Nostalgia - Living in Fort Collins or Loveland in the 50's - 80's (Denver: houses)

[theatregal]

Anyone interested in sharing memories of growing up in the 50's through the 80's?

[Mike Weber]

Growing up here, I've got lots of Fort Collins area memories from the 70's and 80's. Are you looking for memories of places, activities, events, everyday stuff?

There is some good content from those eras at these sites, too:
Lost Fort Collins blog | An unofficial exploration of Fort Collins history
Lost Fort Collins

Mike

[jesusitadelnorte]

Yeah, there is a similar thread on the Denver forum with a lot of old memories. Most of my memories are from the early 80s. I was born in Loveland in 1977 and both of my parents are Loveland HS graduates. Luckily, I'm fortunate enough to have grandparents and family that still live in Loveland so I get to go back at least once a year. Some of my favorite childhood memories include:
Walking to the A&W with my cousins
Going to the "beach" at Lake Loveland
Justines Pizza--I think they just closed last year :-(
The Christmas Lights at HP (my grandpa helped put those up each year)
Skate Castle
Driving up the canyon to Estes Park and listening to my parents talk about the Big Flood
Rag Day (I think that's what they called it) skits at Loveland HS
Hopefully this list will spark a few other trips down memory lane...

[Mike Weber]

A few items that have popped into my head over the past few days:

I remember the sounds and smells of the dairy farm in the middle of town, where the CSU Veterinary Hospital is now located.

The drive along Horsetooth Reservoir was a bit scary before they paved the road and installed guardrails. When muddy or snowy, you would be taking your life into your hands driving the stretch from stadium hill to the north dam.

Before the swim beach was near the south end of Horsetooth, most people swam near the dam above Hughes Stadium. Often in the summer, there were cars parked along both sides of the entire length of the dam, and there was even a lifeguard. I was late to calculus class a couple of time the spring semester of my senior year in high school because my girlfriend and I went swimming up there on our lunch hour and did not get back in time.

Learning to play golf at Southridge Greens was easy because there were no houses to hit on the golf course. The drive out there was on Lemay, a dirt road south of Harmony, and I think the clubhouse was a trailer.

Lemay also used to be a small dirt road along the Collindale driving range from Horsetooth to the Golden Meadows subdivision, with a part of it on the dam on Warren Lake. Some golfers from my high school would stop along the road and gather range balls from the ditch to use as water balls.