By Julie Carter
I truly love New Mexico and all the idiosyncrasies that make
it unique. There are things about New Mexico you can learn only by time spent
here which is followed by the knowledge that normal is without definition.
What once might have been questioned for its validity soon
becomes completely accepted. Those that find issue with the way it is usually
don’t stay long anyway.
Some years back I came across a list about living in New
Mexico authored by some unknown person. I thought it to be humorous, correct
and worth sharing.
All festivals across the state are named after a fruit or
vegetable.
Onced and twiced are words.
Coldbeer is one word.
“Jeet?” is an actual phrase meaning, “Did you eat?”
100 degrees is just a “tad” warm.
The first cool snap (below 70 degrees) is described as good
chilly weather.
Switching from “heat” to “A/C” in the same day is not
unusual.
The wind blows at 90 mph from Oct. 2 until June 25; then it
stops totally until Oct. 2.
When a buzzard sits on the fence and stares at you, it is
time to see a doctor.
You come to know which leaves make good toilet paper.
You install security lights on your house and garage and
leave both unlocked.
Carrying jumper cables for use on your own car is expected.
You think everyone from north of Farmington or east of
Roswell has an accent.
Distance is measured with time not miles. “It’s about 45
minutes away.”
Sweetened ice tea is appropriate for all meals and you start
drinking it at age two.
Only four spices are found in your kitchen: Salt, pepper,
catsup and Tabasco.
Sexy underwear is a tee shirt and boxer shorts.
The four seasons are: almost summer, summer, still summer
and Christmas.
Fix-in-to is one word.
Green grass does burn.
Backwards and forwards means I know everything about you.
You work until you are done or it is too dark to see. Or as
they say, from can to can’t.
The sounds of coyotes howling at night only sound good for
the first few weeks.
There is a valid reason why some people put razor wire
around their house.
Nothing will kill a mesquite tree.
If it grows, it will stick you. If it crawls, it will bite
you.
There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 live in New Mexico.
There are 10,000 types of spiders and all 10,000 live in New
Mexico plus a few yet undiscovered varieties.
The local paper covers national and international news on
one page but requires six pages to cover Friday night high school football.
The first day of deer or elk season is a national holiday.
In 1985, when I moved from the Denver-area to this Land of
Enchantment, my initial impression of New Mexico was that the clock had been
turned back at least two decades.
While the charm of that was certainly as promised --
“enchanting”-- it could also be very frustrating. Gearing life down from a
metropolitan fast paced do-it-now, we want-it-yesterday world was an
adjustment.
But New Mexico
has a solution for that too. It is called “mañana,”-- a word that is more than
just a word. It is an attitude that the natives of New Mexico are born with and
wear with honor. A promise to all that arrive—don’t bother to get in a hurry
because we don’t.
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