Tucumcari, New Mexico treasures all those blue mornings when everything glistens.
And the town still sifts through a trove of fine memories, even if a few have gone blurry.
The old Best Western Motel, the one they tore down back in the eighties, what a place, those big rooms ablaze with turquoise shag carpet.
That’s where they held the Rotary Club luncheons. Back then the men seemed more curious, on the lookout for ways to help out their town, always able to stage some event and raise a few bucks for a good cause.
Then something broke. It shattered like one of those old amber Best Western Motel glasses accidently dropped on a bathroom floor.
So many lost heroes for the town to mourn. Not just those sent off to war, but those who had spent their lives in town trying to make Tucumcari, New Mexico a better place.
They were not forgotten.
On the blue mornings when everything still glistens, what was once broken has been fixed, repaired by men and women who would rather build things up than burn things down.
Shattered glasses have been replaced.
These men and women are curious and accomplish things. They push back against the evils that now and then seems to blow in off Interstate 40.
They turn their backs on the nation’s divisive mood and work together. Others can brood. Let them long for bygone days. That’s their choice. Anyone with a lick of sense knows those days aren’t coming back.
These men and women remain bound to doing something constructive. They take things into their own hands, accept their limitations and plow their energies into sundry projects.
To some, their undertakings appear small, perhaps futile. Not so for most people in town, who appreciate their efforts and grasp the deeper significance of their work.
On the outskirts of Tucumcari, New Mexico, hunks of turquoise shag carpet from the old Best Western Motel rot away in a landfill.
