Albuquerque

I don't know how it is now, and I may not know how it was then. It seemed to me back then as a foreigner falling into his teens and trying desperately to learn a new world that New Mexico had two cities, Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Every other town was a wannabe. Albuquerque and Santa Fe each vied for top city, and each thought it had won.

As I understood it, Santa Fe had the advantage of being the capital, where the politicians dwelled, where the rich who mingled condescendingly with the politicians lived, where the real politics of the state happened. Albuquerque was an oiltown without the oil, a two-hundred-fifty-year-old Johnny-come-lately. Albuquerque had more people and was busier in commerce, but Santa Fe had the prestige. It was kinda like we had the money, but if we wanted anything done, we had to buy it in Santa Fe.

But anyway, Albuquerque was where I lived long enough to finish junior high and complete high school. It was where I met my first wife, although I didn't know it then. I just knew she was beautiful, lively, and more fun than I'd ever had. We glommed onto each other, well, eventually, and didn't let go for years. But that's another story.

Albuquerque is where I learned to be a teenager and damn near ran out of teenagering. I was eighteen when I left for Las Cruces and New Mexico State University, but that also is another story. Albuquerque is where I learned to date, to talk tough, to pass as an American.

Albuquerque turned two hundred fifty while I was there. El Duque de Alburquerque (that's not a typo, it's the Spanish spelling, they had it first) flew in from Spain to mark the occasion. I think we celebrated for a week officially, but there was a year of preparation and a month of festivity. I expected things to taper down for a while. Nope. That's it, folks. Everybody back to work now. Everything normal. Hunh!

And then my time there finished too. I was eighteen, legally a citizen. I could leave home and no one would come get me and bring me back. I graduated from high school so even the public schools lost their grip on me. What the heck was I to do?

What I did do was go to Las Cruces and New Mexico State University and White Sands Missile Range.

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