Purchase Your Longs Peak Reunion Souvenirs At

American Legion

Fans of the upcoming Longs Peak Reunion (August 18th-20th, 2023) can purchase commemorative posters, T-shirts and summit club pins at the American Legion Post 119 in Estes Park. American Legion is located at 850 North St. Vrain Ave. Net proceeds going to Longs Peak Reunion. “A very limited supply of Longs

Peak memorabilia will be available at the Legion” said Long Peak Reunion volunteer Greg Raymer. “This years' poster is gallery quality and will likely sell out.” For more information about Longs Peak Reunion, go to longspeakreunion.com, or Facebook at Longs Peak Reunion 2023.

Open House At Estes Valley Community Garden

Community Gardeners and their families, friends and neighbors, Estes Park visitors – everyone is invited to drop in to see what’s growing in our high-elevation, short-season Garden. So far this year it’s looking pretty nice!

Open House will be Saturday, August 26, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Board members will be on hand to answer questions and accept your application for a 2024 plot if you’d like to join us.

You’ll find us at 380 Community Drive, the corner of Community Drive and Manford Avenue, just north of the Estes Valley Community Center (Rec Center). Park along Community Drive where it turns north towards the Skate Park, or next to the Tennis Courts via the first left turn past the Garden from Manford Avenue. Or stroll over from any of the parking areas in Stanley Park.

We’d love to see you at the Garden! Visit evcg.org for more information.

Next Memory Cafe August 10

Memory Café is a relaxed, social gathering for Estes Valley community members experiencing memory loss due to any form of dementia, together with their partner, family member, or friend. We stimulate engagement, attention and memory by enjoying coffee/snacks, conversation, singing, and sharing remembrances through games and activities. Research and the medical community encourage fun, social activity for all of us as we age but especially for those with memory loss. We aim to support caregivers as well, through fun and friendship.

This month on Thursday, August 10th our theme will be Celebrating Summer Fun. Come join us in jogging those memories of summer activities through a variety of games, snacking, singing, and friendship. We meet at St. Bartholomew’s Church (880 MacGregor Ave.) from 10:00-11:30 (second Thursday of every month). We hope you will join us!

Call Jane at 970-430-8105 for more information, if you would like to participate as guests or to volunteer to help.

Local Groups To Honor Jim Detterline

The Estes Park Village Band, The Jazz Big Band and Longs Peak Reunion are combining forces to honor former Longs Peak Ranger Jim Detterline, who died in 2016. "Jim was truly a Renaissance man" said Mike Caldwell of Estes Park. The groups created a GoFundMe page in Jim's name to create a memorial plaque to be placed in Estes. The amount of donations will determine the size of the plaque. If anyone would like to contribute, please visit GoFundMe and enter Jim Detterline to get started. In addition, there is a live silent auction, ending August 20th, 2023 of a commemorative flag that Dr. Detterline carried to the summit of Longs Peak when he broke the world record of Longs Peak summit climbs. The flag is signed by Detterline. Interested bidders can visit longspeakreunion.com to bid. All proceeds from that auction will go towards the memorial also. Don't forget to attend Longs Peak Reunion 2023 to be held August 18th to the 20th in Estes Park. This years presentation will include a 150th Anniversary program honoring Isabella Birds 1873 climb to the summit of Longs.

With all the hype over the recently released movie, Barbie, I decided to get out the one Barbie doll I’ve kept since I was six years old and see how she’s held up. My Barbies were hand-me-downs from the neighbor girls because there was no way my mother was going to buy me, at age six, one of the bosomy, tiny-waisted, tippy-toed dolls or her pink plastic dream house. (Mom liked it when I played dolls in the front yard and tucked my babies into a bed I made in the crook of a bush.)

One Christmas I got a brand new, rough and rugged Jane West in her turquoise jeans and western shirt, and her horses Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, but never did I get a Barbie in the box. So I took what I could get. That meant my cast-off was a “lesser” Barbie doll, Midge, with short, curly hair and eyes looking off to the side like she’s avoiding eye contact. (To me, she was inferior because she had short hair. The most popular Barbie ever was the Totally Hair Barbie, whose extra long hair reached all the way to her stiletto-formed feet.)

I’ve never known someone named Midge. Why would anyone name their child after an annoying little fly that joins its pals in a swarm hovering just above a lake? Yet there she was, Barbie’s best friend: Midge. (Actually, her name is Margaret. Barbie called her Midge, maybe because she was an annoying best friend who hovered a little too close, invading Barbie’s personal space while avoiding eye contact.)

Yesterday, after I saw the Barbie movie—to which I wore my hot-pink sunglasses—I researched Midge’s history. It ends up Midge, originally released in 1963 and re-released in the 1980s, was married to Ken’s best friend Alan and was pregnant. This made her unpopular with parents who thought she was too young to be a mother. They were afraid Midge would promote teen pregnancy. It turns out the short, curly-haired doll I have is not Midge, but “Bubble Cut Barbie. ” She was first issued in 1961 and, although she wasn’t popular with little girls like me, collectors loved her and love her still—despite her greasy face (caused by a breakdown in the vinyl

Mattel used to make the dolls.)

I am not being very kind in describing my Bubble Cut Barbie, but I’ve kept her more than 55 years so there must be something about her I like. I can tell you exactly what that is.

My Bubble Cut Barbie isn’t wearing the red swimsuit she came in, nor is she in a long, tight-fitting glitz and glitter gown. She longago lost her little pearl earrings and her highheeled shoes, and the red of her lips has worn off some. What sets her apart is her hand-knitted wardrobe that looks like it came straight out of Jackie Kennedy’s closet (only much, much smaller).

My mom wouldn’t let me have a brand new Barbie, but she knitted her brand new clothes, using teensy-tiny needles, snaps and buttons the size of sunflower seeds, and patterns that met the fashion demands of the early 1960s. I have a short skirt and roll-collar top set, a long skirt and sleeveless top set, a matching “fur” stole and pillbox hat, and a knee-length overcoat. I love thinking of my mom, secretly knitting these miniature outfits while enjoying a quiet household after her kids had gone to bed.

The only Barbie item I adored almost as much as the handmade clothes was my Skipper coloring book. Skipper was Barbie’s younger sister and she had the most beautiful long, straight hair cut perfectly even across the bottom. In the line-drawing pictures, her hair swung as if it were one solid plate. I dreamed of having Skipper’s locks as I colored page upon page in my coloring book.

The Barbie movie came at a time when our society needed a diversion. In my opinion, it’s an average movie getting way more fanfare than it deserves. But it brought back some fun memories of a dreamy childhood and that made Barbie a movie worth seeing.

You may let The Thunker know what you think at her e-mail address, donoholdt@gmail.com.

© 2023 Sarah Donohoe