Clovis cruises on

CLOVIS - Take that, coronavirus.

Though COVID-19 wiped out much of the annual Draggin' Main Festival, it couldn't stop people from cruising down Main Street literally - and Memory Lane figuratively - on Saturday night.

Cars of both the vintage and recent varieties jammed Main Street for the Draggin' Main cruise, so many of them headed southbound that it sometimes felt more like Laggin' Main.

But that was a good thing. Lots of people out in the fresh early-night air, socializing, doing something they're used to doing in June, was a very good thing, especially in a year dominated by news, most of it depressing, about the virus.

Saturday was about fun. Joining in the attendees was lifelong Clovis resident Kerry Hubbell, who watched the parade of cars while sitting in one that looked like it had driven right out of a Beach Boys song and onto the parking lot of Clovis-Carver Public Library.

Hubbell and his wife Kathy had a nice perch, the front seats of their turquoise 1964 Mercury Comet - a convertible with fins in the back, an old-school push-button radio on the dash, and lots more vintage stuff.

"It's got the original motor," Hubbell said. "I just cleaned up the engine compartment, detailed it. All I did to the outside was just add new wheels, made it pop."

Hubbell said his first car was a '53 Ford. He's also had a '66 Mercury Comet and a '68 Mercury Montego.

And for the past 15 years, the '64 Comet, which Hubbell said is not his main ride. He'll take it out here and there, leave it out for two or three days, sometimes even for a trip longer than just to Main Street.

"We go to Ruidoso at least once a year in this," he said.

Probably with a stop or two at the gas pump. The Comet gets about 20 or 21 miles to the gallon.

Sweet ride, though.

Gary Sullivan of Portales thought so as he sauntered up to it, wearing a Beatles Yellow Submarine T-shirt. "When I was in high school," Sullivan said, "there was a good-looking girl with a car like this."

Sullivan, a disabled veteran originally from El Paso, lived in Washington state and Missouri before relocating to Portales to be close to his grandchildren, and also because he didn't care much for Missouri. "Bugs, snakes, chiggers, critters that bite," he said.

Sullivan graduated from high school in 1974, "the year of the streak," he said. Cars have been one of his passions for a long time. He's had a '64 Chevy with 300 horse power. There was a gold '67 Fairlane GTA, a '69 Super Bee.

The classics just kept on coming.

"And I've had quite a few since then," Sullivan said.

Sullivan's ride on Saturday was anything but vintage - a 2000 Chevy Silverado that he just bought, "because my '99 Ford blew up on me."

Nothing wrong with a 2000 Chevy. Though the nostalgia-mobiles stood out more on Main Street, they were outnumbered by cars that appeared to have rolled off 21st-century assembly lines. Newer rides.

"That's the way it was in the '50s, '60s and '70s," Hubbell said. "People brought their mom and dad's car.

"They weren't all hot rods. I thought, 'There are too many new vehicles.' But that's what people have."

Cruise on, folks.