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CLOUDCROFT ONLINE NEWSLETTER #59
May 25, 2001
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Dear Subscriber:

We watched the Preakness on television last Saturday.

Except for the heart warming story of a former Triple Crown
winner that recovered from a serious illness, it was a lot like
watching grass grow.

The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont...horse
racing's Triple Crown, are also the beacons of spring. They
have happened every year for over a century and a quarter. It
is also a signal to us all that we're about to enter the TV
re-run season.

When I was growing up in a small West Texas town, we had
access to two television channels. Television was so new
and intriguing to us that my brother and I would get up early
in the morning, turn on the set and watch the test pattern. We
lived for "Sky King", "Fury", "Mighty Mouse" and "Roy Rogers"
on Saturday mornings. We sat inches from the screen (because
the picture was so bad it was only a blur from across the room)
and over-dosed on Cheerios while our heroes danced around on 
the magic tube.

Now we have DSS with access to over 100 channels and only every
once in a while is there something worth watching.

I'm not a pro basketball fan so the long and drawn out playoffs
are lost on me. I haven't watched "The Tonight Show" since
Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon and Doc Severenson left. Baseball is
fun when you're at the game, but it loses something when it is
on television. There are lots of "How to do it" shows on the 
cable, but something tells me the show hosts wouldn't know a 
claw hammer from chop sticks if they didn't have a teleprompter.
I watch them sometimes for comic relief. It is amusing to see 
"him" and "her" adding a den to a house and doing it in a 
half-hour. I used to enjoy the History Channel, but I've seen
the Normandy invasion from every angle possible.

Obviously most television shows are programmed for the younger
audiences. They're leaving us old people out. "The Simpsons"
should be sued for insulting our intelligence.

My favorite channel now is "TV Land", where you can watch the 
old shows while over-dosing on Cheerios.

I have over 100 channels at my fingertips and I'm watching the
same shows I used to watch in fuzzy black and white when I was
growing up. Some things never change.

Don Vanlandingham
Cloudcroft.com

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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. LOOKING AT THE WEATHER
2. VILLAGE NEWS
3. INSIDE THE SHOP -- ARTISAN ALLEY
4. CLOUDCROFT ONLINE SPOTLIGHT -- THE CLOUDCROFT POST OFFICE
5. Q AND A (BECAUSE CLOUDCROFT ONLINE READERS WANT TO KNOW)
6. COMING EVENTS
7. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
8. CONTACT INFORMATION
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LOOKING AT THE WEATHER
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The month of May is normally one of the driest months of the
year in the Sacramentos but this May has been refreshingly moist
with afternoon rains at least three times in the past week.

With the rains have come cooler-than-normal temperatures with
lows still dipping precariously close to freezing and highs
topping out in the mid-60s.
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VILLAGE NEWS
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It has been a year since the Scott Able Fire.

The fire moved through the Weed area so rapidly that it burned
and killed acres of forest trees but left them standing and in
good enough shape to harvest for lumber.

After a year, the environmental studies have been done and the
US Forest Service is now implementing plans for harvesting
the burned out area.

Many forest experts are saying the Federal Government may have
waited too long to harvest the trees. Insect infestation that
occurs naturally after a fire may have already made many of the
burned trees unsuitable for lumber or other building products.
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INSIDE THE SHOP -- ARTISAN ALLEY
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Gary Wood is, among other things, a professional photographer.
He has been marketing his photographs in Cloudcroft for years
under the trademark "Far Out and Close Up". A few years ago he
got the idea of bringing artists together to display and sell
their wares under the same roof. Artisan Alley was born on the
Burro Avenue boardwalk in Cloudcroft. Artists specializing in
many different mediums can be found there, displaying and
selling original works.

Email Gary at gary@mountainmonthly.com.
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CLOUDCROFT ONLINE SPOTLIGHT -- THE CLOUDCROFT POST OFFICE
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Up until a few years ago, Cloudcroft had a little cracker box
post office on Burro Avenue with a lack of available boxes and
outdated systems. The newer post office is state of the art,
with plenty of boxes for rent, plenty of help behind the counter
and spacious facilities contributing to quick and efficient
service.

Some say the Cloudcroft Post Office might be a little large 
for a village our size (as made evident by the aquarium taking
up one service window) but Post Mistress Judy Henry says there 
will come a day when the new larger post office will be too
small. The Cloudcroft Post office offers all the postal 
services available in bigger cities with the friendliness of a
small town.
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Q AND A -- BECAUSE CLOUDCROFT ONLINE READERS WANT TO KNOW
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Q - So, when IS the new Cloudcroft Branch of First National Bank
going to open?

A - The wait is over. The new branch opened on May 14.
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COMING EVENTS
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May 25, 26 -- Melodrama. The Open Air Pavilion.

May 26 -- Mayfair Street Dance. Burro Avenue. 7pm.

May 26 -- G. Gordon Wimsatt Memorial Rodeo. Wimsatt Arena. 2pm.

May 26, 27 -- 25th annual Mayfair Juried Art Show. Zenith Park.
10am both days.

May 28, 29 -- Cloudcroft Academy of Ballet. "The Bride". First
Baptist Church in Artesia.

June 4 -- Concert. Alamogordo Symphony. Cloudcroft Football
Field.

June 9 -- Western Roundup. Street Dance on Burro.

June 9 -- Railroad Days train display. Cloudcroft Middle School.

June 12 -- National Trails Day. 10K walk.

June 14 -- Flag Day ceremony and parade. Burro Avenue.

Cloudcroft Art Society meets the second Thursday of each month
in the Old Red Brick Schoolhouse. Call (505) 682-2494 for more
info. The Society is sponsoring a Miniature Art Show each 
Friday (10-4pm), Saturday (10-4pm), and Sunday (12-4pm)in May.
All art work is for sale and is by area artists.

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

If you have news of public events in the Cloudcroft area, email
us.

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For an online calendar of area events, click the Events Calendar
link in the left column of our home page:

http://www.cloudcroft.com/index.html

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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Dear Newsletter:

I just read this weeks letter and had to chuckle about your 
comments on the, "A-team" re-runs! Recently seeing it on TV, I 
couldn't believe my eyes...! 

We always enjoy the newsletter as it keeps us posted on what is
happening in one of our favorite places! We had hoped it was 
the best kept secret around. But with this newsletter traveling
all over the world now, we'll have a line of traffic just to 
get up that beautiful mountain. 

We plan a trip up a week from today! We are both anxious to 
smell that wonderful fresh air and enjoy some quiet time. If 
we don't see you, we'll know you are in stoking the fire and 
Peg is busy in the kitchen!

Keep up the good work with the newsletter. It gets better all 
of the time!

Denny & Kay Mills
San Angelo, Tx

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Dear Newsletter:

Don, we are glad to be on the mailing list for your newsletter.

Although we now live in The Woodlands near Houston, we lived in
El Paso for many years and my wife is a native El Pasoan.

We own property in Cloud Country Estates and now have a house 
near the village limits of Ruidoso. I know it is easy to comment
on the lack of understanding of people that don't spend full 
time in Cloudcroft/Ruidoso. However, let me emphasize we are 
really jealous of those of you who have to deal with problems 
such as which Aspen log to put on the fire.

One of these days we hope to live a less frantic pace and spend
more time in the Lincoln National Forest.

Gary Conwell

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Dear Newsletter:

I would like to invite you and your readers to visit my web 
pages where I have photographic essays showing the various 
mountains of the area and their features.

This is not a commercial site and I don't sell my photography.
They are there to share with others who may not be able to hike
to the places shown. I've recently added photos of Dog Canyon
and Three Rivers Canyon.

I hope you enjoy your visit.

J. L. Schuller
Ruidoso

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Dear Newsletter:

I feel you write wonderfully.

I wanted to put in my two cents about why people hold those of 
us that survive the solitary in winter in such high esteem.

I come from Sherman Mills, Maine. An area where the snow can and
does get to your second story windows on a regular business. 
While I was living there as a child, I thought nothing of why 
the shed door opened inward or why a five year old knew how to
shovel snow, stack fire wood, plant corn and so on. But seeing
life through the eyes of my husband who grew up in LA jungles,
I seem pretty smart.

People of today have come to realize that the basics, knowing 
what a hurricane lamp is really used for, how to stack wood to 
get good ventilation and so on are important. They buy books 
that tell them how to can tomatoes and put them on their 
shelves, they buy those pretty silver blankets that keep in 
the heat, not knowing that layered clothing is better.

On and on, we make them feel like little children at their 
parents feet. They stare up at us in awe, thrilled that someone
else has the knowledge that they find either too hard to learn
or have no desire to learn.

In time of snow, flood or fire they come to us, but we are 
equally in awe of them when we go to the city jungles and try 
to find a decent place to eat. The basics of living are 
important and with the turn of the new century, people want to
remember what their parents refused or saw no need to teach in
the 70s.

Maybe it is the speed at which the city 'folk' live that makes
them so interested, but either way they are interested.

Dedrianne
Sherman Mills, Maine

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Dear Newsletter:

First of all, let me say just how great it is for my wife June, 
grandson Chris and I to be permanent residents of the Cloudcroft
area after some 10 years of visiting and loving it here. We 
never knew retirement could be so good. (The Golf Course is also
great)

Our special thanks go to Bobby and Jalene Jones, our realtors 
and good friends who found a special home for us, introduced us
to some very fine people and led us to become members of the 
United Methodist Church. 

Cloudcroft is as close as possible to Heaven on Earth! It is 
absolutely one of the most beautiful and unspoiled places to be
found anywhere. We hope our involvement in this community will 
help to further enrich this wonderful oasis in the desert.

We do have a question about what plants, flowers and shrubs 
grow best here, but have not been able to locate a source for 
that information. Can you tell us who to contact so we can 
further enhance the beauty of our home in the Twin Forks area?

Thanks for the great newsletter and what you do for the people 
who live and love it here, and for those who hope to one day.

Dolan, June & Chris Olson

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Dear Newsletter:

A few months back I almost fell out of my chair when I read your
story about scoring the "out-of-compliance" toilet.

The story was humorous, but the fact that the federal government
regulates the size of our toilet tanks is not. Now they want to
regulate us out of the use of top loading washing machines to 
front loading.

I'm sending a link in case you'd like to get your 2 cents in on
this one:

http://action.sixtysecondactivist.com/

I haven't been to Cloudcroft yet, I really enjoy the newsletter.
My sweetheart and I hope to visit in the summer. He loves 
Cloudcroft!!

Have a great day.

Jennifer Hill,
Clayton, NC

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Dear Newsletter:

To me heaven would be:

living up where the air is clean,
the trees don't have to be bought, planted, or watered,
it rains at least twice a week,
but not everyday,
you can experience a real white christmas,
you can walk to the nearest fishing hole,
deer, squirrels, raccoons, eagles,
and skunks are frequent visitors,
(but not too frequent on the skunks),
your neighbors know you by your first name,
and don't throw things into your yard,
being glued to the TV,
or sitting at a computer terminal,
are not the most common ways to pass an evening,
and time is not that important,
you're not in a hurry to get somewhere,
because you're already where you want to be,
people would rather walk than ride,
and sitting on your porch lets you see clearly
all the stars at night,
not just the brightest ones.

Ray

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