After the widespread adoption of email, there has been no real joy in my mailbox. Not for years. Only bills, ads, and occasional notices from the FCgov that somebody is up to something uninteresting in my neighborhood.
Then this came today ….
Yes, um, I would also like some sweet floats. And lions.
Lost Fort Collins turns 1
This is a good time to tell you that Lost Fort Collins is turning 1 this week. That’s roughly 80 posts (if you include the ones I thought better of and took down).
Thanks to all of you for reading. Thanks to all of you who have offered suggestions … I swear, I try to make stories out of them, and I still might.
Special thanks especially thanks to early readers, back when I was getting 5 hits a day…Noe (my first writing teacher and inspiration) and Lost Oregon.com. Soon after, Paul S., Meg, Terry, Kip and Martha–the first strangers to come around.
And the folks at the Museum and the Coloradoan who I expected would snub me for being an amateur, but were some of the nicest of all!
And, finally, to LouisFowler.com for challenging me to write what I really think. Which I still don’t do entirely.
So…yeah. Thanks everybody. And thanks United Way for sending a parade down my street.
Happy Birthday … a parade seems very suitable for someone who is helping to put Fort Collins on the map! PS Thanks!!
oh! i hope we’re back in our house in time for the parade!!!!
ok, i’m curious. i can’t remember how i found lostfortcollins. i’m thinking it was via twitter.
how about the rest of the readership here? how did you find lostfortcollins?
I say that we make banners advertising our blogs and parade-crash!
Nothing says “community” more than watching a parade… from the cool comfort of your own front porch. I highly recommend it!
BTW-You will have to report if parade candy throwing is a “lost” art. I wouldn’t expect the Grand Poobas of Fort C to permit such extravagence…
Congrats on the milestone! You’ve made it farther than most bloggers do. Keep it up!!
Happy Birthday LFC!
One year, eh? That’s great! Keep it up!
I haven’t heard of this Round Up thing and I work for a United Way agency! Thanks for telling me. They must have forgot to send me the memo ;-[{ I’ll see if my Samba band can make an appearance.
-bug
Thanks Bugman. The parade isn’t even up on the United Way website yet. I would appreciate a samba band. Thanks. I also want to see Duncan Madog there, dressed as a lion, please.
Congrats on the milestone. Please keep up the informative and whimsical insights that you provide! I’m puzzled why you took down the Park Street posting — hope I didn’t offend in that regard…
HI Colorebel, No, it wasn’t you. Well, it was sort of you. People on both sides of the argument were uneasy with my writing and comments and I was too cowardly to say what I really thought (that’s what I was referring to in my hat tip to Louis Fowler). But at the same time, I wasn’t willing to just take a disinterested journalist’s perspective. So I took it down until I can get right with my own policy about getting involved in other people’s business. A day later, someone asked me to look into another neighborhood scandal–resident versus investor, so I guess it’s one of those lessons that’s going to keep presenting until I figure it out.
congrats on a year — i found you quite by mistake and have really enjoyed reading all that you have put out there and contributing in my own small way– thank you for keeping the interest up
you took down the park street post?
hmmmm. i think posts like that are good because they bring out exactly how hard these issues are. on the one hand, if we own property we want to be able to do with it as we please. then again, when we live so closely with one another (as opposed to being out on the prairie with miles between houses or something like that) it seems reasonable to have some level of respect toward your neighbors in terms of what you do with your property. some of this is regulated with laws (i can’t just park an unused dumpy old car in front of my house for an unlimited length of time), some is regulated with HOAs, and some is kinda wide open (such as the park house problem of building (or renovating) a house such that it will still be in keeping with the neighborhood).
i think this is really good stuff to talk about all around. especially when we disagree. it’s in talking about it with others that we can get a better grasp of opposing views, get a better sense of what people value and what they don’t, and challenge one another in ways that we might not otherwise be challenged — and hopefully be challenged in good ways.
and i think toes might likely be stepped on. i wonder how many people in our neighborhood walk by our house right now and mutter (when are those people going to Finish that blasted project!). the ripped up part of lawn apparently turned into a bit of a mud flow last night and i’m sure anyone walking down the sidewalk this morning had a few choice words for us. on the other hand, it’s not till i find out there’s mud that i can deal with it. (which i haven’t. when i looked it seemed like the mud had mostly washed away. but now i’m feeling guilty and will probably check it again when i go to pick up mail later.) but unless there’s dialogue, there can’t be understanding or compromise, imo.
Happy anniversary LFC! As a Fort Collins native it’s very cool to hear tidbits of local history about my hometown they never taught us in school! Keep up the good work!
I’m with barefootmeg on this as a posting of yours like Park Street really brings about discussion. In the end though, do whatcha like, it’s your blog (delete as you see fit).
Happy Birthday! The blog’s been a real breath of my real home town, and I hope you keep it going and going.
Parade! Reminds me of watching parades go down College Avenue. Sometimes from the street, and one rather neat time from a big glass window on the second floor in an office block close by Gamble’s, where Dad had a music studio for a short while. Central Bldg.? I don’t recall that we could hear clearly — it wasn’t a window that opened — though if we’d had Mom’s bulky transistor radio there, we could have heard the whole thing on KCOL, with maybe Mike Meisel or Bill Miles or Joe Douth calling the action.
Happy Birthday LFC! You have a good thing going there.
Dang it, Meg and Colorebel, every time I try to reply to you, I end up writing an essay!!!! I’m pretty sure you don’t want that. But I’m glad to see you like that controversial stuff. I’ll do more of it … but just more carefully.
Meg, not to creep you out or anything, but you didn’t find Lost Fort Collins. Lost Fort Collins found you. I kept bumping into your pictures of Emma Malaby’s and other old town sites. So, when I saw you on Twitter, I friended you. I’m very glad I did.
Colorebel, my son today suggested that putting chicken dance with Layla would make an interesting mashup. I don’t know how to do mashups. But you do. So, I just thought I’d throw that out there.
And both of you…PLEASE don’t ever ever ever edit or censor what you have to say because I took down Park Street. I mean, if you’re thinking it, so is everyone else and so you keep me very honest and I very much appreciate it!
Happy Birthday Lost Fort Collins, I look forward to many more years of Fort Collins history right here at The Lost Fort Collins Blog, keep up the great work.
I can’t say exactly how I found Lost Fort Collins, however I know it was while I was researching for a blog post I was planning on festivals in the Fort Collins area. It was during that time(end of May 2009) that I found your post entitled: Fort Collins Festivals: Pristine femininity at Colorado State University.
I’ve been a fan ever since.
Vic
Thanks Vic, and thanks for saying nice things about LFC on your blog
catfc, I’ll have to look into that mashup suggestion. Couldn’t find an acapella of Layla readily available but I’ll keep searching.
It sounds like you’re trying to figure out for yourself whether you’d rather blog like Cronkite would have, reporting what happened — or, adding a little cable news type commentary about why it happened. The manner in which you blog makes it such that I don’t have any uncomfortableness about perhaps commenting with thoughts to the contrary. If you were to take more of a commentary role, I don’t see that changing and obviously this is your world here, feel free.
I suspect on Park Street for instance, if you added a little more commentary about what you thought I probably would have agreed. Such as if you said the home builder is a jerk, I wouldn’t have attempted to dispute that.
Happy one year blogiversary!
I’m a food blogger in town doing restaurant reviews and I came across your blog while doing some research for a review (I can’t remember which one). I bookmarked your blog and have been reading ever since. I find it fascinating.
Thanks Kristin! I’ve read your blog several times and am delighted to see you in the very small world of Fort Collins hyperlocal bloggers. Looks like I’ve missed several new features though. Got to go catch up!
hey! have you heard anything more on this? i just wrote it in on my calendar so i don’t double book. i’m hoping that everyone’s out with their lawn chairs and noise makers.
Pictures of the parade:
http://barefootmeg.multiply.com/photos/album/455/Round-Up_at_the_Fort_-_Parade_in_Old_Town_Fort_Collins