Albuquerque

Part 2 - Old Friends

I met Joe Hoffman in 1960. He was going to Nuclear Weapons school at Sandia Base in Albuquerque. I was stationed there as a photographer. What we initially had in common was that we both lived in the Navy barracks there. We hung around together all the time. He eventually met Cecilia Lucero and the three of us would hang out. 

When Joe finished school he was transferred to an aircraft carrier in San Diego, California. I continued hanging out at Cecilia's house with her and her mother, Clorinda, and little brother, Pasky. It was like my second home.

In April 1961 I married Nina in Albuquerque, and some time before she and I left for Kodiak, Alaska in September of 1962, Joe and Cecilia were married.

The next time I saw Cecilia was 13 years later in June, 1975. I had been last stationed in Guam and had gotten discharged from the Navy in Philadelphia. My daughter, Celine, and I were traveling by Greyhound bus from West Virginia to the west coast to fly back to Guam. We stopped in Albuquerque to visit. Joe was out of state, but we did visit with Cecilia and her mom before we continued on.

Left to right, with heads above the couch, Cecilia, Clorinda, Celine. Not sure of the other two.

Another 19 years had passed when, in July, 1994 while returning to Syracuse, New York from an automobile trip to San Diego, my two other girls, Angela and Erica, and I stopped by to visit Joe and Cecilia. Her mom was summering in Ute Park and Cecilia graciously allowed us to spend the night at her mother's Albuquerque house. When we left Albuquerque we altered our route and drove up to Ute Park to visit with Clorinda and her brother, Arthur.

Standing, left to right, Michael (Sam), Clorinda (mom), Angela, Erica. Arthur is in wheelchair.

When Joyce and I planned this trip, Albuquerque was one of the places where I had wanted to spend some time, specifically to visit Joe and Cecilia. While we were still in California I called Joe and Cecilia so that we could have a package of our mail forwarded there.

On our arrival on Friday we stopped by just to pick up our mail. We reminisced for an hour and a half. Joe noted that Clorinda lived with her son Pasky and his wife out in the northern reaches of Albuquerque. On Saturday Joe drove us to Pasky's house where we continued our reminiscences. 

Left to right, Joyce, Joe, Cecilia, Clorinda (mom), Pasky (Art), Michael (Sam), dog.

Later that day, Joe and Cecilia treated us to dinner at a Mexican restaurant where they served puffy sopapillas. Now, I was introduced to sopapillas years ago in Albuquerque. I have ordered them at times in the recent past, but have always been disappointed when I got them flat instead of the puffy so you could douse them with honey. In retrospect, I don't know if sopapillas are supposed to be flat or puffy, but only judge based on my first experience. I had asked Joe if we could find a restaurant that served them puffy. What a treat.

We had to cut our conversation short at the restaurant to free up the table, but Joyce and I asked them over to the motorhome on Sunday for a grill out. 

We had hot dogs from Syracuse, Gold Star chili from Cincinnati, dill pickles from Gold Beach, Oregon, and home-made everything else. And more reminiscences. We eventually ran out of reminiscences, but continued on with some of our life stories. We finally had to break up at 10:00 that night.

Joyce says really good friends who haven't seen each other for years can just sit down and pick up the conversation just like it was yesterday. 

In Albuquerque we spent time with really good friends.