Abandoned and Forlorn

Ramah is a neat and tidy little town that I absolutely love! Mormon towns that I have been to usually have a neat and orderly look to them. A drive around Ramah will reveal pleasant, tree-lined residential streets and well cared for homes and yards. It is sort of an anomaly in this part of New Mexico in which the majority of the area's towns have a "rough-and-tumble" appearance to them.
  On my most recent visit to Ramah, I noticed a new high school, actually a combination high school and middle school, had been built. I am not sure how old it is, but it was built after 2003, my last visit. The football stadium next to it predates the high school by a few years. The current Mustang Stadium opened for the fall 2002 football season.  It was built at the foot of a mesa a mile south of town next to a dirt road. The last time I was in Ramah, I saw the new stadium. It took me awhile to find it because I had assumed it was built in town, but, finally, I saw the light poles of the new stadium and drove towards them.
 After this stadium was built, the old stadium in town became a practice field. When the Ramah Mustangs played in the old stadium, they had to play in the afternoon because it didn't have any lights. Also, at the time, the Mustangs played 6-man football instead of the conventional 11-man  game. In New Mexico, 6-man football is for schools with 75 students or less. A 6-man football field is shorter and narrower than a regular football field. A regular football field is 100 yards long and 53 yards wide. A 6-man football field is only 80 yards long and 40 yards wide. When it came time to make the move up to 11-man football, there was no room to lengthen or widen the field in the old stadium. It was designed for 6-man football and there was no room for expansion, so a new stadium was built. The old stadium only had stands on one side of the field because, on the other side, there is only about five feet of space between the sideline and the chain link fence that parallels the street, barely enough room for the team to stand. The current stadium is also one-sided, meaning it only has stands on one side, but it was designed that way. There is room to put stands on the other side, but the scoreboard would have to be moved if they do.
  In November of 2001, I watched the last game played in the old Mustang Stadium and it was a classic! It was the state championship game for 6-man football and the Ramah Mustangs beat the
Lake Arthur Panthers 101-76!  6-man football has a tendency to get extremely high scoring although breaking 100 points is not very common. Since I lived in Arizona at the time and Ramah is only about 35 miles from the Arizona border and I am a sports nut (college and high school sports), I decided to attend the game. I spent that night in a motel in Gallup, about 50 miles northwest of Ramah.
  On my most recent trip to Ramah about three weeks ago, I  noticed that the old high school is just sitting there abandoned. It seems like such a waste that it is just sitting there abandoned like that. Seems like they could at least use it for a middle school. The tennis courts now have knee-high weeds growing up through cracks in the surface. For the most part, the tennis courts seem to be in playable condition. The old football stadium is just sitting there, abandoned and forlorn. Even after it became simply a practice field, the grandstands and scoreboard were left in place. I don't know what the reason for this was, but, when I was in Ramah recently, I noticed that the grandstands are scoreboard are still standing, ten years after the last game was played in the stadium. The old Mustang Stadium has recently taken on an abandoned and forlorn appearance. There is a tree growing up through the metal bleachers now, finding its way to sunlight by twisting and turning between two rows of bleachers. Another small tree, or sapling, has taken root on the football field, near midfield. Both trees are growing in silence in an abandoned stadium that used to be filled with grunts, cheers and screams on Saturday afternoons in the not-to-distant past. The grass on the former football field is now mostly weeds of several different varieties. I took a few photos of the abandoned stadium, but I was disappointed when I saw them because the shots look like I was farther away than I was. I could not discern the tree growing up through the bleachers of the sapling that has taken root on the football field.
  The parking lot at the old high school is starting to be reclaimed by weeds although the parking space stripes are still readily apparent.  The windows of the school are boarded up. I would like to have taken a peek inside the gym. I am guessing that it is still fully intact, albeit in an unmaintained condition, because of the way the just walked away from the football stadium and tennis courts. I am guessing they just locked the doors and walked away. It is a poignant scene.
  Meanwhile, the gleaming new high school must be about five or six years old, although it looks brand new. Judging by the condition of the field at the old stadium, it is obvious that the team has not practiced on it in quite some time. Also, with the unkempt appearance of the old high school, it is definitely not a recent abandonment.
  The road to the new stadium and new high school is no longer a dirt road. It is now paved, although the pavement ends a short distance south of the current football stadium.