Chapter One

Chapter 1
Thirteen years old and ripped up from a known world, and then brought into an unknown world called ‘country’. An undiscovered world lay before me. My life was about to change forever.
I stood on the front lawn, near the road, watching my father and a friend, lift the couch into our new home. I wasn’t quite sure why we had moved to the valley, but then my parents were always moving. ‘The Valley’, that’s all people called it.

The truth is there are two valleys in Albuquerque: the north valley, and the south valley. Both were outside the city district, back in those days. The south valley is more of a farming community, while the north valley is more like a country community.

In that region, the Rio Grande River runs north and south. Along both sides, several miles away, there is a mountain range to the east and a high bluff ridge to the west. Rain and snow melt off, from both sides, runs down toward the river, which makes the valley area rich soil.

This was long before the city put in a flood control system. We still lived with the deadly floods, especially near the arroyos. An arroyo is a wash, where the flooding rains flow down from higher ground. Coming down from the mountains, the arroyos could flow as deep as 20 feet and at speeds that were deadly.

After centuries of flooding rains, many arroyos had widened as much as 20 feet, with banks that dropped off sharply, as deep as 6 feet. This was certainly no place to be walking, when the roaring flood came pounding down the 10-mile stretch from the foothills, to the river.

From higher ground, the valley looks like a thick green oasis, running the length of the river, all the way through the state. Being outside the city limits, this part of the valley was unique in that back yards were horse corrals, and animal pens. Small patches of neighborhood mingled with small croplands.

Across the street, from where we were moving in, there was a back yard filled with chickens. A small irrigation ditch ran the length of the block, along behind the houses. Folks still burned their own trash in barrels, out by the irrigation ditch.

A little farther to the north is an area called ‘Alameda’, which means (from the old days) ‘look at the trees’. Cottonwood trees dominate the whole territory. Some of these trees are over 100 years old and stand 3 and 4 stories high.

This was, and still is today, country to the bone. It’s a relaxed atmosphere where kids run free. There are so many adventures the children are never bored.

This was New Mexico. These days, homes look like mansions compared to what the norm was, in the 50’s. Most average homes followed the theme of the adobe. The adobe home looks somewhat like a mud box, to most anyone who didn’t live in pueblo country. Every corner is rounded off and wood framing around the windows have an Aztec pattern. For the most part, the colors are beige and browns. Ceilings consist of huge, dark stained logs, exposed to view. The logs continue throughout the building, extending through the outer walls, sticking out several inches outside. These logs are called vigas.

Exterior decorations consist of things like clay sun faces from Mexico and chili ristras, which are chili peppers strung together. Traditionally, the chilies are strung together, and hung outside the front or back door, to dry. Fresh air is the best way to dry peppers.

This new neighborhood consisted of all the old and traditional ways of the pueblo region. Most of the homes were built just after WWII, old but quaint and groomed. The back yards were enormous, as most folks still had their own vegetable gardens, along with a few farm animals.
The house, we now called home, was tiny compared to today’s standards. There were only 3 bedrooms. With three children, ages 13, 11 and 7, this little house was a cramp.

For the first time in years, I would have to share my bedroom with my little sister. What’s more, I had to share my double bed. I wasn’t happy about that situation but, I was just a kid and hardly had a say.

Numerous dramas were coming my way. Sometimes it’s a good thing, we can’t see into the future.