Nobody in my family can agree what age I was, or any of us kids were, when we stopped coming to Taos, New Mexico for the summer. My dad taught graduate art school there, so every summer my parents would load up the station wagon with everything we’d need for 6 weeks. We rented a house from a local woman or stayed in a condo in the ski valley and had the kind of experience people complain kids don’t get anymore.
We built a “dirt slide” (does what is says on the tin) in the forest and spent an entire summer ruining our jeans on it. We picked wild strawberries and discovered centipedes (Don’t touch it or it might kill you!) and when our parents were with us, we went to the Tastee-Freez for ice cream cones or hiked up Wheeler Peak or visited galleries that officially were “boring” even if we had fun once we got there.
Like all good things, it came to an end. Now for the first time I’ve returned to Taos with my parents and brother and his family. So many things are just like I remember from childhood. We’ll round in a corner in the car and there is the post office where I spent, like, *hours* waiting for my mother to post something. There’s Michael’s Kitchen with chocolate covered crullers as mouth-watering decades later. There’s the hotel outside which my sister got the autograph of Dennis Weaver, who played TV cowboy detective Dennis McCloud.
Of course so many things are different: There’s the mountain looming up and it’s more beautiful, the sky more striking than I ever recalled. The laundromat where we used to see the hippies washing all the jeans from the commune has been torn down in favour of a new shopping centre. The Tastee Freez has been replaced with a burger joint. The school where my dad held classes looks familiar but we circle round, trying to find something that looks like the picture in our minds.
Life goes on. We grew up. My children experience a whole new version.
Yesterday we visited the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge as a family. The bridge stands 565 feet above the Rio Grande, the 7th highest bridge in America, with awe-inspiring views over the gorge and the mountains. Shadows of clouds pass over the stark landscape. From miles away you can see the streak of rainstorms moving in.
As a child, I found it exciting. As a parent, my ankles went all funny. Watching the children race ahead, only a railing separating them from the drop, I felt decidedly peculiar. As my father made his way across with his cane, I took his hat to keep it from gusting off and dying a death on the black jagged boulders below. The kids looked over the railing and felt no fear.
On the drive back to the rented house in Arroyo Seco, I describe how unnerved I felt to my mother.
“I know,” she said. “I used to feel that way with taking you 3 kids there. I’d tell you, your sister and your brother, no climbing on the railing…and y’all didn’t.”
“Yes,” my husband said. “But you used to have 7 children.”
And parents all, we laughed.
I remember those summers. Playing in the creek, with the icy cold water. Wandering the woods alone and with Sally and you. Riding bikes into Taos with Arthur. Visiting the Lamas. Viewing miracle images in churches. Hiking to Williams Lake and Wheeler Peak. Exploring old mines. Seeing Clint Eastwood shoot a scene in a movie. Making clay in front of the school. Learning photography. Those were magical summers.
I’d forgotten about the Lamas! And I don’t remember Clint Eastwood shooting a scene. I think being around all those graduate art students and seeing all that art being made was such a part of it.
What a lovely post and fantastic pictures, especially the one of you with the storm rolling in behind. It’s lovely, but odd to go back, as a different person. I felt it some years back when we took Jessica to Devon, where I had often been as a child.
That must have been nice. In a way you want your children to experience what you experienced. On the other hand, it’s lovely that they have their own version of the holiday and the place.
Ah I really enjoyed reading that. Thanks for taking me there (and for the giggle at the end) x
Thanks, lady! I’ll be sharing more pictures over the coming days.
What a beautiful place, so dramatic! It must have been wonderful to go revisit, and to let your children experience some of your childhood! 🙂
I keep saying, “Here’s where we stayed and did X Y Z” and they’re all, “yeah yeah” and at the same time they’re making all their own memories.
Enjoyed your trip back to Taos. I enjoy taking grandkids back to places in Colorado in much the same way….and find many places, especially camp sites, that remain virtually unchanged over 40 years later. Tell evrryone we say ” hi”
Jan, I will. It is astonishing how some places are so unchanged. It makes it seem like a dream.
Remember the dog that got smacked by a porcupine and the time dad’s truck caught on fire!
We went by Ms Massey’s and drove around back where that hippie guy lived who came and helped put out the fire. Wish you were here in a big way.
I loved reading this, it sounds like a great place and it’s lovely that you’re back there with a multigenerational family gang.
Oh, I get that wobbly feeling (not in my ankles, though – down my spine and the backs of my legs). Can’t deal with my kids being too near an edge, even if it’s safe. My mum used to suffer vertigo like that horribly – and we blithely and heartlessly went skipping off, thinking she was being a big old fuss-pot. Now I see what we put her through!
Had to google “crullers”. How can I have lived in the US for 5.5 years and not learnt that word? (Maybe a regional one?)
Sounds like you’re having a wonderful trip.
Girl! The pics are gorgeous, makes me want to revisit places from my childhood, too. So happy you had a great trip and can’t wait to see you…in 2 days!
I LOVE Taos! But I was never lucky enough to spend so much time there. My grandad spent some time there when he was young and wanted to take my dad and I when I was little (I guess we all do this, older generations wanting to revisit and show younger generations favourite places) and I’ve been a few times without family. Once we roadtripped from Taos up to Chama and on to Durango, up to the Black Canyon, around and down past Royal Gorge and back down to Taos. Fantastic area, I’d love to grow old there. Lucky, lucky you to have all of that in your childhood!! AND lucky you to revisit!
Looks amazing, sounds like you are having a great hol. Love the idea of visiting as a different person.
It was great. I’m going to post about the hike to the lake, which was stunning and a family bonding moment.
Aother place to jot down on my Must go To list. I loved reading this post and I’d love to visit some of my childhood holiday memories too
revisiting childhood haunts is always so wonderful, I’ve found! So glad you were able to share it with you babies too!
Its amazing how our feelings change as we get older. I remember going to places as a child and then when returning as a parent seeing all the danger that wasn’t there before.
Looks like a wonderful place somewhere else I’d love to visit.