This past week we have walked back in time and visited Graybill history. We walked down memory lane, but the icing on the cake…the real treat has been to spend endless days with our sister and brother, Kathy and Bill and our niece, Tonia too!
After several days revisiting family homes and sites in Iowa that are filled with history and memories for all of us, we drove to Fort Collins, Colorado. This is where Mom, Dad, Dan, and Kathy moved to from Stillwater, Oklahoma when Dan was twelve years old. And where Kathy, Bill, and Tonia now live.
Dan spent his teen-age years in Fort Collins, so there are lots of memories in this place. In 2012 we went to Fort Collins to visit Mom. She had moved back to Fort Collins after Dad died. At that time she and Dan showed me all the special places around Fort Collins that had been part of their life when Dan was a boy. It was very wonderful to see these places that held such good memories…and to see them for the first time with Mom.
Dan and I had not been back to Fort Collins since his 50th High School reunion in 2016, so it was good to once again see all the memorable places, and hear Dan tell his stories again of the days in his youth in this peaceful, beautiful community.
Every morning Dan and I wandered for miles all around the streets where he had lived and explored as a child.
This is the Lake Street home that the family lived in until Dan left for college.
As Dan grew up, his community was his large extended family and their church—at that time their church was called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLSD). His parents were very active in the church. His father was pastor for several years. On the Sundays when his father preached, everyone would come to hear his sermons. He was a kind, gentle, man who had a sense of humor—and according to Dan, he never “Preached.”
They had potlucks, church camp, services, and lots of singing (that Dan particularly loved). The church was filled to the brim and the joyous singing “raised the roof.” Dan still has the original Hymnal that they used, and that has all the church songs from his childhood.
We walked by his church, now renamed Community of Christ. The membership has diminished through the years, and they can no longer afford to do the renovations required to maintain the building. Dan’s childhood church is being closed and sold and torn down. This is sad, as the church is a vibrant part of Dan’s memory of his family and friends.
Dan’s parents were leaders in the church and instrumental in the remodeling and additions to the building, including this gym in the basement. In the church's heyday, this gym was used often by the youth group and other community groups.
This active church community is now only a memory for Dan, his sister, and a handful of other older adults.
On our morning walks we went to see Dan’s Junior High School—Lesher. It was open so we walked around inside and saw the bleachers where Dan always ate his lunch.
Even though his home was only a few blocks away, he rode his bike to school. We all rode our bike every where back then…it was our transportation, it was fun, an it was a form of freedom before we were old enough to drive a car.
Here is the public library where he checked out hundreds of books as a young teenager. The building is the same, but it is no longer a library.
We walked to his high school, Fort Collins High. It is now the Arts Center for Colorado State University. CSU made an addition on the north side of the building, but the remainder of the outside of the old school is the same as when Dan went to school there, including the engraving near the top that says, “Fort Collins High School.”
We went on a tour of the school in 2016 as part of Dan’s 50th High School reunion. It was a lovely school, with wood floors, scrollwork, wide hallways, and tall ceilings. It felt like how a school should feel. I was walking in the footsteps of my Danny when he was a teenager.
Dan’s parents bought an old 1929 Ford Model A for him when he was 15 years old. It wasn’t even running. Dan was NOT a mechanic, but he has always loved cars and had glued together model cars as a boy. Now he had a real car of his own!
He went out and got a book (maybe from the public library in a photo above) on how to fix his “new” car. After several month of repairing his car, he had the his Model A up and running. On his 16th birthday Dan was at the Department of Motor Vehicles before it opened, and by a few minutes after 8 am, he had his driver’s license.
Here he is in front of their Lake Street home with his Model A Ford. He drove this vintage car to high school. Boy, I would have loved to have been his high school girlfriend, sat close to my Danny, wearing his tennis letterman’s jacket as we cruised along in this totally cool car!
Dan has told me many times of what fun he had cruising down College Avenue with his buddies. This is an old postcard of Fort Collins in the era when Dan was in high school. On the weekends the kids cruised for hours from the A&W on South College to the A&W on North College—and then back again…
When Dan turned 16, he got a job as a “bagger” at Steeles Market. Dan drove his Model A to his first job. Mr. Steele has been one of his role models. Dan has always admired and respected him and talks about him often. When Mr. Steele was checking out groceries, he always asked Dan to bag for him, so I believe that Mr. Steele also respected Dan.
Steele’s Market has been torn down for many years. Dan has shown me the parking lot where he had his first job and the market once stood.
When Dan was a junior his parents bought him a second car—a 1964 Corvair Spyder. How many kids are a two-car-teenager?
He still loves cars. (in fact, now we're a two-truck family!)
At times he cruised College Avenue with his Model A, but in the mid 1960’s you could have often seen him cruising along in this racy red Corvair.
One of Dan’s good friends, Tye Trump, worked at a gas station on College Avenue that was between the two A&W’s. So this was where Dan and his buddies stopped while they were cruising College Avenue. They spent many hours and have many memories of hanging out with Tye at this gas station.
We found the old gas station where Tye used to work in the 1960’s. The pumps are no longer there, but it looks like they still do mechanical work on cars.
Tye Trump passed away in 2010. Dan has not seen Tye since those cruising days long ago. But the fond memory of him is part of Dan’s history. Tye is remembered.
Kathy, Tonia, Dan, and I drove around to many other places that have great meaning to Dan. I feel so lucky that he has repeatedly told me stories of his youth. It feels as if they are part of my history too.
Club Tico was THE place to go if you were a teenager in the 60’s. Dan and some of his musical friends formed a band, “The Pryde.” Like a lion pride, but a clever way of spelling pride…and they should have been proud. They were good enough that they played for the dances at Club Tico almost every weekend!
Dan’s 50’s Fort Collins High School reunion was (very appropriately) held at Club Tico. I got to see the stage where The Pryde played. Dan sang, played the keyboard, and occasionally played the bongo drums. I could imagine Dan up on that stage, just letting go and loving every moment as they belted out our favorite 1960’s songs!
At the reunion, Dan and I danced the swing and Nightclub Two-step on the dance floor of Club Tico. What a special memory for both Dan and me.
I met several of Dan’s high school friends, and they told me many stories of Dan that I had never heard before. There was definitely a wild side to my Danny….I love it.
At times The Pryde also played on a stage in the streets of Fort Collins, but they mostly played at Club Tico.
Dan is singing his heart out and playing the keyboard in the photo below. Just looking at this picture makes me love the teenage Danny—what enthusiasm and love of life!
We drove up to Horsetooth Reservoir in the foothills surrounding Fort Collins.
Above Horsetooth Reservoir is Horsetooth Mountian. Dan climbed Horsetooth Mountain as a teenager, so we just had to get a good look at this mountain. I have never climbed a mountain, many hills and up on the shoulder of several mountains, but never to the top a mountain. Dan is my mountain climber, my Superman.
A bad photo of Dan (second from right, top row) and his friends climbing Horsetooth:
See how the center of the mountain looks like a horse’s tooth that is in need of some dental repair?
We all drove up Poudre Canyon. Dan has many happy memories of his family driving up the canyons into the Front Range, to Estes Park, and Rocky Mountain National Park. When Mom was alive, we all visited these places several years ago. I can see why the family loved these drive—they are spectacularly beautiful…and with Mom we even saw several elk. That had been my first time to see an elk. (The elk live all over Pine, including in the front yard of our cabin. But the first time time I saw an elk was special.)
The Poudre Canyon is a beautiful drive for sure and worth the drive, but we were also looking for a restaurant that the Graybill family often went to when Dan was a teenager—The Pine-Vu-Lodge.
We didn’t find the restaurant, but we did find the location where it had been. It has been torn down, and a large home now sits where one of the Graybill’s favorite destination restaurants once was. Not much remains the same as it did 60 years ago, except maybe the essence of who each of us is.
Kathy has a huge collection of vintage postcards of Fort Collins and the surrounding area, so we were able to find one of the Pine-Vu-Lodge that Dan and Kathy remember so well.
Here is another postcard of another one of their favorite restaurants in the 60’s. It also no longer exists.
Just another good memory—The Caboose:
We visited the campus of Colorado State University. Below is Old Main, where Dan and his buddies played basketball in the early 60’s on Saturday mornings. Dan to this day can play a mean game of basketball….or at least, he’s way better than I am.
CSU is the reason that the Graybill family moved to Fort Collins when Dan was 12 years old. Dad Graybill, who had earned his doctorate in statistics, had written several books, and was a well known statistician for his breakthroughs in linear models was hired to create a statistics department at Colorado State University.
This is a vintage postcard of CSU. Dad’s office was in the building on the left. It became the Statistics Building, and where the Franklin A. Graybill Statistical and Data Science Laboratory is now located.
Here is Dad in his offie in the Statistics building at CSU in the 1970’s??? He retired in 1997.
In 1991 the Statistical Laboratory was named after Dad, The Franklin A. Graybill Statistical Laboratory, in honor and recognition of his contributions to the University and his advancements in the field of statistics.
Dad was given an award to acknowledge his achievements when the Statistical Laboratory was named after him. Dan and I have this award displayed in Nuestra Casa, our Leisure World home.
Kathy, Dad, Mom, and Tonia with the award at the ceremony:
Dan and I took Mom to the Statistical Laboratory almost ten years ago. There is an identical plaque displayed at the Laboratory as the one that Dad was given in 1991.
Mom and Dad built their dream home overlooking Terry Lake after Dan graduated from high school and left to go to Graceland University. We stopped by to look at the Terry Ridge home. You can see the lake on the left side of this photo. The plants and trees in front of the home make it hard to see this beautiful home.
I took a picture of Tonia standing in front of the Terry Ridge home. This is where her Grandma and Grandpa lived all of her childhood. She visited them often. This was Grandma and Grandpa’s house for Tonia—a very special place.
Kathy and Bill built a cabin on their property in the mountains at Red Feather in 2019. Since we had not been back to Fort Collins for several years, we had not seen their cabin. Seeing the cabin was a “must do” for Dan and me. So one day we wound our way on the delightful, scenic mountain roads to the cabin.
Their cabin is just perfect. It is a little piece of art both inside and outside, surrounded by trees, large boulders, and a view of Crystal Lake.
Years ago when the Denver Bronco stadium, Mile High Stadium, was torn down and rebuilt, Dan bought two Denver Bronco original stadium chairs and gave them to Bill.
Here they sit next to the fire pit, MILE High chairs, high up in the Rocky Mountains!
Throughout the cabin there are large window, that bring the outdoors inside their home.
And, of course, the deck overlooking the lake is the place to be on a warm summer day!
The view from the deck and living room…what a place to sit back and enjoy life!
We spent our afternoons and evenings at Kathy and Bill’s lovely home in Fort Collins. It is filled with unique, interesting, and beautiful items that they have collected through their travels and life together. In every room there are also many items that were from their childhoods. Their home is just delightful!
Tonia came over every day, so we were able to spend hours with her, talking and laughing and just “hanging out” together. And we had fun eating out (with take-out brought home) and eating in (with Bill’s delicious cooking). And I must not forget….our Dairy Queen desserts--after all we were on vacation, so we needed to get a treat almost every day.
Bill barbecued yummy buffalo cheeseburgers:
We all spent hours on their back deck, surrounded by their flower gardens and trees.
Bill made us a delicious breakfast casserole with eggs, sausage, cheese, and hash browns!
And Kathy set the table, prepared our fresh fruit, and cinnamon rolls. She does not like to cook, but she is the perfect chef’s helper and clean up crew. Kathy has a sign in the kitchen that says, “The only reason I have a kitchen, is because it came with the house.” She is a hoot.
But she does have Bill, so she doesn’t need to cook. He is an excellent chef and enjoys cooking.
All of us enjoying our meal and being together….
Kathy, Bill, and Tonia are part of the family that we have given our hearts to, so we gave them a big hug and with tears in our eyes, waved goodbye.
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