back to the states, june 2003

In June, 2003, I was called back to my hometown, Pueblo, Colorado on family business. I had not really hung out there since I left for California in 1976. During the time between when Tuxedomoon left for Europe in 1980 and this last visit, I was back there only once in 1999. Naturally things had changed enormously. Culture shock was enormous. I know that when I explained to someone in, say, a 7-11 that I didn't really know how to heat up a microwave burrito since they didn't have them where I had been, I am sure that they assumed that "where I had been" was jail. How else do you explain a grey-haired old guy whose accent says "Pueblo" but whose manner says "mars"?

One feature of the Pueblo I re-discovered that I thoroughly enjoyed was the bicycle path which was built along the river. Like most cities near a river, Pueblo was originally laid out along its banks and this way is still the quickest path between two points. Neighborhoods which seemed disjointed and far away from one another are suddenly revealed as adjoining when following the river.

Having discovered that this bike path ran all the way to the Pueblo Mall, the poor substitute for a town center which rose in the 1970's, one of my greatest pleasures was to ride my brother's bicycle all the way up there. I made a point of going shopping on Sunday and late at night since European shops still close during those times. Not so, America. Consumption is every day all day.

This gallery will probably not serve to illustrate the mythic ground of my childhood which this visit home revealed to me. No matter.

Here is an excerpt from my site bulletins on the subject