Portales teen: Bowling alley would be nice

PORTALES — So how do you like Portales?

We asked area teens to assess the community’s pros and cons.

A few responses:

Madisyn Purcell said she’d like to see “a bowling alley or two.”

Purcell, 16, said there wasn’t much for a teen to do in town, noted that wasn’t always a bad thing.

“At a fast food place, there’s not much people here, so you can find a job easier. There’s not as many kids in your school, so it’s not as crowded,” she said.

Monte Foster, 17, said he wants to leave Portales as soon as he graduates.

Foster likes Portales for the ranching community, but said the drug problem is the chief reason he would like to live elsewhere.

“I want to be a gunsmith. I just don’t see myself coming back here, because I don’t want to open a gun business in Portales because of that,” he said.

Adan Gomez, 16, articulated his satisfaction with Portales with an answer that was echoed by several of his peers: “It’s not too big of a town, not too small.”

Another proponent of the “not too big” line of thinking, Corey Parmer, 17, said the city has less value without a movie theater, but does have advantages.

“It’s not small like Texico but it’s not big like Lubbock or Clovis. I don’t really drive yet, so everything’s in walking distance,” he said, adding that he would rather live somewhere else in the future because of “more career chances, things to do somewhere else.”

Derek Gonzales, 17, said he’s torn on whether to stay in Portales after high school.

“Yes, because all my friends are here. No, because it’s kind of boring,” he said.

The small size of Portales, however, can make planning one’s day much easier, according to Gonzales.

“You can go the store and you can talk to like six people. That’s the whole day planned right there,” he said.

After living in Portales since he was 8, 17-year-old Brandon Renteria couldn’t score his home any less than an 8 1/2 out of 10.

Renteria, who is leaving to Dallas to study music production after he graduates, had one gripe about Portales: A lack of opportunities.

“If you want to do something, someone’s already gonna know someone that does that, so it’s not really open, I guess, for opportunities,” he said.