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M.P.s and the hot air balloons Ballooning is a big sport in Albuquerque and each year in October, hundreds of balloonists come to town for the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. Every morning, for two weeks, they take to the skies and sail where the wind takes them. One time, an errant balloon landed inside the military reservation. The M.P.s met them. The pilots were taken in, questioned, and detained until the army was convinced the balloonists weren't spies. The National Atomic… Continue

The air raid They tested the air raid sirens on the first Monday of every month. For fifteen minutes at noon they howled to let us know they worked. I always knew that if the Russians were going to bomb us, they'd do it on a first Monday. There was a siren on the roof of my school, and when it went off, the ground shook. The horn rotated on a pedestal so all the neighborhoods could hear it. When it turned my way, if I was on the playground, I could feel the sound waves pounding against my… Continue

Dad worked there Everybody's dad worked on the base. Not because they were in the service; they just worked there. I'm not sure what they did there on the base. My dad never told me what he did. "A lot of different things," he'd say when I asked. As I got older, I learned not to ask. It was strange to grow up there, in Albuquerque. The Government was an ever-present influence in everyone's lives, yet nobody was that aware of it. Since 1947, the Atomic Energy Commission and S… Continue