A holiday to sink your teeth into

Years ago, the holidays were as tricky as trying to pet a porcupine.

Being married to someone with a large family, it was required to go spend the day and be held hostage by the same holiday rituals: the turkey fired until its meat was the same color and consistency as a cadaver, the vegetables boiled to exhausted surrender, the instant potato twins, gooey and gluey, and the conflict lurking with the same anticipation as a paper cut that eagerly waits for lemon juice.

The family motto was, “Christmas isn’t Christmas ‘till somebody’s crying.”

Like a starter’s pistol, the slamming of doors and the sound of Kleenex being ripped from its cheerful holiday box sounded the shot that the festivities could begin.

In the beginning, the annual holiday death-march included a trip to the local church to get slapped around by some holiday spirit, but the message of peace on earth, goodwill to men lent the same effectiveness as teaching a rock to drive.

Growing up, I was pretty lucky, my mother the Congregationalist and my father, the Catholic raised a daughter who could bounce back and forth between the pageantry of Roman Catholic rituals held in majestic German cathedrals and the simple home-spun friendliness of the Congregationalist’s modern message of praise and celebration.

Even at 12 years old, I knew the only reason my mother went to church was to look at Reverend Baker.

Reverend Baker was the minister at the First Congregational Church, a tall, slender man with movie-star looks. Each Sunday as the processional wound its way to the pulpit, Baker’s romantic resounding tenor sang Cecil F. Alexander’s tune, All Creatures Great and Small and my mother’s spirit was renewed. His boyish looks and sandy-colored hair was too much for my good Christian mother to withstand and he was frequently invited to our home.

My mother was a vivacious, boldly beautiful woman whose French Canadian/Scotch heritage and savagely dyed blond hair gave her confidence no ordinary woman should have. She had a flair for drama and mystery and was used to getting her way. Even at age 40 she could sell dentures to a dog and she learned how to parlay her good looks and big boobs into pretty much whatever she wanted.

Subconsciously, what she wanted was the reverend.

One afternoon, the good reverend and a chaperone dressed as a six-year-old daughter came by the house at mother's beckoning and there we all were, my precocious mother, the reverend, his daughter and me. Congregated outside on the driveway, she was as animated as ever, gesturing in a manner that brought attention to her bosom and hosting a coquette smile, she did everything but bat her eyelashes. Laughing at one of her own witticisms, she threw her head back and laughed provocatively, and at that moment, God smote her for her indecency and her dentures flew out her mouth, through the air and onto the ground. Not one to miss a beat, she bent down, picked up the errant choppers, wiped them once on her slim Capri slacks and popped them back in her mouth, expertly guiding them back to their home port. True to form, she continued on with her monologue like nothing had happened, besting the beast of embarrassment.

Now I knew better than to say anything to the queen of beauty about her dentures. However, the reverend’s daughter hadn’t been schooled in the ways of flirting women and their dental cleavage that leave-age.

“Daddy, what were those?” she innocently asked, pointing to where the errant dentures had fallen.

“Honey, some people have bad teeth and they have to have someone make them new teeth so they can eat and smile and be happy,” he offered.

“But daddy, why did they fall out?”

Mother didn’t go to church as much after that.

Nowadays the Christmas machine grinds on without mother who always worked to make the holiday special, with or without her dentures. She gave classy gifts and always remembered to take the price tag off the gift before she lovingly encased it bright colors and perfectly curled bows. The “keeper of the holiday” has passed from her to me and now my children fly the Christmas machine through all kinds of conditions including their own in-laws and a mum who almost always forgets to take the price tag off the gift.

From my time spent being roasted by the Christmas fire, I’ve learned a few things: remember the true spirit of the holiday season, comfort those who are hurting, don’t torture food and never, ever, flirt with the reverend.

This blog ran on the High Timber Times website on December 22, 2010
http://www.hightimbertimes.com/content/holiday-sink-your-teeth

School board votes to censure Boggs

Jeffco school board member Laura Boggs was censured by the board Dec. 16, the first time such an action has been taken in district history.

The censure, on a unanimous vote, came after board members characterized Boggs’ behavior as erratic, disrespectful and inconsistent. District Superintendent Cindy Stevenson accused Boggs of “attacking the school district that she was elected to protect” during a conversation between the two.

Under board rules, Boggs was not allowed to vote on the censure. The censure doesn’t limit Boggs’ participation on the board or in performing her duties as a board member. It simply stands as formal public disapproval of a board member's conduct by other members.

However, Boggs, who represents District 2 (the Jefferson County foothills), may lose her ability to participate on board committees. A motion to remove Boggs from all committees she currently serves on will be considered at the Jan. 6 meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. at the Jeffco Public Schools building, 1829 Denver West Drive.

“If we don’t do something now (about Boggs’ behavior), we’re looking at three more years of this, and I think that’s not acceptable,” board member Paula Noonan said.

Board President Dave Thomas said the relationship between Boggs and Stevenson had become acrimonious and prevented the board from moving forward during a critical period.

Boggs was elected to the board in November 2009, ousting incumbent Sue Marinelli of Evergreen with 51.4 percent of the vote. The board discussed censuring Boggs in June 2010 but did not take action at that time.

Reasons for censure

The incident that apparently prompted the censure stemmed from a recent discussion between Boggs and Stevenson.

In a letter sent to board members dated Dec. 13 and provided to the High Timber Times last week, Stevenson informed the board of comments made by Boggs during a 25-minute meeting Dec. 10.

Stevenson said in the letter that Boggs:

• Threatened to expose (Stevenson’s) “lies” and show how she had undermined board relationships.

• Planned to call Washington, D.C., to endanger the Jeffco Teacher Incentive Fund Grant, a five-year, $32.8 million grant awarded in September.

• Said she would “tear this county apart.” Stevenson said she took that comment as a threat against the school district. The letter did not provide any context for Boggs’ statement.

Boggs’ response

Boggs listened quietly during the censure discussion, then responded by saying she didn’t realize Thomas was waiting for a response from her to Stevenson’s letter to board members.

“The characterizations in the letter are grossly misstated,” Boggs said. “I don’t think getting into a ‘he said, she said’ … serves any purpose. I vehemently deny the accusations.”

Thomas said he believed Stevenson’s descriptions of Boggs’ statements were accurate.

“I was hoping to have some kind of response (from Boggs), and there was none,” Thomas said. “If you don’t dispute statements, then they stand as proven.”

Thomas said he was concerned that a board member would try to interfere with the largest grant the district ever received. He said he had many conversations with Boggs about her behavior and recently met with her regarding her communication style.

Jefferson County Education Association President Kerrie Dallman spoke at Thursday’s meeting and detailed what she called Boggs’ unethical behavior over the last year. Dallman asked the board to request Boggs’ resignation.

Other reasons for the proposed censure included what board member Robin Johnson called Boggs’ open support of Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101, despite the board’s statement of non-support of the three controversial ballot measures.

However, Boggs denied supporting the ballot measures at a budget forum on Nov. 13 in Evergreen.

Noonan said Boggs had met with each board member at Boggs’ request for “guidance and context.”

“It pains me that we are at this situation … but there have been repeated issues we have discussed with her,” Noonan said.

This story ran in the High Timber Times, Columbine Courier and Canyon Courier on December 22, 2010. A few other media outlets had a story on the censure, but since no other media, besides Linda from the Golden Transcript was actually at the meeting, they missed the part about the motion to remove Boggs from her committees.

Boggs Censure

Requiem for a hamster

It’s the little things in life that are important. And for a little girl in Conifer, a small thing has left her life, and she’s pretty sad about it.

Garlands the hamster, voted Conifer’s first unofficial mayor in 2009, passed away in November. Garlands was 3 years old.

Garland’s owner and human companion, Phoebe McKeown, 8, said she misses Garlands.

“I’ve been sad for a little bit,” Phoebe said.

Phoebe said she didn’t know Garlands’ precise cause of death, but she knew he was getting old for a hamster.

Phoebe said Garlands’ funeral was a private affair, and he was buried in a box in the back yard.

“My dad got a shovel and dug a hole, and we buried him,” she said.

Phoebe quickly changed the subject and walked quietly away.

All things great and small
Phoebe isn’t alone in her grief over losing a precious pet; every day people deal with the loss of a beloved animal, a companion of the heart. Love comes in all shapes and sizes, and Phoebe has joined those of us who have loved and cherished an animal.

Both literature and life are filled with the relationship between a chosen animal and its human companion. Veterinarian and author James Herriot wrote a series of animal books, and one of his fictional characters was Walt Barnett, an unsmiling, tight-fisted merchant in the town of Darrowby. The only thing Barnett had a soft spot for was a cat named Fred. Barnett, tough as nails and as pleasant as a plug of tobacco, sobbed when his beloved pet died. Embarrassed by his show of emotion, Barnett accused Herriot of thinking him weak for crying over a cat. Herriot’s response was that he never liked the man better in his life. Something about animals brings out the humanity in us, even the Barnetts of the world.

Many people remember their lives through the progression of animals that walk on four legs across our hearts.

Sam in 1985, Bones in 1987, Boyfriend in 1995, Jack and Nina in 2003, have all left paw prints next to the footsteps of my life.

Many people have made a trip to a shelter to find a dog or cat. Some people routinely cruise the rows of pens filled with barking dogs with eager paws that reach through chain-link fences and plead for attention. Or they visit the rooms with cubicles of cats that have withdrawn into a ball or sit Sphinx-like, waiting.

I know plenty of people who rescue animals or take bags of dog and cat food, toys and brushes to shelters regularly and are on a first-name basis with the shelter’s staff. They shop the aisles at stores and imagine feeding or playing with an anonymous dog or cat they will never own. Through kibble and toys, donors express their compassion and ease the animals’ wait for whatever destiny the universe delivers.

In death, our animals become legends. We can forgive them the scratched furniture, the occasional soiled rug, the closet full of single shoes. We remember the good and learn from the bad.

As adults, we know the terrible secret, that most of those eager paws and liquid eyes will one day breathe their last, sometimes alone on the street or held by loving arms on a familiar lap, or in a quiet corner of a cage. For kids, the most poignant pet is the first one that that teaches us about death.

It takes courage to love and see a pet through from juvenile fuzzball to elder crony. Whether their life is short or long, what we owe them is the best life possible.

So, welcome to the one of the best parts of humanity, Miss Phoebe — the love we are lucky enough to have with a furry companion, our beloved animals.

This piece ran in the Opinion section of the High Timber Times, December 8, 2010.

'I'm in love with my country'

Under the big blue wall bearing tall, strong letters that spell out “Marines,” Taylor Houser and her mom, Shelley Sealy, say goodbye as Houser begins her first few hours as a Marine Corps recruit.

A small bag containing her driver’s license, Social Security card, toothbrush and cell phone is all Houser has with her. By Monday evening, Houser would trade the contents of that small bag for hard work, sweat and a career.

“Thousands of women have made it before me, so I’m not frightened,” Houser said. “But I’m nervous, because I don’t know what to expect.”

Marine Corps recruiter Sgt. Micah Soboleski chatted with Houser’s friends and mom as he waited for his new recruit to say her goodbyes. Houser is the only woman in this group, and on Monday she began 13 weeks of boot camp at Parris Island, S.C.

“In time I’ve grown more in love with my country,” Houser said. “I’m more than willing to go.”

Houser, 18, graduated from Conifer High School this year and decided that military life was for her. She talked with the recruiter and decided she should research the different military branches and talk to veterans. After doing a little research, she learned that her grandfather had been a Marine.

“I thought about this a lot,” Houser said. “It just seems honorable.”

Honor through service is part of the fabric of Houser’s life, both for her older brothers in the Army and a few friends who also have joined the military. A good-natured, standard-issue competition among Houser and her friends over which service branch is superior is a running battle.

“It’s an ongoing war between me and my friends,” Houser said with a laugh.

Boot camp

Houser knows boot camp won’t be a walk around Evergreen Lake, and she’s tried to prepare herself physically by attending strength and endurance classes, called “pool functions,” sponsored by the Marine Corps. The new recruits are called “poolees,” and their relaxed civilian countenance in pictures on the recruiter’s wall is in sharp contrast to the smartly uniformed grads whose photos hang nearby. Houser’s confident that in 13 weeks her photo will be added to line of young, serious-looking Marines.

“The recruiter told me it wasn’t going to be easy,” Houser said. “There’s a lot more mental stuff that goes on — they have to break you down.”

She said she’s not allowed to have jewelry or makeup. Sealy asked Soboleski if she could send her daughter care packages during training. Soboleski said care packages from home only earn the recruit some deck time that can include extra workouts.

So the only thing Houser can expect from home is as many letters a day as people care to send her.

Houser is trying to understand life at Parris Island while she’s still in Conifer. She says she’s prepared for the intense training and being in constant motion, but probably won’t realize just how hard it is until she gets there.

“It’s not the life I’m living now,” she said. “I know I’ll have to wake up at 3 a.m. and run my butt off.”

Yet she remains undaunted by the prospect of the life-altering reality of boot camp.

“I have very high expectations for this,” she said.

On the feminine side of things, Houser said she has spent the last few months growing her hair out so it’s long enough to be pulled into a bun. She chose the bun over the “bob” cut even though part of her really wants to do away with her long blond hair all together.

“I want to shave my hair off and go G.I. Jane all the way,” Houser said.

Houser has gained 10 pounds preparing for boot camp; lifting weights and eating a high-protein diet have added muscle to her slight frame. She also says that, because of her “less-than-perfect” eyesight, she’ll have to wear “birth control glasses” — thick, dark frames that do little to make a woman’s face more attractive.

While conformity hasn’t been that hard to achieve so far, Houser knows her ultimate goal will be much more difficult. Though she’s slated for a position in intelligence, she really wants to be on the front lines. Reconnaissance is where Houser’s heart is, but women aren’t allowed in forward combat areas, she said.

‘Why not?’

Houser has been asked why she’s joining the Marines, and her answer is simple.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it; when people ask me why, I say why not?”

Houser has also thought about the prospect of being near combat.

“I have family here, but I don’t have anything to lose; there’s nothing holding me back. I have no husband and no kids; it would be better for me to go rather than a woman with kids back home.”

Sealy puts on a brave and proud face as her daughter shoulders her black bag and heads toward the recruiter’s car. There are a few tears, but they will be able to say goodbye once more before she leaves on Monday.

Soboleski told Sealy she can expect time to drag while her daughter is in boot camp.

“The time will go fast for her, but slow for you,” Soboleski said.

This story ran in the December 1, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times.

A sleigh full of memories and giving

Last year, I had the chance to sit on Santa’s lap — for the first time in many, many years — at the North Fork Chilifest.

Sitting on Santa’s lap is no small feat since my dimensions stray toward the Rubenesque category, but according to John Drynan, Santa Claus’ alter ego, that’s not a problem. In his tenure as the Man in the Red Suit, his knees have endured worse.

“I once had two people, one on each knee, and each one weighed 350 pounds, easy,” Drynan said.

Drynan has plenty of stories to tell about his life as an icon shrouded in myth. The hard part for Drynan is his Santa stint may be coming to an end — Santa himself needs a Christmas miracle.

Drynan, diagnosed with cancer in 2007, said blood tests reveal that the cancer is back, and doctors are running more tests. But he steers our conversation away from such things. He doesn’t think about not being Santa in the future. He’d rather talk about being Santa for 20 years and the people whose lives he knows he’s impacted.

Kids are a big reason why Drynan donates so much time to being Santa. He said it has helped him keep his own perspective on his illness in check. He makes a special trip each year to the Ronald McDonald House and spends precious time with the families there at a time when they need Santa the most, at Christmas.

“What do you do when you’re sitting there and you see a small child with a shunt in his head?” Drynan said. “You can’t feel sorry for yourself.”

It turns out that being Santa has its peculiar hazards. Drynan said he has to watch how much water or coffee he drinks before he sits down in the Santa chair. He can’t always make it to the little elves’ room. Then there’s the time Santa fell off the fire truck.

“I missed the first step and went down on the ground and stood up and gave a ho-ho-ho, and checked my candy canes,” Drynan said.

For Drynan, being Santa gives him a gift each year.

“The best thing about being Santa is, no matter how I feel before I put on the suit, nobody knows who you are, and I’m a kid again,” he said.

Drynan is a master at getting people to believe in the myth, even if for just a few minutes. He said he could never be a “mall” Santa. It wouldn’t allow him to spend time talking with kids and letting them recite their carefully crafted lists.

Drynan remembers one little boy who came for many years to see Santa and carried a long list, complete with carefully glued pictures of each item. Last year, one child brought a binder filled with dreams for under the tree.

“He did it to make it easier for Santa to look at,” he said.

For the less brave, Drynan has a technique to get kids to laugh, especially after the 1996 fire and flood, when Santa visited with 104 youngsters that year.

“I get people to sit on my lap, talk to kids and ask, ‘When’s the last time you bounced on Santa’s knee?’ I bounce them, and they start to laugh. We take the picture.”

The pictures are a big part of Santa’s workshop, which consists of Mrs. Claus, a Christmas background, candy canes, a digital camera, printer and stacks of photo paper. Those who sit on Santa’s lap, whether they have two legs or four, can have their picture taken with St. Nick for a donation that goes to the North Fork Volunteer Fire Department.

Drynan said most of the proceeds go to help the department. The rest goes for photo paper, print cartridges and, every couple of years, a new printer. He estimates that he and Mrs. Claus produce about 1,000 photographs a year, along with handing out 1,500 candy canes.

He said he’s been part of family pictures, once with a dog, a few cats and a mule. Drynan said they stepped outside for that picture.

“Santa doesn’t stay stationary. He goes where there’s a need,” he said.

Drynan said he has helped raise more than $16,000 for the fire department.

Drynan’s other big expense is his velvety suit, white beard and black patent-leather accoutrements. He said the original suit cost just over $200 about 20 years ago. Suits today cost $300 to $1,000, he said.

“I definitely got my money out of it,” he said. “It surprises me. It’s still going strong.”

Drynan is a little worried about finding a suitable replacement for himself. He doesn’t want to ruin a holiday tradition for many families.

“There are people who come from Kansas to get a tree, but they really come to see Santa,” he said.

Drynan is hoping a little Christmas magic will come his way. In the meantime, he quickly changed the subject, and Santa wanted to know what I want for Christmas. I’m afraid I came up with somewhat traditional answers — prosperity, good health and miracle cures, an easy-to-follow diet and maybe, if Santa has time, Tom Selleck’s phone number.

Contact Barbara Ford at barbara@evergreenco.com or 303-350-1043. Check
www.HighTimberTimes.com for updates.

Santa will be at the North Fork Volunteer Fire Department Station 1,19384 Highway 126, near the Christmas tree cutting area in the Pike National Forest. Santa will arrive by fire truck at Chilifest at 10 a.m. and stay until 2 p.m. Nov. 26, 27 and 28, and Dec. 4, 5,11 and 12. Donations are appreciated for photos with Santa.

This story ran in the November 24, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times. The photo that accompanied the story is one of me and Santa, taken at last year's Chilifest. I'm not printing it here. If you want to see it, go to the Canyon Courier office and look in the dusty archives.

Jack's nap

Each week, the High Timber Times has a Pet of the Week section, and we have been asked to have residents submit their pet's photos and bios for the website. Sometimes, there are no pet submissions, so I come up with new photos for the site.

I took this picture of Jack, laying in the sun, and I snapped a quick picture of him, before the lacy light disappeared. A king at naps, Jack loves all things warm and comfortable and he's an expert of finding warm places to snooze.

Jack, by far the dumbest cat I've ever had, is the King of Naps. I guess he's not so dumb, after all.

Close calls not unusual on 285

As a scanner moderator on the popular website Pinecam, Conifer resident Chris Swathwood has not only heard it all, he’s almost been the subject of one of the emergency calls.

A few years ago, Swathwood was driving late at night and turned onto U.S. 285 near Meyer Ranch. After a few short seconds, he realized someone was driving on the wrong side of the four-lane highway. Swathwood’s car had a low-profile car, and poor visibility increased his chances of being in an accident that night, he said.

“He was only about 15 feet away from me when he realized he was on my side of the road,” Swathwood said. “He went across the median and got back on the right side.”

Swathwood said the darkness, the curve of the road and the amount of time it took for his eyes to adjust ate up valuable seconds.

“The curve is deceptive on any road,” he said of that windy section of U.S. 285.

Swathwood said his near-miss was only about 100 yards or so from the crash involving a Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy on Nov. 3. That accident killed driver Sabrina Pedersen of Evergreen.

“That was one of the reasons I drove over there (on Nov. 4) after hearing the report of a second wrong-way driver in the same area to see what might be causing it,” he said.

Over time, Swathwood thought about the wrong-way driver in his near miss, trying to understand how that person got on the wrong side of the road.

“At the time it happened, I remember thinking they were drunk. As time went on, I think they realized they were on the wrong side of the road, and it scared them as bad as it scared me,” he said.

Swathwood, a pilot, has been prepped for such things as collision avoidance, and he’s always vigilant when behind the controls, of a car or a plane.

He said complacency is a big problem for anyone driving a vehicle.

Swathwood, who once drove 90 miles round trip for work, and said he’s never received a ticket along U.S. 285. He said he has to be careful, though, when driving the same road day after day because not paying attention and distractions are a driver’s worst nightmare.

“We naturally become complacent,” he said. “Pilot training makes me realize that I was becoming complacent with knowing the road very well. Then I realize I’m in the mountains where things happen.”

Swathwood thinks excessive speed is another problem along U.S. 285.

“The biggest problem I have on 285 is the extreme speed of other drivers,” he said.

Swathwood said he used to be one of the “5-to-10-miles-an-hour-over (the speed limit) guys” but now tries to stay in the right lane because of precious cargo — his son.

“Having a 1-year-old in the car makes me drive differently,” he said. “My wife says I drive like a grandfather. For a young child, the littlest collision can hurt them and not hurt us at all.”

He said plenty of incidents occur in the mountain area during an eight-hour day of listening to scanners that include transmissions from the Colorado State Patrol, Jefferson County sheriff and several local fire departments.

He works in conjunction with other scanner moderators to track events and post warnings or alerts on Pinecam. He’s been startled by the severe accidents that have plagued U.S. 285 recently.

“It can go for days, and we don’t hear a thing. Then something happens and it blows up,” Swathwood said.

This story ran as part of a package on 2010's five fatal accidents on U.S. 285. The story ran in the November 7, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times.

A deadly stretch of highway: Three major crashes in six days draw attention to 30-mile section of 285

In a recent six-day period, police scanners blared with calls from three major crashes along U.S. 285. Two people died in separate accidents.

Colorado State Patrol statistics show that along a 30-mile stretch of the highway between C-470 and Bailey, there were five fatalities and 87 accidents from January until Nov. 4.

“Eighty-seven accidents is an extraordinary number, and we need to push that down,” Colorado State Patrol Trooper Heather Cobler said.

In 2009, there were two fatalities on U.S. 285.

However, Cobler said, statewide traffic fatalities are down, with 341 people losing their lives in 2010 compared with 395 in 2009. Of the fatal crashes in Colorado in 2010, driving under the influence and lane violations each accounted for 20.5 percent of the accidents, and distracted driving accounted for 18 percent of the fatalities.

The latest accident

On Friday, another head-on collision on U.S. 285 near Santa Maria shut down traffic for several hours while investigators pieced together the events that severely injured the driver of a Dodge Durango that collided on a curve with an oversized semi-truck.

According to Cobler, accident investigations can help show motorists what not to do while driving. But she said statistics should not obscure the victims and the families and friends they leave behind.

“What we’re talking about is people’s lives,” Cobler said. “Even though we’re reading them as a number, maybe we can help people understand and pay attention.”

Common factors

Cobler said common factors were present in all the fatal accidents along U.S. 285.

“The thing in common with a lot of the accidents is not driving in a safe and prudent manner on these windy roads,” Cobler said.

Driver errors include turning left in front of traffic, high speeds, intentionally swerving, driving the wrong way, weaving on a curve and crossing over the center line. In the two fatalities last week, one driver crossed over the center line, and the other was driving on the wrong side of the road.

“People need to pay attention, slow down, drive in a safe manner and stay in their own lane,” Cobler said.

Cobler said drivers are more easily distracted when they are familiar with a stretch of road and get in a comfort zone.

“When on a new road, you always drive a lot safer,” she said. “The more you drive that road, the more comfortable (you get). You know how the road turns and how your car will respond. It gets to the place where you’re in a wreck.”

So far this year, five area residents have lost their lives on U.S. 285:

• On Nov. 3, Sabrina Pederson, 33, of Evergreen died in a wrong-way crash. The accident also injured a Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy, 41-year-old Markus Liebe. Liebe is still in the hospital after surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.

• On Halloween, Alicia Wilson, 51, of Bailey died in a head-on collision on U.S. 285 at Spring Road. Shawn Lancaster of Pine was injured in the accident. Wilson’s son, Parker, 10, was injured and transported to Children’s Hospital. Parker is still at Children’s Hospital in Aurora.

• On Aug. 30, motorcyclist Joseph Bixler, 36, of Bailey died in a collision with a car driven by Vera Carucci, 98, of Indian Hills. Carrucci was not injured.

• On Jan. 5, Conifer High School students Kenny Barnett of Evergreen and Mara C. Parslow of Morrison, both 16, died in a late-night accident on U.S. 285 near Pine Junction. Kenny Barnett’s brother, Austin, 18, was injured. The drivers of the other two vehicles were identified as Kylee J. Taylor, 20, of Bailey, who was not injured, and Thomas R. Dimler, 42, of Pine, who suffered minor injuries.

This story ran in the November 7, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times. Photo by Barbara Ford.

When learning takes flight

Outdoor Lab is a rite of passage for all Jeffco sixth-graders, and more than 90 students from West Jefferson Middle School traveled recently to the Mount Evans Outdoor Education Lab for a week of learning and living.

“The birds kind of hook ‘em,” Hill said. “You don’t realize how big they are when you see them fly overhead or see them in a picture or on a tree.”

A bird psychologist, Hill understands raptors, their behavior, social structures, skills and shortcomings. She’s also pretty good at reading her human audience, and Hill has noticed that the kids who live in the mountain areas are more familiar with birds of prey.

“The kids from more inner city are more surprised when they see them; they almost look frightened. It takes them longer to adjust,” Hill said. “They’re a little more awestruck.”

Still, Hill did notice that a few of the West Jeff students really seemed to savor the moments when the birds were first brought out or when the Harris hawk flew so close they could feel the wind from the beating wings.

“They took a moment before they took a picture; they were appreciating it first,” Hill said.

Emma Warnecke, 11, from Michelle Fulford’s class, called the raptor demonstrations cool and interesting.

“I liked watching the birds fly,” Emma said. “I was surprised how small the falcons really are.”

Hill, who fell in love with raptors in 1997, has been with HawkQuest since 2008 and said the nonprofit organization gives as many as 500 presentations each year. Each presentation consists of an owl, falcon and bald eagle, but the information is specifically tailored to the audience.

“I hope they (the kids) make some kind of connection … so they can appreciate that bird for what it is,” Hill said. I want them to have an appreciation for those animals that they may see all the time.”

Hill said HawkQuest’s goal is to let kids see the birds up close and understand their importance. Her special trick is the way she explained the mystery of raptors, with words that normally wouldn’t be associated with birds: sunglasses, maple syrup and guillotine.

Students “oohed” and “aahed” as Hill explained the details of the lives of birds of prey. Some birds have “sunglasses-like markings” that help reflect light away from their eyes; some of the faster birds have a maple-syrup substance on their eyes that helps them see during a super-fast descent; and some raptors can be as deadly as a guillotine in midair.

A few kids were horrified to learn that the small red cubes of food in Hill’s hand were really diced rabbit leg.

Soaring imaginations

Danny Barth, 11, from Frank Reetz’s class, said he liked the flying part of the demonstration, but he learned things about eagles he didn’t know.

“I didn’t know that the bald eagle came close to extinction,” Danny said. “It was because of pollution.”

A few lucky students who answered Hill’s raptor questions correctly had the chance to have their picture taken with the bald eagle, a massive, dignified creature that, despite its beauty, has kind of a checkered past. She told the students that Benjamin Franklin did not want the eagle to be the America’s national bird; he wanted the turkey, she said. Bald eagles are crafty scavengers and are notorious for being bullies. They’ll steal other animals’ food and intimidate other birds, according to Hill.

“Eagles are birds of bad moral character,” she said.

Sixth-grade teacher Kristy Sjogren has seen the raptor presentation several times and believes her students learn much from it.

“It’s amazing every time I see it,” she said. “The adaptation for these animals is amazing.”

Reetz confessed that his favorite bird in the demonstration wasn’t the eagle.

“I liked the owls,” Reetz said, “they have a secrecy and privacy and magic that I like to use when I’m writing.”

Reetz thought the presentation taught the kids an appreciation for animals that they don’t necessarily see every day.

“Kids these days are tech-saturated, but they are animal sensitive,” Reetz said.

Box:

For more information about the programs at HawkQuest, visit http://hawkquest.org

Every search on a computer or purchases from participating merchants can help support the mission of Parker-based HawkQuest. If interested in supporting the nonprofit that educates people in Colorado about raptors and birds of prey, go to Yahoo’s nonprofit search engine, GoodSearch, and under the section marked, “Who do you search for?” type in “HawkQuest” and hit the “verify” button. By indicating HawkQuest as your primary nonprofit, each time GoodSearch is used to find topics on the Web, the group will receive 1 cent.

Online purchases made from participating stores such as Target, Amazon, Staples and PetsMart will result in up to 30 percent of the price donated to the program.

Melissa Hill, educator with HawkQuest, said the birds, which can’t hunt for themselves, are fed a special diet of prepared foods instead of live animals. It takes $75 a day to feed the 32 raptors used to teach schoolkids about birds of prey.

“It’s not going to be a huge moneymaker, but every penny really helps us,” Hill said.

This story ran in the November 17, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times. Photos for the story were taken by Matthew Jonas, photo editor for Evergreen Newspapers.

A sticking post: Carla's dilemma

A month ago, Carla didn’t get on the bus to go home from school, she marched resolutely into the principal’s office and told them they needed to call the police.

Carla told the principal’s secretary that she needed to talk to the principal; she wasn’t going to go home to her mother. She needed help, she was tired of being hit, yelled at and treated badly. Her blue eyes unwavering and with a determined glare, she demanded someone protect her from the hurt going on in her home.

She’d had enough, she’s eight years old and she’s had enough.

Stunned by Carla’s assertion, the secretary called the police and soon Carla, the police and the principal listened as she told her story. She’d been hit the night before for being naughty, something that had happened before. Pushed and shoved, she’d had her hair pulled, so hard sometimes that it came out in stinging clumps and she had her head banged against the floor. Her favorite toys had been held hostage or destroyed and she was afraid for her animals and her little sister. She told them to call her dad, call grandpa, call someone that would come and get her and keep her safe.

The people in uniforms or drab business suits had been to the house before and talked to Carla. Sometimes they would ask her questions in front of her mom and when they left, the only thing that happened was punishment as a reward for her honest answers. The people would never tell Carla it would be OK and she was getting tired of it. Family and friends would try to help but it always ended up the same – phones slammed down in anger and screaming … and the aching wait for the next outburst.

In Mrs. Olson’s class, Carla had learned about telling the truth. A lady had come in and talked to the class and brought coloring books and they rehearsed a little play. They learned how to stay quiet in the room when the important voice came over the intercom, and they learned how to say no to strangers. Something inside Carla clicked when the lady talked about saying no. Why couldn’t she say no to mom? Mom was a stranger now anyway, mom didn’t want to play, she didn’t laugh and she was always on the phone. She talked to the voices more than to Carla.

Carla decided it was time someone listened to her because in school, she learned she deserved to be heard.

Carla still lives in the limbo between happy and scared but people now look at her differently. Not with pity, but with the knowledge that something inside that little girl is to be reckoned with. She’s sleeping a little better, even though she waits for her mom to get angry again.

Standing up for herself has changed Carla’s life, although she’s still frustrated with most adults.

She’s been stretching her wings, trying new things and her teacher has had to give her more advanced assignments in school. This week, Carla, who’s been afraid of books with chapters wants to try and read a book she liked that name of - Julie of the Wolves.

This blog post was featured on the website for the week of November 10, 2010.

Winners abound at Mountain Bowl

Even though Conifer High School’s last-minute 17-13 loss to the Evergreen Cougars on Saturday hit the players hard, both players and spectators still were winners.

Spectators had a better view of the game because of the generosity of the community, and players on both teams were given commemorative coins for their participation in this year’s Mountain Bowl, which was broadcast live on Fox Sports Network.

Tiered seating

The new seating at the Conifer High field was provided by local volunteers and has been a milestone dream for Conifer’s principal, Mike Musick. He said he hopes to see his vision of full stadium seating and lighting come true. Someday.

“This project would have cost the district $220,000,” Musick said. “But with the generous support from the community, the project was done for around $60,000.”

The manicured tiers make it possible for up to 2,000 spectators to watch the game from the steep hill that once was just rocks and grass.

Matt Walsh, principal of Evergreen High, said that even though EHS has a lighted playing field, he envies the Conifer accommodations.

“They’ve bumped up the ante,” Walsh said with a laugh.

The Conifer urban legend is that a district official said Conifer High would get a stadium … when pigs fly.

Pigs definitely were flying on Saturday, Musick told the crowd as he was given a surprise award before the game. He and his wife were summoned to the 50-yard line, and he was presented with a football signed by all the players in a small trophy case. Inscribed on the plaque, along with the customary event information, was the phrase, “When Pigs Fly.”

“What touches my heart is to see a home game at the high school,” Musick said.

Musick wants to have a place where the school’s games and graduation ceremonies can be held, so people won’t have to drive long distances for the events. The school held its first outside graduation on the field in May.

Volunteers make it work

The new design, excavating, seating area and handicap seating were donated by local businesses.

Peter Italiano of Evergreen, owner of Rubicon Management Solutions, designed the layout of the terraces, making sure the disabled areas were well constructed and easily accessible.

“Our daughter went to Conifer High, so we’re trying to help out the community,” Italiano said.

“It’s a challenge, the grade is steep, and the grade needs to be accessible,” he said. “Making it work is a challenge.”

Steven Sayler, owner of Sayler and Sons Excavating, was proud to help the school by donating time and equipment to implement the 200-foot-long, three-tiered design.

“We did it for the kids and for the community,” Sayler said.

Sayler’s wife, Corbi, said they are involved in the community and work to help keep Conifer High activities in Conifer.

“We did this because we used to have to go to Lakewood for home games,” Steven said. “It was our pleasure to help Dr. Musick fulfill his dream.”

Commemorative coins

In a large, heavy plastic bag, CHS assistant principal Tim McNerney carried 250 newly minted coins that were handed out to the Mountain Bowl players on both teams. The design was created by McNerney, but he said it was someone else’s idea to have the commemorative coin.

“The boss (Musick) said we needed a coin, so I made it,” McNerney said.

On one side of the heavy, gold-colored coin is the school’s academic crest. On the other side are images of both the CHS and EHS mascots. The coins, made of nickel, are about the size of a half-dollar. They are not dated, so they can be given to Conifer/Evergreen players at future games.

Hope despite the loss

Junior varsity coach Daryll Keeling spoke with the Conifer players after their disheartening defeat at the hands of the Cougars. The game was shown live on Fox Sports Network, and the Lobos fell on a last-minute touchdown pass. Keeling stood by his let-down Lobos, and he knows better results are still to come.

“It’s an extremely young team,” Keeling said. “We have only six seniors on the varsity squad, and our quarterback, Thomas Kim, is a sophomore.”

In the shadow of the loss, Keeling offered encouragement.

“We’ll be more experienced and ready next year,” he said.

This story ran in the November 10, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times

Green around the ghouls

On Friday night, the ghastly ghouls, scary zombies and bloody brides prepared for another night of fright at the Kenosha Auctions and Events center’s first ever Haunted House.

A thick fog slithered in and around the events center as students from Platte Canyon High School and Fitzsimmons Middle School in Bailey chose their costumes, bloody make-up and scare strategies. The students are volunteers at the haunted house sponsored by the events center in Pine Junction. The house will be open again on Friday, Saturday and Halloween from 7 to 11 p.m. at 66803 U.S. Highway 285. The cost is $12 for the Scary Room and $7 for the Not-So-Scary Room. The haunted house isn’t recommended for those under 10 or over 90. A coupon worth $2 off admission is available on the events center’s website, http://www.kenoshaauctioninc.com/Event_ctr.htm

— look for the out-of-place pumpkin.

A 500-straw-bale maze in the Kenosha’s parking lot adds to the fun, and refreshments and scary movies satisfy the stomach and then bring on the queasiness.

Kenosha Auctions and Events general manager Rick Arnold said he’s been pleased with the haunted house but said it’s taken a lot of time and energy to put it together.

“We were sitting around after an auction and we got to talking, and nobody is sure who came up with the idea,” Rick said.

Arnold said the ghouls and goblins are friends, family and students from local schools who volunteer to haunt the 13 rooms of terror.

“I’m so proud of the Platte Canyon High School kids because they are really selling it,” Arnold said.

As she applied a thick layer of hair spray, Rebecca Krafcheck, 14, a freshman at Platte Canyon, said she didn’t realize how enjoyable it is to scare people with impunity.

“From the first, it sounded like fun, because I’ve always wanted to be an actress,” she said.

Ghoul Nicole Watson, 12, from Fitzsimmons Middle School said it was fun to hang out with her best friend and her boyfriend, but her ghoul companion Amy Fabing, 12, also from Fitzsimmons, really got into the spirit of Halloween.

“I thought it would be cool to be the one eating guts,” she said, though she wouldn’t share the guts “recipe.”

Arnold touted the disorienting lighting, screams and howls and surprising twists and turns in the 2,500-square-foot house. Items from previous auctions, aged smelly trunks, hairy spiders, angry-faced skulls, and lots of fog fill the chilly house.

“There’s also a really nasty-looking guy who takes the tickets at the door,” Arnold said. “It’s me.”

Wrapped in a bloody T-shirt, Platte Canyon student and zombie Rochelle Warren, 15, found unexpected perks in her creepy character.

“It’s fun to give people you don’t know a really good scare,” she said.

Harley Bode, 8, had a straightforward strategy worked out for those brave enough to enter his dark corner of a blackened room.

“I let them walk into the room, then I jump out at them,” he said.

Mom Heidi Bode donned a blood-red ball gown, complete with a ratty train, and was a bloody-good part of the show.

“It’s so cool to have something like this up here,” Bode said. “It builds a sense of community.”

Jake Borchard, 12, a student at Fitzsimmons, said he’s been training his whole life for his skeleton-framed part.

“It’s better than being the one who’s scared,” he said.

Mom Andrea McGarva of Pine brought her kids to the haunted house even though they originally wanted to go somewhere else. Judging by their screams and squeals, Kenosha’s haunted house was a success.

“They wanted to go to Heritage Square, but I like to support local businesses,” said McGarva.

Cecilia McGarva, 10, a student at Elk Creek Elementary, said she was chased through the straw-bale maze by bloody zombies, As a result, she decided to forgo the haunted house.

“I think it’ll be too scary,” she said.

This story ran in the October 27, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times.

Veteran's memorial set for unveiling

Intense eagle eyes stare down from on high, guarding the battlefield memorial of a fallen soldier. Yet the tableau is not on a distant battlefield, but at a memorial in Conifer that’s being dedicated to veterans everywhere.

Rich Krupicka of Conifer and his veteran's memorial carving entitled, Covered With Glory. The carving will be dedicated at noon Nov. 11 at the Mountain Resource Center in Conifer. Krupicka created the carving as a memorial to all those who have sacrificed their lives for peace.

The memorial, created for the Conifer Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 12009, will be unveiled at noon Nov. 11 at the Mountain Resource Center, 11030 Kitty Drive. The artist, Richard Krupicka of Conifer, carved the wooden memorial as a testament to veterans everywhere. The carving is titled “Covered with Glory.”

“This is my interpretation of honor,” Krupicka said. “It’s for all the soldiers, men and women in all the wars.”

The memorial bears a plaque honoring all who have sacrificed to serve, and especially one special person in Krupicka’s life: his father, 1st Lt. Norman L. Krupicka, who died two years ago.

The memorial is about 10 feet tall, with an eagle with spread wings poised over an American flag, army boots, rifle and helmet.

Conifer VFW Post 12009’s new commander, Kenny Cressler of Bailey, said the memorial is an important sign of respect, and all fallen soldiers should, at the very least, receive this type of field memorial.

“It was awesome. It makes you want to cry. It’s more than you would have expected,” Cressler said.

Cressler said the sculpture, featuring an M-16 rifle, helmet and boots, “is something you would do for your buddies … before you kept going.”

The sculpture will stay at the MRC, but when Post 12009 finds a permanent home, the memorial will be moved there. Currently, Post 12009 meets at Beaver Ranch. Cressler said a lot of veterans live along the 285 Corridor, and many local residents have lost friends and family members in various wars. He hopes that someday family members of fallen soldiers will leave dog tags at the sculpture as a sign of remembrance and respect.

Krupicka has been carving images from wood for about 12 years with dexterous swipes of a chainsaw and taps from a variety of hand tools. His work has graced many homes and businesses in the mountain area, but the veterans memorial is near and dear to his heart.

“It was an inspirational piece that I really wanted to do,” Krupicka said.

The memorial is made of a Ponderosa pine from the Evergreen area, and a large fork in the treetop was destined to become eagle wings, said Krupicka. He’s made other carvings from the tree, but the top was earmarked for the VFW memorial.

Krupicka guesses the sculpture weighs 500 pounds, and it’s painted with oil paint and protected with a wood sealer. The memorial will last forever, Krupicka said, if it’s cared for and occasionally re-sealed and oiled.

“It means something to me. People can draw emotion from it,” he said. “Sometimes I think people forget about (veterans’) sacrifices, but I know a lot of people who appreciate what they’ve done.”

Elk Creek Elementary School will host a Veterans Day celebration at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Nov. 11. Conifer VFW Post 12009 will open the ceremony with a presentation of the flags, and students will perform.

This story ran in the November 2, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times

A freaky formula: science, sugar

Even students dressed up like Harry Potter or Hermione Granger got a chance to learn some useful science tricks at Parmalee Elementary School’s Spooky Science Halloween event last Friday.

Shari Sabol, volunteer parent and Spooky Science conjurer, organized the simple science experiments that captivated kindergartners and frustrated fifth-graders. Sabol took basic science concepts and turned them into a chance to learn … before the sugar from the Halloween goodies kicked in.

“First off … it’s fun,” Sabol said. “Kids think science is just about planting a seed, but this is hands-on.”

The experiments included the smoky effects of dry ice and water, a bubble extravaganza with dry ice and dish soap, and a giant dry-ice smoke bubble. Kindergartners learned how to make Ghost Cans and move an object with just a balloon and a soda can. Sabol and her coven of volunteer parents showed kids how to make goo, slimy worms and orbs. Higher grades learned how to spear a skewer through a balloon without bursting it and how to balance 12 nails on one.

“I love watching the kids,” Sabol said “I love watching their reactions and how much fun they’re having with it.”

Sabol said she saw the experiments on a popular children’s science program, and then ordered the kits and instructions. She recruited volunteers for each classroom, who had to quickly master the crafts before facing their toughest audience, the kids.

Amy Windle of Kittredge demonstrated Spooky Science in her daughter’s class last year.

But her giant dry-ice smoke-bubble experiment didn’t work, and she was a little worried about the bubble bursting this year.

“I don’t want them to hate me because it didn’t turn out,” she laughed. “The kids seem to love it even when it doesn’t.”

This year, Windle was in Derek Bahlmann’s first-grade class and walked away with her dry ice, soapy dishrag, soap, and a little fear.

Sabol, who doesn’t have a science background, said she struggled with balancing 12 nails on one, and worried she wouldn’t be able to pull it off again this year. But if she had problems with the balancing act, she just had to ask students in Donna Sutherland’s class to help her.

David Jacobson, 11, who came dressed as a crazed sports fan decked out in a variety of team logos, said he had never tried to balance nails before but made quick work of the task and learned something along the way.

“I learned you have to patient,” David said.

Pierce Strasser, 10, made slimy worms and said it was squishy. But Pierce was a little wary of the experiments’ stealth educational aspect.

“It’s pretty cool, as long as it’s related to Halloween,” he said.

Kids, costumes and sugar

Judging by many of the Parmalee kids’ costumes, Indian Hills mothers are extraordinarily creative, and also own sewing machines and glue guns. Costumes included fully plumed peacocks, slices of pizza, firemen, cowboys, big purple dinosaurs, medieval knights, vampires, Wizard of Oz characters, and kids who figured out how to personify Facebook and MySpace.

Kyle Watkins, 10, said he needed permission from the principal for his costume — he was dressed in a bloody T-shirt that sported small General Mills boxes and bloody spoons. A milk moustache completed his ensemble. His identity? A cereal killer.

Third-grade teacher Justine Creel’s students had fun with polymer spikes, watching them grow from tiny dots the size of a pinhead to round orbs the size of a gumball. The kids learned about estimation and predictions, and they discovered the small orbs could be used as magnifying glasses. Their experiments with the orbs began the day before, and by the time the freaky food was brought out, the kids were more than ready to party.

“When Halloween is on Sunday, that means it’s three days of celebrations,” Creel said. “I wonder what class will be like after the sugar high is over on Monday.”

This story ran in the November 3, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times and was the Upslope for Canyon Courier that same week.

Mountain Resource Center's Executive Director Karen Verdier is go-getter and powerhouse helping those in need in the Conifer area. On Saturday, Karen was at Conifer High School throwing bowls for the Empty Bowls Project in November. Karen's a novice at throwing bowls, but her beautiful hands say there's plenty of creativity to spare.

Veteran fought to save his humanity

After he returned from the Vietnam War, Russell Gates gave away his Bronze Star.

“I did it because I didn’t think it was a war we should be fighting, and I wasn’t proud of my service,” Gates said.

Gates, 61, a Dumont resident who works for EON Office in Denver, enlisted in the Army infantry in 1969 at age 19 and rose to the rank of specialist E4. His memories of that Southeast Asian nation center on the monsoon rains, the leeches, the endless patrols — and a loss of humanity.

During one patrol, 15 members of Gates’ unit came upon a bunker complex, and machine-gun fire broke out. Sixty seconds passed, and the shooting was over. When Gates stood up, he saw a Viet Cong fighter fall after having fled the bunker.

“By the time I got there, they had pulled this guy up, and he was still alive — but not for long,” Gates said.

The man had been shot in the groin and was bleeding profusely, just moments from death. Gates said some of his fellow soldiers tortured him.

“He was almost dead anyway, and that was unhealthy thinking (to do that),” he said.

Humanity amid horror

One day, Gates and his company came across a Viet Cong camp, and during the ensuing firefight a woman was shot. She was terrified and cradling a small child.

“I felt for her; I knew she was scared,” he said. “I’m trying to console this person with no (common) language.”

Gates said he carried the woman and her child, along with his 60-pound pack, up a hill to a waiting chopper. Gates said he used a gentle voice and told her she and her child would be OK. He said he could see in her eyes that she believed him.

“That’s what I should have gotten a medal for … I should have gotten a compassion medal,” he said.

Gates said military medals were devalued in Vietnam because so many were given out. Gates said he didn’t know what he got the Bronze Star for.

“I didn’t deserve it, but if I did, then everyone deserved one,” he said.

A history of service

Gates’ father was a World War II veteran, and his family believed in service to the country.

“There was a mind-set that said when you’re called, you serve,” Gates said. “I get that.”

He believes the war began in March 1965 when the first boatload of Marines landed in Vietnam, the “Normandy landing” for his generation. He said that around 1967, people in America became skeptical of the war 8,000 miles away. He said Americans were told that losing the war in Vietnam would mean Communism would consume Asia.

“History has proved that was a war we should not have been in,” he said.

In 1968, he left college to enlist.

“I just thought that was wrong, that war,” he said. “But, yes, I enlisted.”

While in Vietnam, Gates applied for admission to the University of Kansas and sent the application off in a mailbag loaded onto an ammunition supply helicopter. He wondered about the people who opened that application and saw the crinkled, once-soaked application. He was accepted to KU, and three weeks after his discharge he began classes.

In 1968, he was a religion major with plans to study religion abroad. Today, he embraces his faith at St. Laurence’s Episcopal Church in Conifer.

“I’ve become very serious about my faith,” he said.

Before he left for that long-ago war, his aunt gave him a crucifix, and though he’s not a Catholic, he treasured the small icon of faith that he carried through the endless rains, sucking mud and daily horror.

“I carried it with me all the time,” he said. “I didn’t think it was about protection — it was from someone that cared about me.”

Grunting and hunting

Gates said his job in the Army was to hump through the jungles, looking to engage the enemy. Wearing thick-soled boots that would wear out after three months, Gates said it was a dangerous and miserable place to be.

“Nobody ever thinks about what it’s like to be in the jungles in the monsoons,” he said.

“Do you get all wrinkled up when you’re doing dishes? That’s how your skin is all the time — you get cuts, scratches and infections.”

He said it was common during breaks on patrol for the GIs to take off their shirts and find huge pus pockets from cellulitis.

“In the jungles, you wear the baggy pants and a shirt and combat boots, you would take your pants, and fold this tight against your leg and put your boots and tie your laces up to the knee to guard against the leeches,” Gates said.

He said one precious possession was leech medicine. Sleeping on the jungle floor, he said, everyone would wake up and find leeches on their chins, armpits or legs.

“You wouldn’t know this unless you were a grunt,” he said. “Nobody knows the leech stories.”

If the leeches and rain weren’t bad enough, walking all day and sleeping under a soggy rain jacket made it worse. Often they were cold, hungry, sleep-deprived, and the snakes and lizards were constant visitors.

“I’m sitting there next to a typical jungle tree, and a really large snake slithered by,” he said. “My head would have been right there where that snake was.”

Once his unit couldn’t get re-supplied, and they ran out of food, though they had plenty of ammunition. They foraged for potato-like vegetables, fished and hunted to stay alive. Gates said he also ran out of cigarettes and decided to smoke a small corner of his blanket instead.

Two armies, one fight

Gates described his emotions during his time in Vietnams as nervous and anxious, not knowing who was friend or foe, if local children were booby-trapped or if racial tensions within the unit would explode in violence.

“Ninety percent of the kids in Vietnam were drafted, and it was not a very effective army because most were drafted as opposed to enlisted,” he said.

Gates was in the 23rd Infantry Division, the same division as former Secretary of State Colin Powell and the same division involved in the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968, a year before he enlisted.

“They took three brigades and brought them together, and the division was probably too big, at tens of thousands of men,” he said.

Gates was discharged on July 31, 1971, and he said he was offered no support or transition from jungle warfare back to life in the American Midwest.

“Some people dealt with it better than others,” he said.

Gates dealt with it well, mostly because he felt he never lost his own humanity.

This story ran in the October 27, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times and the Clear Creek Courant.

Blog post for October 27, 2010

Scratching post: Helping the Humane Society

http://www.hightimbertimes.com/content/scratching-post-helping-humane-society

Thanks for looking!

A new website? Nah!

Our new websites at Evergreen Newspapers have spot for blogs, and this is my first attempt for the High Timber Times website. Take a look.

My blog for October 20, 2010

http://www.hightimbertimes.com/content/new-website-nah

A sailor’s letter home: Conifer resident wrote his friends amid frightening battles, numbing boredom during Vietnam War

“… We’re going in … all ahead flank, 23 knots … I am now crouched behind the vents … we’re 13 miles out … we are now in range of the coastal batteries …”

Twenty-year-old Noel Lane III scribbled these words in a 10-page handwritten letter during a confrontation off the North Vietnamese coast on Jan. 10, 1973. Lane, a Conifer resident, recently came across the letter, which chronicles both the mundane aspects of life aboard ship and the numbness from spent adrenaline.

“It’s a letter to friends of mine, and in the middle of the letter, I would write down what was happening,” Lane said. “We were getting hit with 200 rounds. … They shot the hell out of us.”

Lane was a torpedoman’s mate second class on the USS Turner Joy, a ship that was involved in the first confrontations of the Vietnam War and also fired the last shot before the cease-fire was declared on Jan. 27, 1973. On that day, the ship’s schedule read as follows: “0800: Commence Cease Fire, Commence Holiday Routine.”

Most of Lane’s January 1973 letter covers a mission near North Vietnam’s main port, Hai Phong, just a few days before the cease-fire.

“… 25,000 yards and closing … speed still 23 knots … they have us on radar now …”

Lane’s job was to foil the enemy radar by launching “stack chaff” that created false targets away from the ship. Lane’s most memorable flirtation with the chaff was when it misfired and landed on his own ship, covering him with the aluminum-laced debris.

“Now I was the target,” he said, laughing now at what scared him to death then.

Lane said he was often frightened but did his job. Still, he and his buddies made plans for escape should the ship be sunk — most kept a ditty bag ready to go in case they had only moments to abandon ship.

According to Lane, the mission outlined in his letter was called Linebacker II and was designed to pound the North Vietnamese into agreeing to a peace accord, which was signed a few days later.

But before peace, there was still war.

“… Changed course to 280 degrees true … still going in at about 30 degree angle to the beach … slowed to all ahead full …”

Lane said the North Vietnamese were firing 8-inch projectiles at the Turner Joy, and he was stationed on the top deck.
“If they hit the ship, there would have been big damage,” Lane said.

The ship had a crew of 250, and Lane has “yearbooks” from his stints in the Navy, one from boot camp and a couple from other tours. Fresh-faced kids smile out from the faded black-and-white pages, and though the books don’t document actual battles, they show the daily routine, the fun and the laughter, when war was far away.

“… 6 miles, 14 knots … were the first time we came under fire … we’re firing now … all 3 guns … what a noise …
… Boy, are we putting out a lot of rounds …”

During that encounter, the ship fired 193 rounds, and in the letter Lane keeps score like a baseball game, complete with innings and hits. A short time later, Lane rambles on in precise handwriting about his mind-set during his 19th hour on duty. He wrote about going 15 days without a cigarette but finding other means to get through the endless shifts.

In a non-combat moment, Lane reflects on the experience of fighting in a war:

“I’ve really become introspective in trying to understand more fully my own self. I’ve been having a lot of feelings inside me that I really don’t understand. This is really a strange experience and it is giving me such a fantastic insight into myself.”

“… 290 degrees true, 16 knots, all ahead …”

Being on deck and under fire required Lane to wear a 20-pound flak jacket, and at times the ship would take fire from starboard and port. Though it kept him safe, the jacket was heavy and cumbersome.

“I have nowhere to go, and I’m outside while all this stuff is blowing up around me,” Lane said.

“… This damn flak jacket is putting my arm to sleep …”

“They (the crew) could feel the rounds as their shock waves bounced off the hull in sonar, and I could feel the shimmy or vibration or whatever. I’m sitting here again on the floor behind the vents.”

“… Real close round shook ship … they have a better average this round …”

Lane said one round hit the vent behind him, just 2 inches from his head.

“Hey you guys, save this letter for me, I’d like to read it again at a later date to see if I can understand or re-capture the feeling of these moments.”

Today’s thoughts on yesterday
Lane, who today owns Lane III Group, Inc., a development and business/management consultation company, said that, for him, whether Vietnam was a just war was not the question when he joined the Navy in the middle of his senior year of high school in 1969.

There were bad times he wishes he could forget, but he still remembers them vividly. Lane said that as he gets older, he tends to remember “only the adventure and the excitement of being a young man on a tremendous adventure.”

He said the only significant part of remembering is when he shares his experiences with a fellow veteran. No one else can truly understand what it was like.

The Turner Joy was commissioned on Aug. 3, 1959, and named in honor of Adm. S. Turner Joy. The ship was decommissioned on Nov. 22, 1982, and is now a floating museum anchored in Bremerton, Wash.

“I was proud to be in the Navy and proud to serve my country,” Lane said.

This story ran in the October 13, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times, Canyon Courier and was part of a special section to commemorate Veteran's Day, 2010.

Going with the grain: Pair repurpose used wood to create handmade furniture

Not everyone can see beauty in a stack of weather-beaten, sun-bleached wood. But in the hands of Tommy Banaszek and Jeanne Sullivan, salvaged wood turns over a new leaf and is transformed into handmade furniture.

KnoT New WooD, located in Kittredge at 26030 Highway 74, is the brainchild of Banaszek and Sullivan, who created the business to showcase wood repurposed into elegant, rustic or highly polished custom designs.

“People come in here and want to touch all the different woods,” said Sullivan.

Tucked around back of the building, the shop will have a grand opening on Oct. 2 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. A discount is offered on furniture for people who live within a 30-mile radius, and they’ll deliver.

“We like to keep the locals happy,” said Banaszek.

Banaszek’s and Sullivan’s enthusiasm for their company is evident in the rapid-fire conversation, the laughter and the promise in each piece of wood. Beetle-kill, storm-damage, rusted nails and saw marks tell the wood’s tale.

“You wonder about the people who touched the wood in the past, who built the barns or whoever has been in that facility,” said Sullivan. “It’s unique, and I think that’s why we both do this.”

Banaszek never sits still; he said his mind is always working on an idea, or his hands are scraping away time and the elements from a piece of wood. He shows off broken and scarred timbers with the same fondness people reserve for pictures of their children.

Banaszek, who polished his trade restoring historic properties for the National Park Service, and Sullivan, a former executive assistant, estimate they’ve made thousands of pieces of furniture — 1,500 this year alone.

Most of the time they discover their raw material in burls, old mines, barns, flooring and building project remnants, or they fish chunks of wood from a river. One impressive find is from shipping crates sent from India in the 1930s. The crates carried marble slabs for the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver and include teak woods, blond and red mahogany, and rosewoods. Some of the wood has come from trees that are now extinct.

“We’ve had arborists in here that can’t identify some of this stuff … it hasn’t been allowed in the country since the 1920s,” said Banaszek.

Banaszek and Sullivan favor Colorado woods — Douglas fir, ponderosa pine — but they also use walnut and cherry wood. Banaszek said he likes working with old dark walnut the best, and each furniture piece is hand-tooled. Their custom-crafted furniture includes tables, bookcases, chairs, wine racks, cabinets, signs, Zen-beds and flooring. Accents can include metal details and natural slate tops, chosen for their texture and veins of color.

“Customers have ideas in mind, and we help to refine it,” said Banaszek.

They don’t charge to design a piece of furniture and ask for half the cost down and the other half on delivery. Orders take between 60 and 90 days to produce. Each piece is handmade with a minimum of power tools; the work is almost all done by hand.

“If we run a big machine on it, it will take it all off, and you just have a flat board with no character,” Banaszek said.

When not making furniture, they travel around the country looking for would-be treasures.

“It’s fun traveling to find hidden treasures, and each piece has its own history and story to it,” Sullivan said. “It’s a conversation piece and a work of art.”

Occasionally they meet the people who owned a structure and can collect photographs of the wood before it was reclaimed.

They estimate they burn through about 20,000 pounds of reclaimed wood, and said it’s getting harder to keep good pieces in stock. Springtime is hunting season, when they tour the country to find raw materials and scramble to get pieces made before the rigors of the craft fair circuit. With each new wooden discovery, there’s always one question on both their minds.

“What will we create next?” said Sullivan.

For more information about KnoT New WooD, call 303-670-8184 or e-mail knotnewwood@msn.com.

This story ran in September 29, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times and ran as the Upslope segment of the Canyon Courier.

Where art, engineering collide: Conifer kaleidoscope maker is a colorful ‘hack of all trades’

Inside the kaleidoscopes made by Henry Bergeson is a secret that tumbles and collides within the mixed-up world of color and light.

Bergeson, of Conifer, builds kaleidoscopes at his studio using a multitude of skills, from metal- and woodworking to computer design and jewelry making.

“I call myself a hack of all trades,” said Bergeson, who takes something as practical as wood, mirrors and colors and turns them into elegant wood-case kaleidoscopes.

Finding out how the simple mechanism of a kaleidoscope works can be as disconcerting as discovering that Santa Claus isn’t real.

Bergeson said the illusion of multiple layers of bright colors is actually created by two or three mirrors set at specific angles in the shape of a pie wedge. The mosaic effect is really a circle of reflections upon reflections.

Bergeson’s studio and workshop are both brightly lit with natural light, and the workshop hosts a forest of sliced burls, thick sawdust and wood stacks. He selects the raw wood for the scopes’ wooden cases and shapes them with computer-driven manufacturing machines. He said the wood grain relieves him of the duty of decorating the outside of the scopes. Polished to a glossy sheen, each is unique.

“We sand the hell out of them,” Bergeson said.

The scopes are fitted with glycerin-filled cylinders called “object cases” that hold an eclectic collection of trinkets, which provide the subtle or vibrant source for the kaleidoscope’s psychedelic mosaics.

“It’s like cooking. You have to see how things go together,” Bergeson said. “It’s all fairly subjective, so I never know if it’s the right combination or not.”

Bergeson’s recipe for the hues is more about color and texture than just a random toss of objects. Items inside the kaleidoscope run the gamut from Chinese symbols to junk jewelry.

Bergeson estimates he’s made 50,000 pieces in the last 24 years. The scopes allow Bergeson to come full circle with his skills as a mechanical engineer. Creating kaleidoscopes also lets him hold the finished product in his hand, something he missed when working as an engineer.

Bergeson made his first kaleidoscope in 1986, and his boss told him he probably could make more money producing kaleidoscopes than working as an engineer. Bergeson wonders if that compliment was a subtle message, because a short time later, Bergeson found himself unemployed.

“I had no idea about the whole thing of kaleidoscopes and that there were people making them,” Bergeson said.

Sir David Brewster made the first kaleidoscope in the early 1800s. The popular toy experienced a resurgence and sophisticated upgrade sometime in the 1970s.

Bergeson called the kaleidoscope “the television of the time period.”

Now a one-man operation, Bergeson once had enough demand to employ several people, but the ailing economy has left consumers with less disposable income for fanciful purchases.

Bergeson offers eight different models that range in price from $140 to $5,000. The scopes carry names such as King’s Ransom, Moontide and the Corda Lee, named after Corda Lee “Corky” Weeks, a friend and kaleidoscope maker who helped Bergeson get his business off the ground.

The elite scope in his shop is the Honey Jar, which was showcased at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City. Bergeson said he plans to make only 25 of this design, with production starting soon.

Bergeson also hopes to get more of his kaleidoscopes out to art shows and into gift shops soon.

“It’s time to get it in high gear and start making some more of these,” he said.

Bergeson’s scopes are sold online and can be custom ordered. For more information, visit www.henrybergeson.com.

This story ran in the September 22, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times. Sidenote: I was told this story was printed as it was written, with only minor AP-style edits.

Nuclear family fusion: Golden Stix Chinese Restaurant

For Jason San, owning a successful Chinese-fusion restaurant in Conifer is a family affair, one that involves a hearty helping of all foods Asian.

Opened in January, Golden Stix Chinese Restaurant, at 25567 Conifer Road, Unit 105, features a variety of freshly made Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Hunan and Vietnamese food. Though it offers both dine-in and take-out, there’s no rush to eat and leave at the Golden Stix.

“With the full belly, life’s a little more relaxed,” San said.

San, 30, of Littleton was born in Hong Kong and came to America at age 6. He alternates easily between his diverse worlds: ancient Oriental medicine cures for a cold and downloading software updates for his trendy cell phone. But San’s passion is for all things that can be done well.

“That drive keeps burning, and makes you want to strive and go for perfection,” San said, “especially when you have an expectation of where you’re going to go. (The restaurant) far exceeded my expectations.”

San’s father and uncles have 40 years of culinary experience among them, and they created the menu and prepare the food. San says he pretty much stays out of the kitchen.

His previous jobs in sales gave him the entrepreneurial background, and he learned a basic formula: keep up the quality, keep up the service, create the right ambience, and people will come — and come back. The restaurant has eight tables and seats about 30, and the décor is a mix of Asian culture, complete with Buddha and bamboo, and has a dash of modernity in the gold-flecked walls.

“It might be small, but it’s cozy,” he said.

San sees a lot of potential in the restaurant’s location on the east end of the King Soopers shopping center. He thinks the area could become a social center for young people. San, a former Los Angeles resident, was surprised to find there’s no movie theater or bowling alley in Conifer.

Right now, his biggest challenge as owner of a Conifer restaurant is to get people to try his food, though they might not be accustomed to the fusion taste.

The menu encompasses a world of Asian favorites: soups, appetizers and entrees such as Mongolian Madness, Incredible Curry, Goodies in Garlic, Sesame Sensations, and Sweet and Sour Delight. San said meals are prepared with fresh vegetables and meats cooked to order and prepared with very little oil and a minimum of monosodium glutamate. The restaurant does not yet have a liquor license.

Rose Bradford of Morrison ordered take-out and carried her order in a traditional brown paper bag. She said she’s been to the restaurant a few times, and the extra-spicy Pad Thai is her favorite.

“The food is fresh and great,” Bradford said. “I give it a 10.”

San said his favorite dish is the sesame chicken, and he’s proud of the recipes created by his family.

“When you bite into it, you actually get chicken, not just oil and batter,” he said. “It’s sweet with a hint of spice.”

For San, the Golden Stix menu is a wonder of tastes and choices, and he’s proud to serve what he calls the best Chinese food in Conifer.

“I’m not here to change the world with this little restaurant,” San said. “But I want to create a sense of comfort, and people can just relax and enjoy the experience.”

This story ran in the September 15, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times

Stairways to remembrance: 1,500 climb Red Rocks stairs to honor victims of 9/11

Some 1,500 people climbed a total of 5 million stairs at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Saturday in a somber ceremony remembering the nearly 3,000 people who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Area firefighters and those who simply wanted to remember climbed the amphitheater’s stairs nine times to commemorate the 110 flights that New York City firefighters climbed to try to save the occupants of the World Trade Center. The event raised more than $50,000 to help the Twin Towers Orphan Fund, the West Metro Fire Foundation and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. The Metro West Fire Protection District sponsored the event, which began at 9:03 a.m. to commemorate the moment United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower.

Also on hand was the family of Jason Dahl, the Littleton pilot who was the captain of United Flight 93, the flight bound from New Jersey to San Francisco that crashed near Shanksville, Pa. Terrorists had intended for that plane to hit the White House.

Some of the firefighters did the stair-climb in full bunker gear, while others carried axes, hoses and equipment.

Jacob Ware, a firefighter from the Elk Creek district, climbed the stairs with 50 pounds of gear. Last year, the climb took him a little less than an hour.

The event is symbolically important, said Don Lombardi, deputy chief for West Metro Fire Rescue.

“The New York firefighters went into the smoke, the heat, and they knew they were going to their deaths,” Lombardi said.

Jesse Winefeldt, who has been a firefighter with Elk Creek for a year, carried his son, Jake, 2, on the stair-climb. On Sept. 11, 2001, Winefeldt was in college, and he recalled a sense of disbelief as he watched the televised images.

“I saw it on TV and thought, ‘That’s not real,’ ” Winefeldt said.

A direct connection to 9/11

As participants checked in and received their blue T-shirts, they could choose to carry with them the name of one of the 343 fallen rescue workers.

Volunteer Armando Encinias of Lakewood, who worked at the registration table, said he was surprised when someone asked him for a specific name of someone who died that day.

“You meet people who say they knew somebody,” said Encinias, who is training to be a firefighter. “But to actually have someone standing right there was an eye-opener.”

Mary Kay of Pine walked the steps along with her dog, Mocha, and carried a Sept. 12, 2001, copy of the New York Times with its stunning images. Kay walked for her daughter, Kay Strozewski, who was in the South Tower and who survived, scrambling down 69 floors in high heels and dodging debris. Strozewski made it out of the building 15 minutes before it collapsed.

“She made the right decisions,” said Kay. “If she had done something different, she wouldn’t be here today.”

Nourishment for the climbers

On that fateful day in 2001, Keith Arnold of Littleton stood on top of a building in New Jersey and watched the horror at the World Trade Center unfold. For Arnold, the main emotion he felt that day was confusion, and he remembered the overpowering smell of acrid smoke as the towers thundered to the ground.

Arnold said he saw the second plane hit the North Tower and never considered the towers could fall.

Later that day, he watched people gathered at a ferry terminal who appeared to be waiting for family or friends. Arnold said he didn’t see a single reunion.

Arnold had friends and acquaintances who died that day, and he still hasn’t returned to visit Ground Zero.

“I never drove back to work that way again,” Arnold said.

Last year, Arnold participated in the first Red Rocks stair-climb and wanted to do something this year for the climbers. The owner of the Garlic Knot restaurants, he and his staff decided to add a twist to the event by providing 4,000 slices of pizza and garlic knots to the stair-climbers.

“It’s going to be a good day,” he said, “but it’s important to remember the sacrifices made by those firefighters who were trying to save people.”

This story ran in the September 15, 2010 edition of the High Timber Times, the Canyon Courier and the Columbine Courier. Photographer: Matthew Jonas, photo editor for Evergreen Newspapers

Barry Gordon: Fighting cancer with hope and love

Bailey resident Barry Gordon has a fantastic life of music, marathons, ski runs, horseback rides and favorite hikes in the Colorado mountains. For him, it’s about the best in life – including the best beliefs that result in pristine health. Gordon’s an explorer, and is now exploring alternative health options to keep him alive.

“We’re planning on the ‘heal,’” said Gordon. “We’re smiling and laughing through the process at this point, we’ve cried in between.”

Gordon, 63, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in February 2009. It’s an extremely rare cancer for someone his age; it’s normally a cancer found in young people. While skiing moguls he had slight hip discomfort but a leg fracture soon after led to a cancer diagnosis. Seven days later, he began treatments and since 2009, he has endured surgery and eight rounds of chemotherapy. A little more than a month ago, doctors found 13 brain tumors and he has completed full-head radiation. Surgery is scheduled in the next few weeks, according to his wife of 29 years, Susan.

Gordon said he’s recovering from the radiation treatment and regaining his mental function. Radiation, he said, left its mark took its toll on much in his life.

“It affects everything but the damn tumor,” said Gordon.

Gordon said they’re at a crossroads in terms of his healthcare and they had to make a decision about his treatment.

“Conventional medicine gave up on us last year,” said Gordon.

He and his family began searching for hope and found it in alternative medicine.

The treatment he’s seeking consists of immuno-therapy, a combination of diet and attitude, combined with astute and complex visualization processes, positive thinking and mind over matter. He said his optimism, despite what conventional medicine says, is very, very high. He believes that with coaching that he can work on energy and self-healing that will help him rid himself of his cancer.

“Cancer provides a kick in the butt,” he said.

Gordon said that in a way, it has made his life simpler.

“It eliminates so many other options, it eliminates laziness when you’re confronted with life and death,” he said. “You have two options, you can choose to live or choose to die and you can ease yourself in that direction. There are decisions to be made and it forces you to be proactive in one direction or another.”

Gordon said the outpouring of love he has received from friends, family and those close to him has made him see a newer, more powerful side to love.

“The real world doesn’t allow for that kind of intensity of pure heart,” he said.

He said he’s found strength and grace from other people with the same diagnosis who have faced their lives with courage and love.

He said he has not one regret, other than knowing what this has put his loved ones through. But he said it has given an opportunity to give strength back and forth to each other.

Gordon, a real estate broker with Dynamic Properties in Bailey, hasn’t worked for two years. Susan said they had been denied their loan modification on their mortgage will save money and they try to keep up with their bills and live an even trimmer lifestyle. Susan said it’s amazing what things you don’t need.

“We need the basic staples, roof, gas, electric and food,” said Susan, “Other than that, the other needs are emotional, nurturing kind of needs. As far as surviving and living, when a loved one is compromised in their health … you don’t need very much, you just need to hang onto the love.”

A few weeks ago, friends held a garage sale and raised $4,000 and received an in-kind donation of $500 from the local website, 285Bound. The hope is to raise $24,000 for his alternative treatment, which they believe will save his life. Gordon will travel to clinics in Santa Barbara and Mexico for treatments that include inducing fevers to help heal the body, what he calls a natural way of healing and one insurance companies may not cover.

Donations have totaled $9,512.

Many Conifer and Bailey businesses have volunteered to place donation jars with a picture of Gordon’s tanned, smiling face and his story on the jar, in order to raise money to help the family pay its bills and get Gordon the treatment he wants.

Gordon plans on being cured from his cancer in the next few months. He said he wouldn’t allow negative thoughts while working with the energy he hopes will help him heal and give him the outcome he and his family so badly want.

“I’m going to get the best ending to the story,” he said.

This story ran in the September 1, 2010 edition of the HIgh Timber Times