The Highway didn't kill me.........

When I was five years old, my family bought a motel in Idaho Springs Colorado. We ran it as an extended family that included my Aunt and uncle, Granny Doris and Uncle Harry and, of course my mom and dad. Idaho Springs was a transient town for traveling tourists. A stop over about an hour west of Denver before the interstate system was invented. The motel business boomed in the summer and was nearly dead in the winter. Instead of motels they were called cabin camps or motor courts. The ski industry had not taken hold and the only two ski areas were Loveland Basin and Berthod pass. US highway 6 and Highway 40 came together through Idaho Springs and then split again west of town going eventually to S.F Ca. and LA Ca.

My adventures in independent living probably began here. I was allowed to cross the 6 and 40 highway by myself, being sure to look both ways for cars and Semi trucks. There were two businesses across the street I liked to spend time at. A curio shop and a used trike and bike business that Ole Roy owned. The Curio store had rock candy that i bought sometimes to fool people with. I got money selling shiny rocks to tourists in our own curio store.

The rocks I sold came from the mill tailings of an abandoned gold mill across the creek from our motel. The water was too swift to wade across but there was a bridge up river . One could find hunks of lead , fools gold, mica and other sparkly rocks that tourists would buy and I would get the money. I was allowed to go there by myself and never once fell down a mine shaft. http://www.historicargotours.com/


I wasn't allowed to walk up town by myself but bigger kids took me to the town theater on Saturdays. Once I had a steel ball bearing someone gave me and I had it in my mouth at the theater. I swallowed it and it scared me so I called granny Doris at home. She said not to worry about it if I was breathing ok and to go back and finish the movie. When I got home, Granny said to sit on my sister's baby potty until the marble came out, which it eventually did in a day or two, so I got my marble back.

In 1949-50 you got deposit money back for soda and beer bottles. My Great Uncle Harry taught me how to go around behind bars and stores to find the bottles and where to take them to get the two or three cents for their return. I thought he was just doing me a favor by going along, but he insisted on his half of the take each time we went.

One winter I was down playing by the river that had iced over a little. I had on a snow suit like the one in "the Christmas Story" and I was out standing on the ice when I broke through into the water. Fortunately I was able to crawl out and the lady from the trailer right near took me in and got the wet clothes off and blistered my butt real good, saying she would tell my mother if I did it again.

In 1950 My dad got recalled into the Army to go to Korea so we sold the motel and moved back to South Dakota when he went overseas. Shortly there after the Interstate system was born and the bypass above Idaho Springs all but killed the motel business there. The guy that bought our Motel eventually had two separate propane gas explosions that leveled most of the motel. Oddly both occurred when the units were empty.