Looking back at the 'heritage' of Heritage Days

Roosevelt County’s Heritage Days celebration scheduled for this weekend got me to wondering about its origins, the “heritage” of Heritage Days, as it were. 

It took some looking — as well as a few texts with Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce Director Karl Terry and emails with Regina Bouley-Sweeten at Eastern New Mexico University’s Golden Library — to find the dates of the first one, but we did: May 24-26, 1985. 

 I learned that Sandi Usrey — now Sandi Bergman—was manager of the Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce that year. 

A former local broadcaster and currently owner of MyMediaBroker and RadioTVDeals, Bergman said she has nothing but fond memories of that first Heritage Days. 

 “That was one of the most fun times of my life,” she said. 

“The big story was how enthusiastic the chamber board was to get that event started,” Bergman said. “Buck Bigler was president — I believe Karyl Lyne was the chair of the first event. We looked all around at other communities doing this — like Pioneer Days in Clovis — and we thought we needed one.” 

Bergman said it was Lyne who coined the name “Heritage Days” early in the planning stages of exploring a way to celebrate Roosevelt County’s history, and she is also quick to credit many others with the rousing success of the inaugural event. 

“Vic Worley was on the board … Sheryl Borden … Nancy Gentry was involved — there was endless energy and excitement,” Bergman said. “It was a great team.” 

Even though she was warned by a local businessman that “nobody would want to attend a parade in Portales in the summer,” Bergman remembers happily signing up 81 entries who made the route in front of an enthusiastic crowd. 

“We had many events that weekend,” she said. “We wanted to include all facets of the community.” 

The schedule, according to the Portales News-Tribune account from May 1985, included a sanctioned rodeo, a barbecue lunch at ENMU, folklore dancing, a posole cookoff, a mock Western shootout, and a cow-chip throwing competition, as well as contests for the best break dancers, horseshoe pitchers, and tobacco spitters. 

Cody Brown claimed the honor of sporting the “tackiest boots,” while Chek Rippee won “tackiest hat.” Both got brand new replacements from Bar G Western Wear as their prizes. 

A beard-growing contest sponsored by the Noonday Kiwanis Club, Sands Barber Shop, Creative Images, Head Shed Barber Shop, and Foster’s Barber Shop was won by Larry Buchanan of Floyd. No report on whether he got a free shave to go along with his $50 prize money. 

 The most memorable event might have been the ambitious recruitment of an airplane to fly over the Portales square and drop more than 500 balloons filled with “gift certificates, prizes, and discounts from local merchants,” according to the newspaper article. 

 Mitzi Miller and her husband, Dink, of Floyd provided and piloted that plane, which made multiple passes to discharge its colorful load. 

“We both remember doing it,” Mitzi told me. “Dink said he remembers us having our cabin full of balloons. We took off the baggage door and when we got over the square, we started pushing them out. It took us a while to get all of them out.” 

In hindsight, it may have been questionable — the Federal Aviation Administration frowns on items being dropped from planes, Miller said, not to mention the concern for where the balloons could land. 

“I don’t believe we really thought that through,” Bergman said with a laugh. “We didn’t close off First and Second Streets, so some fell into traffic.” 

In all seriousness, and with decades of promotion experience behind her, Bergman knows how hard it is to muster up crowds for community events now but, she wisely observes, “Once we get out and around people, we are glad we went.” 

There may be no plummeting balloons or tobacco spit-offs on the schedule for the 2022 Heritage Days, but you can be looking forward to a Friday night street dance, a Saturday morning fun run, the traditional city-wide parade, a car show, live music, and much more. 

Look for a complete schedule on the Chamber website at http://www.portales.com , or on Facebook at Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce. 

I’m with Sandi Bergman on this one. We will be glad we went. 

Betty Williamson loves celebrating heritage. Reach her at:

[email protected]