Old Town Albuquerque

If only I could remember over 50 years ago and the only other visit I have made to this city -- guess I had been distracted by that beautiful, intelligent and firey Indian girl I had met then (so blinded that I didn't even notice or recall the mountains that rise up on the east side of this city).  Too bad snail mail had been the only communications we had developed at that time (other than the telephone, of course) -- long distance to the east coast seemed insurmountable at those times to me.  What could have happened if we had the internet then is only left to my imagination and is now just regrettable.

As I walked around the historic section of the city, I had hoped there might be something to trigger some memory of having been there before but, no such memory came to the surface.  I arrived there by 9:30 this morning and quickly found a space on the plaza there in front of the historic church of San Felipe. How disappointing it was to walk around this beautiful historic section of Albuquerque and not have one single memory of having been there before -- only memories of having played numerous games of chess with Alicia, games of hoops with her younger brothers, a drive-in movie with her and all the siblings, and the horrible night when my younger sister Kathy stepped on the hot grating over the furnace in the living room floor and burned her poor little feet.  Oh yeah! And Alicia breaking her toe when she kicked me so hard for beating her yet again at chess -- she played against the professors at UNM where she attended (and usually beat them).  Guessing now that she only let me win (most likely explanation it seems).

Guess I should have gone into that beautiful church and prayed for something -- anything.  Maybe a new brain or some better connections in the current one.  Those eighteen concrete steps I fell down when I was a kid must have done more damage than just adding a couple more cracks in my skull.

Well, the highlight of my visit to Old Town was meeting a woman in her art gallery who just happened to have been born in Washington D.C. too and even had lived in Alexandria just east of Springfield Mall off Franconia Road.  Not far from where I have my townhouse.  Enjoyed talking with her for a short time before starting the rest of my time roaming about and taking pictures (way more than shown above).