My World is Changing

All around me, what I used to know is changing.  Berkeley Lake has piles of dirt stacked all around. Not to long ago, the lake had looked liked a desert.  It now has water and is beginning to look like a lake again. Where the doggie park used to be is now a mountain of dirt!  Westminster Mall is now gone except for one lone store which I heard refuses to leave. For blocks, the mall is now one large piece of dirt and weeds. Yesterday I noticed that North Jeffco Recreational area is being torn down and huge mounds of dirt circle the area.  I drove around the north side and not only are the buildings being torn down, but the whole park from Garrison to Carr has been dug up. I hear a new park will go up in its place. 

The first time I saw Berkeley Lake was around 1955 when a group of high school kids drove from Greeley to swim in the lake. In those days the lake was clean!  Through the years, I have taken my children to feed the ducks, watched fireworks and heard the screams from the Lakeside roller coaster.  We have had many picnics under the large trees, watched people fishing, have danced in the rec center, enjoyed sunsets, tromped through yellow and golden leaves in the fall, and walked around the lake for exercise. I would meet my father at Berkeley and we would walk together.  Memories will be all I have of Berkeley until whatever is being done is completed. 

Westminster Mall became the place to shop once Lakeside Mall with the Denver Dry Goods Company and Target closed.  My children would go to movies at the mall, I worked at the mall every Christmas, and even when Joslins and Macy's were gone I still visited J.C. Penny (still there) and the smaller stores. I am curious to see what will be erected in place of all those stores!



The first time I went to North Jeffco was around 1960 to swim.  I remember my friends and I seemed to drive forever through farm lands until we reached a pool in the middle of nowhere. We spent the whole day swimming and sunbathing. Many years later, when we moved to Arvada, the farm lands were gone and residential homes were all around. The pool was now in the middle of a town! It used to be the fun place to swim, ice skate, see hockey tournaments, play racquet ball, gymnastics or use the gym for basketball or volleyball. I would drop my son and daughter at the Center for a bus to take them to their ski lessons at Loveland Ski Basin. There was a clay pottery area where my son practiced using the wheel. My daughter worked there during the summer.  We had picnics, played on the playground, and swam.  Even my grandchildren enjoyed the park.

I know there are many other places being torn down and then rebuilt, but it will never be the same and I will only have my sponge full of thoughts to remind me of what had been!