Explore Lifestyle: Culture

Living in harmony with the land and your personal philosophy – many dream of it, few achieve it. The Gundersens are one of those, and they’ll tell you that it’s demanding, it’s unpredictable, and it won’t make you rich. But oh yes, it’s worth it.

Tourists will ante up an extra $1 for admission to their favorite New Mexico museums in January.

The Board of Regents of the Museum of New Mexico approved the price increase at its regular meeting Thursday, citing a need for a revenue boost.

The increase raises the general-admission price from $8 to $9 for a nonresident of New Mexico. The price for a single-day twomuseum pass will jump from $12 to $15. A fourday pass to six museums will increase from $18 to $20. Children ages 16 and under will still be admitted free; a single-day pass for New Mexico residents will remain at $6. State residents also will keep their free Sunday admission.

The price hike is the first for...

John Garcia, New Mexico’s Cabinet secretary for the Department of Veterans’ Services, once met a man named Mike McWaters who carried a tattered American flag.

McWaters was a veteran of the Battle of Quesan, fought in 1968 during the Vietnam War. His Marine base was under heavy mortar fire, and one of the mortars hit the flag pole. The flag fluttered downward, into red mud. McWaters ran to it through enemy fire, an action that would earn the bronze star.

“I said, ‘Why would you risk your life for the flag like that?’ ” Garcia recalled. “He looked at me, kind of puzzled, like he figured, ‘John, of anyone you should understand.’ But I wanted to hear him tell m...

It was a parade, but a different kind of parade. There was no clamoring for candy or clown antics as Santa Fe’s annual Veterans Day parade wound its way from Fort Marcy Park to the Plaza and south to the Veterans Memorial on Galisteo Street.

Onlookers stood at attention — many with tears in their eyes, the men removing their caps — then broke into steady applause when various groups of veterans passed. Even a malamute tried to bark in salute.

Many of the veterans answered back to the crowd, saying, “Thanks for coming out.”

“We just thought it was an honor to watch these guys,” said Gloria Chase, whose father served in the U.S. Air Force in World War II....

When the board of directors of the Santa Fe Bridge Center began thinking about a name for their new center, it didn’t take long to come up with an appropriate one. The new Leonard A. Helman Bridge Center will be dedicated and officially thrown open for play at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. “It’s a nice tribute

to him, and he deserves every bit of it,” James Joy, president of the center’s board of directors, told the Journal . Helman, who will be 82 on Nov. 30, doesn’t play as much as he once did, but he retains an intense interest in the game. He’s a Life Master , and contract bridge has always been his most passionate hobby. Two summers past, he put together a team of one Ame...