The cruise is on

CLOVIS - There will be a Draggin' Main celebration this year, but what kind of event will it be?

Concerts and nostalgia are usually the main entrées. But this is a most unusual year because of COVID-19, so the concerts are out. Organizers will try to squeeze in as much nostalgia as they can, with as much socializing as a still largely socially distant culture will allow.

The Main Street Cruise is on, starting at 5 p.m. Saturday. That's it as far as anything official.

"We're only going to be doing the cruise on Saturday," festival committee member Gene Porter said Monday night.

Unofficially, some of Clovis' restaurants that regularly participate in Draggin' Main are continuing the tradition.

"(They) have taken it upon themselves to kind of do their own little thing," Porter said. "We're not officially sponsoring or endorsing those. ... They're inviting classic hot rods."

The private gatherings began Monday night, Porter said.

"At this point," he said, "it's kind of a rumor mill for me. I found out that Foxy did a little thing (Monday night), and I suspect that Taco Box and Twin Cronnie will do something, as well as those of our Clovis classic restaurants, what we call Clovis famous. I suspect the restaurants will follow suit with what Foxy did (Monday night)."

Porter said he stopped by Foxy's on Monday night, "and there was a decent amount of cars; it wasn't real crowded.

"We weren't allowed in the restaurant. I don't think there was a single time there was a group of more than five people. It seemed like the (state's social-distancing) rules were being followed for the most part.

"There were some very nice cars there (Monday night), and people were walking around looking at those. Most of them were a husband-wife duo, boyfriend-girlfriend-type thing; they were together."

As for the one official Draggin' Main event, Saturday's cruise, Porter is hopeful that safety will be on people's minds.

"Everything that's mandated by the state is going to be expected," he said. "Who enforces those, obviously it's not Draggin' Main; we're not an enforcement entity. That's up to whomever the state deems to deal with that."

There may be some attendees who don't adhere to the rules.

"I guess with the history of mankind that would be a pretty safe assumption," Porter said. "Of course we hope that they will abide by the rules, but our hands are pretty tied. We hope that they do the right thing, and we've started to encourage them, we'll continue to encourage them, to do the right thing."