Remembering The Hatch's Bookstore Gang

As long as I featured a 2005 college of my friends and coworkers at the University of Denver Bookstore yesterday, I thought I would follow up with a photograph of some of the Hatch's Bookstore gang, taken in the early 1980s.  Hatch's was a local Denver bookstore chain, and also had stores in Craig, Colorado, and Lawrence, Kansas.  I was the manager of the Hatch's in University Hills Mall, moving to Denver from Chicago in 1981 to take that position. Like many bookstore chains, Hatch's no longer exists, but it was a fun place to work while it lasted.  Going clockwise from the upper left in the photograph is Bruce, who later got a job as an archaeologist with the Wyoming Highway Department; Stuart, wearing Groucho glasses and who astute blog readers will recognize from Monday's post; Carie, who later worked as an editor for Random House and HarperCollins in New York; my ex-wife Lisa (I met here while working at the store), who is now a music teacher at an elementary school in San Francisco; and Maggie, who the last I heard was head of the Colorado Center for the Book.  I googled Carie Freimuth's name to find out which publishers she worked for, and was shocked to find that she passed away from a rare form of cancer last year at the age of 55.  Her obituary stated that she got an MBA from Columbia University, and that as an editor, she had worked with Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. What a career. And how sad to pass away at such a relatively young age.  It definitely puts things into perspective.

The Infamous Denver CowParade / DU Bookstore Collage

After I posted a blog last week about Denver's CowParade back in 2005, I remembered that I had done a collage that year featuring both cows from that event and the staff of the University of Denver Bookstore, where I worked as the Finance Manager for almost 30 years.  It only took a few days for me to remember this, since a copy of the photograph is sitting on one of my living room bookshelfs.  I also once did a Christmas collage featuring the staff, but God only knows where that photograph is stored. In any case, it is both fun and frightening to look at that collage, seen in all it's glory on the left. It is fun to remember those times and the people I worked with, but frightening to see how much younger we all looked back then.  Was there really a time when my mustache wasn't all white?  Hard to believe.  In any case, this collage was done before my friends and former co-workers Valarie and Bill, among others, started working at the store.  However, I later did a "Blurb book" called The Book on the DU Bookstore, which features portraits of them and the others as well.  Be sure to check it out at https://www.blurb.com/b/1230340-the-book-on-the-du-bookstore.

Dining At Mannie And Bo's With Stuart

I had dinner with my friend Stuart at Mannie and Bo's Pizzeria, located on South Golden Road in - you guessed it - Golden, Colorado.  We have been there before, and they serve excellent Chicago style, thin crust pizza, which is what we had last night.  Mannie and Bo's is a small, family run business, with a relaxed, neighborhood feel to the place.  It has lots of humorous, but corny signs on the walls, such as the ones Stuart is posing in front of in the above photograph.  Stuart and I have been there in the past to watch the Chicago Cubs play during the post-season.  It is definitely good to know where Chicagoans hang out in Golden, even if they are north siders.

The Most Haunted Building In Denver?

I drove past the Croke-Patterson-Campbell mansion the other day, located in Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood, and stopped to take a photograph of it, since it is reputed to be one of Denver's most haunted buildings.  It was built in 1891, and was owned by a variety of different people until it became the Patterson Inn, a boutique hotel.  During renovations to turn it into a hotel, workers reported seeing the ghostly figures of children running around the place.  There have been other sightings of ghosts there, too. I have to say it certainly looks haunted.

Another haunted building was the Arapaho County Court House on Denver's 16th Street. During the summer of 1900, it was reported that the elevator doors would open up in the basement and ghosts would wander out and walk among the guards on duty there at night.  There was also reported to be unnatural lights and the smell of brimstone, leading to the conclusion that these were the very gates of hell. The building was eventually torn down, and later became the site of a hyperbolic paraboloid designed by architect I.M. Pei, marking the entrance to a department store.  Years later the building was converted into a hotel, which is now the Sheraton Denver Downtown, seen in the photograph on the right.  There have been no reports about seeing the gates of hell since the courthouse was torn down, but that building is now undergoing still another renovation.  Hopefully they won't be doing any remodeling in the basement.  It might awaken those damn (or should I say damned) spirits.

The Christmas Season Has Arrived. And Way Too Early, I Might Add...

The Christmas tree has gone up at Denver's Union Station, which in recent years has been remodeled into a collection of upscale bars, restaurants, and shops, including a branch of the Tattered Cover Bookstore, where I used to work as the bookkeeper. And therefore, at least here in Denver, the Christmas season has officially arrived - way earlier than ever before, at least as far as my faulty memory can tell. As can be seen in the photograph above, the tree is located in front of the Terminal Bar, which is named after a famous bar of the same name, which was located just down the street, and is now - sadly - the home of Jax Fish House. The old Terminal Bar, by the way, was a favorite hangout of beat generation author and poet Jack Kerouac, who I am sure would be horrified at the price of beer at it's recent incarnation.  I feel your pain, Jack. Believe me. And as for the early start of the Christmas season, it just means more time to be jolly, right?  Right?

Remembering Denver's CowParade

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I recently took a walk around downtown Denver, and eventually headed down 14th Street toward Civic Center Park.  As I was passing Territory Kitchen and Bar, located in the downtown Hilton Garden Inn, I noticed two cow sculptures on their patio, left over from Denver's CowParade back in 2005.  That was an event in which local artists painted those cows, which were then placed all over town, and afterwards auctioned off to raise money for charity.  I thought it was really a lot of fun, and the very next year, when I went to Florence, Italy, experienced the CowParade there, too.  Out of curiosity, I googled this event and found out that it is still taking place in cities around the world, this year in Salvador, Brasil. Good for them.  Check out the CowParade website at http://www.cowparade.com/.

The Blue Bear

I went for a walk around downtown Denver the other day, and decided to take the above photograph of the city's famous blue bear, an artwork by Lawrence Argent titled "I see what you mean." I have featured it before on this blog, but figured what the heck, why not do it again since I was passing by. The bear is located in front of Denver's convention center, and is wildly popular.  We even used to sell models of it (and maybe they still do) at the Tattered Cover Bookstore, where I used to work as the bookkeeper.  Sadly, Argent, a former University of Denver art teacher, passed away several years ago at the age of 60 after a liposuction procedure.  Call me old fashioned, but as far as I am concerned, undergoing any kind of elective surgery, especially plastic surgery, is just tempting fate.  My sister had a friend back in Chicago who died  in her 20s from an aneurysm during rhinoplasty (a nose job); a friend of mine's eyesight has never been the same after lasik eye surgery in Montreal; and my neighbor down the hall, who was perfectly healthy, died during a routine colonoscopy (they punctured something). Scary stuff.  And on that cheery note, have a nice day.