That was probably a very cool time to be at Sandia. And yes, the critters are still out and about. I was out by the rocket sled track just the other day.
Once a month we'd have to take our food in a lead box, and all convoy out into the desert somewhere for our worst case scenario practice.
For cheap entertainment, I remember they'd give us kids geiger counters, and set us loose on a big pile of rocks. We were supposed to pick out the ones that made the geiger counter do a continuous click/buzz.
And I think the movie theater on base was about fifteen cents. Saturday was when you'd see the next installment of hop a long Cassidy or some cowboy, and some movie tone news thing before the regular feature.
LOL, I didn't even think about it, but you could ride your bikes to the movie theater on base, and you didn't have to worry anyone was going to steal it. It really was a whole different world back then..The films they'd show us at school, assuring us if we got nuked, we'd all be okay if we put our heads under our desks, and drank water from the toilet tank, and ate our lead box food.
We were living there when some reporter flew over Monsanto Mtn, and did some expose about the "hollowed out mountain". I remember all the adults being very mad about that.