Muy Feliz Navidad mis queridos amigos

I have many memories of Christmas but tonight I'll tell you my favorite

It was Christmas Eve of 1972 and I was 15 years old. At this time my mother, sister, nephew and I were living in an apartment in Albuquerque but my mother wanted to have a big Christmas with relatives in her big house that she had left behind when she left my father. So in her own typical fashion she packed us all up and moved us home just for Christmas. Her brother and his family came along with her father and we all played nice for a couple of weeks. I don't know how my father put up with her sometimes.

This was the beginning of what she would have called my rebellious stage but in reality it was more of a pulling away for self survival. I was out of my head deliriously happy to be with my best friend Marilyn for Christmas. Since we lived 120 miles part now we relished every moment we could spend together. The moment I got back home to Santa Rosa I was out the door to spend all of my time with her. However, my mother made it very clear that Christmas Eve would be spent with the family. Bah humbug!


This particular Christmas Eve day was unseasonably warm so Marilyn and I talked my uncle into driving us to town to a little store across from the junior high school called Bill's Place. This was a mini mart long before there was such a thing as mini marts. Just a tiny little store with one or two of anything you could possibly need. Besides having bottled Cokes and Red Seal Chili (Potato) Chips, Bill kept a huge assortment of penny candy. Each type of candy sat in its box on top of the counter behind which Bill sat with his flyswatter in hand ready to slap your hand if he thought you were handling the candy too much without buying it.


(Table Top Mountain)

Marilyn and I each purchased a bag full of cokes, chips and candy and had my uncle drive us to the edge of town. He pulled his car over by the old abandoned St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church and Cemetery and from there we proceeded to hike to Table Table Top Mountain. Not really a mountain, mind you, more like a fair sized mesa with a very cool cave up at the top where you could enter from an opening above and sit (protected from the environment) in front of a large opening that looked west over the Pecos River and beyond. Marilyn and I spent the entire afternoon up there laughing and dreaming and talking about everything from boys and sex to what we wanted to be after high school.

By late afternoon with our paper bags full of empty calorie snacks depleted we headed home. The walk back was cold but not unbearable and took us longer than we thought putting our arrival on the corner between her house and mine at sundown. I remember we stood there and talked for a long time, neither of us wanting to go home. We both dreaded the whole family scene but had a plan for our escape later that evening. Just as we were forcing ourselves to say goodbye Sammy (was his last name Chavez? I can't believe it has faded from my memory) came screeching around the corner in his little blue LUV pickup truck and yelled out the window "Mis Christmas - see you at the ranch". To which we responded in unison "See you at the ranch". (It really was the rallying cry of our time.)

Our family opens presents on Christmas Eve so I dressed for dinner (my mother insisted we all dress up) and after supper we all opened gifts and smiled and acted as though all was right with the world even though my mother was watching my father's alcohol consumption like a hawk and giving him those "I already talked to you about this once" looks.

As soon as the festivities were over I told my mother that Marilyn had invited me to attend Midnight Mass with her. Although we weren't Catholic she allowed me to go but told me to come right home afterwards. Yeah, right..you bet...

We went to mass and all of the teens sat up in the balcony. Looking back I am ashamed of how we all misbehaved during the service, it was inexcusable, but at the time it was just funny. Once mass was over and we had filed out under the glares of all the grown up who were making mental noted of who the hoodlums in the balcony were we jumped in cars and headed for "the ranch".

Much to our parents chagrin we stayed out at the ranch for hours. This was an old adobe house abut a mile from town with no electricity, no running water and no heating system. In the middle of the living room (if you want to call it that)was a big pot belly style wood stove. The fire was roaring, the oil lamps were lit and the guys had their guitars out and were jamming. Marilyn was with Tutor and Kenny was courting me in his "interested but not interested" style and every thing and every one was alive and full of joy and laughter.

To this day I can see each of their faces crowded into that one room around the fire. The light dancing on the ceiling from the oil lamps. ( The flames would jump in time to the beat of the music..really they would. ) It was one of the most enchanting Christmas's I ever knew. There would never be another Christmas like that one, when we were all together, when we all loved each other without reservation, we all believed the world was ours and ours alone. A time when the things in our lives we had no control over seemed powerless against us. A true moment of immortality...

Here's wishing you just such a moment - Merry Christmas my friends -

* Late addition to the above story: After printing the original post a precious friend and kindred spirit reminded me that Sammy's last name was Chavez. Of course it was, I remember now - how could I have forgotten. He was the sweetest guy I ever met. Such a gentle spirit - I can still see his smile perfectly in my mind.