Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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My friend Janet, who knows I love both words and birds, texted me an interesting “word of the day” last week: “seatherny.” Pronounced “seth-er-nee,” it is purportedly “the serenity one feels when listening to the chirping of birds.” Whether or not this is a real word (it appears in plenty of online memes, but I’ve failed to find it in a more legitimate source like, say, a dictionary), there is no question that one does feel serene when listening to birds. Or at least I do. Th...
I began with the best of intentions. There was a carton of sour cream that had somehow glued itself to a shelf in my refrigerator. (If it appears I am trying to completely dodge any responsibility for what follows, you are a quick study.) I tugged and pulled and pried and couldn’t budge the darned thing. Never suspecting disaster was moments ahead, I cleared the shelf of all of the remaining detritus. I even tossed out a few things, which isn’t easy for the daughter of Dep...
When February offers up no fewer than four fetching food fundraisers, what’s a food fundraiser fanatic to do but fork over the facts? The festivities kick off this Saturday when the Clovis Noonday Kiwanis Club will be flipping flapjacks for its 71st annual Pancake Day that runs from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Clovis High School cafeteria. The menu includes pancakes, sage sausage, milk, juice, and coffee. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for children ages 4-10. Tots 3 and under ca...
As I’m writing this, the wind is howling outside my window and forecasters are predicting we could get some measurable precipitation this week in the form of snow or ice or that delicious sounding “wintry mix.” It’s the kind of week that makes me grateful for the science of meteorology. Our pioneer grandparents and great-grandparents didn’t have the advantage we have of knowing when weather events were on the horizon or sometimes more importantly, knowing when they’d be...
Sometimes, quite by accident, you stumble across a most extraordinary life story. That happened to me this week. The folks at Portales High School were looking to complete a list of former superintendents and were missing part of the name of one of the first people to hold down that job. They knew a “Mr. Skinner” had been the third superintendent of the school, occupying the post from 1904-1906. They had first names — or at least initials — for all of the others who held th...
We are members of a species that not too many years ago spent a lot more time outside in the presence of one another, whether it was sipping tea on a front porch or taking evening strolls around the neighborhood. Today, it’s pretty rare for us to walk more than a few blocks, and even more unusual to have the opportunity to do so “in community,” but both Clovis and Portales will be marking the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday with commemorative marches. Clovi...
Whether he was competing in an Ironman triathlon, flying a fighter jet, or teaching advanced placement physics to Clovis high school students, Carl Armstrong was all in. "He never did anything he didn't do well," according to Mona Lee Norman-Armstrong, who was married to him for 44 years. His sudden and unexpected death on Dec. 4 at the age of 68 left a hole in many lives, including area triathletes and legions of students he taught in physics and chemistry classes at Clovis...
The last days of December are a good time to reflect on life lessons. Here’s one of mine from a while back. A friend had been to our house for some event — probably a branding — and the interaction led to a need for me to swing by her house a few days later to pick up some papers. What exactly the papers were isn’t important to the story (plus, I can’t remember). What is germane to this anecdote is that my friend told me she wouldn’t be home when I came by, but that her ba...
The sun dips below the horizon at 4:46 p.m. this winter solstice evening, and rises again — 14 hours and nine minutes later — at 6:55 a.m. Thursday For two local pastors, this “longest night” seems a fitting time to acknowledge that the holiday season is sometimes long and dark as well, and feelings of sadness, grief, and loss also deserve acknowledgement. Vito Monteblanco, senior pastor of the Portales Church of the Nazarene, and Damon Stalvey, pastor of First United Methodi...
In the summer of 1970, between my third- and fourth-grade years, I got my first pair of eyeglasses. They were the “cat-eye” style which, according to my old yearbooks, was quite the rage at the time. My far-sighted father and near-sighted mother somehow had the perfect genetics to create offspring who would all require glasses from an early age. My gratitude for the invention of eyeglasses began the moment I propped the first pair on my nose for the trip home from the eye doct...
Fiercely independent. Stubborn. Adventurous. Warm and loving. Ornery and cantankerous. That's how the family of Karen Jean Stanley Ranger described their mother and grandmother, who died in Clovis on Nov. 5, a few days after her 78th birthday. Locals may remember her as the wife and partner of the late Frank Stanley, her first husband who preceded her in death in 1988. It was the Air Force that brought Karen and Frank Stanley to Clovis, according to their daughter, District Ju...
As we plunge into the hustle and bustle of holiday events and the annual procuring of gifts, I’m happy to remind you of one issue you don’t need to fret about: The challenge of successfully completing a long-distance call on Christmas Day. Drop back a few decades (OK, maybe several decades) and it was a different story. In December of 1965, in fact, Mountain States Telephone Company took the precaution of asking the Portales News-Tribune to share the concern with its readers,...
It’s time to polish off that last sliver of pumpkin pie and get ready for a quick pivot into the Christmas season in eastern New Mexico. Local holiday festivities kick off at 6 p.m. Thursday with Portales’ Little Miss Merry Christmas pageant in the Jake Lopez Building at 705 E. Lime St. This is a new location for the Chamber of Commerce event that serves as an annual fundraiser for the white Christmas lights that brighten Portales businesses each winter. A tradition that has...
As we approach the 401st anniversary of the celebration of Thanksgiving, I consulted a panel of local experts for some insight into the holiday: 10 second graders at Dora Consolidated Schools. I visited this enthusiastic crew in their classroom last week, where they had plenty of wisdom to offer on why we celebrate this day and how to prepare some of their favorite foods, even as it turned out - unbelievably to me - they all swore they had never seen or even heard of Macy's...
I had one of those experiences on Saturday where I thought I was going out to support a few friends in an endeavor, but then the tables turned, and I was the one who got to walk away with the prize. The scene was Hooks’ bowling alley in Clovis, and the occasion was the state competition for the Special Olympics tenpins title. Special Olympics competitions begin, as one might expect, with traditional opening ceremonies — an athlete carrying a torch and the singing of “Th...
Settling into a theater seat as the houselights dim and a performance gets under way – that’s one of my favorite places to be. If you’re a theater junkie, too, I have good news: Two local productions are scheduled to take place this month in Portales. One is a revenge comedy that cleverly deals with a tough topic; the second is a lighthearted parody perfect for all ages. The revenge comedy — “Exit, Pursued by a Bear” by Lauren Gunderson — opens Thursday for a four-day run...
I learned a new phrase recently from my niece who is trained as a social worker: “Unconditional positive regard.” Therapists and social workers know the concept well. It’s the idea that no matter what they might hear from a client, they will continue to treat that client with (say it with me) unconditional positive regard. I love that notion because while I didn’t have those exact words for it, it’s pretty much how I barrel through life. Whoever the person and whatever...
For 86 years there has been at least one member of the Morgan family selling real estate in Portales, but come Monday, that will no longer be true. Hubert Morgan, Jr. — known to many as “Scoot” — holds the last family license and it expires at the end of the month. “I’m done,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed it. I’m not tired of it. I just can’t keep up.” Morgan, who turned 80 in September, said he didn’t grow up intending to be a Realtor, but he’d been around it all of his life....
A few weeks ago, I was wading through old newspaper archives — one of my favorite pastimes — when I came across an essay written by Gordon Greaves in honor of his 50th anniversary of working as a journalist. By May 24, 1981, Greaves had been the editor of the Portales News-Tribune for decades. In the piece, he shared the story of his “first official assignment.” Greaves graduated from Portales High School in May of 1931. Within days, his editor-father J.G. Greaves propose...
We could all learn some lessons from the folks who volunteer for our community fire departments. One of the best is the concept of “mutual aid.” Paul Luscombe, chief of the Dora Fire Department, defines it officially as this: “A joint powers agreement between departments which states that we will come to the other’s aid if requested on any kind of call.” Kellie Bilbrey, a longtime volunteer with the Milnesand Fire Department, concurs. “Mutual aid for us is the knowledge that w...
Whether you've driven past it once, or a thousand times, you have almost certainly noticed the cream-colored walls and red clay-tiled roof of a Spanish colonial-style villa on the south side of U.S. 70 between Portales and Clovis. If you're a fan of Norteño music, you likely know it's the home base of one of the best known and most enduring Norteño bands, Los Huracanes del Norte. But you may not know that tucked behind the graceful walls, manicured lawns, and lush apple o...
In a week when a hurricane has been dominating the news, I've been spending time learning about some hurricanes in our own back yard. Eight of them, if you're counting. The ones I am talking about are members of the renowned Norteño band, Los Huracanes del Norte, which is headquartered in a striking Spanish colonial-style compound on US 70 seven miles northeast of Portales. Jose Guadalupe Garcia, who goes by Lupillo or Lupe, graciously spent an afternoon recently telling me mo...
As Eastern New Mexico University welcomes its alumni family to Portales for homecoming this weekend, I find myself remembering my own days as a Greyhound. They included -- from day one -- memorable encounters with the one and only Dallan Sanders, often at his beautiful home just south of campus. Sanders was the director of housing when I arrived in 1979, one of the first and friendliest faces new students met as we straggled onto campus. The home he shared with his wife,...
When Nadiya Borys arrived in Portales from Ukraine at the beginning of this year on the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program, she fully expected to complete a semester as a junior at Portales High School, then fly back home in June. But, as she says rather simply, "Stuff happened." If you watch the news even on occasion, you know what that "stuff" was. After all, as Nadiya said, the only two things most Americans know about Ukraine is "Chernobyl ... and the war." Because of...
While Great Britain and much of the world has focused this week on the death of a monarch, it was a loss much closer to home that has been in many hearts in eastern New Mexico, that of former longtime Dora School Superintendent Guy Luscombe. Luscombe died Friday in Portales at the age of 94. His funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at (where else?) the Guy Luscombe Gymnasium in Dora, the building whose construction he oversaw 50 years ago, and which was christened with hi...
