Cortez author Curt Melliger always had a tattered American flag from his dad, a World War II veteran, swinging from his porch. With some of the proceeds from his publication in Chicken Soup for the Soul’s newest release, “Celebrating the Spirit of America,” he’s replaced it with a brand new one.
The book contains 101 stories from authors throughout the U.S. celebrating the country, its culture and the people contained within on the precipice of its 250th anniversary. Melliger’s piece, entitled “Christmas Eve 1944,” honors his father and the choices he made during a brutal winter stationed with Allied forces in France.
“I remember we used to ask dad for war stories because he was an army sergeant,” Melliger said. “He would tell us about the kindness and compassion war brought out in people.”
Melliger’s dad and his troops saved the best portions of their rations – canned peaches and brownies – to bestow upon children residing in a small town in the south of France, ravaged by war and hunger.
“That’s why we won the war. We had men like Sergeant Melliger and the Nazi’s didn’t,” Melliger said, displaying a solemn black and white portrait of his father in uniform with a razor thin mustache, gazing off to the side.
Given his family history and his travels through the United States, Melliger is honored to be a part of a collection dedicated to his country.
“This is the Garden of Eden in planet Earth,” Melliger said. “I love Canada and I’m sure I would be happy in Australia or something but this is home sweet home.”
In his Cortez dwelling — the first and only home he’s ever owned — eagle feathers dangled from the ceiling, portraits of family, friends and literary idols donned the walls, and a watchful orange cat named Coconut perched on the coffee table.
“I don’t think I’ll ever leave,” Melliger said. “I call this my little corner of the world.”
Melliger arrived in Durango at 17 years old after his van broke down. He had been accepted into college in his home state of Nebraska but, after encountering the artists of Southwest Colorado, he shifted course.
“I called the folks and told them I’m not coming back,” Melliger said. “The road called me.”
He spent his youth hitchhiking across North America, abiding by the philosophy: “Always do what you want.”
“At times it felt like there were angels picking me up,” Melliger said of the quirks, oddballs and warm strangers who’d pick him up off the side of the road and whisk him to his next destination.
“Most Americans are pretty cool,” he said.
In Alaska, he read “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac for the first time and realized his calling to write.
“It’s just a magical realm when you find what you’re supposed to do and do it,” Melliger said. “Sometimes it seems like there’s pieces of a jigsaw puzzle falling out of the sky and falling on my writing table and I’ve got to put them in place.”
He met the late Colorado philosopher, mountaineer and skier Dolores LaChapelle at the Silverton post office in 1994 and – while battling his nerves over meeting a writer he deeply admired – told her he wanted to write a book about hitchhiking, skid row and other wild American experiences. She said it was just like Jack Kerouac.
“We became the best of friends,” Melliger said.
He dedicated his first book, “Heaven Here On Earth,” to her. Also under his pen are two other books – one unpublished – and over 100 articles in print.
“Now I’m 69,” Melliger said. “Someone asked me the other day if I was retired and I said ‘no, I‘m a writer. I’ll never retire.’”
However, below Mesa Verde and under the watchful eyes of Sleeping Ute Mountain, Melliger has finally settled down after a wild run.
“I like staying in one place these days,” Melliger said. “I just love it here in town.”
At his peaceful home of five years, stroking the cat in his lap, he’s reading through the rest of the stories in “Celebrating the Spirit of America,” which he called “heart-touching.”
“We wanted to turn away from the divisiveness out there and focus on the real America – the way it can still be and the way it is in our daily lives,” publisher Amy Newark wrote in a statement about Chicken Soup for the Soul’s newest release.
For Melliger, his America is nestled in Southwest Colorado where he can kick up his feet and tell the stories of a life well-lived.
Chicken Soup for the Soul’s collection, which contains Melliger’s writing along with 100 other stories about America, is available for purchase at chickensoup.com/book/celebrating-the-spirit-of-america.
avanderveen@the-journal.com
