This letter is for all of my friends down the Lower Blue, in Kremmling and West Grand County.
Throughout the many years that I have been lucky enough to be your UPS Service Provider, I’ve come to consider you not only as friends but as my extended family. You have no idea how much all of you have meant to me. I was privileged to have witnessed so many events, from the highest of highs: births, weddings, championship football and basketball teams, high school graduations, and the personal successes of many of your children. To the lowest of lows: illnesses, injuries, accidents, and the tragic deaths of young and old. I felt personally attached to all of them because you made me feel like I belonged.
On cold nights you welcomed me into your homes, and at your businesses, you put up with my bad jokes. Through the years you treated me with cakes, cookies, candies, homemade salsas, and wonderful heartfelt gifts that I and my family enjoyed, and all I had to do was my job. You all made it so easy. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I want to tell all of you that it was a joy to head down the Blue and deliver your packages. Don’t get me wrong, it was still work and sometimes difficult, but it was always a pleasure to see everyone, every day.
As my retirement neared, I started thinking about all of the things that I would miss. Watching the wildlife move with the season. Spotting elk grazing in the valley throughout the winter. Watching the eagles soar through the clear blue skies or nesting in tall leafless trees along the creeks. Waiting for the first calves of spring and the greening up of the pastures. Soon graduation, Kremmling Days, haying, and Fair would be happening. Football practice, Demo Derby, signs of school spirit in storefront windows would soon follow. School back in session, hunting begins and the leaves start to change color. Christmas packages would soon be filling my truck. These are many of the things I’ll miss, but most of all I will miss all of you.
I had wanted to be able to say “Good Bye” to each of you though I knew it wouldn’t be possible. I’ve got tears in my eyes just writing this letter. It is my hope that from time to time I’ll be in or through town and I’ll get to see many of you again. But for you whose path I’ll never cross again, I hope that this letter will express my sincerest “Thank You” and most heartfelt “So long .” There is a George Strait song that sort of says it all for me: “Oh the last goodbye’s the hardest one to say. This is where the Cowboy rides away.”
Dave Pringle
