Family Dog and then the Posh? ABSOLUTELY loved that place. I’m still amazed that there weren’t more problems there, with all of us renegade teens hanging out.

  • [bornway2soon]

    THE SCOTCHMAN-My wife worked there as a teenager….Mr Horrible Burger – with chile was my favorite! It was on Federal just north of I-70 Weekends and evenings were crazy with all the drive-thru parades of “HOT” rides which became more popular after the movie American Graffiti.

• [acrocker]

  @#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.

• [Kate Kaos!]

  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.

• [ferrohorse]

  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.

  • [Anonymous]

    “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.”

    It was Harry Smith on KHOW that would play that song.

• [Bonnie]

  #265: Mustards Last Stand! I loved that place. They had the best dawgs! Dang, now I want a Chicago-style dog….

• [nag]

  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!

• [Bookyloo]

  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.

• [Anonymous]

  Does anyone remember Lulubelles, at the Hilton downtown? Don Lewis used to play there and pack the place. There used to be some wicked 3.2 bars in town too with great entertainment. I have enjoyed reading the threads. The Yum Yum Tree with Tangs next door was a favorite.

• [Anonymous]

  Does anyone remember the fast food place at Vila Italia mall that had saddles instead of chairs at some tables?

• [rossturk]

  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

• [DeuceMojo]

  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.

• [Anonymous]

  Soapy Smiths in Larimer Square. One of the few, fun places for a burger and beer in LoDo before the revitalization, or the music at the Blue Note in Boulder or the Pioneer Inn in Nederland.

  • [Anonymous]

    yeah…the Pioneer. Dan Fogleberg. Caribou Ranch.

• [Malgwyn]

  I lived in Erie and Greeley during the 70′s, but we visited Denver and burbs regularly. Cinderella City in Englewood was the place we wanted to go, then Elitch’s Amusement Park. Proximity to the Mountains meant you could hop in a car and be up there in an hour. Lookout Mountain, One of Buffalo Bill’s graves, Elephant Mountain, the round, futuristic house that was in Woody Allen’s “Looker” was up there somewhere. I remember that everyone was smoking weed, and Fleetwood Mac “Rumours” was in the 8-track player.

  Then Reagan was elected and everything went to hell. Colorado was an ugly place in the 80′s. Oil Industry went bust, the Savings & Loan Scandal blew the region apart. My family weathered the storm in Craig Colorado, a hellish Mining town founded by inbred sheepherders and secluded cattle ranch dynasties. I fled for California and never looked back.

• [Anonymous]

  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.

• [fremder]

  @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.

• [Kotetsu]

  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.

• [downriver]

  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..

• [smirkingrevenge]

  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…

• [Anonymous]

  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.

• [jornin]

  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.

  • [Anonymous]

    OMG!!! They are baaaaack! Warlock Pinchers are doing a one time only reunioun show…well, it’s actually 2 times as it is Fri and Sat…AUG 6th and 7th. Fri show is sold out though…bummer! But Sat show is still on sale and Melvins Lite are opening!!!! Can’t beat that!!!! For those of you longing for those old Denver days of youth!

• [eggonstilts]

  @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?

• [MisterB]

  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)

• [subtle_turtle]

  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!

• [subhan]

  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!

• [blue balaclava]

  Does anyone remember the stores other than King Soopers and McDonald’s that were at Dahlia Shopping Center? I don’t know if a Woolworth’s, Woolco or Duckwall’s was on the right of King Soopers, or if there were stores in between….

• [tomthum]

  @anon I remember the pre curser to mtv well. I used to volunteer at the T.V. station in Broomfield. While I was working there they started the music television show. First music video show in the country as I remember it. They had a contest to name the show and the winner came up with MTV (or music television). Later the name was bought from the little community station by (u know who!)

  @ Cindy I think you were hanging out a little earlier then me. I was a teenager in the late 70′s. Yes it was the “Northwoods Inn”.

  When I was 18-22 the biggest decision I had to make was what live music event to attend. Ha!

  How bout the “Morrison Inn”??? We went there last time I was in Denver. That is what got me remembering my days in Denver, they had a signed pic of Blinky. I didn’t remember the food being so bad though… YUCK.

  My Brothers Bar anyone? Jeez I am on memory lane. .

• [Jolene Johnson]

  #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).

• [Mountain Man]

  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.

• [krouch]

  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.

• [Anonymous]

  Does anyone remember Big Fun in the mid-90′s and the 18 and up club that was on Sheridan?

• [Akbar Biberkopf]

  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)

• [HighlanderBoy]

  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.

• [DeuceMojo]

  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?

• [Anonymous]

  Hey,

  Some of my favorites were:

  -Birthday parties at Celebrity
  -Eating at the Yum Yum Tree
  -Special Dinners at the 94th Aero Squadron or Wilson’s (now called the White Fence Farm)
  -Going on the lame/slow Mine Ride at Elitch’s because you could make out
  -Mr. Steak and the Royal Fork on W. Colfax
  -Fast Trax and Fizz for dancing on teen night
  -Watching FMTV on my 13″ black & white TV with a coat hangar for an antenna.
  -Dino’s pizza after LHS football games
  _GOOD OLD DAYS FOR SURE!!!!! THANKS FOR POSTING THIS!! ;-)

• [Anonymous]

  Sheilah, yeah my old stomping grounds were The Lift and Mr. Lucky’s. I believe The Lift building is still there, but Mr. Lucky’s was torn down for an office building. I remember Mr. Lucky’s had a main floor on top that had country music and then you would walk down a ramp to the basement where it was rock music. It had a constant beer smell.

  The Lift had several floors and a volleyball court in the back. It was a disco place in the late 70s.

• [Anonymous]

  I don’t recall anyone saying anything about the “tropics” night club on West Alameda and Morrison Road. The bill board intrigued me as a child….

  • [cher&cindy]

    My best friend’s mom was a dancer at the Tropics when we were in elementary school. I remember it turning into a really nice nightclub, possibly called the “Four Season’s” in the early 70′s. Had a lot of fun out there.

• [twobeeshawn]

  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

• [octopede]

  @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…

• [TedJohnson]

  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?

• [hadhoo]

  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!

  http://www.buckfifty.org

• [JayDeeSea52]

  (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!)

• [Marvinator]

  The name of that place on the Bridge was Michelle’s, short lived, and sold to the Hilton I think.

  I remember Georgia Boys BBQ and China King in Aurora.

  I remember the windows at the May D&F downtown at Christmas, standing in line to see the little mechanical animals.

• [Anonymous]

  Such memory trips..
  How about the best radio station ever?
  (For you really old hippies)
  KFML

  And KBCO did the coolest ‘Intervention Day’
  show ever- I still have some of that on tape….

  Radio doesnt do that stuff anymore, and TV appears
  to have died long ago.

  • [kip w]

    Yep. KMYR at first, and when that was zombified by KHOW-FM, KFML became the one and only. Fun fact: You can find sound clips of some of their old spots, and station history stories online. What a wonderful world we live in.

• [jill]

  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

• [ahab]

  @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

• [Akbar Biberkopf]

  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)

• [dangermandownunder]

  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?

• [libequafrat]

  hey 367 anon,
  I remember the Rocky Bilt at Federal and Speer.
  My Parents went there in the fourties and fifties.
  Do they still have the Ellis tamale vendors on the street corners? (not authentic, but comfort food memories.)

• [kip w]

  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.

• [Anonymous]

  I remember the great JINGLES on KOA radio — and the sound of Don Martin’s voice coming across the a.m. from garages, as Dad’s worked on cars . . .

  Ralph Schomp oldsmobile, Ralph Schomp oldsmoble,
  We run a very simple bu-i-sness . . .
  Ralph Schomp is
  As Ralph Schomp does . . .

  or

  No hustle,
  No hassle
  No headaches!
  When you buy at Doengess Glass Ford,
  See what a difference,
  A dealer can make, when the dealer
  is Donegeous Glass Ford . . .

  Who was writing this stuff, and where was it produced???!!!

  • [golden80]

    Mountain States Bank on east Colfax…

    They had a pretty catchy ad on the radio around 1982. I don’t have the actual audio, but I soooo remember it:

    (Chorus group)
    Oh they say that time is money, so you spend it drivin’ ’round,
    Drinking dollar gasoline and smellin’ up the town,
    Searching for a parking place that you can call your own,
    (Woman’s voice) Hey, there’s a spot (Man’s voice) Oh no it’s not, it’s a (honk honk) loading zone.
    (Chorus group again)
    Now, is this any way to bank, any way to bank?
    Driving ’round in circles while you’re draining out your tank?
    And while you circumnavigate, filed with raging hate,
    Plenty of free parking waits…
    At Mountain States!

• [jornin]

  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.

• [Anonymous]

  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?

  • [Anonymous]

    I used to go to all the Sunday concerts in the 70′s…. Loved them..Great memories….

• [wakka]

  @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!)

• [5000!]

  @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?

• [Anonymous]

  We lived within walking distance of the Jolly Rancher factory and different days smelled like different flavors. Mondays were green apple, Fridays were watermelon and Wednesdays smelled like fire.
  If you knocked on the back door around the end of the first shift sometimes the guys would give you the tangles from the production line, it was a mess of hardened jolly rancher the size of an orange. You would take it home and break off little sections or just start licking the giant thing until it became permanently affixed to the napkin you put it on, or it became impossibly covered with lint or dog hair so you threw it away and went back the next week for a new one.

  • [Oldrider]

    Me too,. We loved the leftovers that they threw out behind their barns.

    Wadsworth Drive-In when you could walk-in.

    Riding horses on I-70 before they paved it.

    Swimming in the lake just North of 52nd and Ward Road which is now houses.

    The Scotchman on Wadsworth and swining by the White Spot on Colfax, then a turn through 15th & 16th streets in downtown Denver.

• [Anonymous]

  94th Aero Squadron was the COOLEST RESTAURANT IN THE WORLD.

  You’d walk in and it was like you had time-traveled to 1920′s France, Propellers, Flying Aces, Maps, the coolest booths for meeting for a drink or dinner . . .

  And they had the best French Onion soup, with a thick layer of melted cheese covering the tureen.

  Plus, the wall to wall windows on one side, looked out over the landing strip for a small plane airport, very close to stapleton,

  Whatever happened to it? I thought it was way ahead of it’s time and brilliant.

• [Anonymous]

  Remember Ruby hill, the place for awesome sledding?

• [CarolineSays]

  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.

• [Bonnie]

  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.

  • [cvacano]

    HOLY COW!!! Bonnie… I think I remember you… We crossed paths in the mid-90′s. If I remember, you were working A&R for Sony and I was schlepping equipment for Mike Drumm on MusicLink! Boy this post is bringing back the craziest memories!

• [Enochrewt]

  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

• [Richardj]

  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.

• [Doug_MV_CA]

  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!

• [dspot]

  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.

• [Jarrad]

  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.

• [kip w]

  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.

• [OnyxRaven]

  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…

• [tiabla]

  - 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!

• [HighlanderBoy]

  Mr. Luckys! And La Pichet, my older brother was a bouncer for both of those places.

• [jupiter8]

  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…

• [kip w]

  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.

  • [Anonymous]

    You said Dan so I guess you meant me, as I’d said I met Ginsberg. I knew who he was, but I really kick myself because for the next week after the initial meeting, I saw him two other times and one of the times he saw me and remembered the first meeting. Although that time he was in the Greyhound coffee shop with a friend, I sensed he would have been open. The other time was strange. I saw him in the corner coffee shop a couple blocks up from the Capitol, kitty-corner from the Cathedral on Colfax. I lived right across from the Cathedral above the drug store. This time he was with about five or six 14 or so year old boys as I sat across the room reading. He looked very depressed, almost like he was 14 too, and the most unpopular one of the group. I’m thinking of writing a story about it. I think I wrote a little description of this on my little blog : http://hitchhikingstoriesusa.blogspot.com/
    Man…what memories…Sincerely,
    Dan in WA state.

• [kip w]

  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!)…

• [jornin]

  @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.

• [yogiphil]

  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.

• [losboats]

  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!

• [nag]

  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….

• [kip w]

  #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.

• [stevensdrums]

  @Train Guy – I was just thinking of that weather man on Channel 2! I can’t believe you remember his name – Warren Chandler!! That was the old guy that was still using magic markers on the map in the early 80′s! Speaking of Channel 2, I remember watching it during the Blizzard of ’82 and the stuck some station poor janitor or union stage hand in front of the camera to do some news because none of the news anchors could make it to the station. My dad and I were in stitches!!

• [eggonstilts]

  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?

• [cher&cindy]

  Does anyone remember the “House Of Draft” on 13th & Pennsylvania, the “Pub” out by East High, or eating pizza at “Woolworth’s” on a saturday?

  • [cher&cindy]

    Regarding “pizza at Woolworth’s”, I was referring to the one downtown on 16th Street.

• [jornin]

  Oh yeah forgot about that one

  (bad robot voice)
  K B P I ROCKS THE ROCKIES

  • [Anonymous]

    And 92X was another good station… I was sad to see it go.

    • [cvacano]

      Anybody remember Q103? How about Independent Records or Musicland?

• [cher&cindy]

  Also, I can’t help but remember standing and watching the cars slide down the hill on Colfax by the Capital Building when it would get covered with ice. Ha, ha,….cheap thrills!

• [mdesignboutique]

  Mary and Lou’s — this was the place with the lottery ticket scratchers hung all over the place, right?

• [JayMJones]

  Great thread. Rocky’s Autos hats for everyone.

• [scottknaster]

  
  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!

• [Anonymous]

  Oh, man … talk about your walk down memory lane. Here’s a list of stuff I remember watching when I was a kid. (I lived in western Nebraska, but the local “cable” station picked up Denver channels.)

  - “Lunchtime Little Theater” (a noon knockoff of Blinky/Noel)
  - “Blinky’s Fun House”
  - “Noel and Andy”
  - Bob Post Chrysler Plymouth (obnoxious commercials)

  There was also a billboard that had moving eyes in glasses. I don’t remember where it was, but I remember bugging my grandma to take me to see “the eyes.”

  • [kip w]

    Lunchtime Little Theatre was a knockoff, but that was Blinky portraying Cap’n Dooley, unless I’ve been mistaken from then until now.

    Why did I have to see the link to this thread when I was already up too late?

• [Ed63]

  HA what a great thread this is, so many smiles flooding back at a simple word or phrase that are firmly planted in a similar past, GREAT!

  Where to begin:

  Noel and Andy. I sent in a drawing once and it never saw the light of day. The theme was simple; ‘your under water world’, mine was an under water battle with swimming ‘frog men’ and ultra fancy harpoon weapons and submarines…blood, lots of blood. I wonder if the producers ever wondered what had tainted this ‘poor little boy’ and completely warped his little mind and made him so violent. :-) Well of course the real answer was Vietnam, the first televised war that stole many many childhoods, I remember asking my parents why? No answer was ever forthcoming.

  No particular order

• Shakey’s Pizza
• A&W Drive in on Sunday, after church of course.
• The Monaco Drive-In
• Pizza Oven on East Colfax (Sneaked my very first pack of cigarettes out of the vending machine. Cost like .50 or something. This went along with my first lighter a ZIPPO that I bought at the bus station when it was on 17th and Broadway…heh, mom turned her back….hey, i was a preacher’s kid lol.
• Midland Federal Savings and loan. Mr. DeSpain was the Manager? As a premium once I got a brand new baseball glove.
• Colorado National Bank on Broadway by the bus station, across from where it is now….or at least time i was DT, actually had the old fashioned switch board where the operator would answer the line and would ask for your party and say ‘connecting’ and plug the jack into the appropriate hole on the switch board.
• the birth of the 1/4 pounder….1972ish?
• Pizza Bug
• Cid’s cabaret on E. Colfax…I didn’t know what it was but the Lady and the and the torch were fascinating :-)
• Zanza Bar. (Every which way but loose)
• The Red Slipper on Colorado and Chery Creek Drive.
• The Fox Hills east of town where we destroyed a friend’s mother’s 1977 VW Golf (Darn things were just not cut out for motocross)
• May D&F downtown remember the parabola (was that the name?) Google “Zeckendorf Plaza”
• The Hilton Hotel across from the May, The restaurants were the Beef Baron, and lulu belles ? My dad worked at the May and drank A LOT
• Newsmen, News boy’s, newsies? You remember, you’d drive down town and see the guy hawking Newspapers…wearing the Blue apron…Post was yellow if I remember right.
• “Colorado Sun Days” at Mile High…Nugent, Heart, …others that I can’t remember.
• Rainbow Music Hall…I only went once; the release of “In Through The Out Door” Zeppelin’s last.
• The “Great Green Desert”
• CRUISING!! Friday and Saturday before they ruined it with the 16th street Mall. Round and round we went, for hours.
• The dreaded Buster Schneider; Satan Himself, ask any teenager. We were cruising one night when someone emptied a pistol into the door of his squad car.
  (For those that wonder, he finally fell to his own evil, he was convicted of rape if I remember right).
• Golden Bird Chicken
• Daddy Bruce
• The first day of forced busing
• My First field trip to ballarat…like first grade or something
• Actual Movie Theaters in downtown. The Paramount (ah luxurious red velvet) The Denver, The Denham, and at the south end, The Center theater.

  Ah, what a great flash back this was, Thanks to everyone for contributing, it was an awesome romp!

[5000!]

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.

[hadhoo]

oops, it was FMTV, then Teletunes.
then… Alterna TV? I don’t know where that came from.

[Anonymous]

I never read anything about crusing “the fax” before they shut it down. That was the shit when I was 16 before they closed it down and we had to go to Longmont to cruise (85′?)

[Akbar Biberkopf]

@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

[Anonymous]

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.

[Jerms]

Jack in the Box now an Einsteins (I think on 6th & Wads).

Roller City, Reese Cafe?

For some reason the totum pole at the Denver History Museum always freaked me out.

Did anyone watch Bizzare re-runs from cable on KDVR Fox 31 after WWF, waiting for a glimpse of boobs?

Dave Otto make me a weener!

Gosho’s of Japan (is it still there?)

Ramone’s on Colfax

Westland Mall

I used to work at the Sears at Westland after the remodel. I remember when they used to carry pets. During the remodel, we found dead parrots inside the walls.

[5000!]

Oooh, and Rainbow Music Hall!

• [tomthum]

  yes I waited in line for half my youth at the rainbow. Roy Buchanan, Billy Cobham…..the best

[krisbb]

#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…

[hadhoo]

oops, it was FMTV, then Teletunes.
then… Alterna TV?

I don’t know where that came from.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Tirjasdyn]

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.

[Scooey7]

I was thinking about the Yum Yum tree recently, and came to this site. LOVE IT!!! What memories it brings back -things I had forgotten. I had to laugh out loud remembering Magnolia Thunderpussy in the phone book! Spent many nights at the Pub in Aurora, Lucky’s, the Lift, the Little Bear in Evergreen, etc. I remember Packards, too.

Eating at Sambo’s down Colfax from East High (when we were supposed to be in class), drinking coffee and taking up booth space for hours. Playing guitar and singing on the South Lawn. Going to one of the first People’s Fairs on the Esplanade. Denver Folklore Center, Mammoth Gardens, Rainbow Music Hall and $8.00 concerts at the Coliseum. Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Steppenwolf, Leon Russell. Christmas shopping with my friends in Cinder Alley.

Does anyone remember the Coachlight Restaurant on Colfax in Aurora? They had a treasure chest where you could get a toy after your meal.

Also the Fox Theatre on Colfax in Aurora – my friend and I sat through three consecutive showings of Billy Jack.

I was at the grand opening of Buckingham Square – saw many movies there. They had a bank of pay phones outside with line that were always five or six kids deep on Friday and Saturday night calling for a ride home.

A & W Drive ins and the original Putt-Putt golf.

Mandatory busing and my first day at Smiley as a white girl in the 70s.

My father’s company picnics at Elitch’s (remember when you could bring food?) and riding the Alpine to check out where all the cute boys were hanging out.

The country bar (The Four Seasons?) way east on Colfax that burned down. Wolf’s Motor Inn Restaurant, The Dune (crazy black cat clock with eyes and tail that moved). Tico’s and Beckett’s Pub at Buckingham square. Joslins, Fashion Bar, Woolworth’s and Woolco. Montgomery Wards. Paison’s Pizza. Grande Giovanni’s. The Broker – giant bowls of shrimp as an appetizer. 94th Aerosquadron, Apple Tree Shanty, International House of Pies on Colorado Blvd. Azar’s Big Boy. White Spot. The Riviera (Glendale Country Club) behind Celebrity. Saw Bill Cosby and Joan Rivers at the Turn of the Century.

Jimmy Buffett opening for Bonnie Raitt at Red Rocks while we drank Mai Tais in the rain.

Fleetwood Mac at Folsom Field.

Someone mentioned funky Fan Fair in an earlier post – I was there at the grand opening, too. They threw ping pong balls off the roof. You could turn them in for free stuff, I think.

There was a Spudnut doughnut shop down the street from us. They made doughnuts from potato dough – huge, soft, wonderful. Vollmer’s bakery. Just Binky’s on 6th ave just past Havana – first place I ever had a frozen strawberry margarita.

I was on Fred and Faye when I was 6 or 7. My sister and I wore matching dresses, and I remember we got to watch ourselves later.

I was not a big fan of Blinky, but I remember Astro Boy, and Diver Dan – the cartoon characters had real lips imprinted on the animation for talking – weird. Also Creature Features late night Fridays, and the endless Gilligan’s Island, I Dream of Jeannie and Brady Bunch reruns. Also, Twilight Zone, Perry Mason and Andy Griffith.

I guess I could keep going, but I do need to get back to my current life. For a while.

I remember Stormy Rottman and the positive/negative ion thing. Starr Yelland and his son. Dialing for Dollars.

• [kip w]

  Diver Dan was a live-action guy in a diving suit who interacted with puppet fish while real fish swam in a tank between him and the camera. My friend Randy sang the theme song as “He kills his friends and eats them / under the pee / that’s where you’ll find Diaper Dan!”

  The cartoon guy with real lips was Clutch Cargo. Space Angel did the same thing, and so did Captain Fathom. All the mouths were the same person, a woman who would speak some of the lines and lip-sync others. Scott G and I used to mock Clutch after school every day. For years, I searched for video of the show, and finally found a half-hour VHS in the 90s for $15. It seemed steep for such a short tape, but I had to get it anyway. Within ten minutes, I was saying to myself, “Thank God it’s only a half hour!” More recently, I found five volumes of cheap DVDs with Clutch and two more with Captain F. You just have to wear an oven mitt while you watch, so you don’t fracture your skull when you keeps smacking yourself over the head.

[jornin]

OMG
I saw Weird Al at the Rainbow.
I am such a F’in Nerd

[ToddBradley]

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.

[Gordon Cole]

2 words: Putt Putt

[Bonnie]

#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.

[jaxcarter]

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!

[Bonnie]

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

[jupiter8]

Remember Miss Kitty’s? My family used to drive past that old scary porn theater on Colfax!

[Bretzel]

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.

[Bonnie]

@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/

[Tomboy]

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…

[kip w]

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)

[lalagirl]

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!

[stevensdrums]

@Steve A

I do remember the Denver Avalanche, but does anyone remember the COLORADO CARIBOUS pro soccer team from the 70′s? My dad bought season tix on the 50 yard line at Mile High, thinking it would be like having Broncos tix one day…wrong. I remember the soccer star from Brazil, Pele, came and did some promo event at one of the games.

Railroad car restaurant = VICTORIA STATION

I can’t believe you remember the name of some of those slides at Water World!!

I do remember having KPKE stickers (with the letters carved out of rocks!) and I remember that old Bobcat station place! wow!

on to other memories bubbling up….

How about the COUNTRY DINNER PLAYHOUSE in the DTC or TRAILDUST Steak House – where the cut off your tie and stick it on the wall. What a fire trap!! I always wanted to go for the huge slide in the middle of the restaurant!

#314 POSTED BY BRETZEL
I can’t believe you remember the name of the small theater in BUCKINGHAM – the Outhouse!! I totally remember that room! Speaking of Buckingham, the bridge in the middle was in “Piccadilly Lane” with nearby stores like County Seat, Casual Corner, and Orange Julius. I got lost from my mom at that mall so many times, I knew that the security office (where they would page my mom) was in that part of the mall there too.

My parents used to go see Bill Cosby at the Turn of the Century. Speaking of that part of town…how about TAMARAC Square? Anyone remember the Bagel Nosh, Video Concepts, or The Aspen Leaf? I have a polaroid of me in the hand of a giant King Kong (made from chicken wire and plaster) in the mall from when the Jessica Lang version of the movie first came to town (1975?)

94th Aero Squadron  Restaurant at Stapleton where you could watch planes land and heaer the control tower.

[Anonymous]

So no mention of Bear Valley Mall at Hampden and Sheridan, May D&F was the anchor with one hallway of stores, Duckwalls, Budget Tapes and Records, Walden Books, Kinney Shoes, Furrs Cafeteria, etc. But the main attraction was the rock outcrops for kids to climb on and the huge Bear and Waterfall diorama.

To this day I still call what was Gart’s and now Sports Authority “Dave Cook’s” and people look at me blankly.

A lot of gas companies have pulled out of here, back in the 70’s you had Chevron, Mobil, Amoco, Exxon, Texaco and host of others I can’t remember.

Anybody ever go to Tortilla Flats on Santa Fe across from Arapahoe Community College?

TV was a challenge in the 70’s, 5 stations KWGN 2, KOA-TV 4, KRMA 6, KMGH 7, and KBTV 9.

Gary Cruz was the hotshot young hip sportscaster on 9, sort of Denver’s version of Ponch from CHiP’s.

Radio wise I remember in early elementary school it was cool to listen to KIMN but soon enough it was the constant tuning back and forth between 106.7 KAZY and 105.9 KBPI.

I also remember in the 70’s they were still completing I-76 and you’d be cruising along what you thought was a regular interstate and all of a sudden there would be an intersection with a local road pulling right up to the highway, before all the interchanges were completed… I guess that’s common but I was too young for the big Interstate build out and that seemed so odd to me at the time.

I still call it the Boulder Turnpike and people also look at me blankly on that.

Any Denver Spurs hockey fans out there? To think they could have gone to the NHL but the cheap owner got a better deal to join the WHA and folded a year or so later.

I was a big Denver Bears fan and in the late 70’s they had the knock off Montreal Expos uniforms with Tim Wallach, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines and a host of others come through town. Nobody will remember the old American Association but when I started paying attention it was the Bears, Wichita Aeros, Omaha Royal, Iowa Oaks, Oklahoma City 89ers, Evansville Triplets, Springfield Redbirds, and Indianapolis Indians.

Hall Moore and Charlie ??? coached a little league team for Green Mountain and I played for a rival team, it was always such an event to think those two celebrities were actually at your local little league ball field, my father made an effort to point them out to me not that I had much of a clue who they were.

My cousin was a huge Steven B and the Hawk fan, what station were they on?

[Bonnie]

@#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.

[kip w]

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.)

[Tomboy]

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…

[stantonl]

Was it Pogo Pogue?

[Anonymous]

Wow! This is taking me down memory lane. I grew up on the edge of Aurora and Denver. Does anyone remember Crystal’s Palace right near Buckingham Square? It was a pizza place that had tons of video games and a movie theater. I think it was actually owned by the same people as Casa Bonita.

How about the McDonald’s on Leetsdale that had the big airplane in it!? That was the coolest and was before they had playgrounds at fast food places.

Budget Tapes and Records!

I do remember that lady on the O’mara Ford commercials!!

How about Slim Goodbody?

FRANKO mentioned:
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.
It was actually 9 News (ABC at the time) that had that commercial and it was to show how badass there award -winning camera crew was!!! I can’t hear that song without thinking of the commercials as well! LOL
How about “Spy Man” or “Stan the U Turn Man”? That freaky guy that lived near 1st and Colorado Blvd. If you did a U-turn in front of his house, he would come out of the bushes and take pictures of you. It was a really creepy and fun thing to do in high school.

How about SHOWBIZ Pizza? The pre curser to Chucky Cheeses’.

[yoadrian]

This link is to a folk album cover from one of the Folk Song Festivals at the Exodus in Denver. It is from October of 1959 and features the very first recording by a very young
Judy Collins.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32605199@N06/4422218397/in/set-72157623593306768/

[Anonymous]

Denver native here,

how about Hedsteds on Alameda & sheridan
Red Barn Hamburgers
Scottis Hamburgers
Arlans Dept store 17th and Sheridan
Turn of the Century Night club with world famous acts
rainbow music hall Evans and Monaco
Rexall drugs
Spartans dept store Evans and Jewell?
Centennial drive in Federal and Belleview
Englewood speedway
Merchants park bowling alley (near the old Montgomery ward building)
Westland Mall with the cool log fort
Sel-lo became Yellow front 8th and Broadway
The wishbone restaurant
Sea Galley (We have crab legs!)
mini bike rentals on 6th and simms
Evans drive in Federal and evans
Denver Twin movie theatre downtown
Centre theatre downtown
dave cooks sporting goods I’ll remember more later, care to add?

[Johnny One Spur]

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.

[kip w]

stantoni, the missing line is “And we’ll have fun, just you and me / on K… L… Z!”

Also, more information about Jay Mack, Niles Lishness and Farley McLooth can be found on the internet. Some of it was surprising to me. I knew about his heart attack when he was doing an overnight show, but was somehow unaware of the car crash at the height of his fame that led to his later health problems, or that he died a few months after having his life saved by an alert listener. A sad end for one of two disk jockeys who brightened my life more than any others, before or since. (The other was Mark Radtke on KCSU in Fort Collins, in the early 70s.)

KTLK was a music station with K-Talk as their name. I always wondered if they’d changed format before. I decided (around 1971-2) that they were edgier than KIMN, so they got my ears until KMYR and KFML came along.

ps: some KIMN hit parades scanned at my flickr page. I always mean to do more of these. I have a fairly decent-sized pile of them. And a scanner.

Anonymous #402: I heard it too. Blinky always sang “Happy Barf! Day! to you!”

Anonymous #406: Ah, we used to love ragging on Tom Shannon and Afternoon at the Movies. I drew an entire comic book (which I still have) setting up an epic battle between my superhero and Tom’s army of reruns, with Blinky the Clown as his chief goon. Part 2 was going to be the big finish, so after about five pages, I lost my motivation and wandered off to do something else, but I managed to introduce the casts of McHale’s Navy, Gilligan’s Island, and the Addams Family before I stopped.

I liked Starr Yelland’s movies better — they showed LEMONADE JOE. I saw it the second time it was on. Starr looked a little bewildered as he explained that it was being shown again because so many people called in and asked for it! If they’d been on the ball, they’d have shown it more than twice. I searched for years and finally found a VHS copy online — it was on YouTube a while back, after I already converted it, first to DVD and then to a form I could put on my iPod.

Anonymous #407, I remember Dongess Glass buying out Poudre Valley Motors and replacing the name in their KCOL jingles with their own, which didn’t fit as well. The voices all sounded the same, though. (“Whatever it takes / [Poudre Valley Motors][Dongess Glass Fo-ord] gives…”)

(Larimer Country nostalgists might like to check the Lost Fort Collins blog, by the way. No link, because it’s easy enough to find.)

[HighlanderBoy]

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.

[cheapsuits]

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.

[Epiphanie]

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…

[ballookey]

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.

[Akbar Biberkopf]

“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

[Bonnie]

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?

[hubs]

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/

[Anonymous]

Shakey’s Pizza in SE Denver, The Yum Yum Tree restaurant and Skate City!! YMCA!!!

[Anonymous]

Maudie’s Flea Market — a cool head shop
The Cork and Cleaver had glasses made out of cut off wine bottles
Kings restaurant in Greeley had a deep fried grilled cheese sandwich that was so good
Paul Bunyan’s restaurant had long picnic tables inside and you threw peanut shells on the floor
Lafette’s restaurant’s oyster bar
The Pretzel Factory in Greeley — a 3.2 bar in an old factory
Leon Russell at Folsom Field
Jefferson Airplane at the CU Fieldhouse 1971
Der Wienerschnitzel’s warm peanut butter and honey sandwiches

• [cher&cindy]

  Was the Paul Bunyun restaurant called the “Northwood’s Inn”?

[Anonymous]

what was the name of the denver police officer who sang on commercials and got some try out gig in vegas? a frank sinatra knock off.

[Nomadcell]

Just a list to get Denver’s southern cousin on the list,
Germers
Levines
Levines Skate Shop
North Shore
Independent Skate Park
Acacia Park
Broadmoor Ditch
Broadmoor Ski Area
Pikes Peak Ski Area
Michelle’s
Chinook book store
Toons
Budget Records and Tapes
Mountain Chalet
Ill keep going later….
etc…

[ahab]

MCNICHOLS ARENA (aka Big Mac)!!!!!!!

My first concert was KISS in 78′. I was in 5th Grade. Lol!

[CarolineSays]

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…..

[blue balaclava]

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….

[joninaz]

- 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.

[oldschooldenver]

Holy Crap, theres so much here I can only skim. I’m 4th Gen. Denver, my great grandparents are buried here somewhere, Riverside I think.

We used to ditch high school and drive to Red Rocks, stealing those “Big Wheel” plastic children’s trikes out of yards and throwing them in the pickup on the way. They were plentiful. We would start at the parking lot at the top, and hitch our legs over the handlebars, point them downhill and see who could make it down without wiping out. When you did wipe out, it was usually a spin out and roll off the ever so windy road. We were lucky we didn’t head on cars coming around the bend, but it was a weekday and traffic was light.

Tubing down bear creek from Morrison to Bear Valley. My older brother used to scare the crap out of me every time we went under a bridge: Kipling, Wadsworth, Sheridan, telling me to stay left because giant rotors were hidden in the water on the right side that chewed up logs and debris so the river would stay clean. Then he’d kick my tube towards the right as we approached the bridges and watch me cry and paddle like hell to steer right.

Tom Shane “your friend in the Diamond Business” in the Security Life building as mentioned before.

Real kids never went to Casa Bonita because they had friends who worked there and told us there were lots of mice and rats in the place.

Zezo’s magic castle in Cinder Alley. Shakeys, Organ Grinder.

The Flick: Went there to see Myra Breckenridge?? Sp? to see Farrah Fawcett topless. What a kick that was. Oh yea and when we came out I discovered as a new driver that I parked wrong, blocking cars and someone shattered the windshield of my new 76 Mercury Capri for it.

Roller City across from the Villa. The cool kids had “Covers” for their skates. Black for boys and white for girls. Those were the fabric slip overs that hid the laces. Afterwards they had a band. Everyone took their skates off and danced. That was the first place I saw couples “grinding” as they danced. So dirty, LOL

Led Zep ruled. I remember thinking the lyrics “shake for me baby, I want to be your back door man” “Ah Ah Ah Ah” was sex and was too profound to play on the radio. Then I bought Edgar Winters “They only come out at Night” just for the cover art. It was “dirty” too.

Sloans Lake: first place I tried water skiing. My mom was screaming from the shore because I was drifting towards the back of the boat as my uncle prepared me to ski. Thats where the propeller was and could of chopped me up pretty good.

Did I mention Red Rocks? There’s caves under the rocks from the first Morrison entrance about a mile or two up where we used to wiggle through to get to big caverns and get “High”

Elitches. Oh God. We used to get little yellow discount tickets in school. The Trocadero? The Octopus and puking after eating too much. Good thing it spun real fast otherwise your puke would graze you.

Driving up Alameda over the Hogback to park with your girlfriend. At the bend where the dinosaur tracks are you had a great view of Denver and the lights. Good place to make out.

Parking just outside the fence at Stapleton. Smoking dope and getting the roar of airplanes as they came in to land. They were maybe 50 feet overhead.

[Jarrad]

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…

[Anonymous]

I was born and raised in Denver only to move to California as an adult but all these were great memories. Mine were from the mid 60′s to the mid 80′s and I can remember the restaurant where they served a boatload of chicken with a train running around the top, the old Elitch’s trips where we’d take rides on the Tiwster 45 times along with ‘the Octupus’ which haad an arm fall off in 1975 or so, head to Celbrity Sports Center to play arcade games and to Shakee’s on Hampden for a little food getting ready for a date on the weekend to ‘LaserRock’ at the planetarium.

In the 80′s I hung around Glendale at the clubs religiously. Panama Reds and the myriad of clubs they had around there as well as one downtown which later turned into Polyesthers at a later time.

Cinderella City was always a destination as a high school kid like heading to some destination only to eat hot pretzels and hang around the weird shops at Cinder Alley. Lots of memories – sad thing is I went home this summer after being gone for 20 years and everything is gone.

• [Anonymous]

  Was that Chicken train place out west on Colfax?

[elk]

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.

[DeuceMojo]

#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.

[libequafrat]

Budget Tapes and Records in Westminster with all the pipes, bongs and rolling papers you could imagine along with, of course, vinyl. Allman Brothers, Outlaws.

Saw Outlaws at Ebbits Field in the basement of Brooks Tower. They warmed up for Bob Seger when Nutbush City Limits was his big hit.

Rolling Stones At the Colliseum. Two shows. Friends at Ranum said “ain’t gonna be no second show, we’re gonna tear the house down”. There was a second show. I was there.

[mtndesertrat]

KFML and Channel 2
Anyone remember this one?

• [kip w]

  KFML and Channel 2. You mean how the improv group “High Street” would make up a new sound track for a movie once a week? Lordy, I wish I’d taped those off the air. If I had the audio from that, I could at least match it up to the movie… though the ads were as funny. It was the ads, I think, that got them chased off. I heard they went to San Francisco.

[stalzz]

Denver memories…
Noel and Andy,Blinky, Zeezo’s, Farrell’s ice cream parlor, Celebrity Sports Center, The Cooper Theater and its giant curved ‘Cinerama’ screen….. In Northwest Denver, The Oriental and The Federal theaters. Channel 2 was the station that had afternoon movies hosted by Tom Shannon who used an orchestral version of the ‘Theme From Tommy’ as the show’s theme song. Lakeside Mall back in the ‘good old days’, Cinderella City and Cinder Alley, The Yum Yum Tree, Topp’s restaurants, White Spot, Georgy’s Restaurant by North High at Federal and Speer, Burger Chef. Warren Chandler on Channel 7, Stormy Rottman on Channel 9, Bob Palmer on both channels 7 and 4.

[libequafrat]

Fred and Faye?! The “Tum Tum” song!

[hughgraham]

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.

[DeuceMojo]

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.

[tomthum]

Ha! @ Cher and Cindy THE HOUSE OF DRAFT! Yes. The Johnny Three and many Pitchers of 3.2 Coors. Or my buddy Jinx Jones (who is out here in San Francisco now). Yes! Or the Pearl Street across and down the street. BOP STREET my bro John Dealva was in that band. The Cricket on the Hill. Used to get so shit faced there I would need to give the bartender cab money so I could get home. I had a dumpy apartment on Pearl and Colfax and a hercka jerk landlord who threatened us with violence when we were late on the rent so we cemented the toilets and rand a hose inside his coup deville. I went back to Denver last year and was a bit shocked how White it is there. I mean I didn’t realize it growing up. Maybe cause we lived in Park Hill I ran with a mixed crowd. I remember the fist school shooting. At Hill Jr. High during bussing. The Hill Jazz band – featuring Jill Sobel of “I kissed a girl” fame. I still have records with the WAX TRAX sticker on them. It all floods back to me…..

• [cher&cindy]

  How cool, someone finally wrote back to me. I don’t remember the bands that you mentioned, but I do remember a little bar on 13th between Pearl & Penn, and it was the first gay bar I was ever in, and the person that took me there didn’t tell me that it was a gay bar. That was a bit of a shock, but it was a cool place and they had great pizza. What years were you in that area? I remember in 1963 or so there was a shooting in the halls at Morey Jr High, and one of the 2 that got shot died. Well, I ended up going to Morey, and in spite of me being one of the few white girls there, ended up making some wonderful friends & memories.

[Anonymous]

Yup had birthday parties at Nathan’s Physical Whimsical. Surprised nobody has said anything about Heritage Square Amusement park, I worked there in HS at the Alpine Slide and after HS as the supervisor at the now defunct Bungee Tower. Best thing about Heritage was Aspen Lee- a novelty store that had no qualms about selling ninja stars and switchblades to 5th and 6th graders in the 80′s. I still have one of those throwing stars. HA.

• [Anonymous]

  Me and my buddy use to go to Heritage Square when they had one of the first water slides before Water World. We used to sit at the landing pool and watch girls bikini tops come off as they hit the water!

[PISOMOJADO]

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!

[CarolineSays]

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.

[twobeeshawn]

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!

[blue balaclava]

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.

[Anonymous]

weyman rate

[DeuceMojo]

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.

[tels7ar]

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?

[Anonymous]

I was a six year season ticket holder for the Colorado Rockies Hockey team. If it was one of the rare good games, you could go home and watch it again in tape delay on Channel 2, They used to have dime beer night, where you could buy 7 ounce Coors can for 10 cents each. That ended when some idiot threw one of the cans at a referee.

How about the great Boulder beer bars- Tulagi’s Grandma’s, Golden Buff?

Michelle’s Ice Cream Parlor on the bridge between the Hilton and one of the big department stores

The Rock Rest tavern which was, I think, in Golden

We grew up in Pueblo and and our Dad would take us to Denver on a weekend, as a treat- we would always go to Celebrity Sports Center and eat at the Yum Yum tree.

Until the late 60′s you could get a Broncos ticket at the gate on game day for $5.

• [tomthum]

  tulagis what a great spot. My uncle took his infant daughter up to Taj Mahal on a break and said her name was corina corina so he played it. It was a great club … ebbits field anyone?

  Broncos !!! remember the socks? And wahoo mcdaniel????

[ResidentClinton]

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!

[Anonymous]

I miss the lady on Channel 6 fundraisers – brown hair, did the fundraising for like 30 years or something amazing, standing against what I believe were tie-died backdrops as she explained the impact of your donation and the benefits of being a public television member.

And – Channel 2 always had the awesomest programming on weekends. Ferris Bueler’s Day off every two months, Battlestar Galactica (the OG series) and the Love boat. Hell yeah, Denver broadcasting in the early 1980s!

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyphergraphik/sets/72157626135246907/

[octopede]

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…

[franko]

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?

[Anonymous]

I remember many of the places mentioned throughout this thread. It’s interesting that no matter which area (suburbs) we grew up in (north/west), everyone has similar memories of growing up in or around Denver.

My “Wonder Years” and memories took place during the 70′s.

Food:

Yum Yum Tree Chubby’s (38th) Rocco’s Pizza (58th)
Daddy Bruce Furr’s Bob’s Fine Foods
Pete Coney Island (greasy spoon), Woolworth’s
Mr Swiss Mr Mel’s Red Barn

Entertainment:

Celebrity Sports Center Motorcycle riding Pool hopping Swimming at Stanley lake Soap Box Derby racing
Walking 10 miles to have a good time Kegger’s
Playing outside all the time
Cruising the drive inns with your primer grey chevy
Scotsman’s on Federal Lakeside Elitch’s,

The list could go on and on

Thanks everyone

[AnnieH]

“There’s a Compass Drive-In right near you
with 2 big fea-tures count ‘em 2.
Delicious food for all the fa-mi-ly
Kids under 12 are free
To-night a Compass Drive-In is the place to be”

Born in 1955 & raised in Denver-still live there & remember it all as if it were yesterday

Summer evenings at City Park watching the fountain show. City Park Zoo on a Sunday was standing room only at the seal exhibit. There used to be a polar bear that lived with the seals & they all played together & swam around the stone moat that surrounded their “rock stage”-I think that polar bear is buried near the old seal house.

Shooting off fireworks in you own back yard without getting arrested or going to watch them at Lakeside by the big lake or after a Denver Bears baseball game. They would shoot those suckers off one at a time folks!

I believe Starr Yelland was the sports guy not the weather guy-Weatherman Bowman had that job. I remember he drew all the cold fronts, clouds & sunny skies right on his magical “map”-I used to practice the same thing on my blackboard & dreamed of having a marker just like his.

I remember moving to Southeast Denver back in the 70′s & Monaco literally stopped at Evans and the Monaco Drive-In. Colorado Blvd. stopped at Hampden.

Oh the fun times at the skating rink by May D&F and their Christmas window displays were always a special night out during the holidays.

Loved the Denver Drumstick-”Daddy can we have a train on OUR ceiling?” If you loved that chicken it is still made at the Wishbone at 97th and Federal. They have the same yellow chicken gravy & everything. My Dad & sister always get the gizzards-yuck!

Speaking of more yummy food memories–
Someone mentioned a place that used to have huge (in diameter)burgers. You can still get those at Granpa’s Burger Haven at 23 S. Federal. You can watch them squish them down while you wait.

Yum Yum Tree was my dream come true gastronomically. It was the first time I tasted Sweet & Sour Chicken & egg rolls. We wandered from booth to booth trying to get the most variety for our money. Great fun too was Tang’s Imports next door.

I also remember spending Sundays at the Natural History Museum. Back in the day you didn’t run around & scream so it was a pretty quiet place. The dinosaur rooms had a distinctive dinosaur bone smell that I recall to this day. My older sister & I would tease our younger sister as we stood and watched the tip of the tail of one of the huge dinosaurs wiggle ever so slightly to the vibrations of people walking around & we’d tell her that dinosaur was “coming to life starting at the tail…” That was fun.

Not many different pizza parlors back then but I do remember Carl’s Pizza & Pizza Oven-they had another fun sign that moved.

We would also park across from Stapleton & literally watch planes land & take off! I recall waiting & watching as the first 747′s landed there & we were just astonished at the size of that plane back then.

When I was old enough to take a bus to a shopping mall or get dropped off there by my Mom our favorite was always Cinderella City-it was the biggest thing we had ever seen. The mall was sectioned off in “colors” so you could remember where you parked your car.

We would go to All Star Wrestling at the old Auditorium to watch the Crusher, Mad Dog, Red Bastein & Verne Gagne (a recent bit of nastiness about him here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29534398/
and other assorted characters. Much more interesting watching back then-you still knew it was fake but they weren’t as steroid crazed as they are now. All pretty funny now that I look back on it.

Listened to KHOW radio night & day & I remember racking my brain on their “Secret Sound” contests.

All the great places are gone but Denver is still one of the best places to live in the country!!!

[JayMJones]

@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.

[Anonymous]

I remember when I was young, The Indians standing on the corners of downtown in full dress. That ended too soon for me.

[franko]

@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….

[Epiphanie]

#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

[SPIRIT_GUM]

I live in DC now but was born & raised in the Denver area. I left in 2001/This is kind of a 70′s 80′s 90′s Denver mix.

*Wax Trax Records (the only place to buy hard to find imports back in the day)
*The clothing/shoe store across from Wax Trax (can’t remember the name) had the best
selection of Doc Marten’s that I have ever seen to this day. bought many many pairs
*Licks Ice Cream (best ice cream I have ever had..Pumpkin/ and the coffee with chopped up espresso beans in it…I think it was called Sleepless in Seattle)
*Farrell’s ice cream (also dreading the huge production happy birthday sing-a-long from the employees)
*Tortilla Flats
*Cinder Alley (that place was freakin’ shady….but I guess that is what i liked about it :)
*Rock Island (best club ever in Denver…period)
*Dead Beat Club
*Cosmo
*Shotgun Willies (I saw Shannon Sharpe in their once wearing an Arsenio Hall “eight ball” leather jacket mackin’ on some ladies at the bar. Classic! I love that man.
*I beat Ricky Nattiel at pool once at that bar in Glendale with the huge wooden decks….amazing
happy hours….a little help please? anyone?
*Saturdays Strip Club on East Colfax (high school fake I.D.’s bottomless topless nude jello wrestling..enough said)
*Punch and Judy’s on south Broadway (great awful dive bar)
*Skylark Lounge (the ORIGINAL-best bar in Denver) my boys & I would smoke herb in the back of the bar while playing pool & nobody seemed to care)
*Pete’s Kitchen
*Governor’s Park Restaurant (evil happy hours 2 for 1…would drink about 3 rounds of Long Island Teas and play pool…then walk through Cap Hill and barf in the street in broad daylight on my way home and pass out by 9pm)
*The Lotus Room (would go there in the high school days with the boys and would drink whiskey
sours all night…they never carded us…they were just happy to see us)
*Teletunes (introduced me to Depeche Mode/Sisters of Mercy….ect THANK YOU TELETUNES!!!!!
*Seen SO MANY AMAZING shows @ Red Rocks/Ogden Theater/Big Mac
*Broncos/Nuggets games since I could walk
*Southwest Plaza Mall (mall rat playing video games trying to meet girls)
*The Arcade at Southglen Mall…..gave them a few thousand dollars for sure)
*BeauJo’s Pizza
*Dj McAdam’s in Vail….I know it’s in Vail & not Denver..but that place is amazing
*Celebrity Sports Center (greatest place ever)
*Yum Yum Tree
*KBPI KIMN KAZY…& the best radio station EVER KTCL
*Benny’s Restaurant Cap Hill
*Carmine’s on Penn
*The 94th Aero Squadron Restaurant
*Bang! Restaurant
*The old transportation museum that is now REI’s flagship store.
*The Natural History Museum with the cougar in the lobby that you feed coins into it’s mouth and it growls at you.
*The Cruise Room
*Swifts Restaurant
*Elitch gardens Amusement park
*Shakey’s Pizza
*The Organ Grinder
*Herbs Hideout
*Muddy’s
*Paris
*Casa Bonita (worst food ever!!….best place to be a kid)
*FunPlex
*Water Word (thunder bay….mow or be mowed) (lazy river very lame)

[Anonymous]

Wonderful time here. I had given up on any one remembering Fred and Faye and their Chicken Fat exercise segment especially. Loved the Flick in Larimer Square along with the Bratskellar (sp?). I was among many who went to Larimer Square to see Lady Bird Johnson leave the high end underground restaurant there — forgot the name of it now.
I worked the fun house at Lakeside in the sixties — you could be quite the stud walking the barrels and helping the girls through or being brave enough to just lean forward at about a 45 degree angle in the ‘monkey cage’. And the clown out front was ‘Sally’ ( I thought she was the saddest thing Lakeside has lost ).
Loved to be reminded of the Bobcat Service Station on south Colorado Blvd. How about Victoria Station – a restaurant in an old train car on Alameda just east of Colorado Blvd?
Early seventies saw almost every act that came to Sign of the Dove (Tamarac Square – Tiffany Plaza) and the Warehouse at Leetsdale and Alameda — Little Richard,Jerry Lewis,Madam and Wayland,David Copperfield,Earth Kitt to name a few.
The Denver Post musicals in Cheesman Park each summer were one of the truly great things about Denver along with the fountain in City Park lake next to the Museum and Zoo.
I just have to ask if anyone remembers when Casa Bonita had just opened and the rumors started circulating around Denver that people had been seeing dog food cans in Casa Bonita’s trash and the rumors were so persistant that the owner or manager had to go on local TV and deny the allegation while he actually broke down crying?
Saw someone else mention The Green Spider,The Sign of the Tarot,The Analyst– I had many a Witches Tit at the Green Spider and did some one act plays at the Sign of the Tarot and the Analyst.
Duffy’s had a MOSCOW MULE and you kept the copper cup it was served in.

[Bonnie]

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?

[RockiesInOctober]

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!

[MikeKStar]

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.

[Anonymous]

Wow! I posted in January (#435) thinking I was at the tail end. But this is still going. Good Fun!
Cindy & Cher: you sure got around and you salvaged more memory/brain cells than I!
#445: C&C have the lowdown on the Eastwood movie at the Zanzibar in post #442. But thanks for reminding me of the lions at the Portofino apts. Had a great friend who lived there. They demolished that building so long ago (wonder if they salvaged the lions). Is that where the new Glendale rugby stadium is now? Also, I have the same memories of Lanes (foggy as they are), particularly the mens’ ‘restroom’ situation.
#448: you appear to be a youngster (no offense). Zephrs games at Mile High for $5 used to be Bears games at Bears stadium for half that. Also, which ‘old’ Tattered Cover (they’ve moved at least twice now). Garts – I saw the Gart Bros. sold their last remaining interest last month. Wonder if the new owners will maintain the sniagrab sale.
Speaking of endangered traditions, saw the remaining diagonal crossing signals at downtown intersections may be on their way out.
#457: Diver Dan & Clutch Cargo – the two tackiest kids’ shows of the 60s/70s. Couldn’t watch Conan O’Brien’s moving lips featurettes without recalling Clutch (don’t they do the same on Spongebob?).
#469: Edgewater Inn and Gordos are still kicking (unlike the Pig n’ Whistle that finally burned down last week. Couldn’t believe it’d been closed since 1991. The Wheatridge Dairy building is still charming with a nice little resturant (Vincezos?) inhabiting the place. My mom probably took us to Joslins and Penneys at JCRS. I just wanted to go to the Woolworths in between for toys & plastic models, before the K-Mart was built over toward Wadsworth. How about Penneys outlasting May D&F (yes, the Downtown Christmas display was the best in town), The Denver Dry Goods, Goldwaters, , Foleys, Mervyns (are they still around?) and even Printemps?!
P.S. The 88 drive in theatre in Commerce City (last one in Denver I think) opens this week. Better hit it! Who knows when the last one might be gone?!

• [cher&cindy]

  Yep, we lived in Capital Hill, then one of us moved out to East Denver, then we both ended up in Aurora until I moved to San Diego in January of ’75. We still made it downtown every Saturday, via the bus system, but the most fun was walking downtown after school and on the weekends. What fun times they were. It sounds like you were from North or West Denver, right?

  • [Anonymous]

    Cher&Cindy; We bounced all over Denver. East Washington Park (between the park & Bonnie Brae) then to Lakewood (near 6th & Wadsworth) then west of University Hills then central Arvada then off to college in Golden. After college, lived at 18th & Pennsylvania then 11th & Washington then Mississipi & Washington. Capital Hill was a great spot!

    • [cher&cindy]

      Wow, I grew up at 1050 Pearl, and Cindy at 960 Sherman. Both buildings are still beautiful. She moved out to Xenia Street in 1968, thus our introduction to the “Happy Cat”.

[Bretzel]

talking about radio -

remember Quadraphonic stereo? The radio stations that broadcast it all snapped up Q for their last letter. KOA-FM became KOAQ.

[kip w]

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.

[RapidEye]

I actually made it on Blinky’s for my birthday – I think I was 4 or 5. Too bad they didn’t have VCR’s in 1970 so I could relive the highpoint of my life =-)

The only thing I liked at Casa Bonita were the sopapillas and honey for desert. The food was meh, the atmosphere was cheesy, but damn those sops were awesome!

I also remember saving all of my paper route money for the bit SNIAGRAB sale at Gart Bros. I bought most of my ski gear at that sale, year after year!!

[fbrusca]

I grew up in Denver and Lakewood between 1958-1963. Last lived on Reed Court. Lots of memories. Fred and Fay on TV. My brother and I were on the Bozo TV show in 1963. I seem to remember that Bozo attended our church – St. Bernadette’s. Eating at the Denver Drumstick. Burning trash in the backyard incinerator – and hauling the rest every Saturday to the Jefferson County Dump. On weekends we would go to Berthoud Pass and the dinosaur footprint ridge of the Hogback. Central City and the Buffalo Bill Museum were other hotspots for us.

[Tirjasdyn]

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!

[libequafrat]

Huge Burgers you say.

There used to be a burger joint on North Federal at about 62nd. It was called Courtesy Drive In.

Their burgers were 6-8 inches in diameter, thin meat, but as many layers or decks as you could stand. I got up to a triple decker. Delicious, but enough to choke a horse, (if horses ate burgers).

My older sister worked there in high school until one night during shutdown and cleanup, she was trying to drain the deep fryer and had hot grease spray over her hand and wrist.

Emergency room visit. Very ugly massive blisters, but no deep damage or scarring. Just lots of pain.

[Mark Frauenfelder]

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?”

• [Anonymous]

  No that was channel 2 KWGN, and the host was Tom Shannon, it was called
  Afternoon at the Movies and for most of the 70′s the stuff they showed was pretty forgettable — I don’t remember them playing anything remotely interesting, but then I was just in my early teens.

[Gulley Jimson]

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.

[kip w]

“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.

[kip w]

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.

[ReneeDV]

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.

[Enochrewt]

#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.

[Anonymous]

Cinderella City! The first mega mall

[stingraycl76]

OK I just saw this thread and had to add some things to it that I don’t see mentioned, but if you are a Denver native or have been in Denver a long long time you’ll remember these too!
Soda Straw on West Colfax (like a Farrell’s—I worked there as a waitress for .95 cents an hour!)
Partying on Rooney Road, before there was C-470 kids from local high schools would go up and park their cars in the weeds and smoke and drink beer!
Luby’s Cafeteria 
Hungry Farmer Restaurant
the BIG theaters, Cooper, Continental (midnight movies!)
My Sweet Lass, After the Gold Rush, Yellow Pages
The Yum Yum Tree, this really dates me. 
Cruising 16th Street

[myke99]

The Denver Drumstick – a small local chain that had toy trains that ran the perimeter of the restaurant near the ceiling. Spaghetti and Texas Toast with honey.

The Apple Tree Shanty

Denver’s first NHL team: the Colorado Rockies (Barry Beck!)(Crazy George!) (5 cent beer night!)

The ABA Denver Rockets (Byron Beck!) (Ralph Simpson, Spencer Haywood,…) The Denver Coliseum

Bob Palmer –Denver’s version of Walter Cronkite.

Malfunction Junction

Twilight Golf Course – par 3 lit for night play. Your ball would be visible until it went above the level of the lights and you would try to see it come down again when it went below the lights.

Drag racing over the 16th street viaduct after finding someone to race by cruising 16th street downtown. Buster Snider the ticket happy cop walking down the middle of 16th street as cars cruised slowly by.

The Spiderman – the poor guy who would take a picture of your car as you did an illegal U turn in front of his home. I think there was a sign that prohibited it, but it was in the middle of a residential block! He would turn all the pictures in to the police. People would drive across town to do the maneuver and get their picture taken – usually late at night.

The Pizza Oven chain

Dutch Boy Donuts.

Parking on Syracuse and watching the planes fly close overhead from Stapleton airport.

The People’s Fair

The guy who roller skated around downtown wearing a tutu.

The Coors Tour (take the “short tour”!)

[kiptw]

Just checking to see how the thread was doing. Rest in peace, Blinky!

[tahoeskier]

I loved Celebrity Sports Center! I’m old enough to have been involved in the (then) huge slot-car racing rage. I’d tune up my cars at “Gran Turismo Raceway” in the basement location in Westminster Plaza, and race on the huge tracks at Celebrity on the week-ends (if I could beg my Mom or a cousin to drive me)! 
It was also where we would go to meet girls not-from-our-area after cruising 16th Street (can’t believe they turned it into a walking mall!).
Speaking of cruising, I grew up in North Denver, just a few blocks from “The Scotchman” and couldn’t wait to get my drivers license in 1976 just so I could cruise my ’68 Camaro Z28, pick up chicks and have a “Hot Cookie”! Remember those? Coke and ice with a shot of cinnamon oil that would pool at the top and MELT the styrofoam cups!
Ah,16th Street. There was one fat Denver cop, Buster Snider, that would lurk on the sidestreet and come walking over while stopped at a red light (usually on Glenarm), shine his flashlight in your backseat and bust you for having beer! Back then, he’d make you get out and empty all of the 3.2% you had while your buddies drove by and heckled you, and then send you on your way saying “you need to get out of here. If I see you again tonight, I WILL TICKET YOU!” So, back to The Scotchman we’d go!
Other favorite Denver memories: skateboarding in the “Health Bowl” on 38th and Colorado Blvd. and then at the “Concrete Curl” on Havana; Going to Denver Rockets basketball games at the Stockyard Coliseum; going to Colorado Rockies HOCKEY games on quarter beer nights; The Pillar of Fire; the 1/8 mile car races at Lakeside Speedway (and Englewood Speedway); drag races at Continental Divide Raceway; the model train that ran around the inside of The Drumstick restaurant on 74th and Federal Blvd.; The Yum Yum Tree; Shakey’s Pizza; Foosball and pinball at The Launching Pad on 72nd and Pecos; seeing “Jesus Christ Superstar” 19 times since it was on continual run at dollar movie Friday nights in Westminster Plaza Theaters (and where I’d tell my folks I was going to be); Budget Tapes and Records (and later “Peaches”); SUN-days at Mile High Stadium and the toll-booths on the Boulder Turnpike.
Sad to hear of Blinky’s passing. My ex-wife won a Saint Bernard on his show(named “Shasta” after the soda company that gave her away) and I’ve tried to tell my current wife stories of Blinky’s Fun Club, mostly relative to the cartoons he used to show. My Japanese Grand-Mother absolutely LOVED “Hashimoto Mouse!”
I moved to Northern California in 1985 and have only been “home” a few times, but have been amazed (and appalled) at the changes: Celebrity Sports Center has been long gone; there’s a Hooters in the old restaurant on Colorado Blvd.; “The Bluebird Theater” is now a concert venue (and one of “Kitty’s” is an indoor climbing gym!); I-25 is virtually one, long strip-mall from Englewood to Fort Collins; US36 is the same way.
I have been impressed with a few things though: the development of Lo-Do and the Auraria campus; the beautification of The Platte (but seriously, wheElitch’s down there now?!?)
I consider myself fortunate to have grown up in Denver during the 60′s and 70′s and appreciate this forum for a stroll down memory lane!

[tahoeskier]

Since finding this thread and after my first post, I took time and skimmed over the many awesome entries from other boingers and it’s brought more memories back!
Yeah, Laser Floyd/Rock/Zeppelin was great! Stoned in City Park? Oh boy!
The Rainbow was super cool, but I saw bands in The Denver Auditorium, the small theater on 15th St. I think. I saw Uriah Heap and Deep Purple there. Heap blew up their amps purely by pushing too much juice through their amps, well before pyrotechnics became en vogue for rock shows! We had to clear the theater while they aired it out and re-set for Deep Purple. This theater is also where I saw my first concert, The Ohio Players, in 1972!
Anybody else remember being burned by the Wilson Sisters in Heart? Twice in Mile High Sundays shows and once at a Folsom Field Stones show, they came on, played a single note and fat Annie Wilson says “we’re sorry we’re having technical problems. The next band will be out soon…” Pretty sure it was drug related.
Oh baby, After The Gold Rush ruled! Being from Westminster with a nice car and more self-confidence than I should have had made dancing with hot Lakewood/Golden girls with a 3.2% buzz on a highlight of my disco nights!
The Broker Restaurants were THE place I took girls I wanted to impress out for dinner. They never carded me or my dates and the huge bowl of shrimp appetizer followed by a nice meal always seemed to work for me!
During the summers, it was Simms Landing before Red Rock Shows (anyone remember seeing Steve Martin during his “Let’s Get Small Tour!”)
Like many, KTCL, KBCO and KIMN played huge roles in my youth. I won tickets from KBCO to see George Thorogood when he was pretty much unknown. I used the tickets to the early show and was so blown away, I BOUGHT tickets to the second show (I would later share drinks with Thorogood in a Stapleton Airport bar while he waited for his plane following his playing in a celebrity baseball game).
I haven’t seen it mentioned here, but remember the downtown building with the lit-up roof that changed colors? I think it was the Colorado National Bank and it was super cool from the little park on 50th and Zuni!

[pinchebuey]

I grew up in Arvada during the 70s and 80s (graduated from AHS in ’84, back when nobody I knew thought twice about the ‘Redskins’ mascot).

On a similar note, I remember my dad taking me and my sister to a restaurant called Sambo’s near the Arvada Plaza shopping center.

We could walk to that shopping center from our house, so it was a major attraction. The movie theater didn’t seem to mind if you stuck around all day – I remember spending one Saturday watching a seemingly endless cycle of Wolfen and American Werewolf in London. And I think somebody already mentioned cranky old Uncle Hank’s hobby store. We bought all our D&D modules there.

I remember scrounging quarters to play Asteroids at Safeway and then later at a little video arcade in Olde Town (can’t remember the name).

My mom was German so we listened to the Gunter Auerbach radio show every Sunday morning.

A friend and I built a shaky quarter-pipe skate ramp at the end of my driveway. We also used to catch rides from my dad or take the bus out to Hi Roller skatepark in Boulder.

Also remember exploring some caves at Red Rocks with the same friend. He told me a story about a ‘hatchet lady’ who supposedly lived up there. Not sure if he just made that up or if it was a legit urban legend.

FM/TV and teletunes were huge for me. My parents didn’t get cable until long after I moved out of the house, so no MTV. I remember staying up late on Saturday nights to watch videos and then watching again on Sunday mornings. Such a bizarre mix, the likes of which I’d never seen or heard before (and that would never get played on KBPI or KAZY…).

During high school, we used to swim in and party at Standley Lake during the summer. There was also a rope swing over some creek in Arvada where we hung out a lot.

I worked at the old Elitch’s during the summers of ’85 and ’86.

I remember going to Paris on the Platte one time during college and seeing the members of Guns n Roses walk in. At least I’m pretty sure it was them. I had never heard of them at the time, but Slash’s hair and the logo painted on the back of one of the guys’ leather jacket made an impression.

My dad and I watched the Broncos together year after year. I was out of the house and living in another state when they finally managed to win the Super Bowl. I’ll never forget my dad crying on the phone after the game… he ended up passing away before they won the second one.

Really appreciate whoever started this thread. It’s cool to find out that there were so many people soaking up the same culture as me and amazing that so many of us have found our way to this spot on the internet years later.

• [tahoeskier]

  No, your buddy didn’t make up the “Hatchet Lady” story! I first heard it around 1976 when we used to drive up and hang out in the amphitheater. We’d do the sketchy climb to the cave on the north wall above the seats and drink and smoke. Always made the climb back down that much sketchier!
  My Dad worked for Craig Chevrolet, so I spent a lot of time in Arvada. He started right after WWII in the original dealership which was on 57th and Old Wadsworth. I think it’s a parking lot now. They moved to a big, “new” shop on 55th and Wadsworth By-Pass in the 70′s before becoming Medved on I-70 in the 80′s. I used to go with Pops to a dinky little diner (Silver Spoon?) in Old Towne on Saturday morning.
  Funny that you mention “Uncle Hank’s Hobbies”! His store was originally on 72nd and Federal and he lived within walking distance of it. He belonged to our church and used to give us an “Asian” discount. You know what I’m talking about!

• [Robert Bauderer]

   Gunter Auerbach’s Musical Greetings Form Germany was a fixture in our house as well on Sunday mornings!

[Lynn Gonzales]

who remembers crusin 38th

[Andy Prebish]

I just stumbled onto this searching for Noel and Andy.  How about some of these:

The Shane Company’s original address – 2nd floor of the Petroleum Building on the corner of 17th and Glenarm.  Also in the same building on the top floor was At the Top of the Rockies restaurant.

Proof of the Pudding night club by Tamarac Square – the original home of Cougars

For old punks, Walibis on Broadway and the Packing House north of downtown.

The original Merc on Pearl Street

The Concrete Curl skate park on Jewel and Havanna and the High Roller Skate Park in Boulder.

The Pacific Shore store on the hill in Boulder withe the great big Op painted on the side.

Playing black jack at the Bus Stop in Boulder and 2 for 1 Coors lights on Monday

The fountains in the middle of Northglenn mall

Aqua Golf

Steve Kelly as a night DJ at KIMN AM

and so may other memories… 

[Robert Bauderer]

I remember when Channel 12, “the beady eye” (BDI) started playing videos shortly after they went on the air.  At first the music show was called FMTV and Music Television!  Of course that changed to Teletunes when MTV was getting ready to launch.  
Now going back even further than the 80′s! …..

The original ROCKY’s Autos was over on Federal near Mile High Stadium, before they moved up to 64th. 
Lakeside had the creepy “Laughing Lady” up on the Funhouse that creeped me out as a kid.
There was also a Roller City (north) in Thornton, owned by Bob Chado, who owned them all.   How about the Roll A Rama in Welby? (around 86th and York).
When North Valley Mall opened up in Thornton in the late 60′s, there was a parade and U-Haul was giving out piggy banks to all the kids.
Jake Jabs early American Furniture store was on 48th and Colorado Blvd.
Bonnie WAS the name of the O’Meara Ford lady.  My Dad knew her since he bought several cars from them in the 1970′s, and used to stop in to talk with her and R J Caraway.  She’s back doing commercials again for them!
There was a Woolco Store across from the Denver Drumstick on 74th and Federal.  That Drumstick is now an Enterprise Car Rental place. And Woolco is now a strip mall.
Channel 2 used to play CREATURE FEATURES on Saturday nights at 10:00 PM.  The intro was of a guy in a cape climbing up the stairs in this tower-like building with a creepy old organ song playing.
Channel 7 would air Sci-Fi Flicks on Saturdays at 2:00 PM with this weird moving “bubbly” screen and this warbled sound that kept modulating upwards and then start over again.
Blinky had been around since I can remember, …. and so was Romper Room!
Noel and Andy WAS Channel 7′s kids show, … and that lady could sure draw nice with the sharpie in the mouth of her hand puppet.
For you musicians, … how about Petes Music on Larimer, … or Bobbys Music on Broadway, … or the old original Wedgles Music and Loan?
In the 60′s and 70′s, Denver had a Playboy Club on top of the old Radisson Hotel (now the Warwick), downtown. 
Sid Kings Crazy Horse Bar on Colfax was the site of adult entertainment with Nationally Known Strippers!
In the 60′s and 70′s, Denver Policeman, Buster Snider was handing out tickets at a record pace.  He got me twice back then, … once letting the air out of my 1967 Chevelles “air-shocks” because he had measured the car and told me it was too high.  That caused my wheel wells to cut up my expensive fat tires I had on the back!
The Downtown Hilton (now the Adams Mark), had a really nice pool outside on the 5th floor!  We used to rent rooms there in the late 1970′s to throw parties!
 More to come ……

[bornway2soon]

How about driving down Colorado Blvd. to go to Colorado Springs before the Valley Highway (I-25)?
The Howdy Doody Show
Adventures of SupermanFamily pack at McDonalds 4 burgers + 4 fries + 4 drinks for $1Bowling at Celebrity for a dime/gameWhite Spot pancakes all you can eat $1.99 after midnight!Aloha Valley BeachSunset Beach Compass Drive-InsMr. Lucky’sYum Yum TreeFanfare – Arlans and GEM storesDenver Bears baseballLarimer Street in the 60′s………Woodsies in Castlerock Canyon