Frozen Dead Guy

Perhaps not the most fitting Thanksgiving topic, but it did come up during thanksgiving celebration today with some old friends. We had some guests at the table from Sweden, and for some reason the topic of Nederland, a small town north of Boulder, and technically part of Boulder country, came up.

Now Nederland is an odd town to begin with. One of many little mountain havens in Colorado that march to their own drummer. In the more urban centers we have pesky things like zoning and big tracts of houses that look pretty much the same. Not so in the mountain towns. The dwellings are as colorful as the inhabitants and their stories.

This particular story is about an old codger named Grandpa Bredo. Grandpa Bredo died in 1989, but that was really just the beginning of his story, and how he got from Norway to a shed in Nederland is probably best described in the Nederland Chamber of Commerce page here. Each March the festival has grown, there's been songs and youtubes about Frozen Dead Guy Day and, if you visit us in March, we'll take you to the festival. You may even want to join the local Polar Bear club and lounge around in freezing water in your bathing suit eating ice cream and slushies to really get into the spirit. Proceeds go to Nederland elementary and middle school.

And I probably shouldn't even mention Alfred Packer Day, celebrated at CU, or the Grill named after him in the University Memorial Center and cafeteria or people might really think we're weird. That's why I didn't bring it up. Maybe I should just stick to the rubber ducky races.