In search of a teen hangout
Gone are the old jukebox joints, drive-ins and bowling alleys that once entertained Santa Fe teenagers. But is there really ‘nothing to do’ today?
“I n those days, we didn’t have ballpoint pens, we had fountain pens,” said 77-year-old Frances Porterfield, recalling the time from her teenage years when she first met the boy who would later become her husband — a St. Michael’s High School football player who had broken his arm and asked her to sign his cast.
“So I signed it … and the ink spilled all over,” she said, laughing as if it were yesterday. “So he never forgot me.”
The afternoon the two shared together in the 1950s may not be yesterday anymore, but the place it occurred still remains — the corner of Burro Alley and West San Francisco Street. The actual business on that corner no longer exists, but it’s what Porterfield and her high school friends used to call the “Rathole” — a 1950s after-school hangout with a soda fountain and jukebox.
Yup, sipping milkshakes and putting coins in the jukebox to play favorite tunes so you could maybe dance were all the rage for teens then.
The “Rathole” isn’t the only place from Porterfield’s youth that is no longer around. According to Porterfield, teens also used to pass the time by doing things like bowling at Coronado Lanes — a bowling alley on Cordova that is now home to The New Baking Co. — or hiding friends in trunks of cars to watch movies at the Pueblo and Yucca drive-in theaters on Cerrillos Road (also popular date spots, along with the other four traditional theaters that were in town).
What happened to the teen hangouts, the drugstores, the old drive-ins, the bowling alleys and the many movie theaters that entertained and amused teens? Perhaps the absence of these once-beloved places led to the rise of many Santa Fe teens’ complaints that there is “nothing to do” in the city — but, at the same time, those sentiments aren’t necessarily new either.
“There really wasn’t much to do,” said Santa Fe High School Principal Carl Marano, a Santa Fe native who graduated from Santa Fe High in 1989. “It really hasn’t changed. … There’s nowhere to go — just the mall, the movies and downtown. This city is definitely geared more toward the adults.”
Has there really always been “nothing to do” for young people in Santa Fe? Frank Montaño, a 14th-generation New Mexican and St. Michael’s alumnus who is in his early 60s, doesn’t think so. Montaño, whose Fiesta Tours company now provides guided vehicular tours of Santa Fe, said, “There were certainly things to do.”
He recalled spending his free time watching Horsemen-Demon rivalry games along with the rest of the city at Sweeney Gymnasium (now the Santa Fe Community Convention Center) or Magers Field (now Fort Marcy park), participating in extracurricular activities like student council, cruising around town in fixed-up cars, or hanging out with friends at bonfires and drive-in restaurants like Ingram’s and Henry’s Hamburgers on Cerrillos Road.
Montaño said it actually seems like there’s a lot more for kids to do now because of the Genoveva Chavez Community Center and new bicycle paths, skateboard parks and illuminated basketball courts — activities, he said, that weren’t available to kids like him when he was in high school in the 1960s and ’70s.
But, he said, he can also understand why teens today complain. “I think that when you’re that age, that you can get bored real easy … if you don’t look for something to do.”
Of course, teens today can always turn to technology for something to do, but Montaño thinks that a big cause of boredom is the new generation’s dependence on technology. “You don’t look for anything to do because you’re busy on your phones,” he said. “People used to interact a lot more when I was growing up. I mean we actually talked to each other.”
Of course, Santa Fe was much smaller then, and teens found a way to get around on foot, which in itself could provide adventure and exercise.
“Very few kids had cars,” Porterfield said. “I know you could buy a car for $25, and because the boys were so interested in fixing them up, they had cars, but nobody at Loretto really did. … We walked everywhere.”
This year’s mayoral candidates repeatedly addressed the issue of keeping teens engaged and giving them “something to do” so that perhaps they would stay in the city and contribute to the community. Marano said he worries that some teens might turn to drugs or drinking if there aren’t enough options. “It’s definitely something our community really needs to look into,” he said, advocating for options like under-21 dance and concert places, cafes with Wi-Fi, more recreational facilities or an amusement park.
“[But we need to] get young people’s voices, [and hear] what [they] would like to see here,” he said, suggesting youth-oriented forums to solidify new ideas. “I think they need to be part of the solution.”
Porterfield also thinks more could be done and said the city could benefit from creating something like a miniature golf course or a bigger skating rink, or opening a bowling alley or drive-in movie theater like the ones she and her friends enjoyed in their youth.
Like all Santa Feans who have lived in the area a long time, Porterfield has seen her share of changes — whether that be the Plaza shifting from a popular shopping and teen hangout area in the city’s pre-mall days to a tourist attraction full of galleries. But she recognizes that the things she did as a teen searching for fun in her hometown were still just ordinary.
“We were typical kids, you know?” she said. “God only knows what else we did. I can’t remember, thank goodness.”