Boys State

I got to go to Boys State in New Mexico in the summer of 1981. The conference is designed to teach student leaders about the government and political process. Actually, it worked about as well as any program that involves a bunch of boys without their parents or any girls around.

At Artesia High School, participants were selected by the students. An election was held, like for Student Council. However, the year I went to Boys State, we didn't have enough boys sign up, so we all got to go. That was a good thing considering I didn't get re-elected to Student Council.

Boys State used to be held at the New Mexico Military Institute every year in Roswell. That meant we didn't have very far to travel. I felt sorry for those who had to come from other parts of the state, including Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Farmington.

Our group from Artesia arrived, checked in and got our T-shirts. We put them on and posed with this horse statue in front of the Sally Port. This was the standard routine for participants every year. After that, we picked up our bags and went to where we each were assigned to go.

The quadrant was split up in four "counties." Each county had two "cities" in them, so there were eight cities. I feel terrible because as I was writing this, I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the "city" in which I resided. I just remember it was on the north end of the quadrant on the left side. I do remember that our county was called "Vargas."

I walked to my city straight from the Sally Port. I arrived to meet the counselors, who were sitting and waiting for everyone to arrive. As I approached them, one of them said, "You're not supposed to be walking on the grass!" I said, "Oh, I'm sorry." Then the other said, "You can't wear that cap!" I thought that this was not a good start. It seemed like that was all they did when anyone arrived was to yell at them to stay off the grass and not wear caps. You'd think they'd give us a list of rules ahead of time so the counselors wouldn't have to make such a bad first impression. They were otherwise nice guys.

And this was probably the number one problem I had with Boys State (and believe me, there were some close seconds): Because it was at the Military Institute, we were all treated like cadets. We had to march in formation and adhere to the rules of the Institute even though class was not in session. Doing some research, they have since moved the event's location to the campus of Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, where I went to college. I can only hope that they dropped the military aspect after moving there.

My counselors told me which room was mine. It was on the second floor. My roommate was this guy from Clovis. He was an Alpha Male. We got along pretty well. I noticed that he had an invitation to be listed in Who's Who Among American High School Students. I wondered what he did that was so special to get that invitation. Then, when I looked in my packet, I saw that I also had an invitation, and it was to be a part of the listing for my junior year. This was great news! I had been wondering how to get listed in there.

We were already put into two political parties, separated by the color on our name tags. The occupants of each room were from different parties. The first afternoon, each city held party meetings to determine who would run for Mayor and City Council. I decided to run for City Council. There were a few of us running for the office and I was lucky enough to get selected for the four slots from our party.

We then held a city meeting to hold the election. My roommate was running for Mayor from the other party. We each got up and made our pitches to the members of the city. My problem was that I was called last to do my presentation for City Council and everybody else had already said all the good stuff. I wasn't left with much material. I didn't get elected. However, I would be able to run for a County or State office if I wanted.

My roommate lost the Mayor's race to the person from the party I belonged to. However, my roommate later told me that he had actually won the race, but the votes were miscounted. I guess he had to decide whether or not he was going to make an issue out of it, which he didn't.

The rest of the first day was cool. We just hung around the quadrant. Guys were meeting other guys and we were enjoying the chance for male bonding and community. I walked all over the quadrant and enjoyed the cool air as the rain was starting to sprinkle.

The next day, all the City Councils met and came up with a list of laws for each city. I don't know why or how this happened, but EVERY single city passed a law making it ILLEGAL for anyone from any other city to set foot in another city. That amazing feeling of community I experienced the first day had completely vanished. People were actually breaking out into fist fights if someone crossed a border. I myself got arrested and put in "jail." This was worse than high school. The really bad part is that this state of laws lasted for the next two days. Eventually, the cities relaxed those laws and we were able to walk about freely again.

When I ran for the County position, a debate was held. One of the questions asked by someone in the audience was what sort of legislation we would introduce. I talked about how I wanted to prevent future Boys States from passing laws that make it illegal to go into each others' towns. I still did not get elected.

I had one more shot. I could not run for state office, but I could run for state party leader. A few of us were running for the position. Several people were aware that the party leaders often got nominated to go to Boys Nation. I got up and started off really good. I got quite a few laughs during the first part of my spiel. However, I ran out of stuff to say and was stuck there with long silences. I should have stopped when I was ahead. However, the guy who won was very charismatic. I really didn't stand a chance.

I didn't really get to do much the remainder of the week. I was subjected to bullying by a couple of twerps. What else is new? I was just glad that I would likely never have to run into them again for the rest of my life.

Friday night, there was a talent show. I decided to play the piano and tell a few jokes, but in the middle of my act, I was forced off the stage by some of the other guys. Later on in the show, a group of guys did this skit that involved someone giving a description of a suspect to a sketch artist. I didn't realize it at the time, but that sketch artist would go on to become one of my all-time best friends after I met him my freshman year of college. His name is Chud and you will learn more about him much later.

So, Boys State just felt like high school. It's hard to believe that most of these guys were supposed to be the leaders of today. I don't think that happened for most of them.

As for my Boys State roommate, I ran into him once more the next year. He was in the choir at Clovis High School and was at Festival. I told him hi. He said, "Oh, I met you at Boys State." He had completely forgotten that we were roommates. It kind of ticked me off. That was the last time I ever saw him. Now, I'm not absolutely certain, but it appears that he has since died. It may have been before 2000 because I was not able to find any information about his death on-line. I only found out about his passing in his grandmother's obituary and he was listed as someone who had preceded her in death.