Pages Past: Sept. 11

Sept. 11

On this date ...

1914: Santa Fe Railway advertised roundtrip tickets from Clovis to Plainview for $5.90.

The Hale County Fair was the attraction.

1936: Claud Raybourn, a Clovis livestock buyer, was robbed of $50 after two men knocked him unconscious with blows to his head.

Sheriff R.L. Thomas said a Santa Fe Railway employee was robbed earlier in the week in an incident on Pile Street and the suspects matched the description provided by Raybourn.

The men told Raybourn they had cattle for sale, so he went with them in their car and hit him with some kind of “instrument,” the Clovis Evening News-Journal reported.

1963: Cannon Air Force Base officials reported 47 students had signed up for kindergarten classes held on the base.

1972: The Roosevelt County Fairgrounds was bustling with folks entering exhibits for the annual county fair.

County Home Agent Sheryl Borden said a last-minute ruling to only allow pint-sized jars in the canning competition had caused a bit of an upset with local homemakers, but she reported that the entries of “fancy work, ceramics, and other crafts” had more than doubled from the previous year and had already overflowed the exhibit space.

Jack Patton was at the grill in the American Legion booth smack dab in the center of the fairgrounds “dishing out hot dogs and advice.” Fellow Legionnaire Ernest Hintz said the afternoon before had been the biggest Sunday afternoon the food booth had ever had.

Over at the beef barn, Assistant County Agent Storm Gerhart noted that steer entries were about double from the previous year and that “quality, at a glance, seems to be excellent.”

Dink Essary was signing up entrants for the evening Old Fiddlers Contest, where he expected a big field of contenders, “with probably a woman or two.”

County Agent Billy Smith was “too busy to talk” to the reporter on the scene but was sighted “trotting from place to place.”

Sixteen-year-old Kathy Grider of Melrose was crowned fair queen that evening to reign over the three-day slate of activities.

1974: Hubby & Sons Food Market, at 1320 Wallace in Clovis, offered fresh-dressed rabbits for $1.49 per pound and boneless beef brisket for $1.19 per pound.

The “biggest little store in New Mexico” was closed Sundays, but offered double S&H green stamps on Wednesdays.

1974: Millions of web worms, capable of destroying a field of new wheat in a matter of hours, had invaded the Quay County area.

County Agent Lloyd Cavasos said he found as many as five worms on a single 3-inch stalk of fall wheat near House. The worms, dark gray with yellow stripes, were also swarming over lawns in the area and Cavasos warned insecticides needed to be used quickly before the invaders could do major damage.

1975: Eastern New Mexico University’s quarterback had a unique way to relax before games. He played pinball.

“A teammate and myself went to the same laundry and played the same machine before each home game last year,” said Bill Birkhead.

“On road games we could usually find some nearby store where we could test our pinball wizardry. This season I expect I’ll be doing the same thing.”

1990: Clovis school board members, in an effort to have at least one district with strong minority representation, approved five single-member districts.

Board members also discussed the possibility of a tobacco-free school policy, according to a Clovis News Journal report by staff writer Gary Mitchell.

2001: Nearly 3,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks at New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and on a plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.

Former Eastern New Mexico University basketball player Ron Milam was among the victims. Maj. Milam was in the Pentagon, serving in the office of the assistant secretary of the Army.

Milam, who graduated from ENMU in 1991, joined the military after college.

“He loved the university. Loved his experience there,” former Greyhounds coach Earl Diddle said in a 2011 interview. “He was a great Greyhound, a great person. I miss him dearly, and I miss him every day.”

Said Steve Milam, Ron’s younger brother, also in 2011: “Ron, like all of the other people who lost their lives, was a very special person. I don’t know how to put it, but it is good to know we keep their memories alive. It helps a great deal.”

Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:

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