Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Ernie Pyle

Quoted in The Spell of New Mexico, reprinted from New Mexico Magazine, "Why Albuquerque?" July 1942:

"We like it here because we're on top of the world, in a way; and because we are not stifled and smothered and hemmed in by buildings and trees and traffic and people. We like it because the sky is so bright and you can see so much of it. And because out here you actually see the clouds and the stars and the storms, instead of just reading about them in the newspapers. They become a genuine part of your daily life, and half the horizon is yours in one glance just for the looking, and the distance sort of gets into your soul and makes you feel that you too are big inside.

Yes, there are lots of nice places in the world. I could live with considerable pleasure in the Pacific Northwest, or in New England or on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, or in Key West or California or Honolulu. But there is only one of me and I can't lilve in all those places. So if we can only have one house - and that's all we want - then it has to be in New Mexico, and preferably right at the edge of Albuquerque where it is now."


~~Ernie Pyle~~

4 comments:

Buck said...

These are really, really GOOD quotes, Sharon. Thank you!!

Bag Blog said...

New Mexico can be very enchanting. It can also be very deceptive. Go into this move with your eyes open and know that for all NM's beauty it has a dark side, and you will be fine.

Towanda said...

Buck ~ When I read this little book (only 105 pages), I was just blown away with these quotes. All these writers were saying things I have been feeling for years...and even a generation ago, they were feeling the spell of New Mexico the way I feel it today.

Lou ~ I think I understand what you are saying, and part of the reason I have been extensively researching and studying and learning about NM and the culture there was to prepare myself for the negative as well as the positive. And yet I know until I get there it will be hard to understand or face the dark side of it. Thanks for your advice, I appreciate it so much!

Lin said...

Towie, you hit it squarely - the fact that you can go back a century or more and find quotes from people who feel like us about NM. I hope people will be still saying these things a century in the future, too.