My Take
DiVoran Lites
Min’s Café, Westcliffe, Colorado
1945-1952
The seven years between 1945 and 1952 in Westcliffe, Colorado, were some of the best years of my life. This picture shows the mountains we saw from our bedroom windows.
Dad (Ivan) and Mother (Dora) bought Min’s Café with the G. I. Bill. They kept the name because the restaurant had a fine reputation in the town, and Minnie was a favorite cook and bottle washer. The Wet Mountain Valley, where Westcliffe was located, had two major enterprises, ranching, and fishing. Saturdays, the ranchers, and their families came to town for staples such as coffee, flour, and sugar. Their ranches yielded meat. And vegetables grew in the spring and summer and were preserved in cellars in the winter. The Ranchers’ main product was cows. They had milk from cows and sold the milk and many herds of cows. They cared for chickens for eggs and meat, and they grew vegetables for their use. In autumn, the girls and women filled every Mason Jar with vegetables and fruit to last the cold winter.
In 1945 and on, Westcliffe had two bars and grills, and the two cafes were directly across Main Street. The owners, my parents, and the family across the street were best friends. When I was about eight years old, I started babysitting the two little girls who belonged in the living quarters of their café.
The pharmacy was two doors down the street from Min’s. Sometimes when the pharmacist and his wife, the mother of his children, Mr. and Mrs. Cope went out for an evening at our Café three doors up the street or the café and bard one across the street, I looked after Cope’s children. My good friend Patience tells me she got to look after them too. I wonder if Cope (as we called him) had left anyone to sell to. He was kind and appreciated all the children. I went in to say hello to him almost every day as I went back and forth from Min’s to the Railroad duplex.
We both were pleased when Mr. Cope gave us comic books with the covers removed so he could send the comics back to the factory. My friend had five brothers, so I’m sure those comic books had a thorough reading. Come to think about it; Patience was cousin to the Sheriff’s family, who had nine children. All the kids from both these families were at the top in school.
We played in their yards and staged plays.
To be continued.
DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn. She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”
Old Things R New 