A true Colorado Native

By Stan Dyer

It was not until the year 1876 that Colorado became a state. In that year, Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant was President, a man named Custer ran into some trouble at the Little Big Horn River in Montana, and, in August, the Colorado Territory officially joined the Union. Since that time, many people have come to Colorado from around the world to make their homes here, raising generations of Colorado Natives, but not all of them stayed around very long, nor did their children. In recent years, the numbers of true, long-time Colorado Natives has dwindled, yet, a few still remain, and, if you look closely enough, you can find them. One person who can trace her lineage back to Colorado Pioneers and who still lives in the state where she was born just happens to live in Arvada and just happens to be my aunt.

Her father came to America as a young boy from Zepow, Hungary. Around the turn of the 20 th century, he landed in New Jersey and made his way to the Slovak mining communities of Colorado where he grew up, met a young woman, (whose family also came from Hungary), and made her his wife. They married in 1919 when she was just 19 years old, made Colorado their home for their entire life together, and raised six children.

My aunt is one of only two of those six children to also remain in Colorado her entire life. She, too, married and had two children of her own who gave her six grandchildren and a growing list of great-grandchildren. After living various places around Denver, Conifer and Westminster, she now makes her home in Arvada and she talks about how the times have changed things. When she talks about the different generations, the differences do seem obvious, but the similarities are just as stunning.

When she was in High School, the country was still in the Great Depression, Hitler's legacy was coming to life in Europe and Franklin Roosevelt was busy creating a New Deal for the American people. The American people felt insulated from the unrest in the world by friendly neighbors both north and south, and huge, ocean moats on either coast. Besides, the Depression was problem enough for most Americans at the time. My aunt, as did many other High School students of her generation, felt a similar insulation from the problems of America and the world just by their positions in life. Besides, they had problems enough of their own. It was a different place and time, but the situation then does not sound too much different from the situation today.

Today, we also have a world of serious problems including war, the economy and diplomacy. We also have a legislature trying to deal with those problems. Nonetheless, High School kids today feel just as insulated from those problems and still are concerned more with their clothes, their cars, their cell phones, and their popularity than just about anything else going on in the world.

After a Catholic primary education, my aunt and her older sister attended Manual High School in East Denver. Although most schools of the time required uniforms for students, there were still problems with clothes. My aunt recalls how the more affluent students looked down on the poorer students and particularly how she and her sister had to wear long underwear that they tucked into their socks and how it made their legs look "lumpy". Her father would not allow her to wear pants or slacks because girls did not wear such things back then. Then, just as now, a lot of emphasis in High School was on wearing the right clothes and showing the right outward appearance to be accepted and to be popular.

Today's kids all seem to have their own cars or SUVs, too. My aunt recalls that maybe only ten kids in her entire school had cars and those were mostly beat-up, old, Model A Fords, but then, just as now, it was pretty cool just to have a ride. Every High School kid today who wants to be accepted also has to have some type of cell phone. In my aunt's day, there were no cell phones. They had party lines instead that were land-based telephone lines shared with up to 20 other families. When my aunt was in school, they did not even have T.V., but they did have radio, and I can only speculate how few of them ever tuned into one of Roosevelt's famous Fireside Chats just to hear what the president had to say. There were parts of the country that did not yet have electricity, let alone radios. For entertainment, they read books, played cards, or enjoyed extracurricular activities sponsored by the school, but that was about all that was available. I am sure they would have loved computers, video games, CDs, DVDs, i-Pods and cell phones if they could afford them. Kids back then did not have as much money to spend, and neither did their parents.

It is peculiar to hear my aunt talk about bullies, brutality and jealousy when she was in school. Those kids all look so nice and well behaved in their pictures. It only goes to show you how deceiving appearances can be. My aunt not only talks about being harassed and punched for no good reason, shunned by more affluent students, and sometimes feeling more than a little uncomfortable in certain situations at school, she can relate similar situations and sentiments as experienced by her children and her grandchildren, too. Isn't it funny how much society can advance and remain so primitive? Although the technology may advance, people still mature at about the same rate, and most kids will probably continue to experience similar difficulties well into the future. Then, just as now, kids do make it through High School and move on.

My aunt made it through High School, made it through the Depression, made it through World War II, (where three of her siblings served), and survived the Red Scare of the 50's. She lived through the administrations of 13 different presidents, the Birth of Rock and Roll, the Viet Nam Conflict and the Civil Rights Movement. All those years, except for occasional vacations, she lived in and called Colorado home. I suppose there are many others who lived through the same, and a number of them who did it from the vantage point of the Rocky Mountain State, but few of them can relate it all from the point of view of our family and our family's heritage, and, of those, she is the only one who lives in Arvada. History takes on new meaning when you actually know the people in the stories, know the town where the incidents occurred, and the stories come from someone you know and respect. We are very fortunate to have people around like my aunt who can share that history with us.

Nowadays, my aunt lives alone after outliving two, super husbands. Her knees are not so good anymore, but she still manages to get out into the community and she still likes to play Pinochle with her friends from time to time. She still enjoys a very rewarding life and she has many great stories to tell from the point of view of a person who has watched Colorado "grow up". Even though she has grown a bit older along with Colorado, she still has that "Je ne sais quoi" that served her so well throughout her life and keeps her just as popular today as when she was back in High School. She is a truly unique and special woman with an interesting take on history who I am proud to have for an aunt and who makes the community around her better just by her presence. She may see herself as just another citizen and just another Colorado Native, but those who truly know her know how special she really is. .