Awwww....Mondays!

I don't mean to sound down and out but today is the anniversary of the loss of my oldest sister Pat. So it has been a rough morning for me. Then I stopped by Michael's and decided to link up too! This is Boots, my best feline friend ever! I lost him in March 2012. He was as proper as a cat could be! Always a gentleman and never rude and obnoxious! He was like a person to me and made my time with him so memorable. Thanks for stopping by and thanks Mike for sharing with us.

 If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much. ~Mark Twain

Love is.../ Blue Monday

With bitter cold temps and snowy and icy roadways, this is where we want to be! We got a little stir crazy today with the snow and it took a short break so we ran out and did a few errands and had lunch. By the time we were done the snow was falling and the temps fell to even colder and miserable so we headed home and this is where we want to be!

This was the amount of snow we had this morning at 7 A.M. It shows about 4.5 inches! Did you notice my ruler is clear with a touch of blue? Hope you will visit Sally and see more blues.

We stopped by Famous Dave's for a little barbeque yesterday, and I saw this display above our table. Do you see blue?

I caught part of Famous Dave's ad here and it has some blue in it too.

There was a lone blue shopping cart in the wintry weather yesterday at our local Goodwill store.

The Goodwill logo at their store is also blue.

The American Furniture Warehouse a short distance from our home. It is patriotic in red, white and blue!

Heading home from Denver yesterday and our I-25 sign is blue.

A Coors Brewery ad on a downtown billboard.

The downtown Goodyear store is painted in white and blue and yellow.

The bus station downtown is  painting with some blue too!

Even McDonald's billboard ad sports a blue background.

A billboard for ethanol shows football players in blue jerseys.

Old Glory shares her stars and stripes with some blue also.

A bright blue sign for a local business.

This blue car was merging onto the highway while I was snapping photos and my hubby was driving!

Ultimate Electronics closed down a few years ago but their building still stands out from the highway bright in blue and yellow.

I shared a  lot of blue. Now visit Sally and the other blue crew! Enjoy your week.

Nostalgia Part Two

Oh my, Sunday my hubby and I went to church and than stopped by the Wishbone and had chicken dinners! They have been around for a really long time, since 1963. Same phamily owns the place and their food is comfort food, plain and simple. It reminded me of another great chicken place back in the day. Not only did the Denver Drumstick have great chicken they had an electric train that ran around the entire restaurant. It was situated above the dining rooms and you could watch that little train from every angle. Pueblo did not have a Drumstick restaurant but Colorado Springs did and my phamily frequented that one a lot. I loved watching that train. Sigh...the Drumstick restaurants are no longer open. So sad.

Now this restaurant was exciting. The Yum Yum Tree! You walked inside and you could travel to so many different countries, it was often hard to decide where you would dine! There was such an array of choices you could travel to far away lands and never leave the restaurant. Alas, it is gone too. It was a treasure chest filled with glorious foods.

Casa Bonita had to be the most fun filled place when the kids were small. They never wanted to have a birthday party anywhere but there! The huge pink Spanish style building that housed this fun Mexican restaurant with divers and games galore was a Denver icon. Opened in 1974 they have served up some cheesy Mexican meals and brought smiles to the faces of many children. When two of our kids graduated from college they wanted to celebrate here! Although it has changed through the years it is still a fun place to visit and you can even toss a few coins in the fountain outside. You should visit Beverly and see the pinks over at her place too.

May 13, 2012 was Mother's Day! It was the day our first college graduate Jeremy graduated from Metro State College in Denver. we celebrated later on that day at Casa Bonita. It was a fun day and we enjoyed good times as well as great company! That fountain is always so pretty in the summertime.

Dino's is still around. It is located near Casa Bonita in Lakewood, Colorado. They have been serving Italian food since 1961 and it is a great phamily style place to enjoy some fun and food! They have served a lot of pizza ans spaghetti since they opened their doors  54 years ago! When you visit Dino's you will see people there that have grown up with this establishment. Now they bring their own phamilies here to break bread. Dino's is a nostalgic place because they still use the same red tall plastic drinking glasses from a different era. I love the phamily feel here.

I bet lots of you can remember F.W. Woolworth's! I grew up shopping at Woolworth's, Newberry's and Kress. In my home town of Pueblo they are all businesses today in the lovely old buildings on Main Street where Woolworth's was held the best candy counter around and a lunch counter to tickle your taste buds. My oldest daughter Noelle worked at Woolworth's in Northglenn for several years. When they closed she continued her friendship with the staff of ladies she worked with in the restaurant and to this day they all go out to lunch once a month. a few of them have passed away but this tight knit group of gals still have fun together. There was a retired gentleman's club that met for lunch at Woolworth's when Noelle worked there. They were called the ROMEO CLUB. It stood for Retired Old Men Eating Out! My Uncle Louie would always say that there wasn't a thing you could not purchase at Woolworth's. You just don't get the same treatment at Walmart or Target today that you did when you shopped and had lunch at Woolworth's.

Celebrity Fun Center was on Colorado Blvd. and you could go there to bowl, swim, play games or simply hang out with your friends. It had 80 lanes of bowling and three pools including a huge slide that was encased in clear plastic that you would see from the street! I just don't know why places like this no longer exist. It was a great place for teens to hang out and kids were not getting into trouble back then. A bittersweet piece of nostalgia.

Well, I might have to add that when you travel to Trinidad,Colorado which is traveling south on I-25 nearly to the New Mexico state line you will come to Trinidad which has become very famous for those wishing to have a complete transformation and get a sex change operation. If you go to Trinidad the locals will ask you if you would like some green chili with those fries, a shot of tequila and hey, how about a little green chili with your green chili! They love their green chili in Trinidad ! But in Denver you have to find a Chubby's! I would recommend the original one in North Denver but my suggestion would be to go there in the day time. The nigh time is still a little iffy with crime and shootings! I would go to Chubby's on 72nd and Federal Blvd. They have the friendliest staff and those chili cheese fries are for special occasions only. They are loaded with a lot of calories!

Drive in movies have become a thing of the past, until recently. Someone is building a huge drive in movie theater near my home. It will be state of the art, top of the line. Goodness, we use to go to the Cinderella Twin Drive In in Englewood, Colorado when our kids were small. we grew up with drive in movies. As teens we'd flip a coin to see who had to hide in the truck with two other people and we'd pile out and have the time of our lives. Good memories. There is only one drive in theater left and it is not too far from my home in Commerce City. I am unsure if it will survive the opening of this new mega drive in but we spent lots of nights taking the kids there too in the summertime. It was just part of summer and our kids have memories of those drive in movies. Sigh!
I will join Ms. Jenny and the Alphabe Thursday gang again and share this second part of my nostalgia.  I hope you had a good time.

Old Dogs and Children and Watermelon Wine by Tom T. Hall

"How old do you think I am?" he said
I said, Well, I didn't know
He said, "I turned 65 about 11 months ago"

I was sittin' in Miami pourin' blended whiskey down
When this old gray black gentleman was cleanin' up the lounge

There wasn't anyone around 'cept this old man and me
The guy who ran the bar was watchin' 'Ironsides' on TV
Uninvited, he sat down and opened up his mind
On old dogs and children and watermelon wine

"Ever had a drink of watermelon wine?" he asked
He told me all about it, though I didn't answer back
"Ain't but three things in this world that's worth a solitary dime
But old dogs and children and watermelon wine"

He said, "Women think about theyselves, when menfolk ain't around
And friends are hard to find when they discover that you're down"
He said, "I tried it all when I was young and in my natural prime
Now it's old dogs and children and watermelon wine"

Old dogs care about you even when you make mistakes
God bless little children while they're still too young to hate
When he moved away I found my pen and copied down that line
'Bout old dogs and children and watermelon wine

I had to catch a plane up to Atlanta that next day
As I left for my room I saw him pickin' up my change
That night I dreamed in peaceful sleep of shady summertime
Of old dogs and children and watermelon wine

"N: is for Nostalgia

I found this pretty pink skyline view of my city, Denver, Colorado on pinterest. Although I grew up in Pueblo, 120 miles South of Denver, I have lived here since 1983. Because I am joining Ms. Jenny
and the treasured folks at Alphabe Thursday I thought I would choose "nostalgia" for my word. We are celebrating the letter N. You may  stop by and visit Beverly and some Pinkies too.

I learned to travel across Denver via Colfax Avenue. Playboy magazine once called Colfax Avenue, the longest, wickedest street in America. Ah, times they are changing! At least, the police will tell you that! The governor will vouch for them and even the Mayor of Denver agrees, Colfax is cleaning up it's act! Occasionally, you may see a "lady of the night" or even her more colorful pimp still wandering near the main road. Colfax runs East and West and ends at the most West side at Heritage Road in Golden, Colorado and on the farthest East side at Headlight Road in Strasburg, Colorado. Now I have seen some interesting things on this 53.3 mile (85.8 km) street. It helped me get around the streets and travel great distances without using the major highway system.

Here is a shot of Colfax from 1972. I graduated high school in Pueblo that year. I was always excited about visiting Denver because my older brother Ed has lived up here a lot longer than I have. You can see our beautiful mountain range in the background of this photo and the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. My honey works just North of the state capital building, which you can see in this photo also.

This is 1490 Lafayette Street in Denver.  This is one of those old buildings  used as apartments in the day.I lived with my girlfriend Lynn for a brief month in  the 1300 block of Lafayette, we were two blocks from Colfax . She was a different sort of gal, and although she stood up for me at my wedding, I lost touch with her, she was a real loner and anyone who knows me will admit Chatty Cathy ain't got nuthin on me! I am a people person, I doubt I will change now!

This is 833 Dexter Street. It was quite a colorful condo complex , as they called it. My friend Bea lived in  the next building on the left of this one and I lived at 830 Dexter on the right side. Senator Gary Hart  had a place here and one day, Bea and I were nearly late to work because he ran in a failed attempt at the presidency and she and I were surrounded by Secret Service people trying to get to our job a few blocks away! Apparently, he was in town campaigning and upsetting our daily routine!

I lived in the far right apartment at 830 Dexter. Ah, memories, such nostalgia! My honey proposed to me in that apartment. We wanted to be married and decided we would do it quickly as my father was ill and I wanted him to see that I was happy and his granddaughter, my first daughter, Noelle was happy too. The rest, as they say, is history!

Not too far from my apartment was, and still is, this terrific ice cream store. It was called Lickety Split and someone sued, they had the patent and so the name had to be changed. They have been churning out some of  the best ice cream since 1976 and they have conjured up over 300 different flavors. The menu will often change and you can sit in the shop or enjoy the treat outdoors. We have ordered many a birthday cake from this delightful ice cream store as well. Liks is located at 13th and Vine in the Capital Hill area and you should check it out if you are in the Denver metro area.

Bea and I worked together at the Department of Microbiology/Immunology at the UCHSC and it shared the corner of 9th Avenue and Colorado Blvd. with the University Hospital. Nowadays lots of new condos are going up there and the hospital and health sciences center moved to their new campus near Denver on Colfax! It is a wonderful little neighborhood and there are lots of great things to do. I miss it but in order to live in the area these days you need a lot of money!

This deep fried sandwich was called "Fool's Gold Loaf". The story goes that it was nicknamed "the Elvis" because Mr.  Presley  was hanging out with some friends one night at Graceland back in February, 1976 and someone mentioned eating this creation while they were in Denver. Elvis was so tempted by this decadent sandwich that he had his private jet fly from Memphis to Denver in the middle of the night.  The sandwich which consisted of peanut butter, bananas  and bacon  inside a hollowed out loaf of french bread and deep fried golden brown was not a disappointment to the "King of Rock n Roll" and the story goes that he bought the recipe from the owner and passed it on to his personal cook so it would always be available to him. The restaurant that served up this decadent calorie loaded prize was the Colorado Mining Co. It was a wonderful place and of course, it was filled with many mining memorabilia and was designed to look like a mine shaft! When we were newly married we had dinner there once. Sad to say, it is only  a memory and no longer there in Glendale which was a few miles from my apartment.

I am going to continue my nostalgia post tomorrow and share more memories of days gone by. I am linking with Ms. Jenny and hope you will join us too.

Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense, but the past perfect! ~Owens Lee Pomeroy

Love is.../Blue Monday

My hubby does not need glasses except to read. I was practically born wearing them.  I started wearing glasses in the fourth grade. Poor sight, terribly near-sighted. So Friday my hubby too the day off and we saw the eye doctor for our annual eye exams. I need new glasses, surprise, surprise! But my honey will need a cataract surgery on his left eye. He had the right done about three years ago. This is a new doctor, as our previous one retired. The retired doctor had been an Air Force pilot. You can imagine we enjoyed seeing him (no pun intended) LOL! So tomorrow I will venture out and look for new frames and get those new glasses soon. My honey has the next two days off and we have snow so it will be great fun having a few more days together.

Here was the sky on our way to church today.

Coming home it looked like this and it was cold and getting ready to snow.

Our Sunday service at RedRocksChurch is held at Heritage Square. It had been a glorious amusement park. One of those fun filled family places where many good memories have been made. Sadly, we have heard it is closing at the end of 2015. This photo of the music hall was pulled from google images and oh what fun we had there! We saw many fun music productions there and sadly it closed last year.

These Victorian buildings are so beautiful and the shoppes they once held were filled with lots of fun for the kids and for adults too.

This is my shot of the Music Hall. Sigh!

The sweet little carousel was at the entrance of the park. I wonder what they will do with it now. Thank you google image.

Another image of the entrance to the park. I put these photos up so Sally and the Blue Crew would spot the blue in each photo for Blue Monday today!

My shot of the carousel when we were leaving church today.

My shot of the Heritage Square Entryway as we left our church service today. Our church uses many of the smaller Victorian buildings on the Main Street for the Children's Ministry! I hope we don't have to move after the park closes.

Lots of activities when the park was in full swing.

The Alpine Side was quite an attraction for the youngster.

This will be a sad time to see this lovely village filled with colorful Victorian buildings  close. I hope someone steps forward and buys it and  revitalizes it soon. I also hope our church will continue to hold our Sunday services there. It is beautifully located in the foothills of Golden, Colorado.