3) Growing Up Los Alamos

In the 50's, 60's, and 70's growing up in Los Alamos was a Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn childhood adventure which stiumlated curiosity, imagination, and learning. It would certainly seem that Los Alamos was intended to be for children.

There were caves of all manner and size to be explored. Often these explorations turned up artifacts of earlier cultures and one could easily imagine living in those ancient times. Holding a pot, or an arrow point gave you an odd sense of being somehow close to the people who made them; you could almost hear their voices still speaking, telling you of their ways and lives. History, and its off-shoots of anthropology and archaeology, became interesting and you would be in the school library or Mesa library reading everything you could get your hands on about these people of long ago.

There were cliffs and mountains to be climbed and the intrepid young adventurer found it easy to imagine climbing the great mountains of the world. Back to the library to read everything you could find about mountaineering.

Wildlife abounded. I recall one day sitting in a shady nook of a cliff side in the upper reaches of Walnut Canyon, and suddenly four deer leaped down, passing over my head and then sauntering off through the brush further into the canyon. Pools in canyon streams teemed with tadpoles (who never lived to become frogs -- like the mudpuppies of Ashley Pond they went home with the young wildlife biologist). If you sat really still, all manner of birds and small creatures would decide you were harmless and go about their business within just a few feet of you. Off to the library to read everything you could find on wildlife biology.

There were trees to be climbed and if you climbed enough of them you started to notice they way in which they grew and the birds and bugs they supported. Back to the library to read everything you could find on forestry, ecology, and the life of trees.

And you always had snacks. Berries, wild onions, fruits and other edible plants abounded. The hungry young herbologist was off to the library to read everything to be found on Natures' Larder. This explains why a lot of kids weren't hungry come supper time -- it wasn't from raiding the cookie jar. At least we were eating all-natural healthy snacks, long before that became an adult fad, and sometimes doing so to the chagrin of local gardeners who added a variety of vegetables to the snack diet. And it could all be washed down with a drink from a cold mountain stream which was chock full of the kinds of minerals that are usually pretty good for you and are usually banned from public drinking supplies.

Of course, the Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn lifestyle is Dangerous, caves are Dirty and have Mouse Droppings which carry Disease, finding artifacts is Politically Incorrect as is bringing home tadpoles and mudpuppies as pets. Food is supposed to come from a store which is 100% bacteria-free. And as for the water -- did you know, that the water of Los Alamos had a natural flouride content that was 10% higher than almost anywhere else? Yet adults have banned flouride from drinking water for fear that it is a carcinogen (in enough quantity, what isn't).

Actually, come to think of it adults are pretty much fearful and disapproving of all the stuff that makes childhood so wonderous. Adults are crazy.