Christmas this year just wasn’t the same here in the Vail Valley without Gerald and Betty Ford in town to light the Christmas tree. It had been a long-running tradition that in recent years went by the wayside due to his advancing age, but there was always the hope he might someday return.
This fall, though, the Fords began planning to sell their longtime Beaver Creek home and auction off the belongings there. It felt like the end of an era, one now made permanent with the passing of our 38th president.
It would be hard to live in the Vail Valley for long without somehow crossing paths with the Fords. Like most owners of second homes here, they lived in a fancier place than most of us year-round ski- bum types. Yet he embodied the spirit of the happy-go- lucky ski community.
The first thing I would expect when meeting a president (or any relatively famous person enjoying Vail’s snowy playground) is a big dose of ego. It was pleasantly and conspicuously absent in the Fords. While there was an air of dignity around both, Mr. and Mrs. Ford also embodied a presence of warmth, kindness and compassionate awareness of those around them.
“Where do you live?” Betty Ford once asked me. I am your average working stiff, a snowboarder chick who would seem to be of absolutely no interest or aid to someone as important as a First Lady.
“Minturn,” I said.
“Oh, Minturn!” Mrs. Ford said. “I just love Minturn. You know the locals call it Min’urn.”
Indeed we do, I thought, but how does she know that? Until very recently, Minturn was quite literally considered to be the wrong side of the tracks by the rest of the valley. “Minturn has that great farmer’s market in the summertime,” she continued. “You are so lucky to live there.”
This, from a woman who lives in a Beaver Creek mansion rumored to have its own pool and elevator.
It was a humbling moment for me, because she is right: I am so lucky to live here. I love my neighborhood and its quirky, easy personalities. I love my tiny, crooked house built 75 years ago on a bed of railroad ties, a house that would probably fit into the Fords’ garage a few times over. I love this simple life, the lack of even a single traffic light, and the sunlight glimmering on Lionshead rock in the mornings.
In the daily bustle of things, I was more preoccupied with paying bills, getting to work and wondering, hoping, praying that the car would start instead of remembering to feel lucky.
It just took a chance encounter with a First Lady to remind me that my life is truly abundant. It makes me wonder about what other blessings might be escaping my full attention.
I relayed this story to my mother. She took great delight in reminding me that the Fords “are Republican, you know.” I could actually hear her grinning over the phone.
“So was Abraham Lincoln,” I said. Technically, it’s true. Philosophically? Well, let’s just say it was yet another mental hurdle for this die-hard lefty to reconsider. Not only did I meet a pair of Republicans, but they were an actual office-holder and his wife, who dedicated their lives to public service. I actually liked them. A lot. Admired them, even.
The Fords were much-loved neighbors, champions of the ski- lovers’ lifestyle, and eccentrics only in that Gerald Ford’s former occupation was Leader of the Free World. It may be a little hard to blend in when a Secret Service agent emerges from a little gray-blue box in your yard, briefly stopping people like me who are taking an unauthorized shortcut through your yard (then kindly allowing me to continue).
The Ford family will be missed here in Min’urn, in Vail, in this valley of dreams and happy days. Here in our hearts lives the era and the memory of the first skiing president. May his afterlife be an eternity of powder days, no lift lines, and those famous Colorado bluebird skies.
Melanie Boock (melanie@ boock.com) lives in Minturn and was on the Colorado Voices panel in 2002.
