25 Things about Albuquerque, New Mexico

Our family has been in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for almost a month. Like many largely populated areas, the city has a lot of issues, but it also has a wealth of history and culture, which make it ripe to write about. Here are some things I’ve learned or noticed so far…

1.      Albuquerque has two nicknames (maybe more):  ABQ and Duke City.

2.      It is called ‘Duke City’ because it was named after a Spanish Duke, Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva.                                                                                                                                                                                

3.      The TV shows Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul were filmed here, two of my favorites!

4.      Los Pollos Hermanos from Breaking Bad is really Twisters, a local restaurant chain that serves burgers and burritos.                                                                                                                                                

5.      The Sandia Mountains border the east of Albuquerque.  The setting sun gives the mountains a reddish tint like watermelon, sandia in Spanish.

6.   The road runner is the state bird.  I’ve seen quite a few running around in the neighborhoods.  Seeing them always reminds me of Loony Tunes!                                                                                                                                                      

7.      It is illegal to give the homeless or anybody else money at street corners.  This doesn’t keep the large number of homeless in Albuquerque from asking all over the city. 

8.      Built more than 300 years ago, the San Felipe De Neri Church is the oldest building in town. 

9.      At 5312 feet, ABQ is the highest metropolitan city in America.

10.  At one point during the Civil War Albuquerque was under control of the Confederate States of America. 

11.  Rather than Christmas lights during the holidays, many people hang luminarias around the city and their homes.  These are brown paper bags with candles in them.

12.  The climate in ABQ is said to be one of the best in the USA.  300+ days of sunshine, dry with warm days and cools nights.  We have been here a month and have seen only one cloudy day!

13.  Speaking of weather, when tuberculosis was a national epidemic in the 1910’s, easterners flocked to Albuquerque because they thought the climate would help.  Sanitoriums were built all around the city.

14.  I have driven in a lot of large cities all over the world, places like Paris and Mexico City.  Albuquerque drivers are some of the rudest I have ever encountered. 

15. Albuquerque is the Hot Air Balloon Capital of the world. 500+ hot air balloons from all over the world compete annually in October.                                                                                                             

16.  Paragliding is another popular sport.  It is common to see paragliders near the Sandia mountains. Remember Wile E. Coyote?      

                                                                                

17.  New Mexico was the second to last state admitted to the contiguous United States.  It was 47^th and Arizona was 48^th.  Statehood was postponed so long for fear of Native Americans and Hispanics not being able to ‘assimilate’.                                                                                                     

18.  Carlsbad Caverns, one of the wonders of the world, is located about 300 miles south of Albuquerque.                                                                                                                                                                   

19.  Kirtland Air Force Base, the sixth largest Air Force installation in the United States, is located in Albuquerque.                                                                                                                                                 

20.  There are so many different types of restaurants, more eclectic than almost anywhere I have been, especially with a Latin American influence.  I’ll never be able to try them all! 

21.  Albuquerque is in the heart of Indian pueblo country -- the oldest farming civilization on the North American continent.                                                                                                                          

22.  The famous river that serves as a natural border between Mexico and the USA, the Rio Grande, runs through Albuquerque.        

                                                                                                           

23.  The cofounder of Etsy, Jared Tarbell, is a native of ABQ.                                                                           

24.  There are five volcanic cones that are easily visible from the city.  They have been extinct for thousands of years.                                                                                                                                                               

25.  The Petroglyph National Monument border the west side of ABQ.  The rocks there contain over 20,000 carved images dating from a few hundred years old to at least a few millennia. 

The Truth About Santa

What age do we tell our children the truth about Santa?  Do we let them find out from friends or some mean kid that wants to ruin everyone else’s Christmas like the Grinch?

Our moment all happened because of Wyatt, our Elf on the Shelf.  For seven or eight years he came to our home the day after Thanksgiving.  For a month or more in between my wife and I had to put on our thinking caps to be creative and make him do something differently every day.  Yeah, we cheated sometimes by ‘borrowing’ ideas from friends, Pinterest, or Facebook.  Sometimes it was fun.  Other times it was a pain in the ass. 

Why do kids believe in some things and not others?  Why do they believe an elf made from plastic can be real and fly back and forth from the North Pole every night, yet there is no such thing as a zombie?  To me, zombies seem a lot more believable!  Do kids (and people in general) believe what they want, what makes them feel good?

 

All parents want to shield their children from uncomfortable situations.  Before my daughter was born, I remember telling my mother that I would never ever tell my child the ‘lies’ about Santa.  It made her sad, but I remembered how deep it cut when she told me the truth.  My mother read a book which explained the ‘magic of Santa’.  Afterwards, I went to my room and cried and vowed never to lie to my own children.

Never say never.  Fast forward to the present.  Somehow, I rationalized the joys of Santa and the several years my daughters believed were wonderful.  Christmas mornings were magical as their faces lit up.  The best part though was the build up to Christmas during the holiday season.  My girls maintained an almost constant level of excitement.  They even seemed to behave better to make sure Santa brought what they wanted!

When we talked about telling our kids the truth our hearts sank.  Is it just that parents don’t want their children to grow up?  The ‘talk’ seemed so difficult and we were so worried about the right way to do it.  We used Santa as an ‘idea’ that had evolved over time.  We talked about the history of St. Nick and how he secretly gave to the poor.  We explained how other cultures do not use Santa but have similar ideas about giving during the holidays.

“It’s about sharing and being selfless.  You all can be Santas too, not just during the holidays, but the entire year.”

In our minds our spiel sounded great as we presented it, but I don’t think my daughters really accepted the truth.  In fact, my youngest flat out did not get what we were trying to say.  She just started sharing amusing stories about the elves her teachers had used in the classroom.

Nevertheless, my oldest, Sofiah, still cried when Wyatt was not there the next morning.  Again, we tried to explain the concept of ‘Santa’, this time being more forward.  She cried hard in momma’s arms for at least ten minutes.  Then she locked herself in her room for another twenty.  Had we screwed up?  Was there a better way to break the news?  Should I have gone with my first instinct and never started the ‘Santa escapade’ in the first place?

Half an hour later Sofiah came out of her room and seemed fine.  Her Christmas spirit had not been vanquished.  In fact, she helped Kaia make an entire bedroom suite for our new elf.  Every day since, the girls have looked for the elf first thing in the morning. They have barely mentioned Wyatt.

And so I realize that discovering ‘truth’ is all part of growing up.  I think we as parents worry too much.  Probably we want our kids to stay innocent forever.  No doubt the world is a crazy place and we want to shield them from the harmful stuff as long as possible.  But there are tougher issues to deal with in life than finding out that the jolly fat man who gives gifts is not a real person. 

Kids deal with the truth in their own way.  Our goal should be to make them resilient and strong enough to deal with the good and bad aspects of reality.  We should also stimulate their imagination. Maybe the years of believing in an old fat man coming down the chimney are over, but what we told our girls still rings true.  Santa is an idea, a time of year to reflect on how we should be year-round; selfless, compassionate, and sharing.