The
mini-van swerved into the dusty yard of the Santa Fe International Hostel – a
collection of low adobe buildings surrounding a courtyard filled with old
Silver Streak caravans , building detritus and a wordless rusty sign swinging
off a leaning pole. A round-faced, smiling Native American man swung out of the
driver’s seat and ambled towards me, hand outstretched : “John. You’re it today
“ and good-naturedly, as I automatically
made for the left-hand door, “ I think
I’ll drive, if you don’t mind”!
On the seventeen
mile drive to Lamy, a whistle-stop on the Southwest Chief route between Los
Angeles and Chicago, John chatted non-stop about Santa Fe and its numerous rich
and famous inhabitants: Ali McGraw -
she’s in her seventies now – does a lot for all the migrant children here;
Greer Garson and her husband lived on a ranch a little out of town – have you
heard of her? - there’s a theatre named after her – she put a lot of money into
the Santa Fe college – the kids can do all sorts of arts programs there; Gene
Hackman; Oprah Winfrey has a house over there; Robert Redford still has one
here I think … a lot of them have houses here – a bit different to my house”…
“Mine too!”
I said.
My
‘lifesaver’ who picked you up at the station the other day - his father was Jack Schaefer - wrote
westerns – have you heard of the film ‘Shane’? He lived here too, been dead a
long time though – maybe fifty years”…
“So how
long have you been here ? What did you do? Have you been to the pueblos?”
There are
about twenty ancient pueblos in the area north of Santa Fe, which are home to
several Native American tribes, including the Navajo, Zuni, Apache and Laguna,
as well as the sites of several ruins. John told me that I should visit when the
festivals are on: “Write to the Pueblo Council to get the dates. Of course you
would be welcome.”
“I’d love
to” I said.
Lamy is so
small it was immediately familiar after my thirty-minute wait there of several
days ago. So little happens that any
small change is immediately noticeable.
“They’ve painted the roof of that old engine
black since I was here last” said John.
Amtrak did
itself proud and was only forty minutes late into the station.
Only nineteen hours, give or take an hour or
two, to Chicago.
(c)FMPDH 2012
