Doors and windows, it has always seemed to me, are more than just conduits between here and there. They represent possibilities; options. Although we may be very happy being "here," it's always interesting to know what's happening "there," which is why people like to look out windows and stand in doorways.

• COUNTY: Grant
• LOCATION:  37 miles southeast of Lordsburg, where NM 9 and NM 81 meet
• POST OFFICE:  1882-present
• NAME ORIGIN:  Named for the "Little Hatchet" mountains nearby
• GNIS Info & Map

     Hachita is a place of many doors. Some were open, and had been for a long time, as these pictures show. Others were closed (it was Saturday, after all). Still others were half-open and half-closed, which I think sums up the feelings of many of the residents of Hachita toward the rest of the world. 

       When you live in a place that's (and this is admittedly subjective on my part) somewhat removed from any larger metropolitan area, you do so for a reason. Some people prefer their privacy over the convenience of first-run movies and Lot-A-Burgers. That's the half-closed part. Yet, Hachita has plenty of satellite dishes, an interstate fewer than twenty miles away, and even an offhanded wave for the occasional visitor. So the door's not fully open, and there's no welcome mat, but someone did leave the light on.