Sidetracked Charley

When I first moved back to New Mexico I lived in the small town of Questa. It was on a state highway from Taos to Colorado but if tourists stopped it was just for lunch at the Seville Restaurant or gas at one of three stations. It had no visible means of support beyond the Moly mine, some small town ranchers, and a barely under the radar drug trade. When I had lived in New Mexico before it was mostly in Albuquerque which was on Route 66, which became interstate 40. It had two bases, a major federal laboratory, and the University of New Mexico. And sure, some tourists. But they were under the radar like Questa's drug trade. In short I was totally unprepared for Angel Fire, New Mexico, especially since I had not moved to that town but a small rural backwater five miles south. I was looking to hide out in Black Lake. Silly girl. Income depended to some degree on Angel Fire. I taught skiing there. In Black Lake I made Mardi Gras masks which I shipped around the country at the A...

Reflections in a Still Pond July, friends and I at a Chamber of Commerce event were noting, is entirely too busy. And once, I am told, nothing other than the 4th happened in July in Angel Fire. And we were not the community which had parades or fund raisers for the fire department or set off the fireworks. Those were Red River, Wheeler Peak, and Eagle Nest. So an effort was made to fill the calendar. I do believe we have created a monster. It was only the 22nd, just after the garden tour, and those of us making our command appearances at the ribbon cutting for the newest Texas owned business in our New Mexico mountain town were already looking all in. Nine more days to go. This weekend is the High Country Arts and Crafts Fair in Eagle Nest. Some of us will no doubt attend. I am staying home. And I confess I did not do the garden tour either. I was tending to my own garden. And celebrating my new camera. And culling through emails requesting my involvement at events into Septembe...