Episode 42– You can also listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts, and Amazon Music
May is a wonderful, unpredictable time in New Mexico. But one thing you can predict is that there will be plenty to do every Memorial Day weekend in the Land of Enchantment. Join Bunny in welcoming the summer in New Mexico with a look at some upcoming events and can’t miss places in her favorite state!
Links:
Events in May in New Mexico 2023
Native Treasures Art Market
New Mexico Rain sung by Bill and Bonnie Hearne
New Mexico Rain by Michael Hearne and Shake Russell
New Mexico stories podcast
Gardening blog
I Love New Mexico blog page
Bunny’s website
I Love New Mexico Instagram
I Love New Mexico Facebook
Original Music by: Kene Terry
Featuring:
Bunny Terry
Bunny Terry is a native New Mexican who grew up on a farm in northeastern New Mexico where she always dreamed of being a writer. Bunny was living in Santa Fe in 2012 when she was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. For almost a year, Bunny underwent chemotherapy, had surgery to remove large chunks of her colon and liver, and then had chemo again. Throughout this experience she continued to write 1,000 words a day about cancer and her journey. Thinking that perhaps her words had the power to help at least one cancer patient find hope, she took those words and gathered up a few more and turned them into Life Saving Gratitude, which is a both a story of her survival and a handbook for how gratitude and positivity were indispensable tools in her survival.
Episode Transcript
Bunny: (00:00)
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry, and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native new Mexican, who’s lived here for your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico stories, talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of Enchantment. We’re excited that you’re here, and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico.
Bunny: (00:47)
Every once in a while, I get an opportunity to just sit down and have a conversation with you about what’s going on in New Mexico, what I remember about, um, living all my life in New Mexico, uh, and, and, um, things that you may not have thought about. And when I’m interviewing my guest, I always say, you know, we have folks who listen to this podcast who are, who’ve maybe never visited here, who, uh, may be listening from London or Africa. I’ve got people, um, who have logged in as listeners from Alaska, from the tip of South America and from places as far away as Singapore. So I’m, I’m really proud that we have that sort of reach, but I am also sensitive to the fact that a lot of people know nothing about New Mexico. And then there’s this delicate balance with those of you who have been here to visit you, who grew up here, whose families have been here for generations, perhaps forever.
Bunny: (01:52)
And, um, so sometimes I think the best thing to do is for me to tell a few stories and, um, and to try to make this state make sense to those of you who haven’t visited here, because I gotta tell you, it’s not called the Land of Enchantment for no reason. It’s different from any place you’ve perhaps ever lived or ever visited. And so I’m trying to convey that in the best way I know by talking to other people who are involved in things. All, all things New Mexico. So this podcast episode is, is going to have a couple of stories, some talk about climate, which I swear will not be boring. And then at the very end, I wanna talk about some really cool things that are coming up this Memorial weekend that if you haven’t thought of them before, you definitely don’t wanna miss.
Bunny: (02:47)
So right now, where I live in Santa Fe, we are in the midst of a rather rainy two weeks. Um, New Mexico is not known for their annual precipitation. In fact, um, this thinking about this podcast made me get online and take a look at average rainfalls. And I knew in that, um, where I grew up, which is near Tuku Carey, where I grew up in Logan, the average rainfall is from 12 to 14 inches a year. Now one for a very short time when I lived in North Carolina, people would be like, what, what that, I mean, that’s like, that’s like what they get in a season. And, um, I’d be like, no, no, they, the average rainfall where I grew up is 12 to 14 inches. Um, in Santa Fe, the average rainfall is 14 inches. In Las Cruces, which is in the southern half of the state, average rainfall is eight to nine inches.
Bunny: (03:47)
And for those of you who are not familiar with the geography of New Mexico, New Mexico is the fifth largest state in terms of land mass in the country. Um, and now we’re really far behind. I, I don’t know where we sit in terms of population, probably number 46 or 46. Well, we have less than 2 million people. But, um, in terms of topography, it’s a long ways and geography, it’s a long ways from, um, the north end of the state to the south end of the state, um, probably a little over six hours if you’re driving. So in Las Cruces, which is in the desert, um, their average rainfall is eight to nine inches. So you can imagine when we have a week like the one we’ve had just now, where the forecast is for 33% one day, and for 48% yesterday, our forecast, we had a 62% of chance of rain.
Bunny: (04:46)
It’s a big deal, and it’s what we talk about all the time. And, um, in Logan, where I grew up, um, I have heard people say half a dozen times in the past month, we haven’t had any measurable precipitation since July 25th, 2022. Folks, that’s a long time to wait between rainstorms. So what you may not realize if you’re not a, a new Mexican, is that the coolest thing happens when it rains. It’s like the ground wakes up. It’s, um, at our house when the rain started, we suddenly had hundreds of seedlings that started to sprout. Um, we next week will have thousands of weeds in the backyard, but it’s, it’s like the land comes to life. And when I was a child and my dad was a dryland farmer, which was the most optimistic job in the world, because all he did was wait for it to rain, we prayed a lot.
Bunny: (05:59)
Um, I, it was a prayer set at our dinner table every night, which is, you know, dear Lord could, if you could just send us a little bit of rain and then immediately following that would be a statement where he said, and please, not too much. Um, my daddy in the sixties and the seventies when I was growing up, and we lived in a farm on, in Eastern New Mexico, watched the sky every evening and every morning, and we were taught to revere the weather. Um, and particularly in May when we start with these bright sun shiny spring days, and, and we wake up and the weather is perfect, we forget that May is not summer. Um, oh, I, you know, I grew up at the lake at Ute Lake and, um, I can’t tell you the number of Memorial Day weekends when it just was too rainy and cool to get on the lake.
Bunny: (07:04)
When my daughter Johanna graduated from high school, we had her party in my brother’s backyard at the night after grad, the day after graduation. And it was, um, like May 21st, and it was 43 degrees and raining. I mean, we had to build fires in the backyard because it was so chilly. Um, the other thing about, uh, that we talk about, I mean, you, you know, when I was a kid and it would rain if it would definitely rain, not rain too much, but rain so that we couldn’t get in the field, uh, that my dad couldn’t get in the field. I don’t want anybody to think that I was working and getting in the field when I was six and eight years old. Um, the first thing that would happen when, when, once dad had gone out to check everything is that he would come home and say, Betty, load up the truck, and we would pop the, um, camper shell on the back of the pickup, and we would, my mom would load up a cooler and we would head for the mountains.
Bunny: (08:07)
And that’s what we called it. We called it going to the mountains. And what that meant was that it had rained enough that my dad was gonna be able to take a couple of days off and our summer vacation, our spring vacations were going to the mountains. And that meant that we drove to Las Vegas, New Mexico, and then through Moura, and then we went up to Tres Fritos, which was, I can’t tell you why, but it was where everybody in my neck of the woods in Eastern New Mexico went when the, when it rained, when it was time for a vacation, I didn’t know that other families went to Disneyland or that they went to Six Flags over America. I thought that what people did was that they went to the mountains for a vacation. And it took me a while to figure out that there was a direct correlation between muddy fields and going to the mountains.
Bunny: (09:00)
Now, here’s the coolest thing, because all of our friends and all of my cousins and our fam extended family also were farmers. They’d end up in Tres RTOs at the same time. Frequently we’d go up in the canyon, um, in, um, LA Cueva Canyon. I hope I got that right. I think that’s right. That’s the canyon at Ter Fritos and Camp, we’d do tent camping. And my Uncle Ellie and my Aunt Rena, they were very fancy and they had a camper trailer. So they would bring that along, and sometimes they, they would, um, let me sleep on that little part of the camper trailer, the, the dining room table that would drop down, and they would put the cushion on it, and that would be my bed, because I was small enough to sleep on it. But sometimes we would stay at Corins Lodge, which had, um, a set of cabins and a river. And I didn’t know that people did other things for vacation. I just thought the coolest thing in the world was to get to go to Tres RTOs for a weekend. And sometimes it was for two or three days, sometimes it was for four or five. It really depended on how much rain we got.
Bunny: (10:09)
So, so may in New Mexico means a lot of things, but it means that it’s probably likely to rain. Um, there’s even a song that, um, that was written by Michael Hernan, shake Russell called New Mexico Rain. And it’s one of my favorite songs for, for one thing, I love a waltz. You know, I’m a, I’m a girl who learned how to dance, uh, waltz when I was seven years old, and my parents always danced in the living room. But the other thing that, um, happened is that my brother, who was 12 years old at the time, um, said, you know, I need to practice dancing. He, you know, it was about the time that he started going to four H dances. And so we dance, we practiced dancing in the living room, and we, um, we danced a lot of Waltz’s and I learned how to Walt, so New Mexico Rain by Michael Hearn and Sheik Russell.
Bunny: (11:09)
It’s one of my favorite songs because it, um, talks about dancing in the New Mexico rain, which is what you’re gonna feel like doing if you’re a new Mexican. And it starts to rain. New Mexico. Rain by Michael Hearn isn’t just one of my favorite songs because, you know, because I, you know, for years following musicians around, um, thought Michael Hearn was one of my favorites. Um, I, I may have nursed a little bit of a crush on him back in the eighties and nineties. And, and I’m, I’m, I’m really, um, a big fan of his Uncle Bill and, um, and his Aunt Bonnie, who, uh, if, if you don’t know who Bill and Bonnie Hearn are, then, um, they are New Mexico treasures at this point, I’m sure that Texas wants to claim them to as well. But they’ve been credited with, credited with teaching folks like Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen how to play guitar.
Bunny: (12:13)
So, so these are true legends and Bill and B Bonnie Hearn do a great rendition of New Mexico Reign, but my favorite is Michael, and there’s a line in the song where he says, if I ain’t happy here, I ain’t happy nowhere. And that’s how I feel about New Mexico. So I feel like it’s important that when we’re talking about rain in New Mexico, I’ve gotta give Michael Hearn and Shake Russell A. Little shout out for creating this music that so well expresses, um, how I’m feeling these days watching it rain in New Mexico and getting to talk to you about this place that I love. There are other things about the month of May that are really, I, you know, they’re important. It’s all a stuff that the rest of us care about. Mother’s Day, graduation track meets, which I talked about a few ago in my last individual podcast, um, baseball, um, it means gardening.
Bunny: (13:19)
And, um, you know, now that we’ve gotten past the last frost date, we’re all, we’ve got Radishes in the garden. Um, one of the things that I wrote about in a blog a couple of years ago was that it was important to me to garden because it’s what my mom did and what my granny did. And, you know, it’s, to me, it was less, it’s still is less about what I’m gonna harvest than the process of getting my hands in the dirt and watching something grow. And, and in fact, because we are well past the Frost State, now it’s time to put a few more radishes and beets and carrots in the ground. This may also, um, on May 29th will be my dad’s 91st birthday. And for those of you who didn’t get a chance to listen to the podcast episodes that I did with my mom and my dad, um, we’ll provide a link to those because it’s important, I think, for you to hear their voices and hear their own New Mexico stories.
Bunny: (14:24)
Um, I don’t know that at this point in time, we did those about five months ago. I don’t know that my dad could do those podcasts anymore. I mean, this is a guy who was born in Porter, New Mexico, who farmed in Sanho and Logan, New Mexico, who worked for the gas company and took him carry New Mexico when I was a baby. Um, he’s 91. I don’t know now that he could record podcasts the way that he did five months ago. Sometimes it’s hard to watch, and sometimes I just think what a gift it is that I have this person in my life who has this long, long story with the state of New Mexico and with growing things and with watching the sky. Um, the other thing that you may have seen recently on our social media pages is that my mom and my dad celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary on May 12th.
Bunny: (15:27)
And, um, there’s a blog post that we’ll link to that talks about how my dad had to borrow $2 from my grandma, from not from his mother-in-law, because his mom didn’t, his mother didn’t have the money, but he had to borrow $2 to pay the, um, preacher pay brother Arnold to marry them. And then after they were married at the parsonage of the Baptist preacher in Porter, New Mexico, they went into Sanho and they went to the drugstore and, um, had a couple of chocolate shakes. Uh, that was basically their . It was basically their, their wedding lunch celebration before they went home. And, um, you know, my, my dad got back to work as a farmer. He got back to work watching the skies. So, so may is an important month to my family, but I also, um, I wanna let you know that there are some really cool things happening at the end of this week in New Mexico.
Bunny: (16:36)
I mean, one of the things that’s, that’s going on that, that many of you who live here know about is the Red River Motorcycle rally. It’s every Memorial Day. If you were thinking about going to Red River this weekend and you don’t have a room, I’m sorry, it’s never gonna happen. But if you’re curious and you wanna try to drive through town over the weekend, or if you are out traveling and you see hoards hoards of, uh, motorcycles heading north, you should know that they’re going to the largest motorcycle rally in New Mexico, and it is the entire, um, Memorial Day weekend. The other cool thing that happens up in that neck of the woods is the, um, there will be a memorial service at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which is in Eagle Nest. Um, if you haven’t been there, you’ve gotta go. It’s, it’s one of the most serene, quiet, honoring places in the state.
Bunny: (17:46)
And it was built by, as I understand it, by, um, a, a group of veterans to honor friends that they lost. And, and we’re gonna, we’re gonna provide a link to that as well, because I know that I wanna get those details right. I’ve been there several times to visit. I’m not, I’m not looking up, um, something to confirm that, that my understanding is correct, but that’s what I recall. Also, there’s for, so for those of you that are not in the northeast corner of the state, that are not up near Red River or Taos or Angel Fire or Eagle Nest, um, so there’s a cool thing going on in Silver City called the Silver City Blues Festival. And it, and, um, if you go to New Mexico magazine.org, um, there is a post, it’s called Date book, May, 2023, and as the Silver City Blues Festival might just be the ultimate jazz session.
Bunny: (18:45)
And, um, they’re ha it’s on Saturday and they’re gonna have five bands performing downtown in a park, and it’s the largest festival in Silver City. Um, so the Memphis Ensemble, ghost Town Blues Band, which recently released their fifth annual shine, they’re gonna headline the lineup, and they’re also gonna have some Silver City locals, blues dogs, and, and the Tyrone Bin Wa Band from Louisiana. Um, there’s also a Maker’s Market, beer gardens, a glass glowing competition. And that is going to be, um, all day on Saturday. There are gonna be additional performances on Friday and Saturday night at one of my favorite brew pubs in the state, the little Toad Creek Brewery and Distillery, and something called Q’s Southern Bistro, which is a place we really wanted to visit when, when we were in Silver City, but it was during the pandemic and they weren’t open.
Bunny: (19:43)
So the Silver City Blues Festival is May 27th from 11:00 AM to 8:30 PM We will provide you with a link to that if you’re in that neck of the woods and you wanna go there. Another thing that’s happening, and this is in Santa Fe, the native treasure’s art market is going on this Memorial weekend. There is, um, there are two different wine festivals. There’s one in Las Cruces, the New Mexico Wine Festival, Las Cruces, and then there’s one in Albuquerque that’s at Balloon Park. So if you wanna spend this weekend trying some New Mexico wines, those are actually three days long. They’re Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. There’s also a, um, okay, okay. So, so I just found a note on the Red River motorcycle rally. So just so you know, there will be more than 20,000 bikers, and this is gonna be the 41st annual Red River motorcycle rally.
Bunny: (20:46)
You know, like every motorcycle rally that you could go to this, this one’s gonna have a lot of handmade goods, a lot of live musicians, and, um, just some great fun stuff to do. So that’s May, that’s, that’s, that is Memorial Day weekend in New Mexico. Um, of course, it is always a big weekend to go to, um, state Lakes Elephant Butte. Um, when I lived in Albuquerque, that was a big, a big deal to go to Elephant Butte, but I never went because my loyalty lies with Butte Lake. If you’re gonna go to Ute Lake this weekend, um, give me a shout because I’m gonna be there as well. And I believe that the rain is going to have ended mostly, and that you’re gonna have a beautiful weekend anywhere in New Mexico. I, I would ask that you just remember that, um, if you’re on a neighboring lake, this is another thing that we learned from watching the weather all the time.
Bunny: (21:53)
If, um, clouds, if, if, if you’re facing north and a and a large group of clouds come up over the horizon that look a little threatening, get off the lake. Um, these are hard lessons that we learned being kids in New Mexico is that clouds in the north and a and a cool wind mean get off the water. There’s about to be a significant storm and perhaps some hail, and you don’t wanna be caught out on the lake in a rainstorm. At the same time, you still wanna continue to pray for rain because it’s so important to us here. I hope you guys enjoy these conversations because I love talking about what New Mexico means to me and what an incredibly magical place it is. And I really welcome any listeners who wanna come on and share their New Mexico family stories, their, um, their loves about what, what happens here. This is such an incredible place, and I’m so grateful to all of you for listening. Have a great memorial weekend. I can’t wait to see you