THE PAST 100 YEARS

From The Santa Fe New Mexican: May 17, 1918: The new city government has made a new start in street improvement and we have hopes. But to start with, the most important thing to be eliminated is the “manana” policy. For two weeks, nearly, Palace Avenue in the block in front of the post office has been littered with rubbish in the trail of the moving city hall. One man could clean this up in an hour. We are making this suggestion because we know it will be welcomed and acted on and to point out what has always been one of the principal evils in the city administration here — the practices of waiting till tomorrow.

May 17, 1968: Several busloads of participants in the Poor People’s March are scheduled to arrive in Santa Fe from Albuquerque about 1:15 p.m. Saturday. Preston Monongye, worker for the campaign in the area, said he expects a turnout of close to 1,000 people at the State Capitol Building.

May 17, 1993: Santa Fe High School senior Kate Noble had fun at the prom in the past — except for a couple of minor inconveniences, like the time her date locked the keys in the van. “I had to drive a big, funky van in my prom dress, in my get-up. It was a real pain,” Kate said.

That’s the way it used to be. This year was different. Sure, Kate and five of her classmates wanted Saturday to be a night to remember. But they wanted it to be fun, not a test.

They didn’t want to spend a bunch of money. They didn’t want the tension of a big date — the pressure to behave like the perfect date, the tension from being with a boy who watches your every move. They decided to go stag to their senior prom.