Ed’s Liver and Onion Wagon Downsizing

(Gladstone, CO – Special to The Horseshoe – July 24, 2016)

The popular, albeit semi-nourishing, Ed’s Liver and Onion Wagon will not be stopping in Silverton this fall. The brightly colored Gitano cook carriage has been calling on the San Juan County Seat every month since 1953. People will surely miss the prairie schooner’s happy chimes, clattering kitchen curses and massive cow bells forged in the great halls of Petrograd off the Ballistic Isles of Romania.

The action comes as Ed celebrates his 88th birthday this month.

“Hell, I used to love working Silverton when the mines were running but things have changed a lot since them days,” said Ed. “Nowadays everyone’s too busy with smart phones and fast food to notice a fine piece of liver broiled to perfection, topped with mounds of caramelized onions and hickory bacon on the side. These folks spend more time trying to figure out the voting booth or which bathroom to use than they do perusing my menu or cultivating an original thought.”

Ed plans to sell his wagon and grow marijuana instead of pigs and onions.

“Sure he’s tired of the traveling,” said a close friend down in Colona where Ed maintains a sizeable herd of young steers and old-fashioned solutions. “The truth of the matter is that his old horses are afraid of the train and hesitate at the entrance to town. One actually ran off last summer and made it all the way back to St. Germaine before someone wrangled the bastard. Ed’s getting too old to be chasing spooked horses up and down these mountains.”

When asked about his team’s reluctance to visit Silverton Ed just stared, nodding occasionally, asking for a stick or gum or a ride to Durango, commenting on a pretty woman walking by the wagon. In no time we were sitting at the Brown Bear sipping on a beer.

Anyone wishing to procure foodstuffs from Ed is reminded to meet the wagon on the Silverton side of Ruby Wall Tuesdays and Thursdays until the snow falls. The Molas Lake Stand, operated by Ed’s two ravishing daughters, Marigold and Styx, will reopen for ski season in 2019.

– Finn McCool