SUMMER 2022

Steve and Marie (Barkman) Blue have a whole bunch of stuff to tell us about.  As usual, Steve reports in a thorough and entertaining narrative.

News highlights from Steve Blue and Marie Barkman Blue in sunny/snowy/rainy/parched (take your pick) Colorado. The Colorado branch of the Horace Greeley Alumni Association grew last fall with the arrival of Joan Kather and Bill Henry, relocating from the Puget Sound area to Castle Pines in Douglas County, south of Denver. In November Reid and Pam Reynolds celebrated their arrival by hosting a sumptuous dinner in their Denver home, attended by Gay and Mary Mayer, Lydia Lockridge Morrongiello and Steve and Marie Blue. The nine of us were able to rewrite history and solve most of the problems of the world in one evening - another testament to the pedigree of the Class of '60.

Last July we welcomed our first GREAT granddaughter, Chesney as a new resident of Kemmerer, Wyoming with parents Katy and Cody. She is cute as a bug (unbiased opinion) and Katy keeps a timely update on her rapid progress from infant to - walking pretty soon! It’s a sobering experience to reflect on the fact that your kid is a grandmother! 

Those of us still upright are painfully aware that memorial services are becoming a more common yet still unwelcome fact of senior life. Last August Steve and Marie, Lydia, Reid, and Gay and Mary attended what must have been one of the more memorable memorials of our time. Albeit a year late, we honored Ann Bliss - it was a "celebration" of her life in every positive way. Several generations of family were represented, as were older and younger co-workers from her days in legal practice and with the Boulder County District Attorney's office. Younger brother Jonathan and family were there, and the Greeley Alumni squad spent a few moments taking the assembled crowd back to high school days. Ann’s sons Chris and Brian Mygatt hosted the affair at Ann’s favorite venue, the Hotel Boulderado and provided music, scads of photos, tall tales and poignant stories, ample adult beverages and munchies, and everyone left with fond memories.

We are almost done decompressing from a 31-day, 5,700-mile odyssey through three time zones and fifteen states - a road trip. Younger daughter Laurrie graduated last April from Regis University with a Doctor of Pharmacology and was awarded a one-year fellowship with the American Pharmacological Association in their Washington, D.C. headquarters. What better way to celebrate Spring than a quick trip to D.C.? Given that most of you have visited DC over the years, here’s the short version of our trip: 

• St Louis to visit Nina Wagner, friend since the mid- ‘60’s in then West Germany when husband Clank (Clarence) and Steve were standing guard ready to repel the Russian hoards poised to roll across the Czech border. Four kids and seventeen grandkids, several already in college or getting ready. Met a bunch at a buffet dinner then next day toured Nina’s vacation lakefront cabin outside St Louis, visited son Joe’s 300-acre farm (he directs three private secondary schools; farm is a “maybe one day…” and visited Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery where Clank is memorialized in a marble plaque on a wall overlooking the Mississippi River.

• On to DC – Tysons Corner – via Kentucky and West Virginia, Arrived in time to take in dinner hosted by Laurrie’s boss at his mini-estate west of DC – a belated Christmas party for the class of Fellows. Then the touristing began – National Mall memorials, Hillside Mansion and Gardens, National Cathedral, various Smithsonians, Library of Congress, China Town, Alexandria Old Town, excursion to Jamestown/Yorktown, excursion to Annapolis and the Naval Academy (accompanied by Nina, who was visiting her daughter Nina, an oncologist at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore; met grandson and Academy Plebe Leo in between classes for all of two minutes).   I visited the Vietnam Memorial to check in with a couple of troops from the 36th Engineers who didn’t make it home, spent time at the Seabees Memorial remembering my Dad in WW II, and we had a great tour of Arlington National Cemetery, complete with guard mount and wreath dedication ceremonies. 

• Departing DC we meandered south through some Civil War Battlefields, caught a piece of the Blue Ridge Parkway, toured Lexington Virginia, continued southeast to Ashville and on to Savannah, then on to Daytona Beach for a quick visit with Penny and David Long, friends from Pueblo days. David is ex-Royal Navy jet-jockey and retired Continental Captain so we could continue our international name-dropping competition – his stories have mine beat six ways from Sunday. Enjoyed the beach, getting knee-deep and acknowledging that the water was still chilly. 

• From Daytona Beach we crossed Florida to Cape Coral to spend a few days with Mike and Joan Ingram, friends from college and beyond. Visited some of the local attractions, got wet on the Gulf side of Florida, and enjoyed a wonderful seafood dinner to celebrate my 80th birthday (as Dave has so graciously reminded us). 

• Eased our way north and west along Florida’s panhandle, finishing with a short stay in Galveston to get a final taste of the Gulf (salt water is so scarce in Colorado) before heading north to wrap it up. It was a good trip.

Kelly and Scott are nearly recovered from a bout of Covid19 and assessing what changes in the landscape will result from the recently announced nuclear power plant planned for Kemmerer, a Bill Gates sponsored venture that comes on the heels of the planned closing of the coal fired power plant and coal mine. On Monday it’s “Grapes of Wrath” and on Wednesday it’s “North to Alaska” – this will be a long-running story.

Kelly and Scott, along with Kevin, were here for Thanksgiving last year. Then Kevin returned to San Marcos, Lago Atitlan, Guatemala last November to continue teaching yoga classes at the Yoga Forest and get their farm back on track. That venture will go on autopilot for a few months while he returns to Peru to visit friends and participate in some native ceremonies.