Memory Lane - only for Real Santa Feans

[suz]

yes new streets and I remember just a few streets when I was a kid OH and galisteo st was the longest st lol !(grew up on that street)

[Greg D]

Do you remember 2 stone outhouse sized stone buildings off Galisteo near Cordova?

These were built by Cartwright to store dynamite, because they were so far from town.

For me, Cerrillos was the longest street. We lived on Declovina for many years and it seemed to take forever to get to town.

[Pablo Baca]

Cerrillos was such a long road, it went all the way to Albuquerque or the SF Airport--depending on how you turned at the y. lol

[Greg D]

I think it was the winter of 1947 and my mother wanted to go to Taos for New Years. It snowed a lot and one could barely tell where the road was.

The bus was ice cold, and from where I sat you could look down through a rusted out floor and see the highway under the bus as it went.

Somewhere along the road the Driver discovered that he wasn't on the road at all, but atop a mountain ridge several miles above it on the right.

He stopped and got stuck and everyone had to get out and push.

I think it was almost 10 hours getting to Taos. When the bus got there we went next door to the La Fonda and my mother spent all night dancing with Saki. This was the beginning of a 50 year romance. He died around 1997 or 8 I think, but I never heard what from.

My mother wouldn't marry him because he was Greek Catholic, and she was afraid her brothers in Texas would come up and kill him. This was my first exposure to this type of prejudice. Which is probably why I just can't put up with it today from anybody.

[george]

New Mexican wrote:

Who remembers Beva's Cafe?

They had the best huevos rancheros ever ... this was in the early 80's when I was down there visiting some friends at St. John's college.

[Pablo Baca]

george wrote:

<quoted text>
They had the best huevos rancheros ever ... this was in the early 80's when I was down there visiting some friends at St. John's college.

Wow, what a bus trip. Amazing that you eventually got to Taos.

[Pablo Baca]

george wrote:

<quoted text>
They had the best huevos rancheros ever ... this was in the early 80's when I was down there visiting some friends at St. John's college.

It was when I was at the College of Santa Fe (the Harvard of the West) that I discovered I had been having huevos rancheros for breakfast every day of my life. We just called it almuerzo (breakfast). The restaurants called them huevos rancheros. Almuerzo was always better at home than the huevos rancheros in the restaurants.

[Marie]

Greg! Just now saw your message about the two stone little houses at cerrillos and galisteo. I completely forgot about them! I also read your story about the bus trip and Take. It brought to mind how we don't even see passenger busses anymore!

[suz]

oh yeah! Beva's and Greg D what a horrible experience

[suz]

oh yes greg we lived on galisteo at don fernando right by cordova , was scared of those

[Pablo Baca]

I don't remember two houses. There is still one stone house there. Someone said it was used by the army to store dynomite.

[Marie]

Greg, showed your house story to my husband. His only response was,"wow!" It will be a fun story to share when someone says theyhad a bad trip to Taos. We can say "You think YOU had a bad trip too Take. Let me tell you of the time..."

[Greg D]

Pablo Baca wrote:

I don't remember two houses. There is still one stone house there. Someone said it was used by the army to store dynomite.

Cartwright's hardware store sold it to miners. There were two of them at one time, but the last time I was in Santa Fe there was only one.

[Greg D]

suz wrote:

oh yes greg we lived on galisteo at don fernando right by cordova , was scared of those

Is the Church of Christ bldg. still there?

I'll try to keep this brief.

That building is the "new one", built around 1950. The old one was down the street between the Packard dealer and Safeway, forgot the street name. Anyhow---When the new building wasn't ready, and we had to vacate the old bldg because it was sold, we had services at Baradinelli's Mortuary for a few weeks.

I was little then, and one Sunday several of us were playing hide and go seek before the services were to begin. A kid ran into the back room climbed up a ladder, and jumped into a long wooden box. It was very dark, there were no lights on.

And screamed bloody murder, loud enough to wake the dead, when he discovered he had landed on top of a corpse laying in a casket.

It was that week we were suppose to be at the new church, only no one told us.

As we waited for services to begin, I remarked to my mother that there certainly were a lot of new visitors here today.

In a few moments, I think a gong sounded, and we turned around and a bunch of long bearded people in robes, carrying long sticks, etc., started marching down the aisle.

This was not the Church of Christ. At first we thought it was some special KKK event and we got out of there as fast as we could.

We were told later it was a Greek Orthrodox service.

I've already told George this, but thought the new readers here might like the story.

[Greg D]

PS: It was called the Memorial Chapel then.

[Greg D]

The Safeway was on the street that runs into the north side of Burro Alley, and Palace I think. It was between a service station and several large tennis courts. There was a government building across the street, which I think was the county court house, but don't swear by me, lol. Just north of this is a little street that ran to what later became part of the new Taos highway. This Safeway is no longer there.

The Presbyterian Church was also close by, but don't know if it is still there or not.

Last time I was in Santa Fe was in 1985. I plan to see it again if I don't wait tooooo long.

[Pablo Baca]

Great to hear your story Greg. Santa Fe has definately changed. Let me know when you come to visit La Villa Real--I'll give you a tour!

[George Pomonis]

George @ Suz: My parents lived on the SE corner of San Fernando and Don Diego. They had moved there in 1951. I was in college when they moved there and would visit with them from time to time with our young family.

[George Pomonis]

Yes
Greg from time to time the Orthodox church would hold services at Memorial Chapel. But it could have been an Orthodox funeral. There were a lot of Greek bachelors liviin SF at the time.

[suz]

greg!! how scary!! it's still there but called something else again. you mean don fernando george? that sounds like where the Palermo's lived down the street , was it nearby?