{"id":36692,"date":"2022-12-20T17:52:46","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T00:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-memoir-includes-stories-of-cortez-in-the-1970s\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:32:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:32:57","slug":"new-memoir-includes-stories-of-cortez-in-the-1970s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-memoir-includes-stories-of-cortez-in-the-1970s\/","title":{"rendered":"New memoir includes stories of Cortez in the 1970s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Author
Author Steve Carothers' new book chronicles his humorous family stories living in the Southwest, including tales from Cortez in the 1970s.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A good storyteller sometimes needs to be reminded to write all that down.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the family of 1970s Cortez resident Steve Carothers told him. And the result is his debut novel \u201cA Montage of Melodies from My Unfinished Symphony.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sons said, you got some cool stories Dad. Put them on paper so they don\u2019t get lost,\u201d he said in a phone interview. \u201cQuite a few of them are from your area.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book\u2019s 26 stories chronicle his humorous, hometown experiences stretching from Colorado Springs to Cortez, Delta to Lake Powell and beyond.<\/p>\n

Many of the stories are based in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

In Cortez, he met his wife Julie Kimble while drag racing down Main Street, and their first date was playing Frisbee at Veterans Park.<\/p>\n

The couple had two sons, delivered by local doctors Dr. Pyle and Dr. Heyl, both documented in the book.<\/p>\n

He managed the Molly Gibson restaurant next door to the Sands Motel on Main Street, one of the nicest eateries in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe restaurant and bar overlooked the indoor pool,\u201d Carothers recalled.<\/p>\n

One of his stories, \u201cThe Sundance,\u201d was first published on the menu for customers to read while they waited for their meal.<\/p>\n

In another story, \u201cA Journey Back in Time,\u201d Carothers takes the reader to Rainbow Bridge on Lake Powell with guide Harvey Leake the great-great-grandson of John Wetherill, an early explorer of Mesa Verde.<\/p>\n

Using photos, the trip recreates the footsteps of Teddy Roosevelt and Western writer author Zane Grey of Mancos.<\/p>\n

Readers also will relate to entertaining fishing and hunting stories, silly family mishaps, and the misadventures of picking up the wrong hitchhiker in Delta near a prison.<\/p>\n

In Page, Arizona, Carothers settled into a job renting out houseboats on Lake Powell, often to celebrities. He tells his brushes with fame, meeting Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Barbara Streisand, Mike Shanahan and Martina Navratilova, who traveled with her beloved toy fox terrier KD, aka Killer Dog.<\/p>\n

\"Author
Author Steve Carothers' new book includes stories of 1970s Cortez.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Spinning tales is a family tradition, Carothers said of his book, which he said took two years to write.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad told a lot of funny stories too, and I always regretted not recording them or writing them down,\u201d Carothers said. \u201cMy boys, Cody and Brady, love to listen to my zany stories, so they encouraged me to write them down as a legacy to my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n

From what could be a Guinness record-setting prank in \u201cThe Wedgie\u201d to the mystery of \u201cThe Giant Slushy,\u201d these hilarious stories are set in the American Southwest and have a familiar feel locals will appreciate. Carothers writes in a style of rural Americana, likely triggering your favorite memories of growing up on the rivers, mountains and deserts of the Four Corners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just one collection of stories I felt had nice meaning. It\u2019s a metaphor for my life, but as the title suggests, the best is yet to come,\u201d said Carothers, 67.<\/p>\n

\u201cMontage of Melodies from My Unfinished Symphony\u201d is published by Covenant books, a Christian-owned and -operated publishing house that specializes in all genres of work which appeal to the Christian market.<\/p>\n

The book is available in book stores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carothers tells whimsical family-friendly stories of life in Southwest Colorado and beyond<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83422,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36692\/revisions\/83422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36692"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}