Stalking Jessica Lange On The Streets of Santa Fe

We could have become great friends.

Portrait of Jessica Lange (1949-) by diChroma Photography on Wikimedia Commons. Lange won Oscars for her work in Tootsie and Blue Sky, with nominations for Frances, Country, Sweet Dreams, and Music Box. Her Primetime Emmy Awards include her performances in Grey Gardens and American Horror Story. She also has a Tony from the Broadway revival of Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

My most interesting year ever had to be 1982. After six years in academia, I’d had enough. But leaving college for the real world was daunting, especially during a recession.

College was safe, and that’s why I stayed so long. I had a great job as the advertising director at the school’s daily student newspaper, but once you left college, you had to leave the paper.

Fortunately, I had a plan.

I spent most of my breaks in my then-hometown of Ventura, California, and I usually drove home from Nebraska. On my last winter break, I stopped in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for an interview at the city’s alternative newspaper, The Santa Fe Reporter. Advertising was my major and all I had worked for, and I was a fan of the liberal press.

I got the job, packed up my car with as much stuff as possible, including my cat, Sidney Sheldon, and began my career in an unlikely place. It was May, 1982.

The Plaza in Santa Fe is a gathering point, a place to meet someone and a place for people watching. Photo by MARELBU on Wikimedia Commons.

I’ve always been a fan of dark movies. Films that leave you unsettled and often don’t have happy endings.