June 2018
What are some fond memories of your dad?
Liberty Nelson
(dad: Joe Mendel)
Some of my memories include playing games like dominoes, gin rummy, UNO – just hanging out together as a family and playing games. One of my best memories is when I was 10 and we took a trip to Hawaii. My mother got food poisoning and couldn't go with us, but my dad took me out in a little boat in a secluded area around 6:00 AM. The sun was rising and a school of dolphins surrounded us and we touched them as they swam around us and they guided us into shore.
He drank of a lot of coffee, and I think he's responsible for me drinking a lot of coffee because my mother doesn't drink it, but that was something he and I always did together. He would also take me out for coffee sometimes, which was nice. He's very quiet, but found ways to show his affection in other ways besides just conversation. When someone’s a little more reserved, it's important to find things you can do together, and that was something we both enjoyed. He was just very kind to me and never treated me as anything besides a daughter, even though he wasn't my biological father.
David Elliott (dad: Mark Elliott)
Dad stories begin with getting to go visit "The Family" in England every summer. There, I increasingly realized, as I was growing up in Crestone, just what a departure Dad had made from his high society Knightsbridge life of expectation and privilege since his own childhood. The smartest thing he coulda done he somehow did, running away to America at 18, joining the beat and hippy movements until discovering Chogyam Trongpa Rinpoche, which led to raising me in Crestone, and that's been extremely special. And I remember all the times my dad made the ultimate effort to do a nice event for me outside of Crestone, like going to Red Lobster, which we'd seen on television, but got food poisoning; or going to a hockey game because it was my favorite thing, and it was the one game all year no one scored; and just the constant pitfalls we couldn’t help but laugh at! It often intrigues me to imagine what his life would have been like if he’d followed his own father's legacy of empire and espionage in London. I'm figuring out when I shut up there are still new stories to hear, my favorites including partying with exiled Black Panthers in Cuba or accidenting into Tibetan Buddhism getting lost with a camera in Dharamsala and landing with the Dalai Llama for days as was only possible then. He may want to be a quiet hermit now but his past keeps catching up with him in the nicest ways. The cast of characters alone have taught me a lot.
Trevor Storm (dad: Steve Storm)
The memories that stick out most are early on, going up on stage with my dad and playing music. We used to do gigs at Shumei fairly often, and Villa Grove at the coffee shop and up in Salida. Since I was about 8, that's always been pretty special to be up on stage with him. Later on, he got me up into the back country for skiing, teaching me how to hike up and earn my turns. And we used to have a yearly tradition here of skiing the “Shumei buffet,” we called it. It's the north chute up Cottonwood Creek and is a big, nice, perfect ski run all the way from the top. Those were definitely some good times we had up there together. We've worked plenty together as well. We did a couple jobs in Telluride and I've worked with him here quite a bit, and we’ve also done a lot of projects together around the house, which has been great. The number one memory that stands out the most is the back country trips we've taken up into the mountains because it's all day super intense together and it's so amazing and rewarding to be up there. My dad's passion for the outdoors and music is has obviously imprinted on me as well!
Molly Roth (dad: Lonny Roth)
Well, growing up with my dad being a single dad and me being his first kid was very humorous to say the least! I don't know of many situations like mine. I remember when he built our first house and we were living out in the Grants and we were in the process of getting the electricity and sewer going and didn't have a toilet yet. We were with some friends one day, and I decided to pee on a flowering cactus. And I fell and I was about 3 or 4 and I just remember him spending a good few hours picking cactus out of my butt! He’s definitely been a very good dad, and made the best of an interesting situation: being the dad of a little girl with nobody really to help him much.
I'm really thankful for my dad. I'm glad I didn't have to grow up in the city with my mom. I got to experience the mountains and the freedom that the nature here gives you versus the city life. I feel like I turned out for the better not being a part of that.
Tim Riley (dad: Mike Riley)
One of my first memories is when I was tearing through the house and I slipped and ran into the baseboard heater and was crying, so my dad asked what hurt. I said "My drumstick! My drumstick!" (It was my thigh that I’d hurt.) He thought that was so funny! I was crying and he was laughing hysterically, not because he was mean spirited but because that was such a funny thing for a kid to say. As I watched him laugh, my pain dissolved. It was really funny to see my dad cracking up like that.
When we were kids, we moved to the lake house in Minnesota. Most of our fond memories are centered around that place. We had some acreage and a small lake we’d picnic at every weekend. A respect for nature was instilled in us at an early age. My dad took us on canoe trips and one-on-one camping trips. That's where he introduced me to s’mores, and I said, "I want another one!" And he said, "That's why they’re called s'mores, because you want s'more!" And we participated in an organization that taught us about the Native American way of life and spirituality, a further emphasis on nature and having reverence for Great Spirit. In recent years, lessons focus more on giving back, creating caring communities, and being thankful for what we have. In my adult life, it's been extremely valuable having somebody who says what I need to hear even if I don't want to hear it, who always says the right thing and keeps me on the right path despite my occasional idiocy. Having my dad to tell me when I'm out of line or doing great work has been a big part of my life that I'm extremely thankful for.
Abby Swartz (dad: Scott Swartz)
Well, that's kind of endless. One of my fondest memories is when I was a kid. I pretty much grew up at the Mishawaka and at State Bridge, and I used to run up onstage while my dad was playing and yank out all the cords as they're playing and my mom was chasing me across the stage pretty much most of the time. Now, I play a lot of music with him and a lot of shows but my fondest memory is from one of his shows, when he played in Shakedown Street at Quixote’s in Denver. Basically, our whole family came out, all his siblings, so it was pretty much a circus show because our family is pretty wild! That memory’s my favorite, us walking through the bar shouting "Swartz's coming through!" Another fond memory is from my uncle’s recent birthday party in Blackhawk where my dad and I got to play music for our whole family, which is my favorite thing to do, especially in front of my grandpa because there aren’t a lot of chances he gets to watch me play. Playing music with my dad is the fondest of memories that I have. He's always been there for me musically and he's my favorite person to play music with!