Willoughby: The rest of the story …

I was checking the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection and found reporting about the 1979 Deaf Camp Picnic. I was involved in part of what it reported — an interesting event in my life — but I left the event to go on vacation, so never read the Times’ accounts and the letters to the editor about that reporting.

The Times headline was “Picnic marred by fire and brimstone.” The article reported, “The only thing that marred the day was the appearance of a number of unadvertised and uninvited religious propagandists complete with leaflets and loudspeakers. Laurie Lozoc’H played her own blend of cute-sy children’s songs and religious fervor. The crowd was patient.”

Readers fired back in letters to the editor. One said it was opinion and that if you wanted to report what really happened, it should have reported on drug activity and improper dressing. Another letter, from someone not from Aspen, was shocked at all the anti-John Denver comments she heard from the crowd (He was one of the performers that year), pointing out it was a fundraiser and Denver’s participation was raising money for a good cause. The pastor of the New Creation Christian Center of Basalt, Bruce Porter, disputed the account, describing what — from his and the church’s point of view — happened.

A few days later the event organizer, Joe Livingston, reported the good news: The event raised $40,000 ($135,000 in today’s dollars). The crowd totaled 4,000, and 2,250 pounds of barbecued beef were consumed, along with 800 pounds of cabbage and 3,500 ears of corn.

The Deaf Camp Picnic, an annual event held at the Snowmass Creek campground, featured well-known performers but did not advertise them in advance. Local bands/performers that were popular were advertised, and they included Bobby Mason and Twerp Anderson and the Country Cannonballs that always stole the show.

At that time, I lived in Emma, and Lozac’H was my neighbor. She was writing children’s songs, and because I was a teacher working with younger students, she would try her songs out on me. Her song writing escalated, and she decided to record an album — a great idea because there were very few records of children’s songs, and her songs when she tried them out at local children’s events were popular. The album was titled “I Love Life,” and her shows were billed using that name.

She had a friend who made puppets and costumes for Disneyland, so she had her make large-sized costumes and puppets of the characters of her songs, like one in the photo attached here and one for Sally Owl. A popular song was titled “I want to Be a Monster When I Grow Up” — also a favorite with many, but the costume sometimes scared the very youngest.

The Deaf Camp organizers wanted to make the event more family attractive, so they invited and billed her “I Love Life” act. I volunteered to recruit some musicians to back her up. I talked one of my ACDS students, Tim Stroh who played electric bass, to join. It was summer, so I was working at the Aspen Music Festival. I talked another employee who had played in some well-known rock bands at bass to coach Stroh, and he also volunteered to take on the lead guitar spot. There were a couple of others recruited to be a chorus and to work the puppets and dress in the costumes. (I got to be the monster and sing part of the song).

Lozac’H was a devout Christian, and many of her songs had religious references. The day before the event, a husband-and-wife Christian performing act came to visit with friends and she invited them to be part of the backup. Unknown to the rest of us who had worked hours preparing, she promised them they could do a song of their own.

We were the opening act. Everything was going great, families moved closer to the stage to see more. There was a positive audience response, and while I have a biased opinion, I was surprised at how great we sounded. Then, the couple performed their song. A letter writer said they sang “Jesus Loves You”, but they repeated the chorus over and over and over.  Someone shouted out, “Where’s the rock and roll?” and others joined in. The rumor that the “star” that year was going to be Jimmy Buffett was correct, and that is what they came to see. I whispered to Lozac’H that we had better do only one more song — she did, and we exited. What those of us who were the backup didn’t know was that the couple and the church were handing out Christian literature-leaflets at the exit/entrance.

Lozac’H recorded a second album, even better than the first, and then moved back to her home state of Hawai’i.

Tim Willoughby’s family story parallels Aspen’s. He began sharing folklore while teaching at Aspen Country Day School and Colorado Mountain College. Now a tourist in his native town, he views it with historical perspective. Reach him at redmtn2@comcast.net.