Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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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...
On this date… 1972: The Roosevelt County Fairgrounds was bustling with folks entering exhibits for the annual county fair. County home agent Sheryl Borden said a last-minute ruling to only allow pint-sized jars in the canning competition had caused a bit of an upset with local homemakers, but she reported that the entries of “fancy work, ceramics, and other crafts” had more than doubled from the previous year and had already overflowed the exhibit space. Jack Patton was at th...
On this date… 1972: Paul Davis, owner of Davis Mercantile in Milnesand and a volunteer working to elect Pete Domenici for his first term as a United States Senator from New Mexico, must have been puzzled. The Domenici campaign had scheduled a 15-minute visit to the tiny community in south Roosevelt County for some handshaking and to “tour the village.” But the driver of Domenici’s “travel-trailer-camper” said he didn’t even realize he’d completely missed Milnesand until...
We have one of those weekends on the way that perfectly explains why I love living in eastern New Mexico: a glorious jumble of activities with something for all ages and plenty of diverse interests. Here are a few of the highlights. The action kicks off Thursday at 7 p.m. with a free showing of “Clifford, the Big Red Dog” in one of Portales’ newest venues, 311 Entertainment, easy to find since it’s handily located at 311 South Main Street. The showing is scheduled to be on t...
I was flipping through old newspapers the other day and came across a 1972 Office Center advertisement offering a $5.95 back-to-school special to “bench clean, oil, and make minor repairs, plus install new ribbon on any make portable or standard typewriter.” I have absolutely no idea how one would “bench clean” a typewriter, or even what that means, but it made me realize how long it is has been since I have heard the distinctive clack of a manual typewriter. It was part of th...
Whether you call them “old-timers,” “senior citizens,” “pioneers,” or “golden-agers,” Roosevelt County has a long tradition of honoring its more seasoned residents each year at the county fair. This year is a little more special than usual, according to Karen Inge, vice president of the Pioneers’ Association of Roosevelt County, as it marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of this annual celebration. Instead of the usual two or three pioneer honorees, Inge said the org...
Editor’s note: Betty Williamson is taking a few days off. This column was published in 2019. For a mere 50 cents, I picked up a gem at a recent used book sale — “The Woman You Want to Be: Margery Wilson’s Complete Book of Charm.” First published in 1928, mine is from the 18th printing, released in 1942. It’s filled with timeless tips — timeless, I tell you — on how to be a better person … OK, a better woman … but you men should listen up, too. If you’re hosting the meal at you...
For 52 years in a quiet house on South Avenue F in Portales, Teri Blakeley has been dispensing love to generations of children left in her care. A week from Friday, she'll be bidding those tots and their parents farewell as she officially closes a daycare that has helped raise countless small Portalesanos. "I always said God would tell me when it was time to quit," Blakeley told me when I dropped by for a visit a few weeks ago. "God has been telling me for the last few months...
In a world that often seems to focus on the loudest voice or the most outrageous claim, it has been immensely heartwarming this week to see the outpouring of love for the passing of a Portales man who was remembered with words like these: Kind. Gentle. Humble. Someone who found the good in everyone he met. Thankfully, Bill Wood, who died July 27 at the age of 85, met a lot of us along the way. Even if you weren’t fortunate enough to know him, odds are you’ve seen him at a pian...
Portales’ own New York Times bestselling author Darynda Jones will be at the Portales Public Library at 5:30 p.m. Thursday to talk about her work, visit with fans, and sign books. She’s going to have to work hard to top her first appearance at the library 11 years ago, a packed event that ended with a surprise reunion and happy tears all around. A little background is in order. Darynda Jones’ first two books — “First Grave on the Right” and “Second Grave on the Left” — came...
A couple of weeks ago I had an email from Lynda (Gray) Moore of Portales inviting me to attend an upcoming reunion for the Rogers school. “We have had around 13 reunions that began in the late 1970s,” Moore wrote, “and we have had great times.” But, she added, “We have lost quite a few of our group since the last reunion,” and there was a good chance “this will likely be the last one.” I happily joined the 50 or so folks who gathered Saturday in the air-conditioned...
Roosevelt County’s Heritage Days celebration scheduled for this weekend got me to wondering about its origins, the “heritage” of Heritage Days, as it were. It took some looking — as well as a few texts with Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce Director Karl Terry and emails with Regina Bouley-Sweeten at Eastern New Mexico University’s Golden Library — to find the dates of the first one, but we did: May 24-26, 1985. I learned that Sandi Usrey — now Sandi Bergman—was m...
I had an email a few weeks ago from a man named Larry Richardson who mentioned a long-time connection he had to the old Portales News-Tribune, a favorite aunt of his. “She was probably before your time,” Richardson wrote, “but you may have heard of her…Georgiana Cooper. She actually published a book from the many public interest columns she wrote.” Not only had I heard of her, but I remembered her well, as do many others in this community, I’m sure. Richardson said his fa...
"Disaster preparedness" might not be on your summer fun list, but the members of the Greyhound Amateur Radio Club would like to change your mind on that, and provide some entertainment at the same time. Jesse Morgan, public information officer for the Portales-based group, invites us to drop by Calvary Baptist Church at 1101 W. 18th Street in Portales between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday for what his club is calling a disaster preparedness event. The come-and go-format...
Any way you measure it, eastern New Mexico is a long day's drive away from the nearest beach. But that hasn't stopped Clovis-Carver Public Library and the Portales Public Library from diving into "Oceans of Possibilities," the shared theme for the 2022 summer reading programs that kicked off early this month, and continue through the end of July. Both libraries have packed their summer calendars with activities and events that appeal to a wide range of ages, from storytimes...
A good many years ago, I was visiting a friend at his house and offered to move a load of freshly laundered clothing from his washer to his dryer. I asked where the lint trap was located so I could empty it before starting a new load. His response: “What’s a lint trap?” Suffice it to say, the fact that his dryer had never burst into flames would clearly qualify as a miracle. I gave him no small amount of grief for the oversight. After all, who wouldn’t know to empty a dryer li...
I suppose it was inevitable. As I made the drive from Portales to Clovis last week on US 70, I noticed the cleanup was complete of the fire-ravaged building that once housed the Blackwater Draw Museum. That part I had expected. It was the removal of the remains of two nearby structures that tugged at my heart: the adobe “caretaker’s cottage” and the “bathhouse,” the last relics of the old Eastern New Mexico State Park. I might never have even heard of Eastern New Mexico State...
