Pink Babies, Cookouts and Cadillacs

Many years ago when we were much younger, we used to hang out at the Country Club here in Raton and we invented a drink called a Pink Baby... we being the Salazars and Stolarczyks, or the S&S team. There wasn't a whole lot to do in this wonderful little town, so back then, Bev and I were head of the social committee at the Club and we put on all the parties. We always had a special theme for each occasion. We had luaus, scavenger hunts, barbecues and of course lots of dances. We decorated the club to fit the theme of the month and it was a very special time for all of us. In a small town, you have to make your own entertainment and we had a blast doing this. For the luau, we had coconuts flown in from Hawaii and had someone roast a suckling pig which was brought in on a huge platter ... with an apple in his mouth. We all either wore sarongs or grass skirts and we wrapped the pillars in the club so they looked like palm trees. It really was neat. These are wonderful memories and they were the best of times.
The boys returned from their very fruitful fly-fishing expedition this afternoon, so we decided that we needed to have a cookout and we included Larry and Bev's son, Jerry and his fiancee at the party. He had never seen one of our famous drinks, so we decided that it was time that we introduced him to our famous concoction. We really weren't sure exactly what was in them since it had been 40 years since we had made one, but Frank took rum, pink lemonade, strawberries, ice and a little fresh lemon juice and out it all in a blender and VOILA! ... Pink Babies. They were and still are delicious.

After we sampled several of these, we were almost ready to start cooking. While we were sipping our delicious drinks in their backyard, we enjoyed the beautiful views that I have included here. The big house sits atop a mountain and overlooks Raton and all of the hills and mesas. We have spent many wonderful evenings in this very spot, listening to special music that Larry has had piped into the pool house and watching everything from fireworks, hot air balloons floating by to unforgettable sunsets. It doesn't get much better than this!


When the fire was ready, Frank cooked the steaks and we had a wonderful meal in the cool evening breeze. I have to admit, I kept my eyes open in case a bear or a mountain lion showed up unexpectedly. There were bears in the neighborhood last night and I was hoping they wouldn't make an encore appearance tonight!

When I looked over at the driveway I decided that David Moritz who is the Cadillac dealer in Arlington must have paid us a visit, because all of our cars are Cadillacs! Jerry, Larry's son, broke the mold when he arrived in his Hummer. It was a pretty impressive sight for a family cookout!

We're all pretty tired tonight so we're on our way to bed. Jerry is an excellent photographer and he is in an art show in Cucharo, Colorado, so after church tomorrow we will make a little trip over there to see it. I'll report on what we saw and hopefully take photographs of some of the art.

Have a great weekend.

Pcasso