MAGAZINES 
By Tom Brock
The simple answer is sunshine, blue skies and white snow.
But there’s more to the story. I went to college in the Chicago area, where the winters are bleak and dark with sub-freezing cold, and the world is a vision of dirty, glacial snow and black ice. There’s less than a week of visible sun between Thanksgiving and Easter. This works for lots of folks, but not for me. A few friends and I decided to escape the gloom with a ski trip after our winter-quarter finals. I’d never been to Colorado, and in 1968 Aspen seemed like a good destination. It was.
We drove all night across the heartland, arriving near the edge of Colorado at daybreak. Within an hour the distant snowy peaks of the Continental Divide appeared before us—still many hours way. With each half hour they loomed larger and larger. I was enthralled. Our eight days in Aspen were fantastic—sunny days, azure skies, fresh, white, fluffy snow, enormous mountains that I could barely comprehend…and $6 lift tickets. I was depressed for days when I got back to Chi-town, which had six or more weeks of winter remaining.
Fast-forward to a few months after graduation. Somehow, I ended up as a social worker in the child welfare department in Washington, D.C. I really enjoyed helping my clients, who were mostly young mothers from the segregated southern schools, trying to make a better life for their kids. That being said, I soon found myself sinking beneath the weight of the congested east, the seemingly endless red tape of bureaucratic routine, and a culture that appeared to thrive on insincerity. I was no stranger to the East Coast, having grown up in Philadelphia, but something had to give.
It was then that Colorado beckoned. I quit my job, sold the few big things I owned, packed up my ’66 VW bug and headed, literally, for the hills. Of course, in the 39 years since that adventure began there’ve been countless sunny blue skies and lots of white snow. But my experience in Colorado has been significantly more profound, for I found more than beauty and fun. I discovered Colorado to be a place of endless possibility. If you put your mind to something here, and do so with energy and honesty, good things may happen.
Case in point: I was just out of journalism grad school when I came up with an idea for an annual ski guide to Colorado. I traveled town-to-town pushing the idea, getting info for the edit and selling ads for the first time ever. People were really cool, and I’ll always remember the words of one gruff western shop owner who bought an ad: “If you do what you say you’re going to do with this magazine, then come back and see me next time. But if you’re dishonest about what you’re doing, don’t EVER show your face in my store again.” I’ve held that lesson true as the way to do business in Colorado—to always do what you say you will.
In the end, it’s the promise and potential of what’s possible in Colorado that keeps me here. There’s a sense of hope and expectation that things can get better, and if we put some effort into the positive, they will. Boulder Magazine was founded on this principle, and everyone at Brock Media makes a concerted effort to do what we say we will to give you a magazine of real value. Keep a copy around and have some fun.
Despite this summer’s stunning heat, fall is just a few chilly nights away. I love it this time of year—so crisp and colorful and active. Hope you do, too. Enjoy!
Tom Brock
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