Albuquerque, New Mexico, a city astride a great river, celebrates its teicentennial with thirty of its most colourful citizens sharing in their own words memories of a place and time after the second world war, when a modern city's character and landscape were being shaped. Stop in for a meal at Duran's Pharmacy, Wander down Central to the corner of First, the city's historic centre. Visit the creaky memories of Old Town and smell the coffee in Las Barelas. Stroll the winding street of Martinez Town or thrill to a rise in a hot-air balloon at the State Fair. Nob Hill in the south-east heights, circa 1940, imagined itself out of the desert scrub. By 1950 housing subdivisions began to crawl toward the Sandias, and downtown saw its heyday along with the inevitability of its decline. Preservation and conservation found their way onto the city stage, and today a revitalisation movement has breathed new life into old town and downtown.