Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
I don’t want to discuss the Biden-Putin talks of last week or critical race theory.
I know only enough about Biden-Putin to venture that their chess game will continue, that it won’t be friendly and the stakes are high.
I know too little about critical race theory, which is very complex and sensitive, to say anything. Too many who know too little have said too much about it already.
On July 1, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has declared, New Mexico will open up again. This is Lujan Grisham, among the most cautious of her peers on COVID-19 matters.
That I can write about, as I joyfully fling aside my masks for a while in all but a few situations, like an indoor crowd. I won’t burn them, because COVID-19 hasn’t gone completely into remission and could come back hard.
I hear around town that Tucumcari’s Route 66 motel owners are gearing up for a banner summer as summer road trips get rolling again.
I am observing more out-of-state license plates and crowded gas pumps off the city’s Interstate 40 exits.
I participated in an outdoor event on Friday sponsored by Tucumcari MainStreet that grew out of COVID-19-related cancellation of MainStreet’s annual Fired Up! event in late September. It was one of a series of Fired Up! Friday events that replace the big event in September.
Despite the heat, there was a moderate turnout and the atmosphere was open and friendly as people gathered face-to-face, not mask-to-mask, at picnic tables and conversed freely as they walked around.
We’re still in that stage where nearly back-to-normal is a novelty after more than a year of concealment and precaution. It is like the first couple days of coming back to your home town on vacation from a far-away job.
While we have gone on cautious outings recently, my wife and I are making plans for more frequent visits to kids and grandkids and even to places we visit just for fun.
Our joy is tempered, however, by fresh memories and lingering effects of our own bouts of COVID-19, which gave us a sobering glimpse of what serious cases feel like. We know it is still out there, and we would not wish it on anybody.
Still, we are vaccinated and further protected by antibodies we developed to fight the real thing.
We can smile as the nation and much of rest of the world seem to be ready to resume life with less masking and distancing.
Are we headed for an era as euphoric as the Roaring ‘20s, which followed the devastating flu pandemic of 1918? Maybe, but we have to keep in mind that COVID-19’s coronaviruses keep evolving and their toll keeps rising.
In the meantime, I suggest people, especially the vaccinated, enjoy a meal out among friends and a long-delayed road trip or two. But pack the masks.
I think it’s worth the small risk with proper precautions, unless and until a change for the worse occurs with this brand-new disease we’ve been fighting.
Steve Hansen writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: