Ahh, the savory smell of heartburn.

This afternoon I decided to empty out my truck of all the stuff I had let collect in it over the last something-something months. My wish was ti just strip the insides back down to where there was nothing in the cab that didn’t need to be there. This meant removing a few old masks that had settled under the passenger’s seat. And a pair of hiking boots that got put in there and then lost under a few jackets, which also were removed from the extracab area. Definitely, the several half-finished bottles of water had to go- so I just finished each of them and then binned the bottles. I tossed a few old pieces of Trident gum and some unused restaurant napkins from the glove department, and made sure everything else was bagged or enveloped that could be. I also checked a few CD discs that were floating alone in the center console to see if the player in the truck could still read them, and two of them told me “No”. They went in the trash. The working ones were then added and sleeved into the CD wallet a use in the truck. I cleared other miscellany out of the console, and threw away other trash from the floor in front of the seats. The extracab items I keep back there full time- a road service kit and two blankets and a hat, I stacked nicely and “buckled in” behind the driver’s seat. And then I stowed a few cloth masks off of the front dash into a ziplock bag which went into the passenger door stow slot. And then I removed the souvenir bags that also sat up there.

I got these two bags in Clayton half-a-year ago, one placed carefully into the other, and after eating the caustic chimichanga, the pristine shape of these bags told me I had something special to hang on to.

Because if you grew up in New Mexico, you probably had one (or more) of these around your decent-sized town (or larger), and you also know the reputation of the food from this quick-serve gas station and convenience store. The food is so good going in, and then usually, some short time after, it had an affect on your body chemistry that made you worry about your health for 15 minutes or so. But locals, used to the after effects, developed an affection for the place and its satisfying menu of inexpensive warm foods that would give you a cheap boost on the go.

I am considering putting these two special items up in eBay. In sentimental value alone, some New Mexican expat would surely be willing to pay me a few bucks for them and what they represent in New Mexico, for New Mexicans.