Aspen recalls Dean's stint as '70s ski bum

[Octafish]

This article interviews people who knew Howard Dean the winter after his college graduation. That's when Dean's doctor wrote a note to his draft board stating he had a bad back. Dean must have had a miraculous recovery, because he spent that winter skiing in Vale. Almost forgot -- He made his knocking around money washing dishes and pouring concrete. Not bad for a Yale graduate.

Aspen recalls Dean's stint as '70s ski bum
Flashbacks range from dishwasher to 'loser'

By Steve Lipsher
Denver Post Mountain Bureau
Thursday, January 29, 2004 -

ASPEN - Like so many other ski bums, the young Yale graduate didn't leave much of an impression on a town where even the biggest celebrities frequently fail to draw a second glance.

But now that he is running for president, Howard Dean's 10 months in Aspen during the early 1970s have prompted the residents of Glitter Gulch to dredge their memories and scratch their heads.

"Everybody thinks they remember him because they know him now," said Georgia Hanson, executive director of Aspen's historical society.

But from the restaurant owner who employed Dean as a dishwasher and remembered him as a pot-smoking "loser" to a buddy who said they were there simply to ski, no one anticipated his future in high-stakes national politics.

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http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E11676%257E1921441,00.html