Above: Illustration by Chris Philpot.

DOWN THE RÍO GRANDE
Carlsbad native Mary Beth Christy lives in South Carolina now, but in 1961, she and her husband drove from New Mexico to Long Island, New York, for his just-out-of-college job. While they were stopped at a gas station, an attendant (yeah, they had those kinds of things back then) noticed their license plates. “How did you get it over here?” he asked, dumbfounded. “On a boat?”

THIS ONE COULD REQUIRE A BOAT
Many have encountered the hassle of a credit card company declining to approve a purchase when it detects that they’re in “Mexico.” Ron Whatley’s troubles doubled when he traveled from his home in Santa Fe all the way to Cuba, New Mexico. He called the card’s help line, went through its automated security questions, and finally reached a person—albeit one with geographic challenges. “She objected to approving my purchase by saying that their information indicated that I was in Cuba,” Whatley said. He explained that New Mexico is in the United States and that it has a community named Cuba. She promised that someone would get back to him by phone and then by mail. “I just hope they use enough postage for international service,” he joked

DOESN'T GOOGLE MAKE MAPS?
Dale Bryan, who lives in Albuquerque, frequently uses public computers to check email, so he is pretty accustomed to getting security emails saying that someone logged on to his account from an unfamiliar device. Still, Bryan was startled by a recent message from Google: “New sign-in from near Texas, USA.”

Story Sidebar

HAVE A “MISSING” MOMENT?
Send it to fifty@nmmagazine.com, or Fifty, New Mexico Magazine, 495 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501. Include your name, hometown, and state. ¡Gracias!