Okay, last time, I had just gotten us to Albuquerque (again) for our 2024 trip there. We had just arrived at the little Casita that is our home away from home when we visit New Mexico.
I’d rested after our trip. Martha had had a nap. Then, we headed out on our obligatory grocery store trip for the first night we’re on a voyage. We get bread, and cheese and/or prosciutto and mozzarella rolls, and a little white wine, and then we eat in the room.
About the photos: First, here is the Casita in Albuquerque. Like I say, it is of one pir our top two favorite AirBnBs. Second, our obligatory cheese, bread, and wine for our first dinner of the trip. And, finally, nothing to do with the story but I just like the shot, Martha looking mischievous at breakfast a few weeks back at our local restaurant, the Monument Diner and Cafe.
When we stay at the Casita in Albuquerque, we usually go up the way to the Lowe's Corner Market on 11th street. It’s handy, near-by, and usually has everything we need. We’re even fond of it in the way that you become attached to stores sometimes...the ones you associate with vacations and time away.
That night, though, there was a little bit of sadness in our visit. Oh, the store was fine. We got what we wanted (if, maybe, at a price that we found a little steep). But, there was a bit of a shadow on things.
To explain why, I have to note that this Loews has a guard standing at the door. And, unfortunately, it has to. While the neighborhood is, largely, safe...any store in the area is a target for theft. I don’t mean the occasional bit of pilfering or shoplifting. I mean robbery of the till. It’s the kind of area you find in many cities which is, maybe, transitioning from...well...a hard knocks sort of a district to an upscale one. It is, in other words, an area where older inhabitants are moving out, and artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs are moving in.
That can lead to tensions.
Thus it was that while we shopped we saw young folk and visitors (like ourselves) and homesteaders in the aisles...but we also saw people who looked pretty damn desperate. They were the working poor...trying so very hard to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps... only to discover that the straps in question have rotted away.
There was one couple we saw. You could see them counting out their pocket change to see whether they could afford one more item in the basket. Just one more. Maybe bread. Maybe a can of tuna. Maybe a bottle of juice.
Martha wanted to go give them money. But, by then, we were already at the checkout, and by the time we’d finished, they were gone.
The other issue...
As we drove back to the AirB&B, I noticed that the streets had a pretty high population of homeless folk. I mean, there were a lot of them. They were moving through the dark, around us. You saw them walking into alleys and other protected spaces. They were looking for relatively safe places to sleep.
I remember one in particular...a woman...carrying a large comforter. As Martha pointed out, that comforter may have been pretty much all she owned. Or, at the very least, it was her most valued possession. It kept her warm at night. And that’s an issue in Albuquerque, in the high desert of the southern Rockies, particularly in winter.
Again, don’t get me wrong. You see the homeless everywhere. In Austin, just down the road from me, they form an enormous population, and no one seems to know what to do about them. They frustrate equally the most benevolent liberal and the most austere conservative on the city council.
And here, in Georgetown, we have our share. You may not see them. But they’re there. There are a couple of rivers here, and the city has carefully constructed walkways along their banks. But, frankly, you hesitate to go down some of the walks...because, as you go, you hear now and then in the brush to either side of you, the sound of hurried movement...yet, you see no one.
What worries me is that I think...I think!...I’m seeing more and more of it. Everywhere. In every town and city. More people on the street. More people who have, for whatever reason (poverty, mental illness, drugs...) slipped out of our more or less comfortable world and into...something else. What else exactly, I cannot say.
I must confess I find all that unsettling. I keep wondering what it is that has gone wrong. I wondered that night, as we were on the street, driving back to the AirB&B, why was it that this woman...was walking along a dark street, looking for someplace in a parking lot or an alley, where she could safely lay her head... even if she had only a curb stone for a pillow.
Also, I will further confess that I worry. I fear what it all may mean for our future as a nation...and a culture.
Well....
Anyway, getting back to my story. We headed back to the Casita and had our dinner. We watched a bit of TV, and then, we were off to bed.
I will confess, I didn’t sleep well. I had dreams. They weren’t exactly nightmares. But they weren’t exactly anything else.
They all involved people in the dark, in city streets...
They were sometimes hunted by wolves...
And sometimes they *were* wolves...
Hunting those who had reduced them to bestial fury.
Fortunately, I woke up quickly.
Okay...
Moving on to something more pleasant. Next time, I write about our forty-second anniversary. And how we had an absolutely lovely day.
More to come.
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Copyright©2025 Michael Jay Tucker
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