Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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A popular piece of advice for writers is to write about what you know. But writing about what you know can be extremely painful when you’ve been affected by the destructive demon of methamphetamine . Crank. Ice. Chalk. Tweek. Nose candy. There are many ways to label this man-made drug, but the effects are all the same. And the many stories that I’ve heard over the past month-and-half are all the same, too, painfully familiar accounts of people losing their jobs, homes, cars, businesses, savings, friends and loved ones bec...
A popular piece of advice for writers is to write about what you know. But writing about what you know can be extremely painful when you’ve been affected by the destructive demon of methamphetamine. Crank. Ice. Chalk. Tweek. Nose candy. There are many ways to label this man-made drug, but the effects are all the same. And the many stories that I’ve heard over the past month-and-half are all the same, too, painfully familiar accounts of people losing their jobs, homes, cars, businesses, savings, friends and loved ones bec...
Freedom Newspapers: Helena Rodriguez Paul Hunton of Portales works on footage on his computer he is compiling for a documentary, “Cranked Out Clowns.” Editor’s note: This is the third in a three-part series dealing with the effects of methamphetamine addiction and its growing impact on local communities. Paul Hunton wants people who watch his video documentary to walk away disgusted. And if they don’t, “Then something is wrong with them.” Hunton, a 2006 graduate of Eastern New Mexico University in Portales with a degree in b...
Editor’s note: This is the third in a three-part series dealing with the effects of methamphetamine addiction and its growing impact on local communities. Paul Hunton wants people who watch his video documentary to walk away disgusted. And if they don’t, “Then something is wrong with them.” Hunton, a 2006 graduate of Eastern New Mexico University in Portales with a degree in broadcast production, is raising funds while shooting footage for his film project, “Cranked Out Clowns.” It is a documentary that will address the...
Freedom Newspapers: Helena Rodriguez Sheila Savitz, left, visits the grave of her son, Rob, in Portales Cemetery with her daughter, Amanda Ziegler. A copy of Rob’s last letter, “My Sad Story,” is embedded in the gravestone for all to read. The letter is as a warning to would-be meth users. Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series on methamphetamine, a manmade chemical, and its growing impact on local communities. At the southeast corner of Portales Cemetery is a granite headstone with a letter titled “My Sad...
Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series on methamphetamine, a manmade chemical, and its growing impact on local communities. At the southeast corner of Portales Cemetery is a granite headstone with a letter titled, “My Sad Story,” embedded on the surface for visitors and passers-by to read. Robert E. Savitz wrote the letter two months before taking his own life Sept. 14, 2006, at the age of 27. After staying clean from methamphetamine for four years, he relapsed and was facing a nine-year prison sente...
Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series dealing with the growing problem and unique challenges posed by addiction to the manmade chemical of methamphetamine. Meth, which is said to be mostly a “small-town America problem,” is being attributed locally as a reason for increased crime and calls for help. Since Meth Watch began in 2005 in New Mexico, area law enforcement officials are not getting many calls about potential methamphetamine manufacturers. They are getting many calls, however, from people conce...
Staff ilustration: Sharna Johnson Portales’ police captain says calls are pouring in from people worried about loved ones addicted to methamphetamine. Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series dealing with the growing problem and unique challenges posed by addiction to the manmade chemical of methamphetamine. Meth, which is said to be mostly a “small-town America problem,” is being attributed locally as a reason for increased crime and calls for help. Since Meth Watch began in 2005 in New Mexico, area law enf...
Before the month is over, I must write about how popular the name Julio is in my family. My dad is named Julio. His favorite uncle was named Julio and he has cousins named Julio. Many males born in July on my father’s side of the family are named Julio. In case you have not figured it out yet, Julio means July in Spanish. If my daughter, Laura, had been a male, I would have named her Julio, too. Laura will turn 17 on Sunday. She was born one day after my dad’s birthday, which is Saturday. Happy Birthday Dad! Feliz cum...
CNJ staff photo: Helena Rodriguez Sara McClain, front, and Stephanie Jamison answer telephones for American Medical Alert. The new Business Enterprise Center is now open for business at 105 E. Grand Ave. Located inside of the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce and Clovis Industrial Development Corp. building, the center houses a welcome center, Chamber and CIDC offices, a new retail store, 24-hour visitors’ center and a business incubator on the second floor in which incoming businesses can set up temporary residency w...
I’m enjoying teaching a multicultural history class through the Upward Bound program at Eastern New Mexico University this summer. But it’s chilling that history seems to be repeating itself. My class is a six-week course for college-bound high school students, which focuses on Native American, African American and Mexican American/Hispanic cultural contributions to U.S. history. As we began our final section on African Americans, I have an unsettling feeling. We will be talking about the historic 1954 Brown vs. Board of Edu...
I’m enjoying teaching a multicultural history class through the Upward Bound program at Eastern New Mexico University this summer. But it’s chilling that history seems to be repeating itself. My class is a six-week course for college-bound high school students, which focuses on Native American, African American and Mexican American/Hispanic cultural contributions to U.S. history. As we began our final section on African Americans, I have an unsettling feeling. We will be talking about the historic 1954 Brown vs. Board of Edu...
Hispanic comedian George Lopez jokes about abuelitas who keep track of time by the order of their favorite TV programs. For example, abuelita says, “When Judge Judy is over, that’s when I take my medicine.” The summer days of my childhood also operated around TV time for many years. I remember Grandma Emma perched upon her Lazy Boy chair, never missing “The Edge of Night” and “Price is Right” on those hot summer days. When I would walk past her and see the sands in the hour glass sifting down on the TV screen as her favorite...
Hispanic comedian George Lopez jokes about abuelitas who keep track of time by the order of their favorite TV programs. For example, abuelita says, “When Judge Judy is over, that’s when I take my medicine.” The summer days of my childhood also operated around TV time for many years. I remember Grandma Emma perched upon her Lazy Boy chair, never missing “The Edge of Night” and “Price is Right” on those hot summer days. When I would walk past her and see the sands in the hour glass sifting down on the TV screen as her favorite...
Let the rejection begin. I recently began looking for a full-time job in the academic arena, which I can hold while continuing work on a second master’s degree in English, and voila, I’ve received my first rejection letter. It reads: “While your skills are certainly impressive, we have decided to hire another candidate for the position.” Apparently my “impressive" skills weren’t impressive enough. But that’s OK. Sometimes I think job applicants should write rejection letters to people who interview them, too. They would re...
Let the rejection begin. I recently began looking for a full-time job in the academic arena, which I can hold while continuing work on a second master’s degree in English, and voila, I’ve received my first rejection letter. It reads: “While your skills are certainly impressive, we have decided to hire another candidate for the position.” Apparently my “impressive" skills weren’t impressive enough. But that’s OK. Sometimes I think job applicants should write rejection letters to people who interview them, too. They would re...
I don’t get a real vacation this summer because I don’t have a real job ... yet. But when I did have one, I remember how hard it was to get away from work completely. I always remember what it was like going back to work on Monday morning, in bad need of a vacation from my vacation. My vacation was usually getting away for a few days and then trying to get things checked off of my to-do list, which I couldn’t get done during a normal work week. Being a graduate student, even when I did get a bit of a vacation this year,...
Staff photo: Andy DeLisle The Curry County Mounted Patrol ride horses Saturday in the Pioneer Days parade on Main Street. Lifelong Clovis resident Misty Albright never misses a Pioneer Days parade. With this year being the centennial celebration, her family was out in full force Saturday to cheer on her grandfather, Boyd Trull, and cousin, Bryce Clark, who were riding on a pioneer tractor in the procession that meandered down Main Street. Albright attended the parade with her 72-year-old grandmother, Betty Lou Thompson...
CNJ file photo Parade chairman John Montano says that this year’s parade will be one of the longest. First-, second- and third-place trophies will be awarded in each parade category. Expect to see a 1963 Coca-Cola Cadillac, a three-star general and a record amount of entries in Saturday’s Pioneer Days parade. In addition, there will be a fly-over prior to the parade featuring four F-16 jets. “Honoring Our Past” is the theme for the 2007 Pioneer Days celebration, which is also celebrating the city’s 100th anniversa...
Expect to see a 1963 Coca-Cola Cadillac, a three-star general and a record amount of entries in Saturday’s Pioneer Days parade in Clovis. In addition, there will be an fly-over prior to the parade featuring four F-16 jets. “Honoring Our Past” is the theme for the 2007 Pioneer Days celebration, which is also celebrating Clovis’ 100th anniversary. “I’ve got 65 entries so far; that is a record amount,” parade chairman John Montano said Wednesday. Thursday was the deadline and he knew he had “ a bunch more coming in so we are lo...
John Trambley believes he was called to the priesthood over several years in which God worked through those around him. The 41-year-old Iowa native is spending the summer helping out at St. Helen Catholic Church in Portales after completing his second year at a seminary school in Connecticut. Since he has three more years of studying to do before becoming a fully ordained priest, he cannot perform official priest duties yet, such as presiding over a Mass or administering sacraments. Instead, Trambley said he is basically doin...
CNJ staff photo: Helena Rodriguez John Trambley, a second-year seminarian, is spending the summer in a priestly internship at St. Helen Catholic Church in Portales, learning firsthand about his future career as a man of the cloth. John Trambley believes he was called to the priesthood over several years in which God worked through those around him. The 41-year-old Iowa native is spending the summer helping out at St. Helen Catholic Church in Portales after completing his second year at a seminary school in Connecticut. Since...
“I think I’ll miss you most of all, Scarecrow.” Those are the words my mom said to my 5-year-old niece, Marissa, as she hugged her goodbye when my sister Julie moved her family to Odessa, Texas, in April. Since then, Mom has referred to Marissa as her little scarecrow and that got my daughter Laura and myself arguing recently. True, we could have debated the war in Iraq, immigration, or got into some exciting, hot-button teen verses mom issue, like dating or summer curfews. The issue at hand, however, was this term “scar...
CNJ staff photo: Andy DeLisle Deanna Coffman cleans out her files as she prepares for retirement from teaching art, photography and ceramics at Clovis High School. Coffman also taught in several other school districts in New Mexico and Texas. When school bells rang a few weeks ago signaling the end of the school year, it also signaled a new beginning for retiring Clovis High art teacher Deanna Coffman. After spending more than three decades trying to instill in youth an appreciation for art, she now hopes to spend more time...
CNJ staff photo: Andy DeLisle From left, Alice Pierce, Nancy Barnes, Lala Barnes, Lueja Clark and Wilma Whitener of the Pleasant Hill Women's Club hold an 1930s membership list that included 38 members. The club currently has 12 active and two inactive members. PLEASANT HILL — The Pleasant Hill Woman’s Club was formed in the 1920s to provide wives of farmers with a social outlet. But times have changed in this small community north of Clovis. An increasing shift from small, family-owned farms to commercial operations, mor...
