Apologies

Salomé with the head of John the Baptist - Aubrey Beardsley, 1894

I consider myself a bit of an impressionist writer, at least with my travel blogs. I try to paint a rather rough picture and don't always stay within the lines, even add verbiage with little semblance with reality when I feel that it is called for.

And as we all know, I am prone to hyperbole and exaggeration, especially if it furthers a feeling and a good story.

I received this letter yesterday from a good friend and was set back on my heels a bit.

Hi there, well my grandparents lived their productive lives in Salome and grandfather worked the Santa Fe railroads building them across Arizona and my grandmother was the town nurse, only woman to own an explosives business( on what’s my line on tv) and they owned many gas stations up and down that hell hole road to Wickenburg… I think my grandfather was also the County Supervisor- lots of my interesting history in that desert with nothing….my dad, grandparents and uncle are all buried in Wickenberg…

Ps - none of them were drug addicts (lol)

I felt terrible for demeaning my friend's ancestral homeland in my blog, especially since I was mostly kidding around.

I have always wondered about the people who lived in places like Salome, Baghdad, Ludlow and Amboy.

The truth is that I don't know very many of them and have no right to make such gross judgements. Maybe they are merely people like me who can't stand compression (or authority) and needed to find a place to escape?

I am sure that Salome and Aguila are full of wonderful hardworking people and always have been. I wasn't being serious. My friend laughed off my apology but I still feel kind of bad.