Q: The ice-cream truck in my neighborhood plays a song that I can’t get out of my head, and I’d really like to know the name of it. I stopped the truck – the name on the side of the truck is Ice Cream Wagon, and the business has a Commerce City address – and asked the driver if he knew the name of the song. He thought it sounded a lot like an old Union gas-station commercial on TV but did not know the name. I wrote down the phone number to call if I wanted to be a driver. (I don’t; hearing the song all day would drive me insane.)
I called the number, and the man who answered the phone said he thought it was “The Money Song.” The lyrics I could find for that song by doing a Google search don’t match what I would consider ice-cream-wagon music. Can you help? – Pam Copeland, Denver
A: The song is called “Red Wing.” Published in the early 20th century, it was written by Kerry Mills with words by Thurland Chattaway, both popular composers at the time.
Source: Post-News Jobs Weekly; Ibiblio (www.ibiblio.org)
Q: Did Grand Junction get its name from the Grand River, which the Colorado River was originally called? When was the name changed?
Or do you think the city was named by the first people who came across the junction of the Gunnison and Grand rivers in the middle of town and it was just an emotional explanation – “Gee! This is a grand junction.”
A: The city of Grand Junction, incorporated in 1882, was named for its location at the junction of the Gunnison and Grand rivers. In 1921, the Grand River in Colorado was renamed the Colorado River.
Source: “Colorado Place Names” by William Bright; Mesa County Public Library
Q: I need the date of the Thornton tornado, which happened in the early ’80s. Possibly June 1981.
A: There were two tornadoes in Thornton in June 1981. The first occurred June 2, but the one that occurred June 3 was more severe, injuring 42 people.
Source: National Climatic Data Center (www.ncdc.noaa.gov); National Weather Service (www.crh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin-den/his.pl)
Compiled by Bonnie Gilbert, Kathleen St. John and Dane Strom
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