Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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I had lunch last month with a fairly large group of family members and friends at a not-inexpensive restaurant in Santa Fe. Collectively, we represented seven or eight households, and most of us had gathered with the idea of picking up our own checks. When we got ready to gather up and leave, however, we learned that one of our group had furtively managed to collect the tab and treat us all. When confronted, our generous benefactor brushed it off, saying, “I try to do a g...
I headed out for an evening walk not too long ago, enjoying one of the last beautiful twilights of 2023. In front of me — to the north — the sky was turning from blue to silver, with nary a cloud in sight. The sun was barely below the horizon over my left shoulder, and I was moving along at a good clip to keep ahead of the chill that was setting in. I was maybe a quarter mile from the house when the universe nudged me to turn around and look back. Behind me, the southern sky...
I heard an item on the radio a couple of weeks ago that said that rather than old-fashioned letters to Santa, some of today’s youth (being much more adept at technology than … say … me) are now using PowerPoint presentations to compile their Christmas gift lists. While this arguably makes for a more efficient shopping experience for Santa, it cuts out an important historic link for our newspapers. For generations, many kids’ letters to Santa have been routed through their c...
If asked to complete the sentence, "It isn't Christmas in New Mexico without...," the first word on my list would be "tamales." These savory corn-husk wrapped packets of deliciousness are tasty year-round (I'll eat a good one any day that I can get my hands on it), but they have a special place in many of our hearts and on our tables come December. I'm a do-it-yourself kinda person, but I learned long ago that one thing that is really worth buying from an expert is ... say it...
Putting on a play in an older structure that was once a movie theater (hence, no back stage or dressing rooms) might be enough to make even the most experienced director exclaim, "Bah, humbug!" But in this case, that experienced director - Christy Mendoza of Clovis - is leaving the "Bah, humbug" line right where it belongs ... as a line for Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' beloved holiday classic, "A Christmas Carol." That's not to say Mendoza hasn't thought it to herself...
There are few things that tug harder at my heartstrings than opening up the boxes of Christmas this time of year. I nearly wrote “Christmas ornaments” in that sentence, but our boxes (and I’m betting yours) contain much more than merely the baubles that will end up on the tree. In fact, they are so saturated with memories that it’s a wonder I have the strength to lift these containers each December. I’m the third of four generations of sentimental packrats who have lived in...
As you tuck into that last plate of leftovers today … or polish off a piece of pumpkin pie for breakfast (my personal favorite) … I’ve got some alarming news: Christmas is coming. And it is coming fast. In fact, we are about to be bowled completely over with events celebrating the Yuletide season in eastern New Mexico, and they won’t stop until everyone’s favorite jolly old elf arrives one month from … yikes … yesterday. Local festivities kick off on Tuesday, so grab a pen and...
I had the opportunity to do some air travel at the end of last month. My journey involved four different planes, including one that was delayed enough to make me miss my scheduled connection, and another that ended up with delay upon delay … upon delay. We’ve all heard horror stories of unruly passengers necessitating emergency landings, or at the very least becoming the subjects of viral videos as they display the absolute worst humanity has to offer. In my four flights — i...
A double dose of family friendly fun is in store for eastern New Mexico theater goers this weekend. Eastern New Mexico University’s Department of Theatre and Digital Filmmaking kicks off the action at 7 p.m. Thursday with its opening night performance of “Bunnicula,” accurately billed as a musical for the whole family. You may be familiar with the lighthearted Bunnicula books by Deborah and James Howe, the first of which was published more than 40 years ago. The musical featu...
Many families have an unofficially designated genealogist, that one person who doggedly slogs through the past, collecting the fragments of information that tell our histories. In my family, it’s my cousin Sherry. I’m not sure how she became the keeper of our story, but she does it well and I am grateful. It was thanks to Sherry — and an unnamed staff member at the Rice County Historical Society in Faribault, Minn., — that I found myself last week standing in a place I’d nev...
A few weather forecasters are predicting our first frost sometime this week. Some say we may barely miss it; others have us dipping enough degrees below that magical line to put an official end to the growing season. For my "garden" (and I use the term loosely), it will be nothing less than a mercy killing. I take some solace in the fact that this last growing season was challenging many in this parched and scorching region. It's true what they say: Misery really does love com...
By my count, there are more than 20 Halloween or fall-themed community events already on the calendar for the next week and a half as we wind down October in eastern New Mexico. The National Retail Foundation estimates that Americans will plunk down a jaw-dropping (and arguably teeth-rotting) $12.2 billion dollars on candy, costumes, and decorations this season. This is all a far cry (or shriek or mournful wail) from the simple celebrations of my youth. I grew up long before...
What do peanuts and greyhounds have in common? Some might argue it’s hard to find commonalities between a humble legume and a willowy canine. We will have plenty of opportunities to look for some this coming week in Portales as Eastern New Mexico University welcomes former Greyhounds back to campus for its 89th Homecoming and the gates are thrown open at the Roosevelt County Fairgrounds for the 50th Peanut Valley Craft and Music Festival. Thanks to technology perfected by a g...
Say what you will about the flat horizons of the High Plains, they offer some of the best skies on earth. I’ve loved our great bowl of sky my whole life, with our unimpeded views of sunrises, sunsets, thunderstorms, rainbows, constellations, and all manner of celestial events. Given all that, one of the wonders that has evaded me is seeing an annular eclipse … that proverbial “ring of fire.” With luck — and some grace from Mother Nature — that will change on Saturday mo...
Oct. 4 On this date ... 1899: News was spreading about the recent murder of a sheep herder outside Portales. Geneologytrails.com provided this account, via the Santa Fe New Mexican: “E. H. Spinks, justice of the peace at Portales, Chaves county, reports the murder of a sheep herder, Perry Eiland, about 18 miles from Portales. “The body was found last Thursday, the murder having been committed at least two days before. “(T)he Sheperd was about 18 years of age and was herdi...
Historians generally agree that our long ago human ancestors engaged in what was known as the hunter-gatherer culture from around 2 million years ago until 11,000 to 12,000 years ago. With the exceptions of small pockets around the world today, most of us are well-settled into agrarian civilizations, depending on complete strangers to keep us fed and clothed. At least that was the case until a few weeks ago, when the hunter-gatherer culture was reborn with new vigor in...
Before there was an Eastern New Mexico University … or an Eastern New Mexico College … or even an Eastern New Mexico Normal School, there was a community that very much wanted an institution of higher learning in its city limits. We are only barely shy of a century after citizens of Portales banded together in “one of the most determined and united drives ever launched in this city,” according to the Feb. 10, 1927, Portales Valley News. That drive had one goal -- “Design...
I suppose if we lived in a place where we regularly had gray, chilly, drizzly days, it would be possible to grow weary of it. But after a summer under the broiler with the temperature gauge turned to “blazing,” the cooler days we had last week were a balm to the soul. When that tenacious high-pressure dome finally released its grip on our world and slid off early in the week, and cool and blessedly damp air moved in on Tuesday, I pivoted right into fall mode. It seemed too...
The temperature was somewhere around 100 degrees the afternoon I met Esther Steinle in a Clovis coffee shop, which had the doors propped open because of a malfunctioning air conditioner. But we had a chillier topic to talk about: upcoming holiday travel. For a group of young men and women who are stationed at Cannon Air Force Base, Steinle is the most visible "angel" in Angel Arms, a ministry overseen by Clovis' Central Baptist Church, which provides tickets for airmen who...
If you are ever fortunate enough to find yourself in possession of an invitation to a 70th high school class reunion, I have one piece of advice: Say yes, and don't miss a minute of it. I speak from experience. On the last Friday in August, I got to be a fly on the wall as most of the remaining members of the Melrose High School class of 1953 met in a Clovis restaurant to celebrate the years they spent together as Buffalos more than seven decades ago. A dozen of the original...
Of all the events that take place each year at the Roosevelt County Fair, there’s something about the Saturday morning pet show that has a special place in my heart. I’m not sure how common pet shows are at county fairs — I did a little internet searching and didn’t come up with a lot of mentions. I didn’t see one on the schedule at Curry County or at Lea County this year. Yet, the Roosevelt County Fair has hosted a pet show as far back as my memory goes, and for most of t...
The Curry County Fair wrapped up this weekend, and the Roosevelt County fairgrounds will soon be all a-bustle with its annual celebration of many of the things that make our counties special. That was all the nudge I needed to head to the archives and take a peek at the Roosevelt County Fair that was on the horizon 100 years ago this month. The Portales Valley News from Aug. 30, 1923, announced the upcoming event with a full-page ad helpfully locating Portales as “three h...
Fifty years ago right about now, the trees of eastern New Mexico were groaning with a record peach crop. Just reading about it made my mouth water. The Portales News-Tribune from Sunday, Aug. 12, 1973, showed Dora farmer A.W. Stolle cradling a branch loaded with Elberta peaches nearing ripeness. “I just don’t know how the frost missed nipping those buds this year,” Stolle told the paper, “but we sneaked by the late cold spells, and we certainly have a peach crop in the mak...
When James and Stephanie Johnston moved from Wichita Falls, Texas, to Portales in December of 2022, they saw the "Welcome to Portales" billboard announcing our community as "home of 17,000 friendly people (and three or four old grouches)." There's only one problem, the Johnstons said. They insist they've yet to meet a single one of those old grouches. Rather, James Johnston said, "Everyone, to a person, has been so welcoming." This gregarious husband/wife duo made the move to...
I’ve yet to see the new “Barbie” movie that has turned the nation pink this summer, with all manner of merchandise available in that unmistakable hue, from corn tortillas (excuse me?) to lawn furniture. This Barbie-mania has brought back memories of my own less-than-traditional encounters with those iconic 11-inch-tall fashion dolls. Mattel’s Barbie was introduced to the world in 1959, only a couple of years before I made my own appearance, so she’s been around my whole lif...
