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CLOUDCROFT ONLINE NEWSLETTER #250
January 21, 2005
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Dear Subscriber:

I remember my grandmother's bathroom and the old white ceramic
bathtub knobs. Four-spoked and big like the propellers on a
B-52.

My grandparents lived on a farm in West Texas. I can remember
the smells in that bathroom and they weren't always pleasant.
Could be because the cesspool opening was right outside the
bathroom window. Come to think of it, the whole place smelled.
Smells of cows, chickens, a cesspool, fresh cut hay and tractor
diesel mixed and wafted lightly around the place.

Au-de-farm.

It wasn't an overwhelming stink. It was more like an aura and
not really unpleasant. Such was rural living in West Texas in
the early fifties.

I remember Grandma took me in that bathroom one evening when I
was about 5. She said it was time for me to have a bath. She
said there's the soap and there's the wash rag.

Grandma wasn't the warm and fuzzy type. Living on a farm for
most of her life had given her a tough edge. She killed
chickens for supper. She chopped cotton in the hot summer sun
and picked the cotton in the fall. Grandma and Granddad weren't
rich farmers. They did most of the work themselves. Grandma
didn't abide crying unless you were injured and, even then,
there had better be blood involved.

"That knob on the left...that's hot water. That knob on the
right, that's the cold. You know your right from your left,
don't you?"

I thought I did but when you're 5 years old and standing naked
in a strange bathroom you'll agree to just about anything.

"Mix them up and that's warm. Let me know if there are any
problems" and she left the room for me to fend for myself.

An uncaring grandma? I don't think so. It was a lesson in
independence. She was giving her 5 year old grandson a shot
at growing up.

It was a memorable bath. Just me and the hot knob and the cold
knob. It was one of those old tubs. It had legs on it.
Sitting in it I could barely see over the edge. I'm sure
Grandma heard me splashing and singing in the tub of water I
had created for myself but she didn't interrupt.

Thanks to Grandma, I had made a transition from childhood to
manhood. I took my own bath.

It didn't end there. When she heard me climb out of the tub
(I'll bet she was standing outside the door the whole time) she
came into the room.

"Whoa", she said. "You've made a bit of a mess in here."

She told me how the rest of the family would need to take a bath
and I needed to leave the bathroom the same way I found it.

She showed me how to clean the tub and where the towels and
cloths I used needed to go.

Remember, I'm getting this instruction while dripping wet with
nothing but a towel around my waist. The only drying assistance
I got from Grandma was toweling my hair. I don't know what it
is, but it seems all grandmas like to dry hair.

After it was done, Grandma pointed me toward my bedroom.

There on my bed were my underwear and pajamas, folded neatly.
My bedcovers were turned down. Granddad and his friends could
be heard in the living room. The fragrance of Granddad's pipe
was evident. I could catch snippets of the conversation through
the closed door. They were discussing politics and using some
pretty strong language. I heard several Gal-durns and Dangs...
right on the cutting edge of words Grandma would allow uttered
in her house.

Normally the living room was where I wanted to be but Grandma
had exercised her own system of mind control over me. I put on
my bedclothes and slipped under the covers.

That's the last thing I remember. I dozed off with the image of
those two bathtub knobs skimming across my sleepy mind.

I always try to make a point. My point is this:

What's with these combination wand-type hot-and-cold handles in
today's bathtubs?

I see them in fancy hotels and in newer homes. You need a manual
to operate them.

I have noticed in interior decorating showrooms nowadays that
the new high-dollar water fixtures are...you guessed it...knobs.

In my house, there's a hot knob and a cold knob. In the
bathrooms and the kitchen. Just regular knobs. I'd like to
have the white ceramic knobs like what Grandma had, but nowadays
they cost a fortune.

I'm taking a stand. It's always going to be that way in my
house. A knob for hot. A knob for cold. Makes perfect sense
to me.

Thanks, Grandma.

Don Vanlandingham
Cloudcroft.com

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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. LOOKING AT THE WEATHER
2. PICTURE OF THE WEEK
3. VILLAGE NEWS
4. INSIDE THE SHOP -- DUSTY'S PLACE
5. CLOUDCROFT ONLINE SPOTLIGHT -- OLIVER LEE STATE PARK
6. Q AND A -- BECAUSE CLOUDCROFT ONLINE READERS WANT TO KNOW
7. COMING EVENTS
8. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
9. CONTACT INFORMATION
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LOOKING AT THE WEATHER
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An unseasonably warm week. No new precipitation. A cooling
trend with the possibility of snow this weekend.

High during the reporting period --- 49.1 at 11:11am January 17.
Low 21.4 at 6:20am January 15.

Total precipitation this year -- 1.36 inches.

Cloudcroft.com features the only 24/7 up-to-the-minute weather
data for the village area. Just log on. It's free.
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PICTURE OF THE WEEK
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http://www.cloudcroft.com/pics/cloudcroft14.jpg

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VILLAGE NEWS
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Taking advantage of the recent moisture and low fire danger, the
Forest Service is undergoing several controlled burns to help
thin out the slash accumulated during the past year's thinning
efforts.
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INSIDE THE SHOP -- DUSTY'S PLACE
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Come to Cloudcroft and enjoy this lovely 3 bedroom, 2 bath with
fully equipped kitchen, fireplace, satellite TV, full-sized
washer and dryer, and large deck. Located 2-1/2 miles south of
the village. For more information, call (505) 682-3234, email
dustys_place@hotmail.com, or see the link to our web site on
the Real Estate page of Cloudcroft.com:

http://www.cloudcroft.com/real.htm

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CLOUDCROFT ONLINE SPOTLIGHT -- OLIVER LEE STATE PARK
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Lots of area history close to Cloudcroft.

http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/nmparks/

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Q AND A -- BECAUSE CLOUDCROFT ONLINE READERS WANT TO KNOW
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Q - Do you feed your dogs table scraps?

A - Yes. If they're good enough for me, they're good enough
for them.

Lots of pet owners fear if they give their dogs stuff from the
table they'll ignore their standard doggie fare. Not true. My
dogs get a ration of Purina every day and they like it just
fine.

My only suggestion with regard to food for dogs...don't give
them chocolate. Something to do with the canine system that
treats chocolate as a toxin. I'm not a veterinarian, so even
the chocolate thing might just be an urban legend.
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COMING EVENTS
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January 12-25 (4:15pm). January 26-Feb. 8 (4:30pm) -- Sunset
Stroll Nature Walk. White Sands National Monument. 1 (505)-
479-6124.

January 25 -- Colorado Children's Chorale. Flickinger Center.
Alamogordo. 7:30pm.

February 4 -- Violinist Linda Wang. Flickinger Center.
Alamogordo. 7:30pm.

February 4, 5, 6, 7 -- Mardi Gras celebration. Cloudcroft.

February 6 - Cloudcroft Art Society. Old Red Brick Schoolhouse.
2:30 pm.

Would you like to help deliver meals to the homebound around
Cloudcroft? Monday through Friday deliveries. Call the
Cloudcroft Senior Center at (505)-682-3022. For information on
other Senior Center services, see their web site, listed on the
Cloudcroft.com Links button.

http://www.cloudcroft.com/links.htm

Mountain Garden Club meets every third Monday of each month.
Call (505) 682-2910 for more information.

Senior Van from Timberon to Alamogordo leaves the Timberon
Lodge promptly at 8:30 every Wednesday morning.

Free Vitals Clinic. Cloudcroft Senior Citizens Center, every
Wednesday. High Rolls Senior Citizens Center, first Thursday
of each month.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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Dear Newsletter:

Thank you for the laugh today about your go-to-town wardrobe.
I really needed that!

Regards,
Hope M. Garcia
Rio Rancho, NM

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Dear Newsletter:

We enjoy having a place in Cloudcroft to get away from our
normal daily jobs and we many times take advantage of flying
the 300 land miles in a private plane, this allows us to visit
many weekends that would be difficult because of the drive time.

Has there ever been any discussion about a landing strip
suitable for small planes in the Cloudcroft area? We fly to
our cabin via Ruidoso where we leave a car at the airport which
is not a bad idea, but a little time consuming; the drive down
to Cloudcroft is beautiful.

The airport at Alamo is nice, but on the west side of the
mountains and every time we get ready to go home to the east
there seems to be clouds and weather over the mountains.
 
We enjoy the newsletter, keep up the good work.
 
Bill and Nell Hardage
Plainview, Texas

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Dear Newsletter:

Q - I got a speeding ticket while I was in New Mexico. I live
in Texas. Do I have to pay it?

Before moving to New Mexico to live full time, I too was tagged
for speeding early one morning when I didn't think there would
be police around. And yes, I was guilty as sin, speeding to get
to the ski slopes on Sierra Blanca.

I signed the ticket as requested by the State Police officer
who stopped me, then threw it in my briefcase, and didn't look
at it until back home in Austin, TX. And imagine my shock when
I saw written on my copy of the ticket, "Hi my name is ________,
and I'm gay!"

With the assistance of new email technology, and the greatest
governor New Mexico ever had, I was able to have the ticket
"forgiven" by then Governor Gary Johnson.

I was fortunate that the original ticket, in the court's
possession, had the same wording on it, so it wasn't a matter
of my word against the officer's.

But I later received a notice from Texas authorities that I was
in default of payment on that ticket. I was threatened with
cancellation of my Texas driver's license if I did not pay up.

That necessitated more correspondence with the New Mexico State
Police to clear up, but it was worth the effort to purge that
ticket from my driving record, thanks to that officer, gay or
not!

Jack Schuller
Ruidoso 

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