NOTE 1: If you would prefer to listen, click here for an audio version of this blog post. When prompted, click the following: Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 6 Photo 7 Photo 8 Photo 9 Photo 10 Photo 11
NOTE: Click here for Part 2: Lutheran Medical Center, where our children were born; click here for Part 4: Home #2 – 1365 S. Vallejo, our first house as homeowners.
Saturday, October 5, 2024 – other than a second trip to the Broncos Store at the stadium (see Part 14) – was a full day of “nostalgia touring.” It included drive-bys of the four different places we lived in the Denver area. I still remember our arrival, on Monday afternoon, August 29, 1977, at our apartment complex. Waterside Apartments – at 679 S. Reed Court in Lakewood – were a relatively new apartment complex, catering to young newlyweds like Joanna and me. As the name implies, a man-made lake, with various types of waterfowl, was at the center of the complex. As I recall, we were in Building 406, and I think we were on the 2nd floor, though I wouldn’t swear to it. We had a balcony.
Soon after we arrived in Denver, I got a job as an assistant manager at a McDonald’s; much of my time was spent “calling production”; in other words, standing between the registers and the food bin, and – based on how busy we were – calling the number of Big Macs, Quarter-Pounders, etc., that they should be cooking at that moment. I spent so much time on that task that I often found myself calling production in my sleep – no kidding! But that wasn’t the only “fallout” from that task; I came home reeking of the odor of hamburger grease! I remember getting home, opening the door to the balcony, and lying on the floor in front of it, breathing-in that cool, crisp, CLEAN, fall Colorado air.
Unfortunately, few things stay the same in a half-century. I could not locate the particular building that housed our apartment; it seems that the whole complex has been reconfigured, added to, etc. So I took a picture of one of the buildings that was about as close as I could figure to where we lived; the complex is no longer named Waterside but is instead named Lakeview (Waterside, Lakeview, to-mA-to, to-mAH-to). Joanna and I lived at Waterside for a little less than a year, until June 1978, when we bought our first house.
One memory of this apartment – one of which I’m not particularly proud – is of running out on my wife of barely a year PLUS my parents, who were visiting from Texas, on Christmas night 1977 to spend the night at Mile High Stadium, in line waiting for tickets – which would go on sale at 9 the next morning – to the following week’s AFC Championship Game between the Broncos and the Oakland Raiders. I’ll leave the rest of that story for Part 15, which is about the final day of this trip, spent at the Broncos’ game honoring that 1977 team.
Waterside was just east of Wadsworth Blvd. and south of Alameda Blvd. During our time at Waterside, the Villa Italia shopping mall sat between us and Alameda Blvd. In those days, Villa Italia was one of the largest enclosed shopping malls between Chicago and Los Angeles. (It closed in July 2001 and was demolished the following winter.) Joanna and I often walked over there to shop or to eat in its Food Court. At the outer edge beyond the mall, at the intersection of Wadsworth and Alameda, was a movie theater. During the fall of 1977, I recall walking over to the theater with Joanna to see the original Star Wars (still running from its original release) and the George Burns/John Denver movie, Oh God!
More photos
Here are a few snapshots from our brief time at Waterside: (1) the Waterside entrance sign; (2) the lake; (3) Joanna & me with our Christmas tree; (4) Joanna and me, with my mother, waving from the balcony of our apartment; (5) Daddy with Joanna & me; (6) Mother with Joanna & me; (7) Mother posing on our couch, with the couch cover that Joanna had knitted; and (8) Joanna & me showing off the items displayed on the hutch (she had a talent for arranging such displays) given to us by my Aunt Betsy & Uncle Frank.