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The Photos What We Took of Us


Pete

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2 hours ago, Petey said:

As someone who is maybe 5'7 on my best day, I resent how you described Jushin Liger's height.

I mean, obviously 5'7" is a good sight taller than I am, so I mean no disparagement in my description. I just don't think I ever thought about how small junior heavyweights could be. It makes sense, since lighter guys would likely also be shorter guys, but it never really registered until now.

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Last week was Frozen Dead Guy Days up in the small town of Nederland, Colorado. It's an annual festival that a good friend of mine runs and I help as an emcee. Every year thousands of people come up to the mountains to celebrate all that is weird and frozen. It all centers around the town's most infamous resident, Grandpa Bredo.


Grandpa Bredo is over 110 years old. For years, he’s taken up residence in a Tuff Shed in the hills above Nederland, Colorado, where he remains very, very, very cold. More specifically, Grandpa is frozen in a state of suspended animation, awaiting the big thaw. The one that will bring him back to life.

There is a good story behind this, one that stretches from Norway to California to Colorado, involving cryonics, deportation, psychics, celebrations, and a dedicated Ice Man. It’s a tale that has captured international attention and sparked a must-attend annual event called Frozen Dead Guy Days.

So how did all of this begin… and more importantly (particularly for Grandpa Bredo), how long will it last?
Before Grandpa Bredo Morstoel died from a heart condition in 1989, he enjoyed a comfortable life in Norway, where he was born and raised. He loved painting, fishing, skiing, and hiking in the mountains of his homeland. He was also the director of parks and recreation in Norway’s Baerum County for more than 30 years.

After he died, things got really interesting. Instead of a burial, he was packed in dry ice and prepared for international travel. First, he was shipped to the Trans Time cryonics facility in Oakland, California, where he was placed in liquid nitrogen for almost four years. Then, he was moved to Colorado in 1993 to stay with his daughter Aud Morstoel and his grandson Trygve Bauge, both strong advocates for cryonics who hoped to start a facility of their own.

There he stayed for years under cold cover, in a shed, near his grandson’s home, and about to be left on his own due to some pesky visa issues.

The Grandfather Clause
If you peruse the laws of Nederland, you’ll discover that it’s illegal to store a frozen human or animal (or any body part thereof) in your home. We have Grandpa Bredo to thank for this. When grandson Trygve was deported in the mid-90s because of an expired visa, Bredo’s daughter stepped in to take care of the household – including keeping her father on ice.

Soon, Aud was evicted for living in a house with no electricity or plumbing and was about to head back to Norway. This meant that the family’s fledgling cryonics facility was destined to come to a halt. Worried that her father would thaw out before his time, she spoke to a local reporter, who spoke to the Nederland city council, who passed Section 7-34 of the municipal code regarding the “keeping of bodies.”

Luckily for Bredo, he was grandfathered in and allowed to stay. Suddenly, he was a worldwide media sensation. And he has been well cared for by his family and community ever since.

For a town like Nederland that thrives on the colorful, the offbeat, and the weird, Frozen Dead Guy Days is a fitting way to end the short days of winter and head into the melting snows of spring. Trygve Bauge calls it “Cryonics’ first Mardi Gras.”

The community experiences a new burst of life with the festival’s creative contests, icy events (including coffin racing, polar plunging, frozen salmon tossing) basically if it is fun and can be done in the cold, it goes! People come from around the world every March to experience the legacy of Grandpa Bredo

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Me and my pal Steph announcing the Polar Plunge.

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Yours truly at Grandpa's Blue Ball

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The Coffin Races we also emcee.

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Frozen Turkey bowling

 

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I was catching up with my wife about our days while sitting on one of dozens of play balls in the house, and the kid rolled another ball up next to me and sat right down. 

qpo27r.jpg

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My little 7 year old nephew loves baseball, thanks to me, and this year he started Little League. I volunteered to be assistant coach of his team, and it's been great. Two months ago, we had a group of kids who barely knew how to play, and now we have a team of players who know the basics and are a team on and off the field. I couldn't be prouder.

 

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(Not all the kids made it to picture day. I'm on the right, and no, I wasn't dirty, I just have a very dark tan.)

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The stitches story...

My Mum asked me to pick up a bag of potatoes from the floor and I did that. What I didn't see as I bent down was a sharp carving fork sticking up. Forehead met fork = blood. It honestly didn't hurt. Five stitches and a scar to this day. As the plaster was visible, people asked me and my Mum why? We thought it was funny seeing the reactions of others (wincing was the most frequent) about what I'd done. Hope you do.

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