1/23 - 1/26 - DOWN MEMORY LANE

(Top picture - David and Dan at the NMSU campus; bottom - Dan and David in front of boyhood home on Reymond Street.)

Dan’s brother, David, arrived for a visit on Friday. He loves to travel by train so he had left his home in Mishawaka, Indiana on Wednesday and arrived in Albuquerque Thursday afternoon. He drove to Las Cruces on Friday morning, arriving in time to eat a bowl of soup with us.

During the three days that David was here I accompanied the two brothers in a walk down memory lane. This was the first time they had both been in Las Cruces at the same time in nearly fifty years, so it was a special time. It was interesting for me to see how their collective memories recalled so much more than either of them could have alone. Of course, occasionally they did not recall things in exactly the same way! We drove to their old neighborhood, found those school buildings that were still standing, and went past friends’ former houses. I could not help but think how different it is to have lived in one place for a long time as they did. (20 years or so) When I return to any of the five places I lived before going away to school I certainly cannot recall nearly so much.

Naturally we took pictures in front of all of these “historic” buildings, including the one where they had each had piano recitals and a several buildings at the university where one or the other had classes. Since they were both SAEs we, of course, had to drive by the old fraternity house, now converted into apartments. I wondered if the people who live there have any idea about the shenanigans that used to occur there!

David related one interesting story that I had never heard before. As he stood on a corner near their first home (no longer standing) in Las Cruces he pointed in the direction of one of the main thoroughfares. He recalls seeing trucks going by with German prisoners of war in them. He said that some of the Germans expressed great interest in the very blond, curly-haired toodler,“Danny”, whom they thought looked like a German child!

Having lived in Las Cruces myself the first year of our marriage, there were a number of places of interest to me as well. We went to the small apartment, attached to a carport of a big house (I think it had been the servant’s quarters at some point!) that was out first home. The young woman who was living there now was outside, so Dan went over to talk with her and she invited us to come inside. That was a very strange experience since there had been some major changes since we had lived there --- a wall knocked out and a door or two moved. Nevertheless it certainly brought back a lot of memories. I thought it was appropriate that the current resident had a cat since we had one when we lived there, too.

On Sunday we went to the University United Methodist Church because we knew that some of the people in David’s high school class were members there. Sure enough, we saw two or three couples from his class as well as one from Dan’s high school class. In addition there was another couple who had been members of St. Paul’s UMC (Dan’s home church) when I worked there as the Education Director. We hung around after church for a half hour or longer visiting with these old friends and then headed out for brunch at our “usual” Sunday restaurant. I think Tony, the waiter, already knows that I’m going to order huevos rancheros with red and green sauce. At the restaurant David ran into another former classmate that Dan also knew. I had known his father because he was a church leader during the time I lived here.

David left this afternoon but Dan and I have now added these memories to our 2009 New Mexico venture --- walking down memory lane with David, eating lots of Mexican food together while rating the chile sauce, and having some quality time to talk and share with one another. The only thing missing was Marietta, David’s wife, who died in May of 2007. However, there were times when I felt her presence with us and knew that she, Mother Ivey, and Aunt Ruth must be smiling down on us and being so delighted that we were having this time together in a place they all loved so muc

We Made the Front Page - January 23

We were surprised when we bought the Las Cruces Bulletin this week and discovered that our picture was on the front page! This is a small weekly newspaper that we get because it is a good source of information about events going on each week. Their photographer had shown up on Inauguration Day when we had joined some locals to watch the events in Washington. You can access the picture and article at http://www.lascrucesbulletin.com/ and find the January 23 edition.

WED., 1/21 - WHERE'S THE OCEAN? by Dot

Today we traveled about an hour east of Las Cruces to the White Sands National Monument, a place we have visited many times through the years. My first trip there was in the spring of 1961 when I visited Las Cruces before we were married. The first year we were married (1961-62) we would often drive over to White Sands after church and have a picnic with Dan’s mother, aunt, and cousin. It was a lot easier to climb the tall dunes in those days! We visited here, also, on a couple of occasions when our children were small, enjoying with them the marvelous white dunes where we could roll down the hill, try to sand surf or write something in giant letters with our feet. We were back again a year ago with our friends Jack and Sheryl – picnicking and frolicking on the dunes as best we could as seniors!

It is a weird feeling in a way to be at White Sands. It looks almost like snow and, in fact, they keep the roads cleared from the shifting sands with snow plows. At the same time it feels like sand, so one is wondering "Where's the ocean?"

Highway 70 travels east through the Organ pass to the vast area that makes up the White Sands Missile Range. Occasionally the road is closed for an hour or more due to missile testing. Fortunately that was not the case today. We purposely arrived around 1 so that we could have our picnic, enjoy the scenery, climb the dunes, and just “chill out” a bit before the scheduled 4:15 sunset nature hike. We were able to do all of that except the final thing. The nature hike was canceled for today! Hopefully we can return for that another day before we leave.

Instead of hiking we visited the New Mexico Space Museum in Alamogordo a city east of White Sands. The museum presented the history of the development of rockets and their use for good and ill. It was a little too focused on the use of rockets in weaponry for my taste, but nevertheless, reminded me of the ingenuity, bravery, and skill of all those who have played a part in this important science. It was also a reminder of the role that NASA and White Sands Missile Range played in the rapid growth of Las Cruces and Alamorgordo. Certainly this museum cannot compete with the Space Museum at the Smithsonian but it is a tribute to the state and an important part of the historical record.

Near the museum was an IMAX theater where we saw Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the moon, a Tom Hanks project. The film takes the viewer to the surface of the moon with Apollo astronauts, using realistic reenactment as well as NASA footage to allow us to see, hear and feel what these space travelers did. It was well done and made us feel like we had been there – sort of!

The sun was setting as we headed back across the mountain along the barren desert. I thought about the remote Trinity site nearby where in 1945 the first atomic bomb was tested. That force of power and destructiveness contrasts so with my experience of the area today as a place of calm, quiet solitude.

RISK-TAKING AND MURDER - by Dan and Dot

A Soaring Morning - Dot

What a full and fabulous day this has been! We got up with the sun this morning and made our way to a field in the north part of town where some balloonists had gathered for a “fly in.” This was sort of a substitute for the Mesilla Valley Balloon Rally, which was scheduled for this weekend but had been canceled due to economic concerns. Although there were only 12-15 balloons instead of the 50-60 there would have been at the Rally, it was still exciting and beautiful. I had been looking forward to our second year at the Rally, which we had enjoyed so much last year, and I was very disappointed to learn that it had to be canceled. How appreciative I was that these balloonists decided to “do it anyway” and share their sport with those of us who braved the early morning chill.

Ballooning has its own culture. Before dawn there are “groupies” out with the balloonists and their teams to help lay out the large balloons and prepare them for flight. It is fun to see people greet old friends that they have not seen since the last balloon festival. There are also usually a few males in some sort of formal attire – tuxedos or similar clothing. I have not researched what that’s all about. We only saw one person dressed up today but last year there were a number of them.

I took dozens of pictures of the beautiful balloons and wondered what it would be like to soar into the sky in one of those wicker baskets. What a thrill that must be! However, they are braver than I am and I likely will never have that experience.

We hurried from the balloons to make a quick stop at the Farmer’s Market where I was able to find some locally grown winter lettuce. Since we were going on to a morning movie at the old Fountain Theater in old Mesilla at 10 we did not linger today to look at the arts and crafts, which make up most of the farmer’s market this time of year. It was a good thing we got to the theater early, too. There was already a line at 9:15 and by 9:30 they had started turning people away because the small theater was full.

JIMMinY CRICKET! - Dan

This morning we went to a small theater in Mesilla that shows documentaries, AND off beat and “artsy” films. Today’s was a documentary on the 1949 still-unsolved murder of eighteen-year-old Ovida “CRICKET” Coogler near my hometown of Las Cruces, a city of about 13,000 at that time. The murder had caught my attention, even though I was only nine at the time, because a) there were not many murders in our town, even though illegal gambling and prostitution flourished and very rowdy bars lined both sides of Main Street; b) suspects were the sheriff of Dona Ana County, the head of the New Mexico State Police, a sheriff’s deputy and a Pittsburg Steeler; and c) the first two of these suspects had tried to get a confession out of an African American with very brutal torture. (Fortunately the man recovered and was never indicted.). The Las Cruces Sun News, The El Paso Times and radio KTSM treated this like CNN does “breaking news,” only not just for five days but for months and months. Moreover, the above-mentioned deputy died two years later of a bullet wound to the BACK of the head. The death was officially ruled a suicide! Did I ment..no I didn’t mention that the deputy’s stepson was one of my best friends at the time. Hence little Danny’s vivid memories.

Filmed in the documentary were newsmen and women, lawmen, lawyers and jury members recounting their memories and their theories about the murder. Their main message was that corruption in law enforcement and the courts in my hometown and county was so bad that the seemingly impossible happened: the grand jury called to hear the case took over the entire enterprise. This after weeks of witnesses clamming up and the judge failing to rule on anything. (The judge, incidentally, was the father of another good friend of mine.) With great effort and sacrifice of job time and money, somehow they got a judge with some integrity and backbone from out of the area, and were able to proceed. They at least were able to get the convictions and one-year sentences for the sheriff and the state police chief for violating the civil rights of the African American. They served out the sentences!

What was brand new to me today was the identity of those grand jurors. It turns out, although I didn’t know much of what was going on at the time, I did know three of the seven: George Hay, merchant and husband of Edith Hay, secretary of our church, St. Paul’s (with whom Dot worked as Director of Education in the early 1960’s), Parker Davenport, electric utility employee and our next-door neighbor, and JIMMY Vermillion, barber shop owner, who cut my hair at that time and for years afterward.

I bought the book on the case, which was for sale at the theater and talked with the author for a few minutes after the film ended.

The rest of the story - Dot

We missed the first half of the Duke-Georgetown game because of the movie and the discussion afterward. (That 1:30 game started at 11:20 here!) We did enjoy the second half while we ate lunch. It was good to be able to celebrate another Duke win, too.

Now it was time for our own exercise. Our hour at the gym felt good and we enjoyed the relative quiet that a Saturday afternoon produced.

In the evening we were saddened to get news of the unexpected death of my sister Jean’s stepson, Guy, who first came into our family as a 12-year old. His death at 57 was too early and very shocking. It is not clear at this point what the cause of death was. Arrangements are up in the air at this time but my brother-in-law hopes that they can have a memorial service in the spring at their farm near Charlottesville and that Dan will be able to participate.

A full day of joy tempered with sorrow.

DEFINITELY OFF THE BEATEN TRACK! - by Dan and Dot

In Columbus, New Mexico 3/9/1916 is noted as the only time until 9/11/2001 that the US was attacked by people from outside our borders. On that day Pancho Villa’s 600 bandits raided Columbus and the army encampment located there. Eight soldiers, ten civilians and 200 of Pancho Villa’s men, the Villistas, lost their lives. The raid began in the early morning hours and thus caught the US soldiers off guard. Once they were mobilized they were able to prevent further civilian deaths and to chase the Villistas back across the border into Mexico. A week later Gen. John J. Pershing entered Mexico with several thousand troops in an attempt to capture Pancho Villa. His attempt was unsuccessful.

We traveled the 1 ½ hours from Las Cruces to Columbus today to visit this historic spot. It is a town that could definitely be described as a “God-forsaken place.” (Although I know that God has not forsaken it.) There is not a lot there except the Pancho Villa State Park, a small museum in the old train depot, and a few ruins from the 1916 raid. A hotel where some survivors had sought refuge and protection by the army is still standing. Some residences and a few businesses compose the rest of the town. Columbus and the surrounding area reminded us of why we made the decision not to stay in the New Mexico Conference. We were likely to have been appointed to one of the many small towns in the middle of the desert, miles from any city, similar to this spot!

We were told that the town is not much bigger now than it was after the army left. During the first half of the last century trains made regular stops in Columbus. However, the last train passed through in 1961 and the tracks were removed in 1965. As you walk around the streets it is hard to believe that in 1916, including the army personnel, Columbus had the largest population of any city in the State of New Mexico.

Since the weather was warm we had a picnic at the Pancho Villa State Park surrounded by many varieties of cacti and a few camping trailers. Then we drove the 8 miles to the Mexican border, parked at a Family Dollar Store (to avoid the $2 fee at the “official” parking lot!) and walked two blocks to the crossing point. As is often the case, one can walk right into Mexico without encountering any immigration official or being checked in any way. Palomas, the sister town on the Mexican side, seemed more alive than Columbus. This was mainly because of The Pink House, a large store/restaurant/bar combination that was only another two blocks into Mexico. It was surrounded by a number of dental, optical, and pharmaceutical businesses. People from the U.S. (even from Las Cruces) travel to Palomas for dental work and medicines, both of which are considerably cheaper than in the U.S.

We enjoyed free drinks, some guacamole ,and flan at the restaurant and looked around the gift shop. Dot took a picture of Dan with large statues of Pancho Villa and General Pershing.
Coming back into the US we had to enter the immigration building, show our passports, and declare any purchases we had made. It was pretty easy for us since we had not bought anything!

On our way back to the car we noticed a large cross which had been erected near the road. Beside it was what appeared to be a tombstone with some artificial flowers beside it. The stone read in Spanish “2003 In memory of the immigrants who died in the desert pursuing a dream.” It was a sobering reminder of the human factor in the complex immigration debate.
It was good to learn more about New Mexico and US history and to have a brief visit with our neighbors to the south. We returned to Las Cruces just in time to watch the sunset and to see Duke beat Georgia Tech 70-56!

You know you are in New Mexico when... (Part 2) - by Dot

You know you are in New Mexico when...

... sunglasses are a MUST in January
..."low visibility" means the winds are high (sand storm)
... you see as many cowboy hats as baseball caps
... it's sometimes hard to find the Duke game on TV
... the special music at church is provided by the Green Chile Quartet (all two of them!)
... all the store signs for various departments at Target are in Spanish and English
... fitness centers have "snow bird" rates
... pick-up trucks and SUVs are as prevalent as sedans --- maybe more so!
... no one is commenting on Carolina's losses
... the pecan harvest is still going on in January (New Mexico is 2nd only to Georgia in pecan production according to my sources. There are large orchards in the Las Cruces area.)

LA CUEVA 1/11/09 - by Dan

We went to the 8:30 service at St. Paul’s today. For the first time we heard the new senior pastor, James Large. It was about baptism. I related to his grabber (intro) which starred a young man who was part of a couple whom James had married, obviously as “walk-ins.” The man said that they now had a six-month-old and he thought it was about time to have him “done.” I will not bore and/or dismay you with the ensuing conversation, but Pastor James valiantly tried to convince him, and now us, of the centrality of baptism to life-long discipleship.

After worship a woman named Julie spirited us off to the Here It Is class. We spirited willingly since Here.. is one of the two we had considered visiting today. It was as laid back and off subject as last week’s, but by the end Dot and I agreed that the discussion did need to take place. Jerry the leader sparked it by mentioning Bishop Schnase's book, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations -- the chapter on “radical hospitality,” only to depart from Schnase for the remainder of our time. But we did share some ideas and frustrations and successes about the process of getting and keeping new members. We were glad to see Grady and Roberta who were at St. Paul’s in the early 1960s.

We brunched at Paisano near Mesilla, went home and changed clothes.

The afternoon was fun. We journeyed to Dripping Springs, about fifteen miles southeast of Las Cruces. I had never been there, probably because in my youth we did not own a road grader-- or even a backhoe. In recent years the road mostly has been paved—except for a few miles of dusty washboard, which did not thrill the Prius or me. We ate dust as we met numerous SUVs.

However, all was forgiven when we got to Dripping Springs Park. We could even use our nifty life-time Golden national park pass. And even better, the views were gorgeous. We opted to take the shorter of the two trails—the one to the hermit’s cave. On the way Dot took a picture of every cactus and wildflower. My eyes, however (except for looking out for the leavings of unknown species on the trail), were focused upward and outward-- on the small mountain where the cave is to the east, the Organ mountain range behind it and stretching north to the Rockies, the foothills around Las Cruces to the north, Picacho Peak to the northwest that we can see from our house, and the tall rock formations to our west and south. The sky was as blue and cloudless as the sky I bragged to Dot about in letters written in 1959 shortly after I met her in Indiana. We looked up and around and gave thanks to God the Creator.

After a half hour or so of climbing, we reached “La Cueva” – the cave. We went in through the four or five foot high entrance and went about thirty feet into the cave, where they had set up a barrier. We came out and took a few pictures.

La Cueva has yielded many artifacts, indicating it was occupied as long ago as 5000 B. C. by people of the Jornada branch of the Mogollon culture. During the 18th and 19th centuries the rock shelter was probably known to roving bands of Apaches who frequented the area. In the 1860s, it was home to one of the more eccentric figures in New Mexico history—Giovanni Maria Agostini—known to the locals as “El Ermitano”- the Hermit. Giovanni came to the Mesilla Valley in 1867. His reputation as one with healing powers had preceded him from his former home in Las Vegas, NM. He kept an abundant supply of herbs. People brought the sick to him when he lived in Mesilla as well as La Cueva. He lived in Mesilla for a short time when he announced to his host that he was going to the cave. When warned of the dangers of doing so, he supposedly replied, “I shall make a fire in front of my cave every Friday evening while I shall be alive. If the fire fails to appear, it will be because I have been killed.” On a Friday evening in the spring of 1869 there was no fire at La Cueva. An Antonio Garcia led a group up the mountain to find the Hermit lying face down with a knife in his back. The murder was never solved. He is buried in the Mesilla Cemetery.

Dot and I returned to the visitor center by the same trail we ascended the mountain. We left for another time the climb toward the other present attraction, the Dripping Springs Resort.

In the parking lot we made the acquaintance of a young Japanese couple and their two sons. They had been living in El Paso for the past year. He was working for a Japanese company with a factory in Ciudad Juarez (just across the Mexican border from El Pas0.) The company supplies power window components to GM and Chrysler. Unfortunately the company is closing this factory so the couple will be returning to Japan on Friday. Signs of the current economic downturn --- even hitting Japanese companies working in Mexico to supply US manufacturing!

We went home and watched the Sunday morning commentary shows that we had recorded, ate a tasty home cooked meal, did some reading, watched Desperate Housewives, read some more, and retired for the night. What a great day!