FINDING RAE

Today was a rather slow news day. My only assignment was a business assignment about a Best Western motel (formerly The Palmer House) a staple of the Westside for a number of years. From the assignment sheet I learned that the motel had shutdown and a developer has purchased the property and has plans to turn the location into a retail center. It was also understood that there “isn’t much going on at the location, so a building mugshot to accompany the story will do.” I get to the location to find exactly what the sheet lead on…a deserted motel. I snapped a few mugs from the front of the property before I ventured around the rear of the property. As I turned the corner it looked like I had stumbled into the lower 9th ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The place was in shambles; glass windows busted out, torn sofas and mattresses littered the parking lot, trash strewn about. Obviously the place had been used, in multiple senses of the word. Although the neighborhood seemed pretty rough, I decided to get out and explore, besides what else would a good journalist do? Soon after getting out I found two young boys roaming about the property. They had built a fort with all of the old furniture and were all over the roof and rooms like they owned the place. They were cordial as was I, so I followed them around for a bit, making sure they get into TOO much trouble, but capturing their playful nature at the same time. These two frames are of 11 year old Rae “Rae Rae” Earlie. If you look closely, you can see that Rae is sporting a nice NASA Johnson Space Center – Houston, Texas shirt. I felt so at home. I asked him where he got it, but he had no idea. Maybe he found it at the abandoned motel?

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 8:22 PM. It is filed under Editorial and tagged with abandoned, adventure, Best Western, Colorado, Colorado Springs, internships, Newspapers, Rae, The Palmer House. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.