Summer 1963

The tree had to go and Stan knew just how to remove it without damaging anything in the process, or so he thought.  Stan Belmer was “a jack of all trades” if you were to ask him.  He did have skills, many learned through trial and error and this was one of those “training days.”  The tree stood pretty close to the house as well as a few vehicles parked nearby.  My father offered to move his car but Stan assured him that would not be necessary.  In no time he proceeded to bring the tree down and in the process both the house and my father’s blue VW bus were damaged.

The car was now out of commission and in the shop for repairs for what looked like an extended period of time.  Timbrook Motors in Glenwood Springs provided a loaner car for my mother to use while the VW was being repaired. 

Around the same time my father had moved on to his biggest job of the summer.  Pete Seibert and Earl Wheaton had hired my dad to put in the plumbing lines at the “Lion’s Head” base station.  The two Aspenites were in the process of developing a new ski area east of Glenwood Springs and the center piece of the resort was a new gondola.  During the summer my father worked on the base station as well as some of the tower’s foundations.  Vail was scheduled to open the following November and there was a lot of work to be done.  Each morning my father would get up and make the two hour drive to Vail, work all day and then return home late each evening.

I am not sure why my mother needed to see my dad or maybe it was just a social call.  Whatever the reason, she loaded the four kids and the dog into the car and headed off to Vail to see my dad.  It was late spring and still a bit cold in the mornings, definitely cold enough to need the heater on.  When we got to the job site my mom got out to go see my dad, leaving the engine running in order to keep the heater on.  In those days kids barely wore seatbelts let alone any other sort of restraining devices.

I am the youngest of four kids and we were all pretty active children, too active at times.  I am not sure how long my mom was out of the car before it happened but at some point I found myself in the driver’s seat.  Not knowing anything about cars, I was three after all, I put it in gear.  The car slowly idled forward and hit the first thing in its path, my dad’s Backhoe. 

The damage was significant but the car was still drivable.  After sorting things out, my mom headed back to Glenwood to try and explain this one to the service manager at Timbrook.  I am not sure how the conversation went but in the end we were in another one of their loaner cars.  I think they also put our car repair at the top of the list before anything else could happen.