We lived in New Mexico 5 years. At first, we drove into town from Colorado and thought we had come to the end of the world. Along the way there, we saw ghost town after ghost town with only foundations left and very few gas stations. Old signs that looked like signs you would see in the old western movies. Dry, flat rocky desert with rolling tumble weed in the wind. We stopped once on top of a hill on the road and looked in all directions and no sound but the wind. No cars as far as the eye could see. Two lane road. Hot and dry. There were signs to get water to take with you because there was no water for many miles and no gas. It was like the twilight zone. We both sort of looked at each other and hoped our gas and water would last and this wouldn't go on forever. The only thing missing was our covered wagon.
On the map, I would see a town's name and thought Oh good, we can get some gas and water. But when we got there, it was only a intersection with a couple of buildings and no gas or water. No one around and we just kept on going. There weren't interstates back then, just old two lane highways. Thank goodness for the base - Holloman Air Force Base and their regional hospital. The base had a commissary, movie house, hospital, shopping bx and gas station. Alamogordo had one drive in theater, some shopping areas, a bank, a school and of course housing.
A large percentage of the population was Mexican, and they didn't like the military guys. Eddie was told to never wear his military uniform downtown after duty hours because he could be shot. One time he came to where I was working to take me home, and when we came out to the car on the side street, there were about 8 Mexican boys sitting on the car hood and bumper. Eddie told me to not look at them, or say anything, just walk up and get in the car. Eddie started the engine and started to move and they all got off. Nothing happened. We were lucky.
Our entertainment was a trip to the root beer stand for a root beer float or the drive in movie for $1. That was the only thing to do. We did have a small TV but the time zone was different and the TV signed off at 9:00 pm. Things that you usually see at 11:00 pm happened two hours earlier. So we went to bed at 9:00 pm. Plus there were only 3 or 4 channels. You used an antenna.
I worked at a loan company in town and for an attorney for a few months. I had all three children while we were in New Mexico. Not a lot to do but fool around and have children. We were so young and so in love and so happy. We didn't have hardly any money but it didn't seem to matter. I had girlfriends and we traded baby clothes and let each other use things, so it all worked out. The groceries were cheap and $1 for the movie. You could see three movies in one night. The kids could sleep while we watched the movie.We went on mountain picnics too. We were 30 minutes away from the top of the mountain in Cloud Croft. There was snow there too. Of course, the base was in the valley basin beside the mountain range. One winter, it got down to 14 below 0 in Alamogordo. Everywhere we went, the weather got weird and extra cold. It snowed in August in Denver and the next weekend was 80 degrees. We had a blizzard in Dayton, Ohio and below 0 there too. There was a park in the middle of town, with swings and I took Debbie there a lot to play with my girlfriends kids. I am going to have to write more later. There were exciting things that happened in Alamogordo. That is it for now.
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