Larry Cook aims to brighten your day 1 wave at a time around Colorado Springs
CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE
For 26 years, Larry Cook has been waving at passing cars on Colorado 83 and Shoup Road north of Colorado Springs simply to brighten people’s day.
Growing up in Alabama in the ’50s, “It was our culture back then that you spoke to everyone you encountered. And if you couldn’t speak, you waved,” said Cook, 74.
“What I have found is that apparently out here, that’s not a very common thing to do. And it pleases people, I guess, because I see so many big smiles and enthusiastic waves in return, and people honk their horns. I really like that, when they honk their horns.
“Wow, you just never realize how unknowingly you change people’s lives, sometimes for the better.”
Gook’s morning routine is to read the newspaper, drink coffee and start his 8-mile walk — and waves — about 8:30 a.m.
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“I used to run. But about eight years ago, my knees went south on me, and I had to quit. Now I just walk the same distance, only a little bit slower. Not much slower, though. I used to say I ran so slow that I got rear-ended by glaciers, or I ran so slow that I timed my miles by a calendar.”
When he graduated from Auburn University during the Vietnam War, Cook recalled, “It wasn’t a question of if I was going in the military; it was a question of when. Uncle Sam was breathing down my neck, so I joined the Air Force to avoid being drafted. I liked it and stayed in. I started off as a missile crew member, and then after that I got into computers.”
Larry Cook, 74, waves to vehicles as he walks along Shoup Road in Black Forest Friday, June 29, 2018. Cook, who grew up in Alabama where he said you always waved to people if you couldn’t say “hello”, said he just started waving at motorist when he began his daily walks 26 years ago. Cook makes his eight-mile trek at least three to four times a week. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Although he traveled the world with the military, Cook said, he never loved any place as much as Colorado. So when his last duty station was Peterson Air Force Base, he stayed in Colorado Springs.
The Black Forest fire in 2013 destroyed the home he shared with his wife, who recently died after a four-year battle with cancer.
He since has rebuilt and planted 522 trees along the property. His wife would sit in their bedroom recliner looking out the bay window, so he planted a maple tree there for her. She named it “Marvel the Marvelous Maple,” he said.
He also built a bench, birdhouse and bird feeder so she could watch nature’s creatures in flight.
Inside the house, he points to a U.S. Army “1858” revolver that requires loading by the percussion cap and ball process. Intricate brass Native American and cowboy statues rest on the hearth. “We put the ceremonial peace pipe on the mantle and put a cavalry officer on one side and a Lakota warrior on the other. They’re different sizes though. It looked bigger on the internet.”
Cook recalled traveling through the West with his wife in a camper for three to five months a year after he retired in 1998.
“Every day was like Christmas: Opening up a new present every day, going to new places and meeting new people. We used to keep journals of our trips. Every day, we would both write a couple of pages describing where we had been and what we had done that day.
“Someday, when I’m 95 and confined to a wheelchair and can’t do anything but sit there and drool, I will read those journals and re-live the experience again.
“Bob Hope once said that there are four stages of growing old. Stage one: You forget names. Stage two: You forget faces. Stage three: You forget to zip up. Stage four: You forget to zip down. Sadly, I’m already well into stage three, and I’m dreading stage four,” Cook said with a chuckle.
Till then, though, he’ll continue his adventures — first by hiking the Colorado Trail’s first leg of 17 miles. And he’ll keep walking and waving at passersby for as long as he can.