Grandview Lodge – Cashmere Bouquet Hotel Bar Soap

“Vintage Buds”

Colorado Springs is known for the water (the springs!) as in, what are they drinking… that cliché—but these days, since the whole country’s gone wackjob, I guess it’s beside the point. My experience there was visiting the Garden of the Gods when I was seven (with my family!)—memorable because I saw what I believed was a space alien—an eyeball on a stem rising from the rock formations. No one has been able to verify or deny this sighting. It is actually possible that we stayed at this place! —but it’s from my pre-journal years. This hotel bar soap comes in a very cool wrapper—it says: “Grandview Lodge” and “Modern Auto Court”—in varying period fonts—and it includes the address—so it was easy to track down. As is often the case, the motel is long gone and now it’s a Safeway parking lot. Bummer. If it’s any consolation, “Garden of the Budz” is right next door. You can find a few postcards for the motel, for sale—and it did look really cool—21 little cottages! —and the description (“innerspring mattresses” and “California furniture”) is pretty much what you’d expect. There’s one PC, from 1950 (one cent stamp!) sent to Milwaukee—and as usual from back then—illegible handwriting. Again, the soap is Cashmere Bouquet—its fragrance an undeniable time machine which zips me back about 60 years—to my aunt and uncle’s motel, maybe, or a family vacation—I don’t know. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last long enough for a real trip.

Soap Review No. 226