If someone sends the previous Artesia card to you (the worst Artesia card ever), perhaps you'll get lucky and this one will get sent to you as well– and you can discover exactly what the Abo Underground School is.

Or I could just tell you.

If we blow up the building (I mean the picture of the building, not the building itself), we can get a better look at the sign. Even though the Art Deco-ish letters are blurry, I think I can just make them out: "ABO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND FALLOUT SHELTER".

I'm pretty sure that's what it says, mostly because that's what's printed on the back of the card, too.

"Abo Elementary School and Fallout Shelter "– has kind of a jarring ring to it, doesn't it? It's kind of like "St. John's Lutheran Church and Grill". Just doesn't seem quite right.

But it is what it is: Elementary School and Fallout Shelter.

I don't know much, but I know this: it would stink to be a 4th grader in Artesia. Nuclear holocaust and you still have to go to school.

As a parent, what do you tell your 1st Grader the night before her first day of school at Abo Underground? "Honey, your school is underground because that's where we'll all go when the Godless commies decide to drop a big nuclear bomb on Artesia, burning everything from here to Carlsbad to a crisp. Sleep tight."

Let's see what we can learn from the back of the card:

ABO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND FALLOUT SHELTER
Artesia, New Mexico
Artesia's forward look is in evidence on this new underground school and fallout shelter. Built with School and Federal Funds it is the first bombproof school. It is self contained with lighting, water and air purification systems, and stocked with food in case of attack. These buildings are entrance ways to the school which is all underground. The playground with grass, bushes, and shrubbery is on top of the school.

Well, that pretty much tells the story. I have to say, though, that jungle gyms and swing sets are better playground features than bushes and shrubbery.

Not a lot of information to be found online about Abo Underground School, other than the fact that it was the first underground school built in America, and was completed in 1976.

I wonder if there was a second underground school built in America...