A Summer Adventure
Written 3-26-96
The summer of 1952 turned out to be a summer full of adventure for me. I had taught at Irma, Wi for the year, and had not planned to work or go to summer school. Clara (one of my co-workers) and I decided to take off for Colorado Springs, Colorado for the summer. I don't know exactly why we chose that destination, as neither of us had relatives or acquaintances there. We bought a round-trip railroad ticket so we could at least return home if our trip didn't work out as planned. Since we had no money to spend, our plan was to work awhile at whatever we could get, do some sightseeing, and when our money was gone, to work some more.
We arrived in Colorado Springs sometime in the afternoon. How exciting! We had the whole summer ahead of us to do with just as we chose. But right now, it was late in the afternoon, and here we were without money and without a place to stay. So we bought a newspaper and scanned the want ads for a room to rent. We were fortunate, as we found a room in our price range available that very night. We called and inquired, and found a room that was much nicer than we had at home. It was large and comfortable, with carpeting and all. The folks from whom we rented turned out to be real friends, as they took us around every evening to show us the sights in the city. So far so good!
The next day, we went out to look for work. With the use of our newspaper, we found two jobs in the same restaurant. One was for a waitress, while the other was operating the cash register. I had never worked a cash register before, but I was willing to learn and they were willing to teach me. Clara did the waitressing. This was a good job for us as it took care of our meals as well. The jobs turned out to be very satisfactory.
However, after only two weeks, Clara saw an ad in the paper for two jobs at a dude ranch, in Paradise Mountain nearby. After inquiring about that, we found ourselves working at a dude ranch, Clara doing cabin work with me doing the waitressing. A dude ranch was a real tourist attraction at that time, and we had plenty of tourists. We met interesting people from all over the United States.
We liked our jobs here. Every week we had a day off when we were free to do as we pleased. Sometimes we would stay at the ranch and watch a rodeo. On other days we went on side trips to see sights in the area. In this way we got to see the Royal Gorge and rode the incline railroad down into the gorge. We saw Broadmore, the lush place in the mountains where presidents often vacationed.
Our day on Pikes Peak was probably the highlight of our summer. It was July 3, 1952, when seven of us got into a shuttle bus and went up the Peak. When we left Colorado Springs, the sun was bright and hot, as we would expect it to be in July. After a breath taking trip up the mountain, with winding hair pin curves and all, we reached the top (altitude 11,425 ft.) only to find a raging snowstorm in progress. This snowstorm, plus the thin air up there, kept us from climbing the observation tower at the top. We were not as unfortunate though as some of the travelers, who were being given smelling salts to revive them. When it came time to go down, we boarded a cog train. This was a new experience for us too. On the way down, we got out of the snowstorm, but then we could see the thunder and lightening in the clouds below us. We were happy to get back to Colorado Springs, where the sun was still shining and it was still hot.
One day we attended a Church Wagon Dinner in the Garden of the Gods. We really enjoyed that, and again met many interesting people. Some days we just cruised around in Colorado Springs and did interesting things.
All too soon the summer came to an end and we had to use our return-trip tickets to take us back home. Another teaching year was about to begin. Although we came home with empty pockets, what a shot in the arm this summer had been. We were ready to begin the new school year with vim, vigor, and vitality!