{"id":1273,"date":"2009-12-23T04:02:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-23T04:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1273"},"modified":"2009-12-23T04:02:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-23T04:02:00","slug":"one-night-during-the-cold-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1273","title":{"rendered":"One Night during the Cold War"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was walking around today in Manitou Springs<\/a>, once a spa-resort town, located in the foothills west of Colorado Springs. <\/p>\n

You should know that there are no springs in Colorado Springs–real-estate developers lied in the 1870s too. The springs are in Manitou. <\/p>\n

But Colorado Springs has several important military installations: Fort Carson,<\/a> NORAD<\/a>, and so on.<\/p>\n

Manitou is in a tight valley, and Ruxton Avenue, one of the main streets, goes up a side canyon, where the sun rarely clears the snow and ice, so you step carefully past the little storefronts where various hopeful artsy types open galleries and craft shops and then are gone six months later.<\/p>\n

I looked down at one of the Victorian houses across the creek, and a memory of the Cold War years came back.<\/p>\n

It was winter then too. M. and I, not long married, lived elsewhere in Manitou.<\/p>\n

One night in the early 1980s, I was visiting friends who rented that particular house then, and I came out around 10 p.m to see a narrow view of the sky to the north.<\/p>\n

The sky was glowing blood red.<\/p>\n

Faster than you can read these words, I thought, “That’s it. Soviet missiles have hit Denver. We’re next. We’ll all be dead before I can get home to say goodbye to her.”<\/p>\n

Then my rational mind belatedly suggested, “Maybe it’s the Northern Lights.”<\/p>\n

At 38 degrees-something north, we do not see the aurora borealis often\u2014in fact, almost never.<\/p>\n

Had it not been for the planetarium shows I had watched as a kid at the natural history museum in Denver, I might not have known what I was seeing.<\/p>\n

I went home then to find M. also a little shaken by the sight. After we reassured ourselves that we were still alive, we watched the aurora until it faded. It was front-page news in the next day’s local papers.<\/p>\n

It all came back to me as I walked back down to the main thoroughfare to look for her Christmas present. We’re still alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was walking around today in Manitou Springs, once a spa-resort town, located in the foothills west of Colorado Springs. You should know that there are no springs in Colorado Springs–real-estate developers lied in the 1870s too. The springs are in Manitou. But Colorado Springs has several important military installations: Fort Carson, NORAD, and so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[23,100],"class_list":["post-1273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-kx","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11292,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11292","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":0},"title":"“The Witches of Manitou”\u2014More than an Urban Legend","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The old spa town of Manitou Springs, located in the foothills west of Colorado Springs. Photo by Mark Reis, ( a former newspaper co-worker of mine) from the Colorado Sun. Click to embiggen. The Colorado Sun, an online news site, dropped this into my inbox yesterday, giving M. and me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"The old spa town of Manitou Springs, west of Colorado Springs","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manitou-springs.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5999,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5999","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":1},"title":"Iron Mountain Ritual Site To Be Restored","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When M. and I read this item in the Colorado Springs Gazette, our hearts soared. When we were newlyweds and bought our first house (a barely winterized 1920s cottage, 740 sq. ft.), it was just outside the lower left boundary of this photo of Iron Mountain in Manitou Springs, Colorado.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"Iron Mtn., Manitou Springs","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/McGees-house.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13889,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13889","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":2},"title":"A Waking Dream: The New Age Salvation Army","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 21, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This is what a background in religious studies plus sleep-deprivation will do to you. On Friday I was in Manitou Springs, the old spa town on the west side of Colorado Springs, where I spent most of my twenties and had various formative experiences, such as meeting my wife, forming\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/bellringer-not.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":595,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=595","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":3},"title":"The Demons Downtown","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Colorado Springs Independent is out with its annual \"You're Sooo Colorado Springs\" round-up.To fulfill my obligation to be a religion blog, I'll list a few observations that readers from outside the \"Protestant Vatican\" might enjoy.You're sooo Colorado Springs if . . .10. You plan to meet friends for coffee\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8839,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8839","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":4},"title":"Pentagram Pizza: The Second Generation","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"1. I like to point out Pagan writers who are doing more than \"how-to\" writing, so click over and read Kallisti's piece on \"Some Reflections on Being Second Gen Pagan\/Polytheist.\" Most of the issues boil down to how different it is to grow up within something versus convert to it.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/pentagrampizza.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4077,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4077","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":5},"title":"The Puzzle Path to Witchcraft","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Looking at the box, M. said, \"It reminds me of the Christina Collection.\" That took me back to the year we first lived together, when we rented a somewhat-winterized 1920s summer cabin in the faded resort town of Manitou Springs, Colorado, on the western edge of Colorado Springs. Exploring the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"witchcraft\"","block_context":{"text":"witchcraft","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=witchcraft"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/dripofaneave-300x226.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}