Dinner for Six

Jan Ridenour is a lifelong creator, mover and shaker who has called Eureka Springs home since 1987. “Positive Idea” was the first internet provider in E.S. that offered dial-up connections for local business websites in 1994. Jan was also the co-creator of Geekfest, the ahead of its time bulletin board that was more than a little controversial in its day. “Spill The Tea” is Jan’s recent venture for people who miss Geekfest. 

How did you arrive in Eureka Springs?

In the spring of 1987, a friend and I left Colorado on a meandering trip. I was headed to see my grandfather in southwest Kansas, and she was flying to Wisconsin to visit family. With a little time to spare before her flight, we decided — on a whim — to stop in Eureka Springs for the first time.

We rolled into town around 9 p.m. and wandered into the Eureka Grill, where Kenny Babbs was playing. That evening she asked what I wanted to do tomorrow. I looked down Spring Street, took in the crooked charm of it all, and said, “I think I’ll go buy a house.”

She was stunned. I had been planning to move to Vermont that summer. But Eureka has a way of tapping you on the shoulder and saying, “No, you belong here.” And sometimes you listen.

What movie can you watch over and over again? 

My movie choice is easy: The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Another Colorado mountain girl with grit, stubbornness, and a refusal to sink — I’ve always admired that combination.

How has Eureka Springs changed in your time here?

Eureka hasn’t changed much physically or politically in forty years. It’s still running the same wash‑rinse‑repeat cycle; even when the clothes come out torn, faded, and two sizes smaller, Eureka just tosses them back in and hopes for a miracle of a brand new outfit. 

What has changed are the people. I miss that “old Eureka feeling” — the camaraderie, the misfits who fit together perfectly, the sense that we were all in on the same joke. It still exists in pockets, but as time goes on, there are fewer members of the old guard left to keep the spark alive.

What’s the most important decision you have made in your lifetime? 

The best decisions of my life were having my son through artificial insemination 41 years ago — at a time when “that wasn’t done” — and marrying the girl I fell in love with in 1976, even if it took us forty years to get there. Those two choices have been the brightest, most meaningful parts of my life, and I’m grateful for them every single day.

Is there a song you listen to when you’re feeling sad? 

As for a song: during a couple of very serious illnesses and injury, when I was close to death, my mind always went to Stacy Westfall riding to “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw. There’s something about that combination — grace, courage, and motion — that stayed with me.

What six guests dead or alive would you invite to your dinner party? 

My dad — a visionary who saw the tech world decades before it arrived. (Gone 30 years, but still teaching me things.) My son. My grandson. My granddaughter—Those four together would learn more from each other in one evening than most people do in a lifetime. My wife, Dede. And whoever was hungry and needed a meal.

I’m not much for fancy dinner parties. The best ones are simple: people you love, people who are curious, and the people who show up hungry.