BorderWest

Real New Mexicans

By Rebecca Powell, 6-21-08

	Raindrops

Jim Sagel writes, “Real New Mexicans never give up trying to transplant junipers. And they always look astonished when it rains.”

I am nowhere near a real New Mexican, but when clouds gathered this evening, my first thought wasn’t rain, but wind.  We haven’t seen rain since February and my two-year-old son thinks rain comes from the sprinklers on the lawns of the university. Clouds have a new meaning—dust storms and tipped over tomato plants—so we secured the plants and waited for the clouds to pass, never even hoping for rain.

We smelled it first, wet earth. Our noses so hungry for the smell, we guessed the rain could be as far away as Hatch. Then the raindrops, so slight, they could have been spittle.  We rushed outside, as did our neighbors. Doors flung open all over the apartment complex. It was rain.

People watched from their stoops.  Some nuts (us) ran out into the field, lightning be damned.

We may be on our way to becoming real New Mexicans.

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