Sheridan Lake, CO

When David and Jenny Maseredjian of Los Angeles couldn’t decide on a vacation spot for themselves and their three teenage sons last summer, David threw a dart at a map of the United States, and it landed on the Colorado town of Sheridan Lake (pop. 85). The family planned to drive there after sightseeing at several national parks, snap a few pictures, and come home.

Sheridan Lake resident Frank Varady had a better idea. Varady saw a letter published in a local newspaper that the family wrote about their travel plans. He got their address from the paper and contacted them, since he had decided the town should extend the vacationers the hospitality shown him years earlier, when he was a seasonal worker at a local grain elevator during the wheat harvest.

“The second year I had a heart attack,” he recalls. “The townspeople hardly knew me, but they visited me (at the hospital) and sent me flowers. So I thought when I retire, this is where I want to live.” Varady retired and moved to Sheridan Lake 14 years later.

When time came for the Maseredjian family visit, he quickly organized the town to extend the old-fashioned hospitality and neighborliness that once greeted him.

“I wanted to show the family that this town was more than a spot on the road, that it has a lot of love and affection to offer,” Varady says. “I especially wanted their kids to see how people here care about each other.” The citizens organized a Sheridan Lake-style welcome the Maseredjians won’t soon forget.

When the family arrived, undersheriff Jack Howard blew a siren, and everyone poured out to greet them. Four cheerleaders staged a welcoming cheer. Clarence Welk drove out in the town’s 1928 fire engine with the large plastic Dalmatian in the back seat. At the main intersection was a huge map with a dart pointing to Sheridan Lake.

“We had a huge potluck supper for them at the community center,” Varady says. “Then the mayor gave a speech and presented them with the key to the city.”

Originally the 1928 Sheridan Lake School, the building was converted into a community center that’s become the hub for local celebrations. Varady, the self-proclaimed “community cook,” had recently finished fixing potato salad for 120 people for a local couple’s 40th anniversary at the center.

In a town where the people genuinely enjoy each other’s company, the Maseredjians visit was another excuse to celebrate. The next morning, Mary Anne and Jim Richardson cooked the family a country-style breakfast. The Stum family invited them to drive their industrial-size tractors. Another farmer gave them a tour of his antique farm equipment. Townspeople took the three boys fishing and bowling.

“We immediately felt right at home,” says David Maseredjian. The Maseredjians had heard the local economy was shaky. The old Wheatland Cafe had closed when its owner left town, and falling wheat prices were driving small family farms into the red. But they didn’t see defeat in the faces of the town’s residents—they saw generosity and pride.

“This community is one of a kind,” says Mayor Vern Harris, whose grandparents, now 87 and 84, homesteaded here in the early 1900s. “We pull together and try to help one another.”

When the Maseredjians returned home, they sent a proclamation to express their appreciation. The proclamation, which proudly hangs in the living rooms of Varady and Harris, praises the citizens for opening up their homes and hearts to travelers in search of the true American spirit.

“They came here strangers, they left as friends,” Varady says.

Karen Karvonen is a freelance writer in Colorado.

Share This Story With Others:

 

Discuss this Article