Motorcycle diaries: 'The Horse on the Sidewalk' an engaging collection of 11 coming-of-age stories

Teenager Gil Wheeler is the likable main protagonist in “The Horse on the Sidewalk,” Baker H. Morrow’s engaging collection of 11 coming-of-age stories.

They’re mostly set on the eastern edge of Albuquerque in the late 1950s, meaning Hoffmantown. In the book, it’s called Huttontown. Gil and his family live in the neighborhood.

Motorcycle diaries: 'The Horse on the Sidewalk' an engaging collection of 11 coming-of-age stories

Gil, who’s in junior high, is a good student, a good friend, a good son … and a good smuggler. In one story, he visits Juárez, buys a bunch of switchblades and sneaks them back across the border.

Gil likes girls, but motorcycles are his real extracurricular interest, and they’re a thematic thread through the book.

Gil works as a newsboy, earning money to pay for a set of wheels. For the time being, he walks.

From the opening lines of the first story, “On the Mesa,” readers see Gil’s attraction to motorcycles: “This guy’s name was Ray, and he had a BSA. I think it was a 2500 cc, but it could have been bigger.

“It made a great sound, and you never saw him going anywhere without his girlfriend Leah on the back.”

That’s a prelude to a scene with Gil and Ray in English class. Ray sits across from Gil and wants to know what book Gil is reading for his report. Gil tells him, “The Voyage of the Beagle.”

Ray hasn’t picked out a book for his report but he knows he doesn’t want to read anything about dogs. (Cue the laughter.)

Ray hasn’t a clue that “The Voyage of the Beagle” is about famous 19th century naturalist Charles Darwin’s five years onboard the ship “The Beagle.”

Annoyed at the boys for talking during “quiet time,” the English teacher, Mrs. Crook, dispatches them to the library to find a book for Ray.

The boys find “The Early Reciprocating Engine: Its Origins and Development in Automobiles and Two-Wheeled Vehicles.” Good luck, Ray.

Ray invites Gil for a weekend ride on his motorcycle. They head up “dusty Candelaria Road” toward Eubank. Then on the mesa to Juan Tabo, “a famous roller coaster road, up and down in continuous rolls, all dirt, and indifferently faded in all seasons.”

This story, as with the others in the collection, has quick-changing scenes with short, snappy dialogue, and simple descriptions of many characters - adults and fellow students - through Gil’s eyes.

Ray, for example, applies La Parot Pomade to his hair, wears Buddy Holly bat-wing glasses, and tries to look like James Dean or Marlon Brando “down to his white T-shirt and black jacket with a bunch of zippers and his black engineer’s boots.”

Gil does have a few, short romantic moments.

A few classmates are tough guys and Gil gets into a couple of fights.

He’s bruised, his glasses fall off, but he stands his ground.

The later stories are longer than the earlier ones and are more engrossing. One favorite of mine is “Two Politicians.”

One of the politicians in the story is Gil, who is elevated to student council president when the underage kid he replaces is taken into custody for being drunk at a loud party.

The other politician is Gil’s dad, a candidate for constable. He loses the race after making headlines that police had taken him in on DWI charges.

The book is an easy, enjoyable read, even if you weren’t around the Albuquerque of 50+ years ago.

The book’s title is the name of the penultimate story. Deke, a fifth grader, is drawing a pony on the sidewalk with colored chalk. More relevant to the story is that Deke eavesdrops well. He tells Gil he knows who stole the front rim and tire off of his newly bought Cushman Eagle motorcycle.

The author occasionally references trees and flowers. Gil compares one girl he likes to “a tall purple iris in the spring, or a bright orange poppy in the summer.”

Morrow knows whereof he writes. He’s the author of the volume “Best Plants for New Mexico Gardens and Landscapes,” teaches landscape architecture at the University of New Mexico and is a retired landscape architect.

The 78-year-old Morrow is a third-generation New Mexican who was born in Albuquerque and lives here.

He wrote two other collections - “Horses Like the Wind,” stories based on his experiences in Somalia when he served in the Peace Corps, and “A Tropical Place Like That,” based on his time in Mexico.