Sunday, May 2, 2010

Attitude and Altitude Adjustments

I kept my leather business for the almost two years that I attended The University of Colorado. Out of the blue one of my clients, Jim, of Dark Horse Leather, invited me to spend my summer in beautiful Estes Park, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. He had a store and he needed two young girls to sell for him. (Things were different then.) My friend, Jane, from Remington West, and I decided to take the plunge, and leave the hippie student town of Boulder to live with the throngs of tourists that make up Estes. We rented a little cabin by the river and learned many new skills, including sneaking into the towns only bar as underage drinkers.


I made the adjustment from the creating side of the business, back to the selling side. I was very good at explaining the process by which the inventory was made and that detail made me a great salesperson for his company. When the major part of tourist season ended, I thought I had fallen in love with my boss and I believed he felt the same, when he cajoled me into moving to Steamboat Springs, Colorado to work in his other store of the same name. I gave up school, dropped out, and decided I would have plenty of time for all of that...later....much later. In fact, it would be 20 more years before I returned to school. I was ready for adventure and fun. I was on my way to Ski Town USA!





I was all long hair and attitude. I was in love and flying high on my independence. They were my decisions.It was my life! I was only getting started. I was 20 then, trying to find my path and listening to no one. What were you doing when you were 20?


7 comments:

  1. Wow, well when I was 20 I had been married for 2 years (no children yet), working in a Flower Shop and having adventures with my hubby.

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  2. I was a newlywed when I was 20! Barely a year into our marriage... with my husband barely out of bootcamp & living in Silver Springs, MD while my he was stationed at Walter Reed AMC. I worked for a fabulous D.C. temporary agency & did intermediate secretarial at National Association of Realtors...but my biggest & longest gig was for the President of a brand spanking new paper at the time, called USA Today. Not to long after that, we were on our way to Germany.

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  3. Lets see...when I was 20 I was working at a toy store trying to finish college and dating my now husband. We were already starting to have our adventures together. :)

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  4. Ahhh...your post makes me reminiscent of my youth AND Colorado! I lived just outside of Boulder back in the 70's and when I left...so did I leave a piece of my heart.

    Thank you for the memories.

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  5. Well much to my disappointment I was working a thank-less job at Office Max. I was the floor supervisor making only $7.50 an hour and working about 50-60 hours a week.
    However a year later I did meet my husband to be at that same place of employment, so something very good did come out of working there!
    Thank-you for sharing your story and allowing us to share ours.
    http://www.facebook.com/LillyofLavalleeCrafts

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  6. When I was 20...I was a college drop-out, married and divorced by 20. I was living in a two-bedroom apartment with about 5 or 6 friends, plus a couple who were living in a camper in our driveway!! We were making plans to backpack through Europe. Remember "Europe on $5 a Day"? That's what we did and we were there for 4 months. What a fun time it was - young, fearless, no responsibilities...ahhhh. I guess I was a hippie and I think I still am!

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  7. When I was 20 I was in college studying to be a Physical Therapist....pretty boring really! So far my 30s have been much more fun!!

    I wanted to let you know that I nominated your blog for the Sunshine Award. You can find out more here. Congrats! http://twolittlebluebirds.blogspot.com

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