Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Sometimes it takes a pair of fresh eyes to see things hiding in our own backyards. Or maybe two pairs of fresh eyes. Allow me to introduce you to Sajan KC and Anisha Sapkota. It's possible you've already seen this young husband and wife in our area, cameras in hand, on the hunt for some of our smallest and most beautiful neighbors: butterflies. If you don't think of eastern New Mexico as a particularly good place for spotting butterflies, KC and Sapkota can tell you...
I wrangled an invitation several weeks ago from Brendon Asher, director of Blackwater Draw, to visit the summer archaeology field school at Blackwater Locality 1 between Portales and Clovis. Early on the morning of the last Tuesday of June -and long before the temperature climbed to its afternoon high of 110 degrees - I was at the gate to the site to meet Asher and five of the six students who were enrolled in Eastern New Mexico University's summer class, Anthropology 482/583....
Local historians tell us that during the early 1900s, Roosevelt County boasted more than 100 schools in the tiny communities that sprinkled the Plains like cornmeal. By 1957, that number had dwindled to six districts: Causey, Dora, Elida, Floyd, Portales, and Rogers. In May that year, the Rogers community made the painful decision to shutter the doors on its school with only 62 students remaining on the roster following graduation. By fall, many of those students were at...
Fifty-three pieces of art created by 24 area residents are on display at the Runnels Gallery in the Golden Student Success Center at Eastern New Mexico University. Take it from me: It's worth a visit. Dubbed - fittingly - the Community Art Show, this free exhibit opened June 12 and is the first group exhibition at ENMU by local adults in at least 20 years, according to Bryan Hahn, manager of the gallery and curator of the ENMU Art Collection. "We've struggled over the years...
I’m not a regular follower of sports, but 50 years ago this month I became a rabid horse-racing fan for at least a season. Perhaps you did, too. It was the spring of 1973 when a thoroughbred superstar named Secretariat blazed into the headlines. He’d go on to win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes that year — setting records in all three that still stand — and capturing the first Triple Crown of horse racing in 25 years. My brothers and I grew up in a...
I've been to a lot of funerals and memorial services. It comes with the territory when you live in a small community for a long time. The one for World War II veteran Thomas Vernon "Louie" Long held Thursday on a picture-perfect morning at the Portales Cemetery was one I'll never forget. For one thing, it was performed with full military honors, a moving ritual infused with tradition, beauty, respect, and precision that never fails to bring a lump to my throat. But what...
If you grew up in New Mexico and are my age or older, I would bet money you knew someone who was in the Bataan Death March in World War II. It might have been your dad, your uncle, a neighbor, a friend. Take just two of our counties. Fifty-four service members from Roosevelt County and 87 from Curry County ended up on that horrific march in April of 1942. Nineteen of those from Roosevelt County and 40 from Curry County died then or in the prison camp years that followed in... Full story
You’re probably familiar with the Wright brothers of aviation fame, but Portales had its own Wright brothers, well-known in their time for sadder reasons. Durward Haynes Wright and his younger brother Warren Wright both died during World War II, making their mom, Lillie Mae Wright, a double Gold Star mother, an honor no woman seeks. With Memorial Day on the horizon, it’s a good time to remember this family. You can find the Wright family marker in the Portales Cemetery, a shor...
I have a black coffee maker in my kitchen, which is my first destination every morning. Allow me to clarify. Yes, it makes black coffee, but the coffee maker itself is black, which I mention because the dark color makes it a favored hiding spot of our pesky spring visitors, the miller moths. I don’t need to tell many of you that we’ve been host to a bumper crop of those vile critters this year. Even for a woman like me who keeps her rose-colored glasses on the nightstand so...
Novelists Kathleen M. Rodgers, a Clovis native currently of Colleyville, Texas, and Teddy Jones of Friona, Texas, are scheduled to appear at a double author event from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Portales Public Library, 218 S. Ave. B. Rodgers’ work has appeared in Family Circle Magazine, Military Times, and several anthologies. Her fourth novel, “The Flying Cutterbacks”was named a 2022 New Mexico Press Women Zia Book Award first runner-up and a 2021 WILLA Liter...
A cadre of four-legged teachers named Bart, Newbie, Shag, Target, Smudge, Goober, Patches, Lil, and Cricket are on the hunt for some new students. But there are some catches. To begin with, eight of them are a mix of horses and horse/pony crosses. The ninth – Cricket – is pure pony. The lessons they are ready to teach won't take place in a saddle. And it's free. Allow me to introduce the residents of Abrazos Adventure, the business that since 1999 provided countless folks in...
Most of us old enough to remember the first time humans set foot on the moon -- July 20, 1969 -- have a memory of that day. We know where we were, what we were doing. Tamara Ryan Polich’s recollection has a special twist. “We watched the moon landing in this house,” Polich told me Saturday, “on a television set that our dad built.” Tamara and three of her siblings — Mike Ryan, Marla Ryan Chrisman, and John Ryan — were gathered in the Portales home they grew up in to share stor...
Portales High School drama teacher Melody Gallagher jokes that she recruits and retains drama students with the promise of "afterschool snacks and juice boxes." But in reality, "All jokes aside, this department is thriving because theater is such a positive and inclusive environment for all," Gallagher said. Fifty members of that flourishing PHS drama department are preparing to open their spring musical, "Into the Woods Jr." at 6 p.m. Friday in the Performing Arts Center at...
I heard a timely quote this week from Ira Glass, the host of the National Public Radio show, “This American Life.” “I am optimistic,” Glass said, “even when there is no factual basis for it … at all.” So am I, Mr. Glass, especially as the days grow longer and garden centers start to bustle with those most optimistic of humans: gardeners. The reason this quote resonated with me so much is that I not only don’t have a green thumb, I don’t even have a green fingernail. Flowe...
A life-sized interactive reproduction of Moses' tabernacle of the wilderness is in Portales for a return engagement after being experienced by more than 3,000 locals when it was here in 2015. Central Christian Church at 1528 S. Main St. in Portales is hosting the multi-day event that continues through Sunday, according to Senior Pastor Don Thomas. He said the idea of bringing "The Tabernacle Experience" back to eastern New Mexico was an easier sell this time than it was eight...
In a short-lived fit of spring-cleaning last week, I was dusting a kitchen counter and wiped a layer of accumulated topsoil off of a couple of small wooden boxes that sit in a back corner. These boxes remain on my counter solely for sentimental reasons. They are filled with recipes — many handwritten — from my maternal grandmother, a woman who died in the early 1950s, long before my existence was ever even a consideration, much less a twinkle in anyone’s eye. I never use these...
At the age of 93, and after 3 1/2 years of residency in Wheatfields Estates senior living in Clovis, you might expect someone like Lois Barnes to be living a quiet life of retirement. Perhaps you haven’t met her yet. I learned last summer in our first visit that Barnes is a woman on a mission and she’s looking for recruits. “What made Fort Sumner famous?” she asked me the first time I met her, before quickly providing the answer: “Billy the Kid. Is there any proof of that?...
Roosevelt County's homegrown country music singer/songwriter Will Banister has his eyes set on a big goal: one day appearing on the stage of the Grand Ol' Opry in Nashville, Tenn. But this Friday he happily returns to a closer and more familiar stage, the one at Floyd High School which was "the first place I ever performed with a band," Banister said. And he promises, "It's gonna be fun." After a multi-year hiatus, an evening dubbed "Will Banister and Friends" has been...
It's hard to think of many folks who have had a longer active association with Eastern New Mexico University than Buck Wilson of Portales. From the time he arrived on campus as a sophomore transfer student from the University of New Mexico in 1957 (and except for a few years away for military service and completing a dental degree), Wilson's life has been intertwined with Eastern's. "His nearly 70 years of 'bleeding green' has permanently enshrined Buck Wilson in our Hall of...
Forty years ago this May, I remember standing in a long line on the floor of Greyhound Arena to receive my diploma from Eastern New Mexico University. My dentist — and dear family friend — Buck Wilson was chairman of ENMU’s Board of Regents at the time. With the other regents, he was on stage taking turns passing out diplomas and handshakes. As I inched toward the moment marking the completion of my undergraduate degree, I was a little disappointed to see that a diffe...
On the old television sitcom, “Cheers,” every time the character Norm Peterson walked into the bar “where everybody knows your name,” all the folks in the room turned and shouted, “Norm!” For me, the one place in Portales where that could happen is the tire shop, where I’m definitely one of the regulars. Moments before I sat down to write this, I aired up my third flat in the past few weeks, and my second for the past six days. That is not a personal record. I’ve had, if memor...
A flurry of illness has forced changes for two fine arts productions scheduled this weekend at Eastern New Mexico University, but a third event bringing culture to the High Plains is all-systems-go and opened Tuesday at Enchantment Vineyards. "Opera 101: A Night of Opera Scenes," has been postponed by the ENMU Department of Music. Those who have already purchased tickets will be able to use them when the new dates are announced. Across campus at the University Theatre Center,... Full story
Ours was not a camping family when I was growing up. When high school friends talked about planning weekends to go to “the lake,” I wasn’t even sure where they were going. My dad — who had grown up regularly sleeping outdoors on the ground or in shacks that offered only minimal protection from the elements — always told us he had worked hard his whole life so we wouldn’t have to follow in his footsteps. We stayed in some pretty sketchy motels in our travels, mind you, but we...
At 74, Clovis real estate agent Cherrie Hayden was still listing homes and had no intention of ever retiring - in fact, "she wouldn't have," according to her son, Scott. Hayden died Jan. 25 after some ongoing health challenges took an unexpected turn for the worse, her family said. Her friends and family agree on this: She was a true people person, with a blazing work ethic, a "wicked sense of humor" and a heart that reached out to others in ways that will be forever...
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...
