I’ve worked with hundreds of reporters and
editors. I’ve interviewed thousands of artists (more than 1,200 of you have
been Artists of the Week, not counting all the groups, spouses and parent-child
duos) and I’ve shared fiestas, plays, concerts, and other special events and
life-changing historical events with millions of you in the Borderlands and
beyond.
I’ve been with the Las Cruces Sun-News since 1994, in old
and new buildings at the corner of Alameda and Las Cruces Avenue, and in a
hotel ballroom and temporary quarters on Idaho Street, after the 2011 fire.
My youngest current newsroom colleague was a little baby when
then-editor Harold Cousland called me in Florida and suggested it was time to
move back to New Mexico, this time to the Southern part of the state. Grandson
Alexander the Great wasn’t even a gleam in the eyes of his parents, who had not
yet met. He just turned 20 and now lives in the Pacific Northwest, but on
Facebook, he still lists Las Cruces, where he spent many of his fun formative
years, as his hometown.
I’ve known for a while, but it still hasn’t quite sunk in
yet. As I pack up the art and artifacts, and photo discs and lots and lots of
newspapers, I wonder how my little corner cubicle can hold so many memories. And
so much stuff.
It could have been a lot worse. I salvaged what I could
after the fire put an end to the old brick building and urban wildlife preserve
that was my funky home base for so many years. Those vats and cartons are
occupying a corner of my garage. I’m still hoping to find a suitable home for
boxes of 35mm negatives of my first ten years, reporting on life in Las Cruces.
I’d like to work with a local institution to do an artist of the week
retrospective exhibit, or maybe even a book.
There are lots of plans in the works. I want to do a new
edition of my first book, “Tenny Hale: American Prophet,” with some updates on
the still-unfolding, remarkably accurate prognostications of the most
extraordinary individual I’ve ever met. And maybe, work on a play or movie
script based on the true life adventures of a skeptical, then-20-something
newspaper city editor encountering a source who had predicted the Watergate
scandals, by name, four decades before the actual break-ins changed our nation.
I have plans for two works of fiction I’ve written, too. And
I’d like to find new ways to share tales of my querencia, Las Cruces. When my
amigos, some of the most astute people on the planet, conferred back in the
mid-1990s, the consensus was that, “Las Cruces is the place where the remnant,
la raza cosmica, the great souls of the planet, have decided to gather, pitch
their tents and make their last American stand.”
They were right, I believe. I’ve met and interviewed many of
those great souls, including visitors, transplants and remarkable New Mexico
natives.
I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of the world and live in
many exotic places. I’ve never come close to finding any place I’ve loved as
much as Las Cruces. There is sweetness, spirituality, artistic talent, judiciously
applied brain power, and a spirit of adventure, caring, compassion, patience and
creativity that can bring out the best in us all. Las Crucens know how to make
dreams come true, sometimes with what seem like impossibly limited resources.
We work hard and want the best for new generations.
There’s something very special about Las Cruces and its
people. I wonder if its magic can be captured in a book, or a TV series. I’d
like to try.
In the meantime, mil gracias to you for sharing so much with
me: your stories, your fiestas, your history and culture, your visual and
performing artistry, your paintings, sculptures, books, poems, plays, movies
and visions, your triumphs and tragedies (and your triumphs over tragedy and
adversity) and helping me tell the world about your creativity and your
stainless steel souls.
I’ve made some of the best friends of my lifetime here, and
the soulmates I came in with have come to love Las Cruces as much as I do.
Sept. 30 will be my last day at the Sun-News, at a job I’ve
loved and held longer than any other in my life. It was time for what some call
retirement, but I prefer to think of as a change of venue. I’m looking forward
to volunteering to support some of my favorite causes, spending time with
friends and family and sharing life lessons learned, strategies to help us be
our best selves in what can be a tough and challenging world.
God willing, we’ll have many more adventures here together.
S. Derrickson Moore may be
reached at @derricksonmoore on Twitter and lascrucesstyle.blogspot.com
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