Just what is happening to our wonderful little town of Crestone?
(Post/blog made by Keno on Sept 14, 2021)
Remember back several years ago when I used to write my Mumbo Jumbo
article for the Crestone Eagle? Well, the following is a special online
edition of that old column, which I still write once in a blue moon at
one of my other web sites from time to time. I just never linked to it at the
Crestone Weather Site before, but this time I will, since this one is
totally about Crestone and was written mainly only for our locals to read.
But before I get started here, I don’t normally believe in writing anything too
negative, I always try to be as positive as I can be, even when writing, but
what follows here is on the negative side of things. So, if you only wish to
real about the wonders of life in our little town, what I have to say/write here
isn’t for you to read. I have a very large domain with more than 10 different
web sites, along with thousands of pages (yes, thousands, and that’s not an
over-the-top estimate, just an accurate fact), and I know you can find mainly
positive things on most of my domain’s other pages, including other mainly
positive Mumbo Jumbo
articles, that you will find on this
21-year-old domain.
Okay, so, are you like most of the locals around here who live in the Baca, but
actually say to others who live out of town, that you live in Crestone? Now of
course, if that’s the case for you, well, our post office box is still
in Crestone, and that’s where many of us do our local shopping. Downtown
Crestone is also a place where I like to walk around in, and where I greet old
friends who I run into, like so many of our locals do each day, or at the least
once a week. Of course, to locals I don’t have to say that I “live in Crestone”
and can say instead “I live in the Baca”, and they know where’s that’s at. But
try to tell a person from Alamosa, or Salida (or anyone else in Colorado, or
elsewhere) that you live in the Baca, and they won’t have a clue as to where the
Baca is! So, to those folks we say that we live in Crestone and if they live
within an hour or so from here, they will at least know where Crestone is.
But anyway, I’ve had a few longtime friends here complain over the last 5 to 10
years, that town has been changing for the worst, and the folks who been moving
in here during the last few years are not like the locals who used to live here,
or the old-timers who have lived here forever. I would always say to such
friends that isn’t true at all, and that I’ve met many new people who became
fellow locals here in town, and I get along with everybody here and haven’t seen
any of the rudeness that they have seen. I always felt that we had only good
people living here. But while I still believe this overall, in the last 3 weeks
I’ve had a couple of encounters in town that have gotten me to see and start to
wonder just what is wrong with some of the newer locals who now are in town.
Now, one last disclaimer before I go on. I really have no way of knowing if both
of the people who I’m about to write about, are new comers to town or not, since
I don’t really know who they are and I’ve never seen either of them before. Both
of them could have been out of towners who were just in town for the day, etc.
But I’ll just go by these 2 very rude people as being new to town for argument’s
sake (of course, with that stated, they could also have been long time residents
who I was just lucky to have never run into before, but my guess is that isn’t
the case).
Both rude encounters were very brief, and in both cases, these 2 rude people
were in their vehicles, while in one case I was also in my car, and in the
second case, I was walking around town. But with the first encounter, I’m half
embarrassed by my own reaction to this jerk’s actions. This occurred 3 weeks ago
on a Friday around noon. I had stopped at the post office to get my mail, before
heading out of town for an appointment in Alamosa. So, after my visit to the
post office, I drove down west Silver and stopped at the stop sign on the corner
of Sliver and Cottonwood (you know, where the Cloud is located). As I was about
to turn left to head out of town, a female driver already on Cottonwood heading
south, drove right through the stop sign on her side of the street – totally
without stopping - and without looking out for any traffic or for any
pedestrians in the intersection. Had anybody been walking across the street at
that same time, she would have run them over! The only good thing was she wasn’t
speeding, but then, when she was three-quarters into the intersection, she slams
on her brakes, stops, and just sits there. As it was, she wasn’t in the middle
of the road, but more so on the right side of it, and I could see that she was
talking to the passenger sitting next to her (perhaps arguing with her
passenger, as she seemed annoyed and
agitated). Anyway, she wasn’t moving at all at this point, just sitting in the
road, but there was plenty of room for me to make my left hand turn and drive
around her, which I did. Yes, I could have blown my horn to get this unhappy
fool to move her car, but that isn’t like me, and I didn’t. After I passed her,
I look in my rear-view mirror and she starts moving again, real fast, and gets
right on my back bumper and blasts her horn at me without letting up!
Please note, I drive very little these days (I only put 3,000 miles on my car
last year) and the last time I was involved in a road rage incident was – well,
I can’t even tell you for sure, but it had to be something like 30 years ago.
I’ll also point out that I’m a very slow driver. I’m sure that upsets some on
the main highways since while the speed limit is 65 mph, and most in this neck
of the woods drive 10 mph over that speed limit, well I drive at 55 mph - and
rarely any faster. Yes, I’m that old hippie guy that you more than likely passed
on Highway 17 more than once in the last several years. I’ve had friends say to me
later on after they pass me driving slow on 17, something like: “Keno, we
passed you on 17, you were driving so slow, were you okay, or was something
wrong with your car?”. “I’m fine” is my reply, and I explain since
I’m retired and I’m in no hurry to get anywhere, I drive slow most of the time,
while taking my time and enjoying our beautiful views of the mountains as I
drive. If the rest of you want to drive fast, well I totally understand and
that’s just fine with me, but also dig the fact that I’m not breaking any
traffic laws driving 55 mph on a 65-mph road, so please just let me be. I can’t
see what the big deal is if I’m driving slowly, or why my otherwise loving
grandson Cooper, keeps saying that he’s half embarrassed being in the car with
me, since I drive so slowly (what he hates even more now, is in the last 3 years
since he got his driver’s license, I let him drive for me when we head out of
town together, since I hate driving, and yes, I make him drive 55 mph, too. It’s
my car after all, and I just don’t care for speed). Hell, I even drove slow as a
teen, back when I lived in and around New York City (where everybody else drives
like a bat out of hell). I’ve just always been a slow driver and as an old man
today, I’m sure not going to change.
But getting back to my first story about this rude local. As I noted above,
after this woman stopped in the road and stopped moving, I did what anybody else
would have done, and drove around her, which in turned caused her to blow her
horn at me, but, she didn’t let up, after about 10 seconds of this nonsense, I
let road rage get to me (I hate to even call it that, since I wasn’t in any
rage, but she did make me unhappy, too) and so I then blasted my horn right back
at her and I wasn’t going to stop until she stopped first. That’s just the way I
am, while I’m a nice guy overall, if somebody does me wrong, I will react and
hit back. She finally stopped blowing her damn horn and then so did I. While she
was totally in the wrong, I felt later on like I was just as much in the wrong
too, to do what I did, and it still bugs me to this day that I did what she did
to me (as I joined her in disturbing the peace in our quiet town, and I
apologize to anybody who had to hear that). Yet at the same time, a part of me
knows I wasn’t totally in the wrong, too. I just don’t feel you should ever let
a bully get away with being that way, and for my entire life, I’ve been that
way towards such fools.
But that was nothing at all compared to what happened to me yesterday (Monday)
while in town (as far as rudeness and bullies go). For the last 19 years that
I’ve lived here, I almost never drove into town and instead, I just walked
there, and usually when I do, I take the much longer mountain route/hike into
town, avoiding the main road on my way into town so I can enjoy our mountains,
and then when it’s time to hike back home, I will walk back along the side of
the main road (most of time).The locals here have always been so cool that it
seems that half the time somebody will see me walking and stop and ask me if I
need a lift - and I’ve never been hitchhiking mind you (other than one time,
about 15 years ago, when my foot was in a cast). But I rather walk into town,
other than thanks to old age-related health issues of late, I actually was told
by my cardiologist a few weeks ago that until they do more tests on me in the
next month, that I need to stop hiking unless I’m on flat ground. As you all
know, there isn’t any flat ground around here. So, while I could still walk into
town from my home (which is about a mile and a half from downtown, one way) as
that’s all downhill, coming back is uphill and well, I’ll listen to the doctor
until I get the okay to start hiking again. So yesterday I had to drive into
Crestone to check my mail and do some other business. I’m unlike some locals,
who I see drive up to the post office, then they get back into their car and
they drive next door to the credit union, and then after that, they drive 2
blocks over to the Merk, or a block south to the Cloud.
Well to each their own, but I just don’t
get that. I just love to walk and at least while I’m downtown, I’m gonna walk
around this small little town of ours. I’ll park my car at the post office and
then walk around to wherever next that I might have to go to on that day.
So yesterday, after getting my mail, I
put it back in my parked car, and walked over to the hardware store on east
Galena - forgetting that it closes early and it was late afternoon. But no big
deal, I’ve done that before. But before I got there, I saw an old friend on the
other side of the street and crossed it to go say hello to her. As I was doing
that, I could see up ahead this big white pickup truck pulling really fast out
of one of the parking spots in front of the Merk, and thought to myself as I
crossed the street, what fire is he on the way to? I was on the side of the road
and almost done crossing, and mainly out of the road, when this idiot passes me,
and he yells out to me very rudely: “Hey jackass, get out of the road!”.
I couldn’t believe my ears! Why would this guy, whoever the crap he is, be so
damn rude, and for no reason at all? This is Crestone after all and we don’t
have such folks living here. But I guess that now today we do. Yet I do still
have a right to use the road to cross the street, as the road isn’t there only
for his giant pickup! As I walked up to my friend after this, she says to me
what I’ve heard a bunch in the last few years around here from long time locals:
“What the hell is our town turning into with these rude newcomers? He’s the
asshole, not you!”, and for the first time in my 19 years of living here, I
agreed totally with her statement that I’ve heard before but never believed. But
after how this old hippie was treated in the last 3 weeks by 2 different younger
people, I guess that statement is at least half true today after all.
I’m sorry, but back in ’02 when I moved here, and for many years thereafter,
nothing like that would have ever have happened in Crestone. All the locals back
then seemed to love each other, and up until 3 weeks ago I still felt that way
about this/our town. But after what I’ve seen take place twice in 3 weeks to
myself, I now ain’t at all too sure what’s going on around here. But while I may
still look a bit younger than I am (and to me that’s a cuss, as I rather look my
age), I’m still a senior today, and if a senior citizen can’t slowly walk across
the street in downtown Crestone any longer these day without being called names
by younger, rude low lives, well, what can I say, other than, I guess our town
is changing for the worst.
Keno