Reunion Highlights

The Denver Reunion - A Good Time Was Had By All

  Some of us began the 5th major reunion when we arrived at the Adam's Mark Hotel on Thursday, June 15th, locating one another by the horses in the lobby or calling one another via the hotel phones.  Our early Denver experience was either walking or riding a free bus on the 16th Street Mall and locating the numerous dining establishments along that thoroughfare. 

  Friday morning was more of the same, banding together in small groups to eat and talk.  Registration and the gathering of  the clan in out hospitality room began at one o'clock, and introductions, rekindling of previous associations, and story telling were accompanied by photo albums and slides. Then, in the early evening, most of the reunion went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, where we spread out across the restaurant.  For eighteen of us, that was followed by a fast four-block walk to the Denver Performing Arts Center where we were enthralled with the high energy dancing and music of "Movin' Out."

  Saturday morning was devoted to attending nearby museums, followed by lunch at Maggiano's Little Italy Restaurant.  One table of 18 to 20 enjoyed the family style meal; others at a second table took ala carte.  Neither table was disappointed with the servings.  (Indeed the meals served on the Mall and at the hotel were definitely satisfying and filling.)

  Conductors for our afternoon rehearsal, and, later, for our evening performance---which was well received by those not performing-- were Dick Hays and Bob Holmes.  The evening banquet, featuring grilled steak and salmon, was followed by the normal chaos that attends the taking of the "official" reunion photographs.  (It's never easy to get everybody together and properly staggered so that all can be seen.  But Scott Phoenix did his best to organize us.)  The late night hours were spent, as were numerous other hours, in conversations in the banquet room or at a sidewalk bar.

  Sunday morning's buffet breakfast was followed by our business meeting, during which the assembled reunion-goers decided to hold the next reunion in Portland, Oregon, in 2008 and the subsequent reunion in Charleston, South Carolina in 2010.  Volunteering to serve as the local hosts in 2008 were Scott Phoenix and Ken Erion.

  Some of the gang had to leave on Sunday.  Those of us who stayed enjoyed the lobby concert of Roger Dickerson, 58-59, with guest clarinetist, sax, and flautist Richard Chiaraluce, who plays with the Dorsey Band along with Dick Prestage, 57-59.  Also participating in the Sunday afternoon session was clarinetist Don Craig.

  On Monday, thirty reunion-goers took the California Zephyr through the scenic Colorado countryside to Frazer.  We traveled over the Flatirons and the South Boulder Canyon, passing through Utah Junction (Milepost 3), Leyden Junction (Milepost 12)--- the departure point for the Inter-urban Electric Line which served the Leyden coal mines that supplied Denver with home heating coal prior to World War II.  We rode the long stretches of "ribbon rail" (track welded into continuous 1,000 foot sections that took away from the clickity-clack of the conventional rail lines but resulting in a much smoother, quieter ride), and began to climb out of the valley via horseshoes around a bluff between Rocky and Clay: the Big Ten and Little Ten curves, where we had the chance to take pictures as the train wound up the 2% grade.

  We passed hopper cars just before Clay (Milepost 21) that serve as a wind break against occasional hurricane-force winds, passed Coal Creek Canyon and entered the first of numerous tunnels (a total of 31 between Denver and Winter Park).  According to the publicity blurbs, it was in the "summer of 1903, over a thousand men were at work on the tunnels and cuts of the canyon.  Most of the tunnels were drilled by hand as it was too difficult to bring machinery... The Moffat Tunnel measures an amazing 32,789 feet or 6.2 miles."

  After Tunnel 8 we could look down over a thousand feet above South Boulder Creek.  Just before Crescent (Milepost 31), we entered Roosevelt National Forest, where you could see South Boulder Canyon and Gross Reservoir, which supplies Denver with 14 billion gallons of water per year.

  The train subsequently runs through a broad valley.  Reaching Tolland (Milepost 47), we came to the place where in earlier days a locomotive fireman "would have shoveled 15 tons of coal into the engine on a single 23 mile trip over 'Hell Hill'"

  It was fifty miles west of Denver that we entered the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel, through which the first train passed in February 1928.  The sixth longest tunnel in the world, it required 2.5 million pounds if dynamite during the 48 months that it took to bore through the mountain.

  Shortly after passing through the Moffat Tunnel, we arrived in Frazer, where a bus met us to take us to the mall in Winter Park.  The time in Winter Park was spent in shopping, having lunch, and enjoying the mountain air.  Some of us did a bit of walking (hiking) and fed the fish at a private lake.  A few went horseback riding.  Lorelei discovered an outdoor model train in the back of a Winter Park home and immediately passed the word along to Frank, who is a model train buff.  Naturally, Frank and family took photos.

  Shortly before four in the afternoon, we returned to Frazer, where we were supposed to board the train at 4:10.  The train, we learned, was late.  And we subsequently learned it was very late--not arriving until shortly after 8 o'clock.  Unfortunately, Frazer does not have much to offer in the way of amenities for waiting passengers.  As a matter of fact, the station at Frazer is unmanned.  And if it were not for the camaraderie of the reunion-goers, the layover in Frazer would probably have been most unpleasant.  However, despite the frequently-expressed concern of 'when will that train arrive?', our modus operandi for the time continued to be associating in conversations with one another.

  We did not get off the train till shortly after 11, which meant that for some of us we had a very late dinner--the restaurant: the Paramount on the 16th Street Mall.  There we reviewed the fun-filled events of the reunion and looked forward to the next time when we would meet.