Aspen State Teachers College
___Al_Pendorf_(r)__CCassatt.jpg)
Dr. Slats Cabbage "The Dr. of Fluid Mechanics" (aka Marc Demmon) 1951
–presentSlats was the manager for the Aspen Mine Company and announced "this will be your headquarters for the new mall construction." He told me about the Aspen State Teacher’s College and immediately dubbed me the Dean of Destruction. I think the "Cabbage Racing Team" was the spark that made the college a reality. Slats and I walked into City Market and he was carrying a 6-inch bolt in his hands. He walked up to the produce manager and said he wanted a big cabbage.
"How big?"
"One that will fit on this bolt!"
It became the hood ornament for the "Screamin’ Eagle" No. 137 race car.
ASTC was one of the cleverest ideas in America, and Slats and Al together were a formidable, hilarious team to watch. "Who the hell is Slats Cabbage?" Those who don’t know him have really missed something!
–
Big Jim Furniss, ASTC alumnusAl Pendorf "Dean Fulton Bagley 1938
–presentWhat can I say? It was the ’70s. I moved into an apartment with Jack the Butcher and a third "mystery roommate." I lived there for weeks before I ever met this other guy, but we left notes trying to figure each other out.
Finally, we bumped into each other in the hall and I met Al Pendorf, a man on the go (and it was not just work). As the offseason waned (there really was an offseason then), we looked at each other one fall evening and decided to go into town to check out the "freshman class" of new winter season arrivals. Ah, thought Al, we had a freshman class but no school.
That was the start of it all: Aspen State Teacher’s College, a spoof in which "the whole town is the college. Classes are taught everywhere."
Al was in the printing business (not to mention a very strange puzzle contest "business"). It was a natural fit to produce a handbook and a school paper called "The Clean Sweep." Al, known as Dean Fulton Begley, teamed up with Slats Cabbage and Aspen State Teachers College became very real (including T-shirts, a marching band, a football team that always won by default) to all of us "students of the ’70s."Don’t miss the ASTC alumni reunion at the Elks on Oct. 8. We are still trying to find someone who actually graduated.
–
Maddy Lieb, Class of ...
Categories: Community, Memorable moments, Activism, characters, Culture
As one of original members of the Slats Cabbage Racing Team, I know these guys. Does anyone there know where Al Pendorf is today?
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I met Al in the late 70's. Great guy, sharp as a tack and cool as a cucumber. I loved Aspen in the summer. I had a job working the insert machine for the Aspen Times( it was a one day a week job ). I got it through John Van Ness, AKA " The Monk of Aspen ". JVN is now a well known attorney who first came to fame for defending and freeing the " Dog Poisoner of Aspen ", who was found to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and was accused of a crime he did not commit.Great story about the owner /editor of the Times. He was on the tennis court one day and commented to his friend that the two young women playing on the next court liked familiar. His friend's retort: " They should Bill, they're your daughters." Rocky Mountain High is what you get when you live in an atmosphere over 8000 feet. It's a wonderful place....
Later
Pimo
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Wow! This story was a gem to find. What an original idea you guys had that someone could fake the outsiders in their life, making them believe you were toiling, going to college in Aspen while having the time of your life. You were really learning valuable lessons though (the fun way, I might add). You guys are geniuses. It instantly validated my brief residence in Aspen ('77 to '81).
Marc, I don't remember you so much, and I'm sorry for that. But I remember you, Al. I lived in Aspen at the apartments at the edge of town just past the Castle Creek bridge. I played softball on three teams, one of which was 'Little Annie's', the one that played right in town (steps from the 'Study Hall'). Yes, Lil Annie's, we took most of our business to your establishment, of course. One of the other teams was your 'ASTC traveling team' in the, yes, green and white old checker limo. The whole team would load into the limo, fully stocked at 5:00 on a Friday night and would return every Sunday, every bit fulfilled in what it means to have a great weekend, win or lose. By the way, the Study Hall had the best deals on pitchers for team members in the off season. Isn't it funny what we remember? I will never forget those days. Claudine and a host of other outgoing, fun-loving ladies are warmly remembered, also (like Laureen Hayes, Ruth Harrison, Peppermint Pattie... to name just a few).
I was on a quest to find some of those I knew, including you, when I found 'Your Story'. I have told Aspen stories often. Most of the recipients still think I'm making it up, though, I'm sure. The truth will remain our little secret, at least for me out here, in Chicago, I guess.
I long to come back and visit. Hope I get the chance to soon. I worked for Clay Dennis at Creative Printers of Aspen. I would love to know he and all of you are doing well. What a splendid gift all the good memories I hold are to me. You'd be proud to know I never graduated from any other college in fear of losing my alumnus status to ASTC. Ha ha. I wish I had a pair of those shorts and a matching t-shirt, though. Bye for now - Linda J.
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Aspen State Teachers' College is a great spoof. It takes a genius or a nut or one of each (or two of either)---take your pick---to come up with such a gambit and then to pull it off. And THEN you had a school reunion . . . decades later. LOL! ROFL!
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