Those were the days.
It’s not just a theme song from “All in the Family,” it’s the memories people shared Saturday at the Animas Museum when they stopped by to view the members-only exhibit about restaurants in Durango over the years.
Museum Director Carolyn Bowra said she had already decided the exhibit was a success when, just as it started, someone stopped by with a breakfast menu from the Canton Café from the 1890s.
“We had a dinner menu,” she said, “but had no idea they served breakfast.”
Between 40 and 50 people attended. Some of them, Bowra said, had intended to just drop by, but they ended up pulling up a chair and visiting. Much storytelling ensued, with particularly fond memories of the Western Steak House. Betty Loffer particularly remembered eating there for breakfast after a slumber party.
Bowra discovered that a lot of people she assumed knew each other didn’t. But they do now, after finding they share fond memories of favorite restaurants.
The exhibit was a form of what museum folk call “active collecting,” Bowra said.
“Many people don’t realize we want their old stuff,” she said. “We’re trying to shake lose memorabilia and photos from people’s attics and basements.”
The ultimate goal, she said, is to shake lose enough items to mount a full-scale exhibit for the general public.
The exhibit was also a success in generating some new members, which is good news for the La Plata County Historical Society, which runs the museum. As with any organization, it takes money to run and maintain several historic buildings and pay a small staff. Membership dues are a significant portion of that.
Coming up next is a lecture by Larry Jensen, author of Hollywood’s Railroads: Narrow Gauge Country at 1 p.m. March 21.
“It includes a lot about the Durango & Silverton,” Bowra said about what was, during many of the films, the Denver & Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Railroad. “It’s kind of like ‘Star Wars,’ this is Volume 3, which he wrote first.”
Oh, and the 20-ounce T-bone steak served with soup or a salad bowl, baked potato, rolls and butter and French-fried onion rings for $2.95? That was on the menu at The 49er. But if you wanted Roquefort dressing on the salad, it was 25 cents extra. The 49er’s menu was one of about two dozen on display at the exhibit.
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Asking for massages for their birthdays after a lot of snow shoveling are Ryan Phelps, Bev Sinclair, Sean Franklin, Diann Wylie, Katie Thompson, Margaret Copeland, Larry Crawford, Callie Huckins, Whitney Huckins, Michael Pratt, Mary Alice Copeland, Dennis Pierce, Susan Blue, Linda Arndt, Gary Scott, Sandy Newman and Ken Seay.
Special greetings go to these folks who have those rare Feb. 29 birthdays – I expect some blowout parties next year – David Smith, Mark S. Anderson, Robby Hoffman, Ted Holteen and Tricia Bayless, who informs me she’ll celebrate her 19th birthday next year. You can do the math.
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Unbelievably, Sunday is the first day of March, and March is Women’s History Month.
Once again, the Women’s Resource Center is partnering with Alpine Bank, the Durango Arts Center, the American Association of University Women and the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame to put on a score of activities, OK, not a score, since that’s 20, but a lot of events to mark the occasion.
This year’s theme is “Weaving the Stories of Women’s Lives,” so it’s perfect that the Women’s Resource Center has invited the consummate storyteller, Tekla Miller, to be the keynote speaker at the Extraordinary Women Awards Luncheon. I have heard Miller speak, and she is thoughtful, engaging and funny.
The luncheon will also honor three of the extraordinary women mentioned in the luncheon’s title. Gina Piccoli, owner and managing broker of Coldell Banker Heritage House Realtors; Eileen Wasserbach, executive director of Southern Ute Community Action Programs; and Karen Midkiff, chief development officer of the Mercy Health Foundation. Having seen all three in action, I can attest to the appropriateness of their selection.
The luncheon is at 11 a.m. Friday at the Henry Strater Theatre. Tickets are $20, and this tends to sell out quickly, so call the WRC at 247-1242 or stop by at 679 East Second Ave., Unit No. 6, to get your ticket. I always walk out of this event energized and abuzz, just about the best encomium I can give.
Another event during the month is the Professional Women’s Network Meeting and TED Talk on March 10. I just found out where the TED came from – the idea began at a conference in 1984 where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged. Who knew?
Julia Prejs will offer a financial empowerment workshop in a four-part series starting March 12; Girls Night Out at the Movies will screen “The Empowerment Project: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things” on March 19; AAUW’s Book and Author Luncheon will feature Fort Lewis College professor emerita Shaila van Sickle talking about her book, Seven Characters in Search of an Author on March 21; and the event will end on a high note – or maybe just a high altitude – when Gudy Gaskill, who is the visionary behind the Colorado Trail and a 2002 inductee into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, speaks at the Durango Arts Center Theatre to close out the month on March 31.
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Just when they thought the idea of going for a romantic sleigh ride for their anniversary was a bust, Dallas and Olivia Reynolds are booking their adventure.
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Here’s how to reach me: neighbors@durangoherald.com; phone 375-4584; mail items to the Herald; or drop them off at the front desk. Please include contact names and phone numbers for all items. Follow me on Twitter @Ann_Neighbors.
I am happy to consider photos for Neighbors, but they must be high-quality, high-resolution photos (at least 1 MB of memory), including no more than three to five people. Tell me who’s who, left to right, and who to credit with the photo. Candid photos are better than posed, and they should be .jpg or .tif attachments.
This column has been modified to reflect that while Betty Loffer breakfasted at the Western Steak House after a slumber party, she did not do so in her pajamas.
