Author Archives: Patrick Lamb

You may recall that last fall, we traveled to Corona, NM, watched the sun’s corona emerge from the edges of an annular eclipse and drank a Corona beer to celebrate. And on the way back, our good friends who rode with us to experience the astronomical phenomena started coming down with a case of theContinue reading “Eclipse, V 2.0…”

In the late 1970s, General Motors was caught in the act of putting Chevrolet V8 motors into other models in the GM lineup — Oldsmobile in particular. The swap was discovered when a Chicago man went to the dealership and was told by his mechanic that a part that had been ordered for his OldsContinue reading “Instead of an oink, a moo…”

While the Coronavirus has claimed an estimated 7 million lives around the world since it first appeared in early 2020, it was nothing compared to the plague epidemic which gripped Europe and northern Africa from 1346 to 1353. Estimates are that between 25 and 50 million people died during the plague, also known as theContinue reading ““Black Death” in New Mexico”

The headline below appeared in the 1966 Albuquerque Journal following the November general election. For years, New Mexico’s Rio Arriba County has been tagged as the election irregularity poster child, most notably during the tenure of long-time political boss Emilio Naranjo. Naranjo, who died in 2008 at the age of 92, was a true politicalContinue reading “Emilio Naranjo is turning over in his grave…”

Digging through Newspapers.com this week, I found a newspaper from a town I had never heard of before in southern New Mexico. The town, now considered a ghost town with nothing much to show for it, was called Robinson. Its site is located north of the remote Sierra County town of Winston and is alsoContinue reading “Saying no to statehood…”

This morning, as I was finishing up my morning walk with our dog Chester, he made an abrupt stop just as we were entering our front door. He was peering upwards at something on the parapet wall of the house and was fixated on whatever it was. Following his clue, I looked up and thereContinue reading “Roadrunner on the roof…”

I read with amusement a story about the Roswell, NM, Police Department’s new logo which incorporates the town’s identity with a famous UFO incident and aliens. If you’ll recall, U.S. Army Air Force officials at then Walker Air Force Base in Roswell reported that an alien spacecraft had crash landed on a ranch northwest ofContinue reading “Embracing the history…”

A single wheel cover from a 2000s vintage Ford van or Super Duty truck has been languishing on our street for the last two weeks with no takers. It seems to be in decent shape and I suspect a new one would cost more than $200. With the number of Ford vans and big pickupsContinue reading “The lonely wheel cover and other musings…”

Okay, I know you’re getting tired reading about my Trout In the Classroom project at White Mountain Elementary in Ruidoso, but I have a really great story about my checkup on the school last week. My wife and I were planning to drive up to Ruidoso for the day last Friday to see if weContinue reading “It wasn’t the U.S. Cavalry to the rescue, it was the Apaches…”

I wrote in an earlier blog that I my father once told me that Lincoln — honoring the former President — was being considered as the name for our state. I was never able to confirm that story, but I wondered what it would have been like to call the historic town of Lincoln “Lincoln,Continue reading “Maybe the town wasn’t so nice and they didn’t name it twice…”

On Memorial Day a few years ago, I wrote a blog about Lt. Hans Chorpenning, a cousin of my wife’s mother*, who died on his first mission aboard a B-17G bomber shortly after D-Day in 1944. It was a tragic story of a handsome young man, willing to serve his country in a job thatContinue reading “Updating the story…”

My wife and I drove to the site of old Fort Cummings in Luna County northeast of Deming this week. We’d heard about it in the last few years and learned more about it from good friend Jack Wilson. Jack is a retired archaeologist, historical researcher and author who submitted a nomination to have theContinue reading “Rough, remote but rewarding…”

I frequently skim through weird things in the newspaper that I suspect most people never look at. One of them is the list of new patents granted to New Mexico businesses or individuals that is posted in the Business Outlook section of the Albuquerque Journal. Last week, a couple of things in that listing caughtContinue reading “I’ll take one of each…”