Albuquerque

Part 3 - Everything Else

One of the reasons we go back is to recapture our past. One of the first places we drove by in Albuquerque was Clorinda Lucero's house at 901 Madeira. The house is still there and looks much the same as it did in 1960, including the unattached garage which was Arthur's room. What was obviously different was the absence of irises in the front yard. Mom Lucero loves irises and had tons of them in the front yard.

The Lucero house at 901 Madeira

Cecilia's youngest son, Jamie, now lives in the house. Cecilia described the neighborhood there as Jamaican.

The second spot that I had briefly considered seeing was Sandia Crest. I was told that the drive up the mountain was much easier now, but quickly dismissed the idea. I felt that there was not a lot to be gained by making the trip, and I had already had my mountain challenge for this trip at Colorado's Pike's Peak. Besides, Joyce doesn't like mountain roads (nor the accompanying heights).

Sandia Crest. The Sandia Mountains define the eastern edge of Albuquerque.

The third "must see" location for me was the old house that Nina and I had lived in on Sandia Base. In 1960 there were three bases, all connected: Sandia Base, Manzano Base, and Kirtland Air Force Base. As an Air Force Base, Kirtland had to do with planes. Sandia was home to Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA), and one of its principle missions was nuclear weapons training for all service branches and for all levels. I had worked there as a Navy photographer in a joint service photo lab. I had heard that Manzano also had to do with nuclear weapons, but cannot be sure of that. Today all three bases have been combined into one, Kirtland AFB, although it appears that the individual missions and associated locations remain pretty much as they were.

All that aside, my immediate goal was to locate the old house. I felt that the easiest way to begin was to use today's technology - Google maps. I located the base and the Wyoming Avenue entrance, following it aboard the base and making a right turn into the base housing area. I could see the cul-de sacs where the house would be, but the street names were unfamiliar. We had lived on 39th Place, but there were no names like that. Our house had backed up to nothing, as I recall, but as I looked more closely at the street patterns I saw a street behind all the cul-de-sacs. Something had been changed, and that something was the entire housing area. All of the original single family houses had been replaced with duplexes. But not only had the houses replaced, but the streets had been changed. The whole place had been razed, new streets formed, streets that kind of resembled the old ones, but not the same.

I mentioned this to Joe, and found that almost all of the buildings on Sandia Base had been demolished and re-built. It appears that very few structures of 1960 still exist. One of the few that still exist is the old Navy barracks, and as we drove past it we noticed that even it was undergoing renovation.

As for the rest of Albuquerque, it has expanded beyond my belief. The east mesa had been a wide expanse of nothing and now has houses all the way up to the foot of the mountain. The city has also grown northward for miles, stopping only when reaching the boundary of an Indian reservation. Joe tells me that a new town was formed, Rio Rancho.

But there is one thing in Albuquerque that has not changed through the years. Mom Lucero has but one pose when asked to stand for a photo.

At left is Mom Lucero at 901 Madeira in 1975. The picture at right shows her at Ute Park in 1994.

Mom Lucero at Pasky's house in 2013 with her trademark wave.