Oct. 27, 2001 - 20:18 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

See You Later

What am I supposed to do,how am I supposed to feel when someone I grew up with in Denver has gone to a Hospice ?

When we returned to Denver in 1960, radio station KVOD was about ten years old. On my trolling the stations I found a classical music station and a voice. Not being an erudite expert on classical music I did know a bit and made it my habit to listen to KVOD at every chance I got. Gene Amole and another man founded and ran that station. It was his smooth voice and choices of program that made listening a special treat.

Although the voice disappeared from the station it was heard on various TV channels here in Denver.

Late in 1977 he went to work for The Rocky Mountain News with permission and encouragement to write whatever he wanted to write about.

In the course of busy years I missed his TV bits, I didn't have much time for TV anyhow and plead ignorance then that he was the soul of KVOD and that it was his voice that made it so very good. But as a devoted Rocky Mountain News reader from childhood on I always made sure that the news would be read by me each day.

Gene Amole's columns soon caught my eye, don't know whether I read his first or not. I became the type of person who would check for his column every day before even reading the headlines. I didn't always agree with what he wrote but learned to respect and eagerly read him. He had an honest and open way that endeared him to me and many others.

I said that I grew up in Denver with Gene, let me explain a bit. He was brought up in the North Denver area and I in the South Denver area in the same era. But his columns told about Denver in my day, in fact it seemed what I didn't know about Denver he did, we knew of the gamblers and notorious people of our time. His feel for our town and love of it showed in his columns. We knew the same streets, same establishments, same theaters and have the same feeling about our beloved town. That is why I feel we grew up together, here.

I met and was able to converse with him at a Cherry Creek Festival one year when the News had a booth and my liking and respect for the man grew yet more.

I worked on the railroad during the war, but he served in the misery and horror of Europe, he had written that he had been in the Army in World War Two in Europe, but never wrote extensively about the war and his experiences and when he did he wrote of the realities of war and pretty well blew a hole in the hyped up seekers of glory and those who romanticized the same. He also stuck a pin the the balloony egos of many a pooh-bah, but did so with the delicate, accuracy of an expert bull fighter.

I never read a column of his that didn't interest me. When we weren't in agreement I would read his reasons for the way he thought and sometimes changed the way I thought. His interests were wide and often brought things to my attention that were not known by me and created my interest to know more.

We grew up in different parts of town and went different ways but I think have remained the same depression era Denverites that we were when we were younger and who enjoyed many of the self made games, toys and pleasures that were cobbled up by our ingenuity. It has been as if he was the kid across the street or in the same grade in school as I was.

In recent times his column was in only twice a week. He had a long vacation not too long ago and the paper published some his previous columns that were as good even now as they were then to bridge the gap. Occasionally he would briefly mention some health problem or another he was coping with in a philosophical manner. But I think his problems accumulated as the time passed. Occasionally in the spot where his column appeared there would be the short note that Gene was taking the day off. Many of those times we are told he was doing hospital time and couldn't get around well at all. But it was evident to me that the problems of old age and his previous and ongoing ailments were putting him down little by little but I was hoping that he had some more years in which to be happy and productive.

But Gene is like a massive water main valve slowly closing little by little. He is going to write a diary from the hospice and it will be published in the News. He intends to write as long as he can, a soldier to the last. So until we meet in a better land Gene, so long, See You Later . . . . . .

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