Pages from Paddlebrook

No. 17: Paddlebrook

Seems like I'm always answering questions about Paddlebrook, so today, I thought I'd tell you a little about our town. (No, I'm not paid by the Chamber of Commerce for this little plug.)

Paddlebrook sits west of Denver in the Rockies. It's basically an old silver mining town that never really died, but it never really caught on either. It just... lingered. Paddlebrook is one of those bumps in the road you drive through, then go, Was that a town back there? Yes, we're small. So small, that Walmart hasn't found us yet. Get the picture?

I wish I could tell you some interesting story about our town founder, or show you a monument that stands in tribute of some historic act that took place here, but I can't. We don't have beautiful gardens, or unique architecture, either. Truth is, there is nothing spectacular about Paddlebrook but its people. They are truly the gems of the Rockies.

Paddlebrook would still be going on in quiet annonymity, if it weren't for the resort. Deer Run Resort, the latest "it" retreat for the fabulously wealthy, is being built a few miles from here, so Paddlebrook is suddenly getting attention. Lots of attention.

People are beginning to move here. They want to work at the resort, or one of the other new businesses that have started to spring up. Growth is good; we're thrilled with it, but to tell you the truth, we're also a little overwhelmed. There has always been a delicate balance in this town - just enough homes to live in, jobs to work at, and schools to go to - just enough for "the locals." But now new people are moving in - people that need housing, need to find work, need to send their kids to school - you see the dilema. Paddlebrook is experiencing a boom.

This is our greatest challenge: How do we grow and remain a community? How do we accomodate all these newcomers and make them feel welcome, without wearing ourselves out? I don't know the answer yet. Hey, if you have experience in a boom town, or have some advice, lmk. I can use all the help I can get.

Some of the old-timers around here don't want any part of the new Paddlebrook. They've pulled up stakes and moved to more isolated areas of the mountain. They come to town once a month or so for supplies, then retreat into the wilderness like hermits.

Not Charlie and me. We're staying put. I am part of Paddlebrook and I will continue to be, even with the growing pains. I was telling Sammy just this morning that I'm always up for an adventure; looks like I won't have to leave home to experience this one!

Until next time -

Welcome!

Come on in, grab a cup of coffee and stay awhile. We are Sammy & Sheila Watson and we're glad you stopped by. We're gonna talk about our family, our friends, our business, our church and life in this tiny town called Paddlebrook, Colorado. We hope to make some new friends along the way, so introduce yourself, ask a question, or just chat. We do love to chat.

No. 16: Another Week Begins...

And it's gonna be a busy one.

But first, I gotta tell you how Easter Service went. It was awesome! I don't believe I'm exagerating either. If you'll recall,  I was worried about how to make the old VFW hall look, you know, Easter-ish. Well, it took a ton of crepe paper and lilies, but we managed to transform that big brown nothing into a joyful house of worship.

Sheila was right (as usual) the food had a lot to do with it. As soon as you opened the door, the aroma of coffee lured you inside, straight to a long table filled with the most cheerful Easter cookies you ever saw. Looked like something out of Martha Stewart's magazine.

Since we don't have a regular pastor yet, our elders take turns leading Sunday services. Yesterday, Sheila's Charlie was up to bat. For those of you who don't know Charlie, he's no public speaker. Oh, he'll talk to you about your car all day, he's just not comfortable in front of a group. Simple is Charlie's strength, so that's what he went with; he read the resurrection story from scripture, told it in short bits between music played by Alexis Martin.

I know I gripe a lot about Alexis - sometimes I'd like to take my shoe off and hit her with it - but I have to admit, when she's on, she's on. We are fortunate to have the finest pianist on Deer Mountain in our congregation... and she has an ego to go with it, but I won't go there today.

Oh, the numbers. The service was p.a.c.k.e.d. We had visitors, too! Some of our regulars brought guests. A young family drove over from Cozy (yes, it's a place) they had five of the sweetest kids I've ever seen. Ginger, every one. And we had visiting tourists, too - a retired couple from Denver and a young couple from Missouri, I think. Missouri or Minnesota or Michigan - one of those "M" states. Doug and Laura were their names... I remember because she was so pretty - as in, she-should-be-in-movies pretty. They heard our ad on KDPO, so we know the advertising is working. :) 

Ginny Todd took a gazillion pictures for the church scrap book. We thought it would be fun to scrapbook the life of our church. I know it's only a few months old and we don't have a building yet, but we added another milestone to the pages yesterday.

After Service, we went to On the Main for dinner, then back to Charlie and Sheila's for a made-from-scratch coconut cake. Sheila is an awesome cook!

I hope your Easter was just as perfect as ours.

Shine on -

No. 15: Our Wish for You

May You Have a Joyous and Blessed Easter! 

No. 14: Happy Spring

I gotta tell ya, Spring started a little rough for me. When I got up this morning I discovered the hot water heater croaked in the night, so I had to run next door to Charlie and Sheila's to get ready for work. Then I twisted my ankle hurrying to the car. It's really swollen, but I am determined to wear heels for Easter. Then Sheila swerved to avoid a squirrel, and I spilled coffee all down the front of my white blouse. (Missed the upholstery though.)

When we finally got to the station, our morning man, Marty, was twelve shades of green. Nothing serious, just some spoiled take-out from the diner. Sheila told him yesterday to refrigerate his leftovers. We sent him home and I took over for him. I spent the next 2 hours hosting the morning show - with no notes. It was rocky, but I made it.

Then the Paddlebrook 2nd graders came for a tour of the station. When Sheila and I finally got time to eat lunch, we went to On the Main, but they were sold out of the special so I had grilled cheese. It was burned. That was the final straw. I went back to KDPO, propped my swollen foot up and bawled.

Just then my hubby, Wayne, walked in carrying the prettiest bouquet of daisies I've ever seen and a stuffed Easter bunny. And my day totally turned around. I'm glad I married Wayne; for a man, he's pretty perceptive. ;-)

Shine On -

 

No. 13: My 800 Pound Gorilla

This is Easter week. I should be blogging about Spring and renewal and hope. But sometimes before you can start something new, you have to find a place to put the old. I think that’s where I am, and I think I’m affecting Sammy. She’s seems agitated. How can I tell? She’s been eating Peeps all morning. 

I had no intention of mentioning this, especially so soon. After all, Sammy and I only started blogging a few days ago. But this is distracting me – like an 800 pound gorilla sitting on the corner of my desk.  So, if you will indulge me, I would like to tell you about our church, or, rather, our old church.

Until a couple of years ago, we belonged to Deer Mountain Fellowship, a wonderful little church about twelve miles up the mountain. Charlie and I were in leadership there. Charlie was an elder and I lead the Tuesday morning Women’s Bible Study. Sammy and Wayne were members, too. Fellowship was a real people church; the focus was not on the facility. Looking back, I can see that was our downfall… but you know what they say about hindsight.

The church building sat on two acres of land – land a sweet elderly couple, John and Iris Wenger, deeded to the church back in 1952 when it began. A tiny cemetery came with the deal  - it only had 27 ancient markers - which the church agreed to maintain. The Wengers owned the 300 acres that surrounded it. The church hummed happily along for more than 4 decades under that arrangement. The Wengers passed away and left their property to their son, Russ, who lived there too, and was a wonderful neighbor.

Then four years ago, something happened… something that changed the dynamics of this mountain forever. A development company bought the top of Deer Mountain and announced plans to build a luxury “destination” – resort, restaurants, shopping, condos – the works. Suddenly, this worthless rock was worth a lot. Overnight, the floodgates opened and speculators invaded Deer Mountain in hordes. And our little church was a casualty of progress.

Good grief, look at the time! Gotta run - dentist appointment. I’ll pick up right there.

Until next time –

No. 12: Outta Control

Now that we've more-or-less skidded through Palm Sunday, we're running head-long towards Easter. I don't know how your week is going, but I'm scratching things off my "to do" list like crazy. Things I'm never gonna get to, like "find a new pair of shoes to go with that skirt you bought in Denver." Ain't gonna happen. Not this week. My pink pumps will have to do.

This week, I am being forced to prioritize. KDPO is swamped with business, almost more business than Sheila and I and our tiny staff can handle. What time we do have left is spent getting ready for Sunday.  We want to our first Easter as The Paddlebrook Community Church to be memorable.

That's hard to do because we're not meeting in a traditional church building. We're meeting in the old VFW lodge. It's run-down, it's square, it's drafty and it's absolutely charm-free. The one thing it does have going for it is space - it's big enough to hold 500 people.  Hey, in this town, buildings are scarce. You go with what you can get.

We've ordered a few lilies to dress the place up. Sheila and a brigade of women are making cookies, and we're having an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. It should be nice, but it's hard to complete with the likes of Faith Mountain. They're having a petting zoo for their kids, and clowns. Christian. Clowns. Don't get me started.

Here's my wish for you: I hope your Holy Week is peaceful... you have time to reflect... to enjoy your family... and to celebrate the miracle of Easter.

Shine on -

No. 11: Happy St. Patrick's Day

Just taking a quick break to wish you a very Happy St. Patrick's Day. I meant to post this morning, but I've been recording commercials all day with Marty Cruz, our morning host, and I'm starting to get hoarse! Seems like everyone wanted to run a last minute ad or PSA today for Easter. They usually let us know ahead of time, but Easter is early this year and it shares the spotlight with St. Paddy's Day and Spring's official arrival, so everyone's running a little behind. That's okay; we'll get it all done with time to spare. I just wanted to send out some good wishes before this day ended. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to the studio. We have three more spots to record before I can call it a day.

Just another day at KDPO -

No. 10: Palm Sunday Service

I thought you'd like to know how our Palm Sunday Service turned out. For a fleeting moment Friday, I flirted with the notion of driving to Denver to get palm branches for everyone. But then it started to snow and Wayne nixed that idea. So we improvised. Alexis Martin, our pianist, played some special music; she's incredible. And Randy Boggs hauled one of his pack mules into town and tied it up in front of the building to remind everyone that Jesus did not ride into Jerusalem in a stretch limo accompanied by his posse. I think everyone got the point.

The Catholics in town fared better than we did. Their priest, Father Eddie gets a gold star - yet again - for improvising. The man is a marvel. He took a pair of scissors to that ratty old parlor palm that's been fading away in the rectory for the past five years. Obviously he couldn't get enough healthy palm branches off the thing for his whole congregation - so he made little palm frond crosses for each and every member of his parish.

He had a few extras. How do I know? He came by KDPO this morning and gave Sheila and me two of the leftovers. Blessed them, too.

What a nice way to start a Monday morning.

May I be the first to wish you a Happy Easter Week!

Shine on -

No. 9: No Palms This Sunday

I had a perfectly good day going until 5 minutes ago. JoJo Simon called me - she owns The Happy Daisy, Paddlebrook's only flower shop. Guess what? The palm fronds we ordered for Palm Sunday service this weekend... they're gone. Absent. Not there. We aren't likely to get them either. Some florist in Denver put in a big order for the things, so the palm fronds destined for Paddlebrook got diverted.

Do you know what this means? No palm fronds for service Sunday. None at the Baptist church, the Methodist, or the Penticostal either. If you want to wave a palm frond in this town, you'll have to go to Faith Mountain. JoJo said they ordered theirs from "an outside source." Had them shipped in. Probably got them direct from Israel and had them tipped in gold, too. I know, my attitude stinks. I'm workin' on it.

JoJo said she has some nice leather leaf - we can have a whole case of that stuff - or she has something called ming. She uses it in her tropical designs. I told her I'm pretty sure nobody waved ming fern at Jesus, so we'll pass.

Life will go on. We'll come up with some brilliant idea before Sunday and nobody will miss the fronds. It's just a tradition. You know? And I do like tradition.

Thanks for letting me vent -