Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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This is my 441st and final column for The Eastern New Mexico News. I have moved and am stepping aside as a “local columnist” to repurpose my keyboard for other endeavors. The first is a parody of “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” I’m calling “Jonathan Livingston the Gullible.” Although some readers have told me where I’m going to spend eternity, most have been supportive. Whether they showered me with bricks or bouquets, my sincere thank you to all. Now, some final thoughts:... Full story
I have been volunteering with the Workers Defense Project (WDP) in Dallas. The membership-based organization empowers low-income workers to “achieve fair employment through education, direct services, organizing and strategic partnerships.” Recently, I attended a Dallas City Council meeting as a WDP photographer. About 20 members from various organizations attended to support sick pay for low-wage workers who work sick or don’t get paid. One presenter explained sick leave was...
I recently joined a fitness center to try to extend whatever years I have left — although I’m not sure what it matters (other than survival instinct). Even if I avoid diseases, accidents and violence causing my demise tomorrow, I’ll still be dead infinitely longer than I existed. As I was exiting the fitness center one day, a black woman with three daughters told them if they ran through the door “I am going to knock the white out of you.” I speculated it may have been a co...
Recently, I attended the Weed Bluegrass Festival in the mountains south of Cloudcroft. Weed’s population of 60 swelled to 500 for the event, including a couple I knew from Elida. Mitch Hibbard, whom I’d interviewed for a preview article about the event for “Enchantment Magazine,” and I met for the first time and visited like old friends. Despite my reputation as a rock-and-roll party animal, I enjoy rock, pop, reggae, country, bluegrass, blues, jazz, zydeco, even a little...
Acquired from the last Portales Public Library sale for a quarter, my book-of-the-month summary for July is “1,001 Reasons to Love America” by Hubert Pedroli and Mary Tiegreen (Stewart, Tahori & Chang, 2004, 320 pages). Excerpts: • Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation • The women’s suffrage movement giving women the right to vote • The Statue of Liberty welcoming visitors to America since 1886 • The Federal Hall National Memorial in New York City where freedom of the press wa...
Garage sales have replaced barbershops for visiting. After recently digging through closets, cabinets and outside storage for one, I gathered enough stuff to help put Sears out of business. Neighbors Claude, Vickie and Gary Jaramillo not only loaned muscle power and tables, but were my first customers. Even though they were just being neighborly, their early purchases ensured my sale would not be a total bust. Beforehand, I asked my niece and garage sale veteran Carol Meeking...
Since Clovis and Portales sometimes fall short of July 4 fundraising goals, they could take a page from Levelland, Texas — a Portales-size town 30 miles southwest of Lubbock. In Levelland — ironically, the home of the Portales Peanut Company — Chance, my 14-year-old lethargic lab/wiener godson, lives a well-fed life despite being expelled from obedience school. At his behest, I inquired about city-sponsored fireworks. There were none, so we resigned ourselves to telev...
Robert Gilbert, who attended Portales schools from the sixth grade until moving to Roswell his senior year in 1970 and spent his career as a professional drummer, recently moved back to Portales. In high school he drummed with “Rainy Day Children,” which included Cam and Stan Campbell, Bill Aguirri and Kirby Rowan. Recently, he shared some prose, poetry really, with me about his memories of growing up on the High Plains. Rather than mess with the emotional rhythm of his words...
Purchased for a quarter at the last Portales Public Library book sale, my book-of-the-month summary for June is “How the Body Works: 100 Ways Parents and Kids Can Share the Miracle of the Human Body” by Steve Parker (Reader’s Digest Books, 1994, 192 pages). The large, glossy book, packed with color photos, comes with easy-to-follow exercises using household products parents can use to help their kids understand the body’s processes. Excerpts: • The body is an incredibl...
Here is my latest sermon to butter up my flock at The Podcast Church for Couch Potatoes — where I am the Minister of Defense Against Little White Lies and Great Big Whoppers. To avoid interfering with tee-offs, tip-offs, brush-offs and shove-offs, I keep sermons under three minutes — depending on members’ listening speed. I am not trying to poach anyone Don Jr. style, but if you have never heard me preach, I am happy to share today’s sermon with non-member couch potatoe...
Because of his own experiences with suicide, Portales resident Jim Lee is trying to spare others from its devastating aftermath. His father, a World War II veteran, committed suicide at 46, and Lee attempted it as a teen. “My father’s suicide caused guilt because I wasn’t there to prevent it,” said the Army infantry veteran. “I wondered what signs indicated his depression and what snapped when he put the rifle to his chest. What could have been done and why wasn’t it done?” T...
With my lightning-quick moves in basketball shorts, the only task more stressful for 32-year-old Carl Smith than guarding me in jeans is being a 911 dispatcher. Working for Portales Communications, a city entity, he sees the worst and best of humanity. Handling calls from suicide threats to homicides to fatal accidents, it is the “compassion and professionalism” of first responders who allow him to see the best of humanity. “I’m proud that everyone I work with does their best to ensure that our community gets the help th... Full story
Checked out from the Portales Public Library, my book-of-the-month summary for May is “The New Quotable Woman,” edited by Elaine Partnow (Meridian, 1992, 714 pages). Excerpts: • “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” — Frida Kahlo (1910-1954) • “There appears to be a strange propensity in human nature to torment itself, and as if the physical inconvenience with which we are surrounded in this world of ours were not enough, we go forth constantly in search of me...
On May 24, 1989, the Portales News-Tribune ran an article I wrote about Portales biology professor Bob Taylor refuting an article in Interview magazine about eastern New Mexico turning into a dust bowl by 2020. Author Greg Goldin had written, “Farmers of west Texas, western Nebraska and eastern New Mexico will run out of water early in the next century. And when they do, their lands will blow away in the next great dust bowl. These farming regions will have depleted their wate...
When I interviewed retired Clovis High School Band Director Norvil Howell a few months ago for a feature, his wife, Elaine, joined us. She was such a delight, I realized she needed her own spotlight. When he met his wife, Norvil Howell was a Republican. But “Momma (Elaine) taught me the error of my ways. I transferred over to being a Democrat because I wanted to keep peace in the family,” he said. Now, meet Elaine Howell in her own words: “I’m more liberal-minded and didn’t... Full story
With the rare exception of using song titles a little too salty for Sunday newspaper reader sensibilities — in which case he gently suggests an effective alternative — my editor has never reined me in or told me what to write. In the late 1990s, I wrote a column for him when he was the regional editor at the Amarillo newspaper. Although I have a general idea of his politics and am sure he sometimes or often disagrees with mine, he has never censored my opinions. When I see com...
Checked out from the Portales Public Library, my book-of-the-month summary for April is “The Tell: The Little Clues That Reveal Big Truths About Who We Are” by Matthew Hertenstein (2013, Basic Books, 268 pages). The book examines our perceptions of others based on fleeting exposure to them or their photos. Although generalizations, studies find: • People who look others in the eye and speak clearly, quickly and moderately loud are more intelligent. • Observers accurat...
Today marks another completion of my yearly 584,020,178-mile orbit around the sun. Among those sharing the ride were four fellow travelers I recently encountered during a slightly shorter 17-day, 4,162-mile, seven-state sojourn on the third rock from the sun. At a Cracker Barrel in Amarillo, an elderly gentleman noticed Spooky, a former fellow Navy spy, and I admiring antiques. He told us about a restaurant that changed its name to “Granny’s Got One.” The name derived from... Full story
I took at least 1,000 photos during my recent 17-day, 4,162-mile journey with Spooky, a fellow Navy spy, stretching from New Mexico to North Carolina. States included New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina. Since I don’t have the poetic chops to describe the desolate desert and rocky-cliff-framed beauty of the West nor the lush river-framed towering-tree majesty of the South, I will simply share a few memories. In Red River I saw a...
Submitted from Charlotte, North Carolina, here is a condensed version of my travelogue of an in-progress trip stretching from Taos to the Tar Heel state. After a 43-year break, a fellow Navy spook (spy) on Guam from 1974 contacted me in June through Facebook. Because of the nature of our duties I cannot reveal their identity but will call them “Spooky.” After 10 months of social media cloak-and-dagger shadow boxing to make sure neither had professionally pursued our amateur vo...
Stephen Hawking, who died on March 14 at 76, and I had one thing in common: Many do not understand what we are talking about. In his case, it was because of brilliance; in mine it’s because of a crazy voice in my head telling me what the majority believes on unprovable topics does not make it convincing unless the preponderance of the evidence is on their side. Hawking, an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author, suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease. His 76 yea...
This concludes my three-part series of looking back at eight years of columns. Today I focus on reflections and meditations I’ve written. • “Every time I feel the wind coming down and see the stars stretching up toward where life began, I know Dallan Sanders is speeding through the universe on the wings of the next dimension.” • “Like a rooster crowing, the sound of my blind neighbor’s mower awakened enough guilt in us to redeem our own machines from winter sleep for tha...
As part two of a three-part retrospective of eight years of column writing, here are excerpts of a few of my attempts at humor: • “I forgot my twin sister’s birthday.” • “The greatest fiction I’ve ever written is my resume.” • “Ever since Ruth left me I’ve been ruthless.” • “I know gay couples make you uneasy, but wouldn’t you be better off with a good man who can cook than any of your previous wives?” • “I tried smelling the roses, but they scratched my nose.” • “A reali...
For the eighth anniversary of this column (this time around), I am looking back at my greatest hits. And, by hits, I mean mobster — not Billboard top-40. Hits covered in the three-part series will be: 1. Caustic 2. Humorous and 3. Reflective. Here are some of the caustic things I have written: • “What does ‘God Bless America’ actually mean? How I would admire the intellectual courage of one politician admitting they are just using a reflexive, coded valediction to appeal to...
According to Time.com, 66 percent of Americans support stricter gun regulations. Support for universal background checks, a mandatory waiting period and an assault weapon ban came in at 97, 83 and 67 percent, respectively. Nevertheless, common-sense laws will be difficult to enact as long as money from the National Rifle Association keeps pouring into coffers of politicians and trickling down into students’ coffins. It’s boring and redundant for a native east Texan who gre...
