Cowboys, Yogis, and One-legged Ski Bums
New Book Features Several Park Hill Characters
GPHN staff report
In 2009, Colorado author Don Morreale began writing profiles of Colorado people, and posting them online at Examiner.com. Five years and 200 stories later, he’s published a collection of his favorites called Cowboys, Yogis, and One-legged Ski Bums; the Extraordinary Lives of Ordinary Coloradans.
Among those featured in the book are three Park Hillians:
Since Dr. Rick Clarke retired in 2001, he’s been building giant remote-controlled replicas of WW2 aircraft in a tiny workshop in the basement of his Park Hill home.
Christy Honigman works as a consultant to nonprofit organizations, but she’s also an artist whose work appears in more than 50 private and corporate collections. For her piece, Tikun Olam, she invited members of the city’s immigrant and refugee communities to express themselves in pictures, poems, and stories etched into plaques mounted on 7-foot tall columns. The work has toured the state’s public libraries.
An attack by gang members left local entrepreneur James D. Chapman paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. Refusing to accept defeat, Chapman began stamping out campaign buttons and selling them on the streets during the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Today he’s the proprietor of Buttonman Gift Shop at 33rd and Hudson Street, and a respected member of the Park Hill business community.
Morreale’s book is full of stories like these. “There’s a natural curiosity among people to know about their fellow humans,” he said, “which is probably why everyone seems so fascinated by the lives of celebrities these days. But celebs are not the only ones with interesting lives. Ordinary folks also have some very compelling stories to tell.”
Morreale will sign copies of his book on Saturday, December 20 at Park Hill Community Bookstore, 4620 E. 23rd Ave., from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Owner Sandra Niemi says she’ll be serving free hot cider and cookies at the event.
For more on the book, go to www.cowboysyogis.com