Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
1923: Portales received a Christmas Eve gift from the City Council: Approval of a contract to upgrade the downtown with 13 blocks of concrete paving.
The proposed six-inch deep paving was planned to “cover the square, one block on Main Street toward the railroad, and on Main Street to Chestnut Street, Colorado Street from square to railroad property, and two blocks on Colorado Street from Security Bank southeast,” according to the Portales Valley News.
The project also promised seven miles of sidewalks “so that the entire town will have sidewalk service.”
The improvements were much needed, as an additional story noted that the 1923 “Christmas festivities in Portales were cut short to a large extent by the muddy condition of the streets and sidewalks.”
1933: “Adopt a family for Christmas.”
That was the slogan adopted by the Curry County Welfare association, which hoped to see every needy family have a happy Christmas.
“The association is urging the city’s more fortunate citizens who can afford to fill a basket of provisions for Christmas Day to adopt a family through the welfare office and to deliver it personally, or through the association,” reported the Clovis Evening News-Journal.
Miss Ruth Bonstell, welfare worker, said 25 families had been adopted by Les Petites Clotildas club, the Business and Professional Women’s club of the Christian Endeavor unions of the First Christian Church.
1943: A special delivery package received by Irene South of Portales contained a most unexpected wartime Christmas gift from Gordon Brown, a popular local lad who was serving in the United States Navy.
When South opened the box, she found a “12-inch alligator” -- presumably preserved by a taxidermist. It was shipped to her from somewhere in the Atlantic where Brown was working as a submarine radarman.
Brown enlisted in 1942 during his junior year at Portales High School. His former classmates had “visions of great happiness he received in sending the unusual gift,” according to the story in the Portales Tribune.
The alligator ended up in the window at the Schumpert Implement Company at South’s request, where it joined other “articles of interest” that Lt. Billy Schumpert had sent his parents from his wartime travels to Italy, Sicily, and Africa.
1953: The bottom had dropped out of the mercury readings on Christmas eve, the Clovis News-Journal reported, in a second-consecutive day of record-breaking frigid weather across New Mexico.
Clovis fared better than most of the state with a morning-low of 11 degrees. Roswell and Carlsbad recorded lows below zero. Columbus was the coldest community in the state at 4 below zero.
But the District Weather Bureau in Albuquerque reported it could see “no prospects” for a white Christmas – other than those places where the snow earlier in the week had still not yet melted.
1963: Salty and Pepper — Shetland ponies that belonged to the New Mexico Christian Children’s Home and the New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home, respectively — each received a new pony cart and harness for Christmas from the same man who had donated the ponies to the kids the previous Christmas.
Wylie B. Cox of Arch, who raised midget Shetlands, said he believed that “children learn character from having pets and caring for them.”
With the gifts of the new carts and harnesses, Cox said he hoped that the 75 children housed in each of the two local facilities would have an easier time training and handling Salty and Pepper.
1973: McDaniels Furniture at 1020 Main in Clovis was having a Giant 13th Month Furniture Sale starting the day after Christmas.
“It’s a sale too big for any ordinary calendar,” McDaniels claimed. Prices had been slashed – up to 50% off.
A 20-inch Admiral color TV with a walnut-grain cabinet, regularly priced at $500, was on sale for $299. A solid maple dining room table, with five chairs, was normally $424.75 … on sale for $319. Seth Thomas alarm clocks were $16. All lamps were 20% to 50% off – except Ethan Allen lamps.
1983: Students from J.P. Steiner and L.L. Brown elementary schools in Portales, along with the Portales Jaycees, the Portales Lions Club, and Food Town collected about 2,000 cans of food in a holiday food drive for needy families.
The kids in Judy Gormley’s first grade class and Shirley Wahlman’s kindergarten class were recognized for collecting the most food in the drive.
First graders Abel Loya, Mandy Baca, and Julie Maloney earned the right to have their photo taken for the newspaper by being the most successful canned good gatherers. They posed with Jayce member Boyd Chappell in front of a mountain of canned goods.
1993: The crossing guard at Zia Elementary School was a larger-than-life Christmas elf named Perry White. He wore a red stocking cap on his head and a bright re bow on his chest, which slightly clashed with his mandarin-orange school crossing guard vest.
“He fairly dances out into the street to stop the cars for the kids to cross,” said Dr. Ken Merritt, a member of the Clovis school board. “You can tell he’s a man who really loves his job. I think people just drive by to see him work.”
White, 70, told a reporter he was retired military, but had little else to say. He was last seen with a box full of candy canes, lollipops and bubble gum, passing them out to Zia children.
“Children tended to flock to him whether they were crossing the street or not,” Clovis News-Journal staff writer Gary Mitchell reported.
2003: El Rancho Restaurant in Portales opened its doors from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Christmas Day, offering a free meal to anyone who walked through the doors.
Joe Garcia, co-manager of the restaurant, said he had been contemplating the idea for a while.
“I have been really blessed with a big family,” Garcia said. “We have a huge gathering for every Christmas. I thought about the people who are not as fortunate. We want to welcome those people who are alone or who don’t have any family to our family. It’s not just for poor people.”
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
