Millard Fillmore Day

Let's have a Millard Fillmore Day. He certainly has been an overlooked President. He was born on Jan.7, 1800. He can take the credit for not allowing Texas to expand it's territory to the Rio Grande. Can you image what we would be like if Governor King would have been born in Texas, or if we had a football team called the Santa Rosa Cowboys?

Double Rainbow

EDFDN 605 Spring, 1996 Michael Kroth

Introduction
Turning west onto Central off of San Mateo, drivers approach a neon lighted entry-way which marks the beginning of the Nob Hill district, an area which neighborhood and business leaders have struggled to maintain and uniquely iden tify for many years. This paper will describe in some detail one of the businesses, the Double Rainbow, which makes its home here.

The Location
In 1875 there were only mud houses in the little village of Albuquerque. Indian attacks were still to be feared. By 1886 Franz and Charles Huning opened a store in the town, with a broad inventory of everything from drugs to furniture to clothing. Hauling goods from back east presented one of the difficulties of owning a business in those days, which caused a limited stock of available merchandise to be available.
Floods threatened the village each spring as melting snow and spring rains caused the Rio Grande river to rise, and in those days the river seemed to choose a new path almost at will. The river carried the rich soil of the mountain regions into Albuquerque, and an 1885 survey showed that the town streets were 3 inches higher at that time than when they were laid out only a few years before.
Built upo n this rich topography and history, Route 66 added its own luster. Prior to the creation of the interstate highway system in the 1950's, Route 66 was known as America's Main Street, stretching across the United States, and Albuquerque's Central Avenue (o riginally named Railroad Avenue in 1880) was one of its traveler's most welcomed sections, who appreciated the cafes which sold homemade pies and the local mom and pop motel courts.
Albuquerque's Sara Goldsmith, a 17 year old, recently won a trip to meet Hillary Clinton after writing an essay titled "The Great American Highway" about the diversity of culture, food, sights, and sounds found on Albuquerque's Route 66 today. As she describes it, Walking down what used to be Route 66, the "gr eat American Highway" in the middle of Albuquerque, almost every imaginable smell parades out to collide with my nose....As I walk outside, mariachi music drifts up the street, somehow harmonizing with the rock music from the car pulling up the driveway. The sun is setting, purple and red behind radiant clouds, diffusing a luminous glow over the buildings and the people wandering down the sidewalk....Living asan American holds a unique kind of enchantment, not the coolness that comes from one exquisite color, but the striking kind of warmth that carries with it light and color and joyfulness and comes from a fusion of many beauties. The joy extends from the people around me, from the festivals of the communities near me, from reaching out into the unkn own and accepting what I find there. This mixture of dark and light, color and laughter, pain and triumph, lends a strength and brilliance to the American society that is extraordinarily beautiful. (Albuquerque Tribune, 3/29/96, p. B1)
Today , the Double Rainbow continues that Central Avenue/Route 66 tradition, providing a safe harbor for an eclectic crowd escaping from the immediate world about them.
The Double Rainbow is nestled into the midst of the Nob Hill area of Albuquerq ue. The first buildings in Nob Hill were built in the 1920's and the majority were built between 1935 and 1955. Nob Hill at that time was the place Albuquerque's downtown businesses went when expanding, and here were ocated the first suburban stores of Albuquerque.
The Nob Hill business district was selected as a participant in the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Main Street urban demonstration program. Along this stretch can be seen roadside architecture which was built when C entral Avenue was designated an official part of Route 66 in the 1930's. Two buildings in this area are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and two buildings are listed on the State Register of Cultural Properties. There are a number of buildings and areas of historic interest in the Nob Hill area.
The Nob Hill Business District is 15 blocks long, extending from Girard on the west to Washington on the east. Travellers can easily distinguish the boundaries by the distinctiv e, neon-lighted entry-ways at either end. These gateway arches won the Albuquerque Conservation Association's 1994 best public art project award. The district is one block deep on either side of Central Avenue. From its beginnings, the Nob Hill district has served both the needs of the surrounding neighborhood and the food, lodging, and fuel needs of the cross-country traveller.
C. M. Dyer built the Nob Hill-area Triangle Cafe in 1929, and a 1934 edition of Albuquerque Progress said that D yer, "was among the first to realize that the automobile had freed people from the restraints of fixed shopping locations." Today, the Double Rainbow and like shops in the area benefit from the broad range of customers who travel to them from all over th e region.
During the fifties and sixties shopping centers which were more modern developed and interstate highways were built, both of which contributed to the decline of the Nob Hill area. However, since the 1980's the area has been revita lized, as buildings were rehabilitated, along with a reemphasis upon the special qualities of the district, which include its architecture of the 1930's and 40's, and its pedestrian character.

Coffee Houses
Coffee houses like the Double Rainbow se em to be coming into their own these days. The Interactive Bean is one of around 200 "cybercafes" worldwide. The Bean has computers located throughout the cafe and for 16 cents a minute customers, latte in hand, can surf the Web, write term papers, or p articipate in other computer-related activities. For $10 a month a customer can get an e-mail account.
Princeton, which had none for years, now has several places, including the World Cafe, the Original Princeton Coffee House, and Bucks Count y Coffee Co. where students, faculty, and natives alike can go for a good cup of coffee.
Perhaps the most famous contemporary coffee shop of all can be found at the top of the Nielsen's top ten. The "Central Perk" is the hangout for NBC's "Fr iends."
Coffee houses, or coffee "bars," have struck a societal chord. It's "the 90's answer to something a little naughty - caffeine is a stimulant, after all - but within the bounds of healthy splurges now that smoking, heavy drinking, and overeating are declasse." ("Grounds for a Good Time," Maria LoBiondo).
The coffee houses of the 90's can provide a wide range of attractions ranging from connections to the "Net" to the traditional cup of just really good coffee. Customers may be found browsing through books or an eclectic selection of magazines, eating gourmet cooking, watching a local artist sing a new song or read a new poem, or scanning the new art exhibit. A local radio station might be broadcasting live from the co ffeehouse as patrons sit and visit. An important role that coffeehouses can play today is relationship building. Oftentimes the "regulars" develop into a "family of sorts." Students get to know students. Parents take their children. Romances a re nurtured or even started. Friendships are born. "These coffeehouses are the new hangouts. They're the perfect place to see or be seen, to strike up friendly conversations with strangers, or, conversely, to lose oneself in writing, reading, or watchi ng the world go by." (LoBiondo) One owner envisioned their coffee shop as "a community center," where people get together socially.
The physical layout of a coffeehouse seems to be important to the overall ambience. Physically, a coffeeho use might have bay windows with pillows to curl up in, have benches outside to allow joggers to sip, provide couches to hang out on, or wide windows to watch passers-by while sipping on a latte or espresso. Oftentimes coffeehouses sell other, rela ted products like coffee mugs, or coffee to take home. Overall, there has been a phenomenal growth in the specialty coffee market in recent years, even as the market for regular coffee has declined. Soda is the most frequently bought drink in North Ame rica today, followed by regular coffee, beer, and milk.

The Double Rainbow
Albuquerque had mud houses during the 1800's. Today, the Double Rainbow (DR) is perhaps the most renown "mud" shop in Albuquerque. The original DR has been in e xistence for eight years, and has a year-old location on Juan Tabo and Montgomery. DR roasts its own coffee, and its four chefs create their own special menu items. The rule for creating new dishes is that they must use scratch ingredients and not excee d an $8.00 pricetag. The bakery menu includes items ranging from chocolate truffles to carrot cake to key lime pie. DR provided live music one summer, but may or may not in the future. Some customers loved the music, and some hated it.
Outside
Shops which immediately surround the DR are the Guild (movie theater), Il Vicino, the Bike Coop, LIfe Dance, Eyeworks, Cardvaark, and the Bookstop. Outside the DR, patrons sit drinking a latte or munching on a sandwich. Passersby emerge from the B ookstop, newly purchased literary treasures in hand, and saunter east a few steps to the DR. They might cross paths with a tattered, monotone-voiced, dirty peddlar extolling the virtues of the latest "Street News." Eyes averted, pedestrians quickly skir t the transient and enter DR. Immediately outside on Central Avenue may sit a classic Studebaker, fronted by a VW classic bug, and followed up by a Beemer.
The Space
Once inside, the pedestrian-turned-customer's senses are assaulted wit h what at first appears to be a cacophony of sound and motion. To the immediate left, customers sit at small tables, occasionally gazing out the large windowed front wall at the menage of people and cars prowling Central avenue. To the right customers s it on a benchlike row of seats behind small square tables. Forward and slightly to the left, a long row of people are lined up alongside a tempting pastry display case. Behind the case, workers take orders and direct customers to meet them at one of the cash registers further down the display. Workers concoct their brew using solid-looking metal equipment, which clicks and whirs in ways which seem to signify that something unique or gourmet is being created.
Forward and to the right, a seem ingly never-ending rack of magazines begins, anchoring the right side of the shop, ultimately taking a right turn and continuing until dead-ending at the far right DR wall. Customers pore over this rack, perusing everything from GQ to Off Our Backs, A Wo men's Newsjournal to New In Chess to Green Egg - Journal of Awakening Earth to Kiplingers to the American Poetry Review. Here, radical left political commentary can peacefully co-exist with decadent materialistic financial advice.
Waiting to give the order, the customer is not likely to be twiddling her or his fingers. Inside the pastry case scrumptious choices are displayed. Blackberry empanadas vie for the customers eye with espresso brownies, key lime pie, and chocolate cream pie. And of course a sign proclaims that "We now have fat-free cream cheese for your bagel." "Today's Specials" are also marked up on a white board for those seeking more substantial fare. Simply interpreting these selections, which might include Petaluna, Chick en Panwi, and Calabacitas Quesadilla, can be an intriguing challenge. If it's morning, the alternative "Breakfast Menu" will offer different possibilities, equally diverse, ranging from Organic Turkey Sausage to a simple Yogurt Parfait.
The wait in line might also be broken up by a surprise greeting from an old friend or classmate, with accompanying hugs and "You look great," observations. Or, the patron might simply consider purchasing one of the two styles of DR shirts displayed on the w all, or reflect upon the flying white seagull hanging from the ceiling.
After contributing the necessary line-time, the customer might expect to run into Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi," but instead discovers friendly, efficient workers who seem to vi ew their job to be a combination food/coffee artist or hip busperson. Picking up the order, the customer turns about-face and finds a large room opening up ahead. The ubiquitous round or square tables, typically customer-filled, begin immediately in fr ont, extending to the end of the room. If the customer moves forward two steps must be negotiated as the large room is entered. To the right of this room is a long, narrow table, with bar stools on either side. This table parallels the magazine rack. At this point, the soon-to-be-coffee- drinker has an option. He or she can enter the "Magazine Hassle-free Zone." where one can read magazines at the table (emphasis for effect) for free. Or head into the larger area or back to the front of the shop wher e one must purchase the magazines prior to reading them. (Reading is always acceptable, of course, as long as one is standing at the magazine rack.)
The noise, which has been constant and intense since entering the coffeehouse, somewhat abate s in the open, spacey area. The music in the background has a distinctive beat, and one wants to tap along. Waiting for an order to arrive can also be interesting. The upright plastic number given also includes comics one can be reading while waiting f or the food to appear. "How to kill 8 hours a day and still keep your job," introduces the cartoons on one card.
Once the food arrives, brought by a smiling waiter ("Enjoy."), the patron has even more to observe. From the ceiling two larg e flying frogs are suspended. On ledges around the shop are numerous sculptures, mostly of animals but some of people. The sculptures are invariably colorful, depicting comical, playful beings. The ceiling is painted to look like the blue and white of clouds. One of the walls has black plastic over it - presumably some painting or other work is in progress. Another wall is painted to look like a wall partially composed of stones. Perhaps more interesting than the physical surroundings, though , are the people surroundings. The general ecology of the place is of continual movement of people in and out, talking to each other, running into each other, sometimes simply pondering, reading, or writing silently. The feel is one of hubbub. Some peo ple are obviously students, highlighting articles with notebooks strewn around. Others are couples of all ages, heads close together, sharing secrets of unknown origin. Often there are groups of three or four people, who may be friends or study groups o r who knows what. People seem to be very deep into all conversations, and accompanying gestures and facial movements parallel the humor or seriousness of the give and take. Joggers or bicyclists (bike seats and helmets in hand) drop in for a quick bite or sip to break their routine. The customer, observing this panoply of people, may discover her or himself observed as well. The interaction between people is almost palpable.
The patron, walking over to refill the now-empty cup with coffeea nd glass with "Chilled Water," notices the clothes of both customers and employees, which reinforce the casual atmosphere. In cold or warm outside weather, shorts can be seen inside. Hats range from baseball caps to stocking caps to berets. Earrings a re sported by men and women alike. Here one sees jogging shorts, there army fatigues, here sweats, there sweaters, here jeans, there t-shirts.
Finishing, the customer stands to leave. If desired, it's possible to"Jump the Line, Second Tim e Around" a sign over the last register proclaims, for those who have second thoughts about dessert, drinks or a magazine purchase. Alternatively choosing to depart, the customer takes the least obstructed path, past the ubiquitous serving line, out the door, and onto old Route 66, satiated with food and drink for the stomach, as well as food for thought.

DOUBLE RAINBOW ON A CROSS

A few years ago, Jane and I were driving down from Angel Fire, NM, and shortly after we left Chimayo we saw this view. Stopping the car and having a camera, gave us this picture. I'm sure we felt and feel blessed by the view and the fortune that befell us. If you feel a need for peace in your life, you may copy this and put it in y our your living room..