I Wanna Go Fast.

I Wanna Go Fast
December 18, 2004

I didn't know it at the time, but this was the last Christmas I'd spend in Raton. My mom moved to Belen the next fall. In fact, it was the last time I'd spend more than a night in Raton, to date. And Raton during Christmas is a god damn riot. It's probably because I associate it with when I was a kid and Christmas ruled, but having Christmas in a town where people actually go to the Christmas tree lighting is sorta awesome. My old friend Kim said Raton was the kind of place she'd want to live in for a summer, fall in love and move away. I think that sounds like an amazing idea.

Raton loves Christmas. They put up all these lights all over the town. There's free movies, recitals, it's all very enchanting. Probably the funniest part is the City of Bethlehem and the jerks don't have a website. Basically, a few community groups sponsor these paintings on, well, plywood, to be put up in a canyon within the Raton city limits. You drive through this canyon and these paintings with plaques, that light up randomly, tell the story of the birth of the baby Jesus. But over the years they've added in more paintings that all have to do with Jesus, just not about his birth. So, really it's just a canyon for Christ. Every so often, some teenage hooligan will "break into" the canyon (and really I mean, walk in) and spray paint offensive things on the Jesus plywood paintings. Everyone in Raton gets really upset and then it's over in two weeks. The pagentry of Christmas in rural America.

Anyway, this Christmas, Stancie was working at the Holiday Inn Express and I spent the night hanging out with her and good friend Michael Vanbuskirk. This is one of those pictures where you stick the camera out the window out the window and see what happens. I got the motion blur, the Seasons Greetings sign and Stancie's battered car. I can't tell you how many miles I logged in the passenger seat of that very car, riding down that exact stretch of road. Probably thousands.