Once upon a time, oh so long ago, it seems-but not really, I set foot on the red soil of Colorado. I’ve always lived in the west. I was born in Arizona, the great State of Denial. My family moved to California, the great State of Chaos, from Arizona. When I was eight years old we landed in Nevada, the great State of Nothingness. My family moved to Colorado, the State of Confusion, when I was sixteen.
I was born in the desert, in a big city in the State of Denial. I like the heat. I’m a desert rat. It was so hot there that people just went from air-conditioned building to air-conditioned car to another air-conditioned place. We used to play in the park after the sun went down and it was cool enough to play. I got quite educated watching hippies and bikers in the warm night air. There were a lot of neat things to do there but it seemed it was always too hot to do anything. I didn’t really much care for the State of Denial. My family didn’t much either because we moved to California for a short time.
California, the great State of Chaos. We lived in the mountains in California. It was great, being a wild child and all. It was a small town where all the city folks went to escape the big cities on the weekends and holidays. It was interesting to say the least, kind of like Disneyland. It was right on the San Andreas fault so we moved from Chaos back to Denial.
After being in Denial a while longer, we wound up moving to Nevada, the State of Nothingness. A small town in the high desert, in the middle of nowhere. People had to come through this town because there was nowhere else to get gas in between real cities. I really did like No Where, Nevada. We spent eight years there. It was a nice little town with great people. It was pretty cold though, only sixty growing days in the summer time. I had a garden. We had chickens and horses. I picked up some rather bad habits there too, but oh well or is it oh hell? That could’ve happened anywhere, right? Half way through my senior year of high school, my family moved again. Another big city, oh boy, I was not a happy camper, not in the least thrilled with the move.
This time I wound up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the State of Confusion. I had spent several years being a country girl and now I was right smack-dab in another big city. Confusing, oh yeah. Culture shock, you can say that again! I had never seen prostitutes out on the street until then. In Nevada they had their own houses, in their own end of town! The red light district, it was called. There were so many things I had never seen before that the list could go on for miles! We wound up living on the south end of Colorado Springs, not far from Fort Carson, one of the military bases. I chose a public high school to go to because it had a smoking section. I went from a county high school with only one black girl to a south Colorado Springs high school with kids from everywhere in the world. What an education! My choice, all for a cigarette. I never said I was smart, only that I’m not stupid.
I actually live in the State of Confusion no matter where I’m staying at the moment. I do like the scenery here and I really enjoyed moving from Colorado Springs to a small town. We live just outside Florence, CO. Down here it is warmer and we are closer to the mountains. I’ve seen the fireworks off of Pikes Peak on New Years Eve every year, except one, since we moved down here. There is a picture perfect view of Pikes Peak right from our deck. I’m really a small town person. I don’t much care for the hustle and bustle of the city. I really think it’s great that we have cactus and pine trees, together on our lot! The best of both worlds, desert and mountains!
The Wholly Book of Genesis is a humorous satire on the first book of the Old Testament where the Story of Creation, the building of Noah's Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah and the families of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are thoroughly spoofed and broadsided.
The State of Colorado
