A Walk Through 1980s Denver by Way of Facebook

Even though I only visit Facebook maybe once a week or so, I've been having a lot of fun lately with one of the categories of "gifts" you can "send" to your friends. Though the whole Facebook thing basically boggles my mind, I've been having fun connecting with friends from high school and college. That boggles my husband's mind, but I do consider those days to be so much more carefree. Everything seemed so much easier.

One of the "gift" categories on Facebook is "Growing up Denver." Since many of my Facebook connections also grew up in Denver, we've been gifting each other the little icons every now and again. So many of the places depicted in the Denver icon category are now closed, only to exist in little Facebook icons and our memories.

Buckingham Square Mall  is one of the icons you can gift someone. This one holds a special place in my heart, and I only learned today that it was scheduled to be razed in 2007. It was within walking distance of my house so I spent many hours in the early 1980s cruising the mall, spending my minimum-wage paychecks on music and clothes, and generally wasting time. I remember it as the site of my senior year high school job, which consisted primarily of asking whether or not you'd "like extra butter flavor" and sharing some sloppy kisses with clumsy-boy coworkers. Or clumsy kisses with sloppy-boy coworkers. Take your pick. Hey, I worked at the movie theater and the hormones of a 17-year-old spoke more loudly than that same 17-year-old's brain. Buckingham was also the scene of a crime. When I was probably 10 years old I stole some magnetic frogs from the toy store. They probably cost less than $2, but I had to have them and I guess I didn't have the money to pay for them. It's weird how well I remember it, but my guilt prevented me from enjoying the frogs so I guess I learned my lesson from that experience about stealing. The frogs stayed hidden away in my desk drawer never to be enjoyed because of the way they were obtained. I'm not sure what my fascination was with the frogs anyway since they didn't really *do* anything. As toys go, the frogs were lame.

Another Denver icon on Facebook is Casa Bonita. As unbelievable as this is to me, Casa Bonita is still in business today. Casa Bonita is a Mexican restaurant on West Colfax, which translates to it being in not the nicest part of town. There's a "South Park" episode where the kids go to Casa Bonita and they've nailed the ambiance of the place as well as its environs. Yes, there are dive bars, "massage parlors," and shops with bars on the windows. At least that's how it was the last time I was there. Whenever we had relatives with kids in from out of town, we had to go to Casa Bonita. When I was seven, my family took our Michigan cousins to see the cliff divers and strolling mariachis that could only be found under the Casa Bonita roof alongside overcooked, refried beans and taco shells gone soggy as you zig-zag through the cafeteria-style line to get your food. As we drove home with the Michigan cousins, we passed Kitty's Adult Emporium on East Colfax and my oldest cousin mentioned seeing a hooker. All of the kids were in the back of the van and our conversation hadn't attracted adult attention until my youngest cousin loudly questioned, "What's a hooker?" The adult conversation suddenly ceased.

I would be remiss if I left out the giftable Red Rocks icon. Red Rocks is an open-air, natural amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. As one of my favorite concert venues of all time, it also serves as a reminder as to where the majority of my minimum wage paychecks went. I saw Depeche Mode, U2, Robert Plant, and the Grateful Dead at Red Rocks. The U2 concert was turned into a film and album "Under a Blood Red Sky." I'm convinced the bobbing and weaving white dot in the audience during "Sunday, Bloody, Sunday" is me in my hooded sweatshirt. It probably isn't, but hey. My Grateful Dead experience was noteworthy enough to warrant its own post here on Gather some time ago. I have so many memories of that place.

Unfortunately, there is one Denver icon that is missing from the Growing Up Denver category that was a favorite 80s haunt of mine, Muddy's Coffee House. My sister who is older by three years introduced me to Muddy's. I think I visited Muddy's for the first time when I was 14. It was a place to wallow in existential discussions of, "Do we exist?" to the shallow and silly, "Would my hair look better if I dyed it magenta?" Muddy's opened in 1975 and closed about 10 years later. The original Muddy's, anyway. Muddy's existed before you could find a Starbucks on every corner. There might be some a poetry reading happening in one corner and a couple of guys playing chess in another. It was in downtown Denver and was open until 4 in the morning. I remember it as a place to go for post-concert coffee, conversation, and clove cigarettes. What better place to discuss the finer points of "Repo Man" and the wisdom of the line, "The more you drive, the less intelligent you are"?