On Sunday, I did some time traveling, going back to where we lived when I was in junior high. My first stop was Beth Eden Baptist Church and School. Laura and I attended the school in its first three years of existence, from 1972 to 1975. Mom taught first and second grade there and we attended the church on Sundays and Wednesday nights. From the outside, it looks pretty much like it did back then . . .
The inside of the sanctuary has changed quite a bit but you can't really tell from this picture because the set for the school play kind of blocks the stage. The main difference is that the stained glass window behind the baptistery and pulpit is covered up now by a white wall and cross. This is the view from the balcony. (The stairs to the balcony have been moved for some reason.)
This is the view from the front of the auditorium . . .
I was able to walk through all the buildings. This is where Mom taught, though it looks like her classroom has been divided into two rooms. I'm remembering that her classroom was much larger than this . . .
It appears that the junior and senior high facilities have expanded into a second wing but this is the wing where I attended junior high. When I was at BEBS, the classrooms all had large glass doors on the outside walls but those are gone now. The library is in the same place as originally and while most of the classrooms have been reconfigured, it looks like Mr. Walker's room is mostly the same as it was back then . . .
The low ceiling and narrow hallway inside the building surprised me. Perhaps both have been changed in the last 32 years but I don't remember it being anywhere near this cramped looking . . .
It was kind of cool to see this bulletin board and remember that as one of the "founding members" of the school, I helped vote in "Knights" as the school mascot . . .
When I walked down the breezeway, I remembered how in 8th and 9th grade, as I grew to about 5'10" or 5'11", I would always slap the overhead beams . . .
The breezeway ends at the chapel and the gym. Like the main auditorium, the chapel used to have a stained glass window behind the podium but it's covered up now. I think the cross at the front of the big sanctuary probably looks just like this one . . .
And this is the gym, site of so many of my glorious athletic moments . . .
Even though I knew the court was smaller than regulation, I was surprised to see how small it really was. We didn't have glass backboards or scoreboards on the walls when I was at BEBS but otherwise the gym is pretty much unchanged, right down to the AWANA game circle on the tile floor. The locker rooms have been moved, though.
From Beth Eden, I got back on Wadsworth Blvd. and drove south to find our old home. It was several miles further than I had anticipated, based on what Yahoo! maps had told me but just when I was about to give up, I saw a Rite-Aid store and speculated that it may have been the location of the Woolco that I used to frequent, followed by a car dealership right where I remembered one being. Sure enough, our old neighborhood was the next right.
I made my way to South Zephyr Court, turned right and found our house. I honestly did not remember that it was a brick house and a porch area has been added by the front door, so it took me a few moments to recognize it . . .
I went up to the door and talked for a few minutes with the old man and his niece living there now. I was able to peek around their shoulders to see a little of the interior. Either I don't remember anything accurately about the inside of the house or else there's been a lot of work done on it. I did recognize the staircase down to the basement, right by the front door, but the iron railing around it has now been painted white.I was interested to see the driveway, which seemed so huge when I was in junior high . . . when I had to shovel the snow. It is pretty good size (big enough to park six cars) but not quite as ominous as it seemed in the winter of 1974 . . .
I thought it might be interesting to Laura and my folks to see a little of the area around our old home, so I even took video of the drive down Wadsworth to South Zephyr Court . . .From there, I headed over to where Dad worked when we lived in Colorado. Dad was a librarian and professor at Denver Baptist Bible College, a small school that eventually merged with Faith Baptist Bible College in Iowa after we left. The facility is now occupied by Redeemer Community Church.
I got to go inside and the auditorium looked pretty much like I remembered, except they have added a big mural of Jesus at the front . . .
I also walked through most of the building and was surprised at how much of it seemed familiar. I tried to find the library and wasn't sure if I succeeded. It may be what they now use as a fellowship hall but the room was locked and dark, so it was hard to tell.I don't remember any of the outside of the property except for the stairs that go up into the right hand wing, where I used to play catch by bouncing a ball off them . . .
I had expected to take most of the day finding those three locations but I managed to complete my tour by 10:30 so I buzzed up to Northglenn and visited Calvary Community Baptist Church, where one of Dad's former students, Bernie Augsburger, is the pastor. Afterwards, I had just one more goal . . . lunch at Casa Bonita . . .
Shortly before we left Colorado, friends at school would talk about a new restaurant in town, Casa Bonita. They said it was like going to Disneyland, with shows and scenery and games. They made it sound like the greatest restaurant on earth. Alas, we never got to eat there. Now, after 32 years, I was determined to find out what I missed.From the outside the place looked pretty cool and there were quite a few people hanging around the fountain. The menu declared it to be "the world's most exciting restaurant" (maybe they heard that from my junior high friends) and promised strolling musicians, "daring cliff divers," "exciting gunfights," "dancing monkeys in costume" and a "hilarious puppet show." The quotation marks here should be an indicator to you of what is to come. The menu also suggested that I order the "Deluxe Dinner," an all-you can-eat "Mexican feast" starting with a crispy chicken taco, two chicken enchiladas, sour cream, a cheese enchilada, Mexican rice, Guacamole, Chile con Queso, chips, salsa and "homemade" sopaipillas with honey for $10.99. The enchiladas were actually pretty good . . . which, if you know my taste in Mexican food, means they were a little bland.
The interior of the restaurant is dark and features dozens of fake palm trees decorated with strings of white Christmas lights and a waterfall.
Shortly after I sat down with my all-you-can-eat deluxe dinner, a teenage boy wearing Corona swim trunks came out by the waterfall, mumbled something into a microphone and then performed three death-defying dives from the cliff.
There were a couple of other performances by other highly talented actors. It was much like a sixth grade Sunday School play as they would pick up a microphone and say something undecipherable into it and, when the script called for action of some sort, such as a pie in the face or falling off the cliff or chasing a gorilla around the restaurant, they would have to put the microphone away, only to pick it up again when it was time for more dialogue. At this point in my review, I would love to use the phrase "delightfully tacky." Unfortunately, it really was not delightful at all. It was rather painful, in fact.
When my server came to my table to ask if I needed any refills, I felt the need to explain why a 47-year-old man would come to this restaurant alone. For all I knew, they were at that very moment scanning through a database of child molesters looking for my picture. I exclaimed, "I've been waiting 30 years to come here!" As I paid my bill, the couple at the next table, whose kids had gone to the arcade to spend whatever money they had left, asked, "Well? Was it worth the wait?"
