Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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I was at church on a July Sunday a few years back when a friend came up and whispered to me furtively, “The pizzas should be ready Thursday.” I’ll be honest: I didn’t hear much of the sermon that day because I was baffled. Was she speaking in code? Was I missing a key piece of information? Well, yes, it turned out, I was. I’m a notoriously bad listener, and this friend was alerting me to the fact that the PEACHES that were practically breaking the branches of her trees that ye...
The recent observance of National Dairy Month may have left you thirsty for an icy cold glass of milk. As for me, my appreciation of the good stuff came from a childhood of drinking Starlac. If that name doesn’t send a shiver down your spine, please allow me to explain. Starlac was what passed for “milk” (and the quotation marks are justified) at our house. A product of the Borden Foods Company, it was marketed as “nonfat dry milk solids” or “dry skim milk.” It was a staple of...
One of eastern New Mexico's oldest community service organizations is facing a daunting challenge, according to its president, and is inviting all of us to help brainstorm a solution. The Portales Woman's Club was organized in 1903, six years before Portales was officially incorporated as a city. Since 1932, it has met in the distinctive beige and turquoise New Mexico territorial-style building at 309 W. First St. that is emblazoned with the group's name. "We've served the...
If the yucca wasn’t already New Mexico’s state flower, its show-stopping display this year would be a good argument for designating it as such. Those tall and distinctive stalks filled with lush cream-colored blossoms have been downright breathtaking this season, adorning our roadways in every direction for more than a month. I wondered how this drought-hardy staple came to symbolize our state. Turns out, it almost didn’t. A scroll back through newspaper archives revea...
With Curry County’s Pioneer Days celebration in the books and Roosevelt County set to celebrate its Heritage Days this weekend, I can’t help but think of those folks who settled eastern New Mexico and wonder what they’d make of our annual festivities. My grandparents rolled into this area by covered wagon in 1915. “Pa” and “Ma” (my elders believed in sparse, utilitarian titles) went broke in Pecos, Texas, before loading up their three young kids, hitching up the horses, and r...
The loss of her own rescue dog a year ago led Linda Sumption to the cement building at 1700 N. Boston in Portales that houses the cats, dogs, kittens, and puppies picked up each day by Portales Animal Control. "I wanted to do something to improve the lives of abandoned dogs and cats in our community," Sumption said. An English professor at Eastern New Mexico University, Sumption is one of a dedicated corps of local people who devote their hearts, their time, and their spare...
You forget how quiet a house can be until the electricity goes off. It was a fairly regular occurrence when I was a kid, but we’re far more likely to have a quick blink or two these days, and even those are few and far between. (I hope I have not jinxed myself into a summer of interrupted service by committing those words to print.) When those tornadic winds ripped through Roosevelt County on Sunday evening, they took out a lot of power poles. Plenty of folks faced significant...
I have a slender bound volume that — judging by quality — is probably a copy of a copy of a copy. The silver letters on the red tape that covers the spine read, “SERVICE MANUAL Roosevelt County, NM 1941-45.” It may be as complete a listing as exists of the men and women from our county who served in the armed forces during World War II. To me, it is priceless. Each page honors 10 locals who went to war in the 1940s. There is a grainy 11.2 x 2-inch photo for each person,...
Portales' first skyscraper - in my lifetime known as the Plains Hotel and the Portales Inn, but sadly empty since the 1990s - recently received an extensive renovation. It has reopened as the Best Western Plus Portales Inn at 223 W. Second St. We're all invited to a grand opening celebration from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday hosted by the Roosevelt County Community Development Corporation and Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce. With all due respect, they'll have trouble...
You probably know the African proverb about how it takes a village to raise a child. The Kanmore family of Portales might argue that it takes a community to save one. They're in a position to know. They returned home on April 25 after a three-month long journey none of them ever expected to take - one that has left them with nothing but gratitude for the people who supported them along the way. • • • Late on the afternoon of Jan. 31, Brittany Kanmore was heading home from clas...
When an upcoming weekend is as busy as this one (seriously, check out the events calendar for the next few days), I especially appreciate a two-for-one opportunity. The Roosevelt General Hospital Foundation and Eastern New Mexico University’s Department of Theater and Digital Filmmaking are teaming up to offer just that. The Pulitzer-prize winning play, “Wit,” by Margaret Edson opens at 7 p.m. Thursday on the Main Stage of the University Theater Center, and $2 of each of the $...
The recent expansion and renovation at Central Christian Church in Portales turned up an unexpected time capsule of sorts, and an even more unexpected connection with the pastor who blessed it almost 61 years ago. Don Thomas is the current pastor of the church at 1528 S. Main Ave. in Portales, which had its official grand re-opening earlier this month after a high-tech, energy efficient makeover. Thomas said early in the remodeling process he realized that the addition of a...
In case you happened to miss it, a week ago today was Siblings Day. I dug out a childhood photo of my brothers and me on our pony, Peanuts, in honor of the occasion, and it took me on a bumpy trip down memory lane. My brothers and I don’t agree on everything, but we are unanimous on this: If you want to abuse your children, get them a pony. I was too young to remember exactly how Peanuts came into our life. I do know we were not his first family, because by the time he a...
For more than 650 families in Curry and Roosevelt counties with baseball-loving kids, Saturday was opening day for the 2019 Little League season. It was also a day filled with more than a little sentiment for one couple with deep connections to eastern New Mexico and the game of baseball. "I love the smell of the grass, I love the crack of the bat, I love a called third strike, and I love the strategy of the game," said Logan White, who may be one of the most successful former...
No one says farewell to one of their own more beautifully than the community of first responders - the firefighters, police officers, and paramedics who see front-line action on a daily basis. Now, thanks to a Clovis paramedic with a high-flying drone and a flair for film-making, those poignant services are being preserved in touching videos that capture those impressive ceremonies. If you have access to the internet, you may have seen recent video tributes from the funeral...
March is wrapping up with a crazy busy weekend. Here’s a list of items you may need to help you get through a handful of the scheduled events: 1. A tiara 2. Dancing boots 3. Work gloves and canned goods 4. A fishing pole 5. A thinking cap Ready? Portales High School has invited all of us to come to the ball as it presents its spring musical, “Cinderella,” for four performances beginning at 6 p.m. Friday in the PHS Performing Arts Center at 201 S. Knoxville. “Tiaras are enc...
If you’ve never heard of “cowboy polo,” you’re not alone. “Just imagine two four-man teams … cowboys or anyone … on horseback, with brooms trying to hit a beach ball into a goal.” That’s how Mark Clark, one of the co-chairs of Relay for Life of Eastern New Mexico, described it to me. “I don’t think there have been too many people that have seen this sort of thing,” Clark said. That changes at 7 p.m. Friday when the “Gone, But Not Forgotten” Cowboy Polo Tournament twists, tur...
Two people you'll want to meet are arriving in eastern New Mexico this week to spend the remainder of March in our area. They're sharing their love of photography, writing, and poetry through a series of events in Portales and Clovis. Don Mitchell and Ruth Thompson call Hilo, Hawaii, their home, but they are returning for their third visit since 2012 to the High Plains, this time as the Jack Williamson Endowed Chairs in Science and Humanities at Eastern New Mexico University....
During the decades that Grady Bright managed the Melrose Grain Elevator, he was such a fixture at the place that many local people called it "Grady's," instead of its real name. That was only one of the jobs he held during his lifetime in this rural community. "Papaw was everything," his granddaughter Julie Bright said. He filed daily reports to the National Weather Service for more than a half-century, farmed, helped folks with their taxes, worked for the post office, was...
The fine arts folks at Eastern New Mexico University have quite a weekend in store for us: an eerie play by a hometown playwright, a poignant musical about the Titanic, and an afternoon of music from the symphonic band and wind ensembles. Portales native Leonard Madrid’s play, “Las Aranas” (“The Spiders”) opens Thursday for a four-show run on the main stage in the University Theater Center. High school students at ENMU’s annual DramaFest got a sneak peek last week, and t...
I have three words for this weekend: chili, brisket, music. Chili and brisket are the main courses at two food-based fundraisers (my favorite kind) on tap for our area. The Kiwanis Club of Portales has been dishing up its “heart-healthy” chili for more than half a century. Volunteers will be tying on aprons in the kitchen in Portales’ First United Methodist Church, 200 S. Ave. C, Friday afternoon making the late George Calton’s recipe for the 55th time. Stop by the church...
If you're on the hunt for a sweetheart this Valentine's week, here's an idea: Visit a local nursing home or senior resident center. Those places are packed with them. Take Sarabel Hall Key, for instance. A couple of months past her 97th birthday, Key lives at the Beehive Home in Portales, where I found her holding court at the piano Saturday morning as she often does. Her good friend Kenny Reed had dropped by with his mandolin. The two of them kept a small, but exceedingly...
Fifty years ago - in the early spring of 1969 - Jackie Cooper Ingle was a freshman at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, an elementary education major from Kenna who happened to be an avid Greyhound basketball fan. She was not alone. "I remember the lines to get into the arena wrapped around the complex," she said. "The gym was packed; every seat was taken with standing room only. You didn't dare go get popcorn or you would lose your seat. The team and the games were...
With basketball season in full swing, it’s also homecoming time for a number of local schools. Dora and Melrose welcome alumni home Friday; Elida follows on Feb. 8. When I hear the word “homecoming,” I’m launched back in time and think of two things: chicken wire and paper napkins. If you do, too, chances are you are my age or older and attended a small school. I’m unsure who deserves the credit for the idea that festive décor could be crafted from chicken wire stapled on...
Two years apart — almost to the day — eastern New Mexico lost two women who might well be the last of their breed. Marie Roberson of Portales died Jan. 14 at age 91; Tillie Shaw of Clovis passed on Jan. 18, 2017, at age 99. Here’s one way I’d heard them described: Roberson was Roosevelt County’s Tillie Shaw, and Shaw was Curry County’s Marie Roberson. Had I been making the journey west 200 years ago, they are two women I’d have wanted on my wagon train. Marie Roberson and Till...
