Cindy Bradford, Ph.D., Author

Cindy Bradford's Author Blog

Cindy Bradford

El Paso – A Part of Southwestern Culture Gone

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I am now in El Paso—not exactly a dream vacation, huh? Actually, I am off to work for two weeks, evaluating seven high schools in this big city that separates Texas from New Mexico and Old Mexico. I have been here numerous times, and even evaluated public and private schools here in the past.

Years ago I enjoyed Juárez, but not any more. I don’t know anyone who goes there now because of the crime and subsequent dangers brought about by the drug lords. I remember when Juárez was on Central Standard Time and El Paso was on Mountain Time, (now they are the same) and people could ring in New Years’ twice in one night. Of course, after a few strong margaritas in Mexico, a person might not remember how many times they had brought in the new year until the next morning, and then wished they hadn’t brought it in at all (of course I don’t know any of these people personally).

But those days of crossing back and forth easily and without worry are gone for most Americans; even those in El Paso tell me they never go although many have relatives there. It is simply too scary. I think it is really sad, a part of southwestern culture gone—at least until Mexico cleans up its act.

Thankfully, El Paso has been spared most of the corruption and most of the danger has not spilled over into the city, although that fear exists because only the river really divides the two cities. It is an interesting place with the huge military population mixed with the predominately Hispanic culture.

There will be a little time to sample good food and shop the after-the-holiday sales on the weekends, but it will be an extremely busy time visiting the schools and writing the reports until I leave on January 28. In between, I’ll continue to blog, so, don’t go away.

Waking Up My Follicles

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Hair Falling Out
My hair is turning gray and turning loose!

Growing old is not an option, unless one is terribly unlucky and doesn’t have the good fortune of experiencing it with all its ups and downs, gains and losses, and surprises!!

So I want to point out that I’m not complaining; I’m just frustrated. Several years ago my hair started turning gray, and that was bad enough. Now, in my earlier days, I frosted, dyed, bleached and did all manner of things to my hair. In the error of my ways, it has been lots of different colors, and not all by choice. Once it started graying, however, I decided that I had reached that time of my life when it was just too much trouble to try to avoid the inevitable, and I decided to let it go au naturál. Prior to that I had never really considered gray “natural.”

Now, the problem is much more serious. Not only has it turned gray, it’s turning loose!!! If I could shed weight as well as I shed hair, I would be the new Twiggy. Remember her? So, I decided since I can’t see my doctor for another few weeks to find out if there is a problem with thinning hair, I would take the issue into my own hands.

To do this I traveled to Sally’s Beauty Store for supplies. I was so excited to meet the 17 year old clerk who assisted me in my purchases by explaining she used just the very things I was searching for to “make her hair grow faster.” That further gave me hope because her shiny jet black hair was at her waist. I didn’t want to know how long it had been growing. After all, I’m not trying for length, just some short, full little hairs popping out all over my head!!

I didn’t realize that apparently lots of women share my concern because I couldn’t believe all the products for this problem. There are special shampoos to “wake up your follicles!!!” Follicles are the only things about me sleeping well these days. Then there are conditioners that nourish scalp and balance moisture levels to alleviate scalp tightness (so that’s the problem!!) and treatments to “stimulate the scalp to increase blood microcirculation and promote effective follicle absorption.” And don’t forget the dietary supplements that help ensure the necessary amounts of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients necessary to make hair looks its fullest and best.

I never realized growing hair was so complicated. No wonder my hair is thinning–it is sleepy and tight and lacks proper nutrition. Geez, if I had known all of this before now, I would have rested it better, massaged it, and fed it whatever it asked for. Now, I have to play catch up so that it will decide to stay on my head and give me a second chance.

To do this, I bought one of everything and spent so much time in the shower washing it with special soaps, conditioning it with creamy, eye-burning ingredients and waiting five minutes for the vitamin enriched treatment to soak in, that I ran out of hot water. Then I swallowed two giant tablets containing vitamin E, and B and all sorts of other stuff. I felt pretty good about these “miracle pills” until I saw they also contained dong quai, fo-it root and horsetail herb. Horsetail herb??? Hell, I’m not trying to grow a tail, just hair!!!

I should know if all this works in a couple of months. In the meantime, I check myself every morning for any hint of a new sprig of hair. My luck, it will work well for my chin and I’ll be shopping for a wig!

Tularosa City of Roses

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I decided before I left Ruidoso this trip I really had to see the little village of Tularosa, nicknamed the “City of Roses”, because I kept reading how quaint and pretty it was. I have driven through the tiny hamlet many times from El Paso to Ruidoso, but never really stopped to see what was advertised.

I can honestly say that whoever does public relations for the village is really good. It is advertised as:

“Nestled at the bottom of the Sacramento Mountains, Tularosa is the gateway to Ruidoso and the Mescalero Indian Reservation, home of the Inn of the Mountain Gods. The village lies northeast of White Sands Monument, north of Alamogordo, east of White Sands Missile Range and west of Lincoln National Forest.”

Sounds beautiful doesn’t it?

I know that there is a certain beauty in everything, and I certainly don’t want to offend any of the three thousand folks who live there, but on the cold, dreary day I visited, I just didn’t see the ultimately gorgeous place that the brochures defend.

Instead, I saw tumbleweeds, sad little houses, and the cleverly named Elite Repeat consignment store. Yes, the St. Francis de Paula Church, built in 1865, is as pretty as some I have seen in small, remote places in Europe, and the little winery there, Tularosa Vineyards, is really trying. And maybe on a warm summer day, I could sit at one of the picnic tables there and enjoy a glass of Black Muscat or a taste of their Mission wine, made from the heirloom grapes that were brought to New Mexico more than 370 years ago when the first grapes were introduced to the new world by Franciscan fathers. I’m trying to develop a taste for the New Mexico wines, and they are growing on me.

Village of Tularosa
Courtesy of www.VillageofTularosa.com

But back to Tularosa, I really tried to find more to see there, but besides the Tulle Freeze and Coffee and More, which didn’t seem to have much more, I just couldn’t find that much to keep me interested. But, life is all about experiences, and I can add that visit to my list. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the people in this little community, named after the rose-colored reeds growing along the banks of the Rio Tularosa, should nonetheless be proud of the place they call home.

Ready To Go Home

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Who says we don’t have a lot to learn in our old age? In these two winter months I have been in my condo in New Mexico. This Texas flatlander has learned loads about living in the cold, dry mountain air.

Since I am used to the humidity of South Padre Island, my skin has gone into shock!! It is so dry, I itch!! Not a little, casual itch, a major want to scratch off the skin ITCH. A “local” told me to get baby oil, and that was really good advice. It works extremely well, though I must admit I leave the soft fragrance of a fresh, newly diapered baby’s butt everywhere I go.

Maybe that young guy the other night at the casino wasn’t flirting after all; maybe I reminded him of his wife and newborn he had left at home!!

Another factor I have had to get used to, and haven’t quite conquered is the difference in altitude. Although I am much more acclimated now than when I arrived, I still huff and puff a little climbing the hill from the bottom of the condo complex to the top.

Several years ago I went over to play golf at Cloudcroft, about 30 miles away (elevation: 8,700) and I asked the lady in the pro shop if it was okay if we walked, knowing some golf courses require golfers to rent their carts. She looked at me and without smiling said, “If you think you can.”

I hesitated for a second, not understanding and went on my merry way. When I finished the first hole, I totally understood, and when I completed nine holes, I caught a ride with a friend who had opted for a cart and rode back to the clubhouse not sure I was going to live. There is no magic lotion for this problem, except I guess to get fit and in tiptop shape. Oh well, I’m leaving soon, so why start now??

And a couple of other things I now know: ice is really slick and deer in the road don’t really care if your car is bigger than them. Maybe someday I will spend the winter again in the mountains, but not until I get really hot, until my bare feet blister, and until fish walk in front of my car. Until then, I think I will see Santa deliver my toys in his boat, hang icicle lights on my palm trees, and eat fried shrimp on New Year’s. It’s been fun, but I’m ready to go “home.”

Woodpecker Would Not Give It Up

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Woodpecker Wouldn't Give Up

Yesterday morning a woodpecker woke me up pecking on the big cedar tree right outside my condo. It had been a long time since I’ve heard a woodpecker—not many are interested in the palm trees in South Texas. I remember when I was a kid, when we would have a woodpecker in our yard, and we had a lot in the piney woods of East Texas, my dad would say, “the woodpecker pecked on daddy’s leg because daddy had a wooden leg.” Who knows where he got that? Of course, my daddy didn’t have a wooden leg, but he had a lot of funny lines that I fondly remember.

This one woodpecker just wouldn’t give it up, so I finally drug myself out of bed, although I was cold and not really ready to crawl out from under the warm covers. When I looked at the thermometer, I knew why—it was 16 degrees. What is a woodpecker doing out in this weather?? Where is Al Gore these days? I turned on the news, and it is cold everywhere, even in the Deep South. Surprisingly, in South Texas, the forecasters are predicting near freezing temperatures. Crazy. Just think what it would be like if we were not in global warming!!!

Did You See The Blue Moon?

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Blue Moon Wikipedia

The fact that we had a “blue moon” on New Year’s made me think of all the old sayings that I grew up hearing. Like a lot of people, my mother said, “once in a blue moon” many times over our years together, but she had many, many more idioms that are certainly less common. My favorite that she said often was “she drove her ducks to a muddy pond,” usually meaning that some girl had selected the wrong mate or made some other horribly bad decision. Then there were the miserly people that she said were “tight as Dick’s hatband” or “he was so tight he squeaked.”

Mother could be quite descriptive, and when she saw someone who looked particularly bad she would say he “looked like Hell smoked black.” By this and other similar quotes one could tell Mom grew up in a Baptist setting with quips like “he could eat Hell and drink Jordan dry.” See, you have to have a little Biblical understanding to get that one, don’t you think? She said that saying came about as a result of watching the circuit preacher eat the very best and last piece of chicken at Sunday dinner with her family (Sunday dinner meaning at noon) before he rode his horse to the next church along his route.

Mom would be 100 years old this year if she were still with us, so many of her memories were of very long ago and very interesting. Of course, now I wish I had listened more intently, but as she would say, “we live and learn.”

She also used some of the same idioms that many of us have heard most of our lives, but a few that she said the most were “he’s barking up the wrong tree”; “she was fixed in her ways”; he’s got a long row to hoe”; and “you just can’t change a dog’s spots.”

Mom, who could make a dollar go further than anyone I know, couldn’t understand parents who never gave their children a little money all along. To her it didn’t make sense to save it and leave it until you “were dead and gone.”  And in her later years that became even more significant and important to her and dad. Both wanted to be certain that they were doing what they could for their kids and grandkids while they were alive.

As retired school teachers, that didn’t mean loads of money, but what they had earned, they wanted to share. Often Mother would put a twenty dollar bill in my hand as I was leaving after a visit, and when I protested, she would always come back with “I want to touch the palm I put it in” or “there are no pockets in a shroud.” To this day many years later, I remember the love in her eyes when she folded that bill and slipped it from her hand to mine. Her “actions spoke louder than words.”

But the one I heard most often when I was leaving for a date was, “pretty is as pretty does.” That one rings in my ears!!!

Now this all started with a “blue moon.” I hope you saw it and enjoyed it because there will not be another one until New Year’s 2028. In the meantime, Good Luck and God Bless, and please continue to follow my blogs in this new year.