Celebrating Boulder's Bongo the Balloon Man

Bongo at work.

The roster contained in the December 2007 blog "Best of Denver Winners from 1994" includes a nod to Bongo, an entertainer -- nay, an artisan -- who made balloon animals for children on the Pearl Street Mall. Little did I expect that fourteen years after receiving this accolade, Bongo would still be on the job. But most weekends, he continues to show up outside the Peppercorn, at 1235 Pearl Street, ready, willing and able to twist his inflatables into just about any shape you can imagine. Moreover, he's eerily unchanged, looking just as he did back in the first term of the Clinton administration. Who says good things don't last? -- Michael Roberts