I've been watching the Sunday morning commentary on how the supercommittee is destined for failure. Enough doom and gloom for a beautiful morning: conspiracy is a lot more fun!

Since there was such a positive response to my original post, I thought I'd share a few more interesting things about Roswell and its history.

Roswell is surrounded by 12 empty Altas F missle silos. As far as I know, they're all privately owned and the the ones I've visited have been on rural ranch land. Of course, when they were disarmed they sealed the entrances, but when I was a teenager we discovered that a couple of them had been opened (one had a hole blowtorched into the door just big enough for a slender person). Some of my friends and I snuck down into one of them one night and looked around with flashlights. Despite a whole lot of graffiti, it was a really cool look into the cold war. I've heard that people are buying them up and turning them into personal bunkers/homes. I love that idea!

Speaking of personal bunkers, Roswell is chock full of them. The New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI) is there and from what I've been told over the years, the school was a suspected cold war target. Many of the older homes in Roswell have small underground shelters in their backyards. I used to babysit for a family that had one of them and their kids would play "nuclear war" in it.



There's two high schools in town, Roswell High and Goddard High (named after Robert Goddard, the rocket pioneer). Goddard's classrooms are entirely underground. That's right: no windows in the classrooms at all, just one giant fallout shelter.

Believe it or not, I've never been out to the crash site. I've heard that there's no need: the rancher who owns it charges to go look at a pile of rocks. Maybe someday I'll take my kids out there just to see for myself.

If anybody has questions, feel free to ask...I'll be happy to answer if I can!