Looking Back

This Monday night, Colorado Public Television is broadcasting a documentary called Neal Cassady: The Denver Years. I can’t wait to learn more about this enigmatic person. I watched The Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search for a Kool Place and saw Neal Cassady in action. Other than that, what I know about him comes from Kerouac’s take on Neal via the character Dean Moriarty in On the Road. I am intrigued by Neal’s life on the Denver Streets during the Great Depression and how his life was shaped as he grew up.

I got to thinking about the Denver Years in my life. I am not an enigmatic figure, nor famous, nor anything like that, but it has been fun to think about the places that shaped me growing up in Denver.  Here are my top 5:

   Café Euphrates: This was my all time favorite hangout, as coffee shops often were. This one was located on the part of 17^th street where, at that time, one wouldn’t be walking around alone at night, but now is home to the hip Uptown neighborhood. Café Euphrates had one consistent thing that brought us back time and again which was live music. Bands I knew played there, and good friends put on shows there.  Always endless amounts of caffeine and cigarette smoke in the air; these cheap, uncomfortable pleather couches and a ton of spider and palm plants all around; always good friends and a lot of laughter.

    Flossy McGrews on Broadway: Oh Flossy’s! Countless hours were spent wandering the thrift shop. I loved wearing vintage clothes, anything hippie hand me downs during my high school years. Anything reminiscent of what maybe Janis Joplin would wear, long skirts, puffed up blouses, long earrings. Flossy’s had it all and we had so much fun making a day of it there.

    Cherry Creek Mall: Still standing and ever so popular, Cherry Creek Mall was where my friends visited me when I worked at KB Toy store in high school. I remember my boss at the time, whose picture is under the word Curmudgeon in the dictionary, would hide out across the mall and watch as my friends would come in the store. He would then come over and say “Gotcha” thinking they were shoplifting or something, when all they were doing was coming by and saying hi. Needless to say he isolated a large population of teenagers who would have bought items in that store. Cherry Creek Mall was where we went on a snow day from school, or to see movies, or to hang out at restaurants like The Spinnaker, and Around the Corner, locations that didn’t mind teenagers camping out for hours.

   St. Mark’s Coffeehouse: St. Mark’s used to be on 14^th and Market in a grungy building. It had grungy floors and an even grungier staff. Let’s just say “the Grunge” was where it was at in the 1990’s-flannel shirts, Doc Martins, and endless cups of coffee at grungy coffeehouses. I spent a good part of my college days doing homework in that coffee shop. Now it is located on 17^th avenue in the hip Uptown neighborhood where one can choose from a selection of herbal teas, wine, microbrews, pastries, and sit for hours on their laptop computers. Kind of the same, but not quite, as anything reminiscent of the 90’s these days now lack the overhanging of cigarette smoke.

   Charlie Brown’s/The Colburn Hotel: Charlie Brown’s was my college days’ bar. Anytime anyone wanted to meet up anywhere, Charlie Brown’s was the place to go. We listened to the piano music played by the same guy every night and I wish I could remember his name! Charlie Brown’s was Mike and my first kiss on New Year’s Eve 1998 at midnight.

I am sure I can think of a lot more hangouts, some like Washington Park remain the same in my life, and others like that old “head” shop in Englewood where my tastes have outgrown much of the hippie attire. I think we all need memories like these to connect us to the fabric of what shaped us over our lives. Recently I sorted through things from high school that Mom has been keeping for me and found two of my old records that I just loved: the Grateful Dead's Wake of the Flood and Simon and Garfunkel Best of. Listening to those records brought me great joy as I reflected on what has shaped me as a person. I look forward to watching many of the places that shaped Neal Cassady's life when I watch the documentary, tragic in its ending but certainly of note while he was living.