Comments from the canyons: Hoping youth will have fond memories to look back on

Throughout the years, we have visited about how great it is to have friends from our school years in Tucumcari. It is even greater to have them call to visit about the past and to catch up on the latest news at home. One evening last week, for instance, Gene Peugh now from Las Cruces called to visit about many of our experiences in our younger days.

As always, we talked much about our years in the Tucumcari High School band and the fun we had. For some reason, the band members from that era have remained fairly close and have spoken of the band as being more than a class and a chance to make a lot of noise. We formed special friendships during those years and were as much like siblings as if we belonged to one large family.

Gene and I also had the opportunity to play in the Aggie band at what was then New Mexico A&MA. He said he still reports to listeners that he could do one thing much better than I and that was to play the cornet. I am not about to argue with the truth because I was never a musician but just hoped to be able to stay in the college band in order to receive the much needed scholarship.

Although we played in that band throughout our years on campus, we never felt as close to the group there as we had here. At least, Gene kept on playing the cornet in various dance bands; whereas, I gave mine to a young boy who really could play and who also earned a college scholarship by playing it.

As our phone visit continued, Gene and I recalled several of our favorite and least favorite professors on campus then. I don't think we have discussed them in the more than 50 years since we were in their classes. In fact, I was a bit surprised to learn that we felt the same about each one we mentioned.

We had some good laughs about the various classes and the habits of those professors. He is one of the few friends I have left who remembers those people as well as other people on that campus.

Just hearing about them and recalling the fun and misery we had made me much aware of my great good fortune to have such a friend as Gene.

I just hope the young people of today can talk to each other 50 or 60 years from now and share such special memories.

Unfortunately, they won't have the experiences we had in the THS band, but they can have other experiences to let them look back into the past and smile.

Lynn Moncus is a Tucumcari resident and can be contacted through the Quay County Sun by calling 575-461-1952.