Our people: A lifetime in town

Born in Clovis, Mike Wood works construction, is married to his wife Jessa and loves motorcycles.

Thursday was a busy day for Wood. He didn't know earlier in the week if he'd still be working in Amarillo Thursday so he agreed to a phone interview.

The News caught up with Wood via phone as he was looking in Clovis for a transmission for his truck.

Q: What's the story of you and Clovis?

A: Born and raised here. I've been here all my 40 years.

My dad was in the Air Force, he was originally from Nebraska. I went to Highland Elementary, after that I went to Clovis Christian for a few years, then to Yucca Middle and on to Clovis High School.

Q: Tell us about your family.

A: I met my wife local. We've been together 20 years now. We don't have any children. We've always had dogs, we have three now.

My mom was a Clovis native. My grandparents adopted her from the Children's Home in Portales. When my dad left the Air Force, he met my mom and they got married.

I have two sisters: One in Albuquerque and the other in Lubbock. I have a brother in Salina, Kansas.

Q: What is your career field?

A: I've been in construction pretty much my whole adult life. I'm foreman for Cockrell Homes in Amarillo and work for ML Construction of Clovis. I've been with those companies for a total of about 20 years.

Q: What other careers have you had?

A: I stepped away from construction a few years ago and took a high voltage contracting job at Cannon Air Force Base. It was just supposed to last a year and ended up going for six years.

Q: You belong to a motorcycle riding club? Tell us about that.

A: I'm a member of Guerreros MC. I met these guys a long way back after riding with a different club. We all like motorcycles, we all like to have fun, we like to do charity work, we're the same kind of people.

There are fundraising runs, there are rallies, and sometimes we just go out riding.

Q: The club has a specific charity?

A: It's a Christmas toy run. We generally shoot for the first week in November to have the big toy run. We'll do that for the weekend in November. We start collecting toy donations as well as check with businesses that want to donate.

We gather all the toys and give them to the CASA program in Roswell.

Q: Tell us about your love of motorcycles.

A: I've just always grown up seeing motorcycles, riding motorcycles, dirt bikes.

I haven't wrecked on a bike on the road.

Now, I've been down on a few dirt bikes. I got road rash and broke a finger.

When it comes to a favorite bike, if money were no object I would have a Harley-Davidson Knucklehead. A vintage motorcycle from the 1940s.

Q: What's your philosophy on dealing with law enforcement.

A: I try my best not to deal with them but as with anything in life, be respectful.

Q: What's your favorite food?

A: Pizza. I like to try them all. I believe the best pizza in town right now is Redstone.

Q: You have a philosophy of life?

A: Take it as it comes. Life is just a series of problems you got to figure out.

Q: What's your favorite saying?

A: "It is what it is."