Denver water tastes like home

I'm back in the town where I grew up, the town where my father grew up, the town where his father moved 130 years ago, the town that started out as an Illinois farm community but is now a pricey suburb of Chicago whose water is tied for second-best in...

By Patricia Calhoun

September 12, 2011

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I'm back in the town where I grew up, the town where my father grew up, the town where his father moved 130 years ago, the town that started out as an Illinois farm community but is now a pricey suburb of Chicago whose water is tied for second-best in the country with another place I know well: Denver.

The results of the contest, the seventh annual competition run by the Denver-based American Water Works Association, were announced earlier this summer . Having the hometown advantage apparently wasn't enough to lift Denver over tiny Glencoe, much less move ahead of the ultimate winner; Greenville, South Carolina. And few people bothered to take note of the second-place finishers, which seemed to have little in common but good-tasting water.

And the fact that I've lived in both of these places for significant portions of my life.

Gulping water from the drinking fountain outside of the library where I spent endless hours as a kid, I don't notice much difference between the water of Glencoe and what comes out of the tap in Denver.

But it no longer tastes like home.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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