1. Returning to My Estes Park, CO Chronicles...

On March 8, 2012, I began to tell some stories from the first summer I spent working in Estes Park, CO which followed my freshman year at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  My initial purpose was in order to introduce my dear friend, Joyce Bennett.  

As the story began to unfold, I realized it was much bigger, broader and longer than a blog or two.  I posted 4 entries as I began to tell about my Estes Park experiences.   I then was interrupted with my experience for a month in Europe to be Grandnanny for one of my grandsons while we toured with his parents.  And following that tour, life happened for me without a return to the story until today.

I have not forgotten that I promised a return and several sweet friends have entreated me to finish the story so I will begin writing today toward that goal.

But as I return to the story, I will repost the 4 previous entries over the next 4 days and then hopefully carry on with the story.

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From March 8, 2012

My sister, Kathy (on the right in this photo) and I with Joyce in the middle.

I want you to meet a very special friend of mine.  Her name is Joyce and I met her in June of 1964.  I was 19 and I think she was 37.  We met the summer my sister, Kathy, and I traveled to Estes Park, CO for summer jobs to help with college expenses.  There are so many stories about that summer.  Perhaps those will come in time.  

Dec. 4, 2009 Precious reunion with Joyce 45 years after meeting

Today I want to introduce you to Joyce.  She had an amazing impact on me during that summer and she is still one of the women God uses in my life to model his character and encourage me to be the person he wants me to be. 

I met Joyce and her husband, George, at a little Baptist church a few days after my sister and I arrived in Estes Park by Greyhound bus.  The date of our arrival was Tuesday, June 16, 1964.  

(Some dates are permanently chiseled in my memory bank.) 

Neither my sister nor I had secured jobs before our arrival.  I had just finished my freshman year at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and my sister had just graduated from high school.  We were 1,200 miles from home - a dairy farm high on a bluff above the Mississippi River in west-central WI.  

My childhood home on a bluff above the Mississippi River near Fountain City, WI.

During my college year, I had been involved in Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship and there met a gal who had spent the previous summer working as a waitress in Estes Park.  She had worked for about two months and had saved $600.00.  In 1964, that was a lot of money.  It was nearly enough to cover the cost of a year of college which for me was about $800.00 - room, board, books and tuition.

Since I needed to pay most of my way for college, I thought I needed to get myself to Estes Park where there would certainly be an opportunity for me to make and save money also.  And my younger sister was ready for adventure so decided to join me.

It was just before noon, June 16, 1964, when our bus pulled into town.  We left our heavy suitcases with nearly all of our earthly possessions at the bus station, asked directions to the employment office in town and headed off on foot.

When we arrived there, we were applicants numbers 95 and 96 to apply for jobs.... that day!!!  

And we were told there were no jobs for any of us!!!

We'll pick up the story next time.