Editor:
I simply learn Roger Marolt’s wonderful article in Exterior Journal (“Aspen Has Been Overrun By Zillionaires”) wherein he talks about Aspen’s characters from the previous and the way they’re just about non-existent as we speak. As common, Marolt is spot on.
I moved to Aspen in 1970, later than I might have favored however in time for what I take into account to be the heyday of the ski bum, and I bear in mind a lot of these legendary characters. However they weren’t alone. Aspen was a loopy place in these days and I feel a lot of individuals who had been right here within the ’70s and ’80s, whereas not essentially quirky or eccentric sufficient to be in the identical league as Ralph Jackson or No Downside Joe, had been simply bizarre and irreverent sufficient to be thought-about bona fide city characters in as we speak’s whitewashed model of Aspen. I’ve an extended record of names that I feel would qualify, as I am certain everybody who was right here then does.
Many vacationers, in addition to quite a few celebrities, loved hanging out with the locals on the time. One among Aspen’s largest attracts was referred to as its “native shade”: the wackos within the bars; the ski bums, many with superior levels from prestigious universities working menial jobs (dishwashers, waiters, bartenders, taxi drivers); the native cowboys, and many others. The vacationers truly tried, largely unsuccessfully, to be just like the locals who they thought had been cool. Fairly a distinction with as we speak’s vacationers! When was the final time you heard the outline “native shade”? We misplaced that a part of us a very long time in the past.
And the place have all of the funky outdated Victorians gone the place ski lovers might afford to stay? For essentially the most half, they’ve been become lot-to-lot eyesores: additional houses for the super-rich. We used responsible Invoice Greed for overdevelopment, however he hadn’t heard his identify in years. I believe that in some unspecified time in the future Invoice Greed morphed into William Avarice after which we stopped paying consideration.
The traditional story of the locals right here is that they got here to ski and stayed for the summers. I got here for the snowboarding, and as a lot as I really like summers, what I stored was the approach to life. Sadly, that life-style not exists.
mike petrie
Basalt