Tuesday, December 27, 2016

PORK 'N BEAN MUSINGS....IN THE ATTIC






A cold norther has blown into town on this,
the second day after Christmas, and things 
being much quieter by far since the kids have
all gone home, I'm sitting up here in my cozy
attic, a little log in the woodstove, the wind 
whistling around the house, the old mulberry
branch slapping under the window, and I'm
studying my larder shelf of canned goodies!

I was cozied here, having coffee from an heirloom 
chrome percolator, vintage 1960's, and just
relaxing---taking a break from reading "The
Poetry of William Carlos Williams," my eyes 
settled on (why I do not know)--- a can of Van
Camp's Pork 'n Beans.

(Those of you who have kept up with my. attic
stories know that I have a  "knocked -together"
rustic raw wood pine shelf filled with Wolf's
chili, Hormel tamales, canned tuna, canned
salmon ((small cans---which I eat "raw")),
Vienna sausage, Dinty Moore Beef Stew, and
sardines in tomato sauce!) Plus SPAM.

The age-old question was nagging at my 
mind: "Where is the PORK...in those pork-
and beans?" You'd think Van Camps, with 
their excellent, amazing product would---of 
all companies---show the world---SOME 
PORK!

I know, I know---what you're going to say---
"Hey, haven't you seen that little tiny square 
white thing, amongst the beans? You dummy,
THAT is the pork!" "Doncha know?!"

All possible joking and levity aside, let's 
be serious.  "From time immemorial,"  as they 
love to say at weddings, pork 'n  beans seem
to have been with us.

Even before some West Texas highways were
paved, and when gas pumps were uprights;
and there were no McDonald's, and people 
didn't have the money anyway---filling stations 
all sold cheese, crackers, and pork 'n beans.

A self-respecting hunter of half a century ago
and earlier would not have been found in the
wild without his can(s) of beans, Vienna sausages,
an onion, and maybe some crumbled crackers
in his old kit bag.

Sometime later, a miracle occurred in the halls
of Van Camp Company. Some innovative young
outdoorsman invented (TA DUM, TA DUM !!!
DRUM ROLL) ---"BEANEE WEENEES!"

I hope they gave him a big fine office, a bonus,
and erected a statute to him, wherever Van
Camps is located.

For you see and know, (if you read much at all),
that most hikers, bird-watchers, hunters, and
outdoor people (check Creek Stewart)--- have
what they call "Bug-Out-Bags," These bags are
ready to go at all times, in case of emergencies.

Which we all hope will never come.

These bags are filled with a versatile Swiss Army
knife, a heavier survival sheath knife, a small
aluminum-looking space blanket, .22 ammo and
piece, Advil, a spoon, socks, Fruit-of-the-Looms,
parachute cord, waterproof matches, compass,
Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying," and canned foods.

Yes---pork 'n beans, Beanee Weenees, small
cans of fruit cocktail, peaches, and pears...
oh, oh, almost forgot the biggie---SPAM.

I am loving this quiet time often Christmas,
quiet---except for this marvelous storm 
blowing just outside my attic window, and
whistling through the vent crack...

I think I'll just open me a can of those Beanee
Weenees, up there in the shelf, and get a chunk
of cheese out of my Avanti former-office-fridge
and wash it all down with a big NEHI-GRAPE!

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

**************
By MIL
12/27/16











l

Monday, December 26, 2016

TRUFFLES





"TRUFFLES"


((I'd heard of "truffles" somewhere along the
way...and I guess, paying little attention to 
their mention, I thought "Well, I've never hunted
them...mostly it's been bob whites and blues and
once't some Gambel's and prairie chickens....
and of course---pheasants!"

"Guess they are like grouse, ptarmigans, and other
Alaska birds..."truffles..." Hmm, I'll look into it!))

                       TRUFFLES

I'm a simple boy from the cotton country
of that Great Place! West Texas!

They can cook down there and know how
to cure unbelievably-good bacon and sausage.
Their "main sauce," you French, is BUTTER---
except some old-timers like sage on their corn
bread dressing at Thanksgiving.

We left there when I was four and moved to NM,
just ten miles from Texas. Clovis---a fine town!

The first really big joys in life that I remember, were 
the five cent candy bars, mostly made of 
chocolate:

Hersheys, Snickers, Baby Ruths,  O Henrys,
Milky Ways, Black Cow suckers, Bit O' Honeys,
Best Pals, Mounds, Almond Joys, and 
Walnettos!

Somewhere, much later on, there came the
chocolate candies which came in boxes like 
Whitman's and collections too numerous and
expensive to name...

Chocolate covered cherries were unusual
and one always wondered how they put those
things together so nicely....but they were messy
when bitten-into!

Now one day, a dear friend of me and BE, sent
us each a fancy little box with a two-word
French name...and it had "truffles" written on
it. There were two big ones in the box.

Ah, truffles are candy!

They were almost as big as golf balls, I thought.

You bit into one and ate and ate the creamy
chocolate filling (and it didn't "run") which was
"decadent," as they love to say it! I mean---these
were  big---compared to some I ate later---which
were much smaller.

BE and I finally found out where to buy these big
ones, but the gift-lady did not remember the
name of the truffles!

We will head out to Model Pharmacy, almost to
downtown, and see about a BIG BOX FULL...and
they may run $2.00 each, per truffle---who knows?

No prob---we are not going to Branson and 
spending the big bucks.

Also, Model is known far and wide to the-lunch-
crowd for its great sandwiches!
***************
BY MIL
9/17/16

AND THE REST OF THE STORY.....12/26/16

Sit down, my dear reader for this one!  Christmas gift 
opening occurred at our house two days ago.  But 
before that...

My son was here and had to make a long run downtown,
was passing the Model Pharmacy, and had heard of my
desire for some REAL, GENUINE truffles!

He stopped, went in, and bought me a DOZEN!  They are
made by Le Grand.  The lady at the counter will load you
a box of two, four, or six.  A very attractive real chocolatier
box!

Yes, two boxes he gave me!  Hand packed.  Choice of 
truffles from counter:  $3.50 each.

Mil





Monday, December 19, 2016

PLAYING "GOOBER TOWN" IN THE SNOW


By Richard Drake, guest writer

It did not snow often in Clovis when we were growing
up.

The annual football game with The Portales Rams 
was always played on Thanksgiving Day....it was an
old tradition.

One Thanksgiving we had to play the Rams after a
big snow. The Clovis school system did its best to
remove the snow from Wildcat Field. They "cleared"
the field pretty good and a freeze followed...just 
enough to make a messy field.

There were ridges everywhere. I loved it! I had good
cleats and knew which direction I was going. Jerry 
Lott and Dwayne Perry were good with their passes.

It was a wonderful game, especially since we beat
"Goober Town" High School. The exact score is lost
somewhere in the mists of time!

They had found that their manager had a good passing
arm, and they put him in and threw a spread formation
at us. Their problem was that their guards and tackles
did not have enough speed to block our crashing ends!

It was not fair but we did not let up. The poor passer
barely survived.

Bob Snipes, CHS, had a good game as our fullback.

WHAT HAPPY MEMORIES!
*****************
FOR MIL'S PLACE
By Richard Drake, 
   "The Bard" of CHS '53




Wednesday, December 14, 2016

THE SCARY BASEBALL PITCHER FROM CHS '50



IN MEMORIUM, Cameron Mactavish 
                  1932-2016

   The Clovis "Boys of Summer"
*******************************

That spring afternoon in 1947, at the chicken
wire backstop at the corner of Reid and Tenth 
Streets, we were "old enough" and trying to 
play real hardball!

Art and Bob Snipes and I and one or two others
had gone to the old lake bed for wire and
2X4's; also houses galore were being built
all around the neighborhood at that time; they
in turn had lumber scrap piles, that somehow
got filled with long two-bys! Fair game for us 
kids...needing a ball diamond backstop!

Rule One: You couldn't be forever chasing 
missed balls and our "hind-catchers" were 
generally either "chicken" or inexperienced 
when it came to catching HOT pitchers---some 
of whom could throw mean curve balls and 
more terrible (to kids)---faster fastballs!

That is why I, at the tender age of thirteen found
myself flat on the ground by home plate...dirt in
my mouth...I had barely ducked, I thought, a
curve ball headed straight for my head...I mean
right at me..and for a curve it was moving!

This was my first real experience with real 
hard-ball, with real pitchers...for you see, there
were some guys in our class (and the Class of
'50) who were richly endowed athletically...and
THEY COULD "THOW!"

They had radar too, and if anything like a 
baseball field with backstop showed up in the 
NW quadrant of Clovis---they'd be there---
with real Clovis Pioneer baseballs---no friction-
tape-covered-balls for them..which were all we
had! (They were likely Bell Park shaggers.)

Cecil and Bruce Davis were two ('50 and '51)
CHS friends of ours who were very talented
pitchers.

Cameron Mactavish, CHS '50, was another. He
lived, I think, up in the WWII "Santa Fe Heights"
subdivision, north of us four or five blocks, at
Thornton and Fourteenth Streets.

Cameron, as he appeared to us younger guys,
was hard as nails..he was a tough wiry kid. He
wasn't the type to sit in the shade on a summer's
day, and shoot marbles, or tell ghost stories, or
play mumblety-peg---I mean that boy was all
business...and could he pitch!

In fact, it was his curve ball that had me flat on
the ground that day, in front of the backstop...
not fifteen feet from the intersection. 

Have you ever tried to hit a real pitcher throwing
those hard balls right at you? They say being a
"good batter" in baseball is the hardest single
feat in all sports. You must have no fear of the
ball and you need instant reflexes...quickness.

It was the day I realized that baseball was not my
sport, though I was a mean shortstop with good
hands. Batting was incredibly tough.

I don't remember much about Cameron in High
School---he was a year ahead and the boys of '51
had their own fish to fry. But I always admired him
as one of the toughest kids I knew...and he has
crossed my mind now and then, through the years.

Cameron Mactavish...Clovis High School 1950...
passed away last week. I just heard from Vernoy
Willis (CHS '50). He was one of us boys  that 
grew up in the finest of American towns...along
with us on the journey...and he is gone..

I remember him fondly, tho' we were not close
buddies. I don't know how his life turned out
but he was okay to us young "boys of summer."

"Therefore, never send to know for whom the 
bell tolls...it tolls for thee." ...John Donne, 1620

**************
MIL
10/04/16



"WE MOVED TO CLOVIS ON PEARL HARBOR SUNDAY"





WE MOVED TO CLOVIS ON PEARL HARBOR SUNDAY"
    By  Dr. Albin Covington
    CHS '51



"I reminder that fateful day well."

Our president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on  December 8,
asked  a joint session of congress for a declaration of
war, speaking these famous words: "A day that shall live
in INFAMY..."

The horror of that day, in the surprise attack that killed over
2400 Americans, is indeed a day that we will never forget.

I was eight years old at that time. I had no idea what Japan 
was, nor where Pearl Harbor was. But I do remember that day!

We learned of Pearl Harbor over our car radio as we
drove from Sudan, Texas to live in our next home in Clovis,
New Mexico. We were residents of Sudan for only a short 
time as we made the change from Mertzon,Texas  to Clovis.

Dad has transferred to Clovis to work on the "bridge gang,
in that area for AT&SF.  He had finally found a house for us
to live in at our new town.

All eight of us had been living for a short time in a three-room
house, and now we moved into a nice house on Thornton 
Street. I had never seen indoor plumbing before. In fact, Mom
got all over me for standing in the bathroom flushing the 
commode over and over just to watch the water, as it swirled!

Our "new" abode had a basement and we five boys slept
down there and life was so much better!

But there was another--special thing--that I remember. I had
never remembered having a friend except for my three older
brothers and one younger one. (I didn't really think so at that
time, for Ross was always chasing me and hitting me.) Now
I think the world of my brothers.

But there is another person who befriended me. He lived 
down Thornton a ways toward school at La Casita.

It was Arthur Snipes. He befriended me. We used to walk
to school together. He was the first real friend I ever had
outside of my family.
****************
FOR MIL'S PLACE
by Dr, Albin Covington
CHS '51





Thursday, December 8, 2016

THE SIX-HUNDRED-NINTH POST....LOOKING BACK


THE SIX HUNDREDTH POST... WAS PSALM 90...and 
   "O GOD, OUR HELP IN AGES PAST"


                          "My Writing Place"

That glorious day, December 26, 2010,  the day after I'd seen
that new -fangled "i-Pad" my daughter-in-law had received
for Christmas, and I had blurted out "I want one of those,"---
BE and my son, Alan, had braved the lines down at the Apple 
store, and came walking into the house and up to my chair
and handed me a sack with a nice white BOX in it!

It was my new iPad...and I named him "Henry" on the spot!

(My attitude toward computers, up to that time was a whole
"nother story" which I will not go into right now. Suffice it to
say I had a bad experience with early ones in my second 
career.)

I was really an ignoramus that December day about what 
one could find out on a computer. My first two searches 
were (tentative to say the least)---Central Park, in NYC,
and Westminster Abbey. I was very proud of myself
when they came up.

Late March 2011 came, and beautiful talented Donna
(later to be know as "B.E."--- "Beloved Editor,") said
one day: "You ought to be writing." (In my first career
I wrote a weekly piece.) "You write 'em and I'll put 'em
on!" She had great skills as a computer person.

"You'll put 'em on what?" I asked.

"We'll start you a blog." she said excitedly.

Now this is the truth. Being unlettered in computer
lingo, I said: "WHUT'S a BLOG?" (I like the concept of
plain old people writing but really think "blog" is an
unfortunate term, and I recoil every time I hear it.)

The first one went on my new MIL'S PLACE on March
31, 2011.  It was titled "The Tree of Freedom" and was
based on ideas from Thomas Jefferson. 

My mailing list was not lengthy at the time and a couple
of folks didn't cotton to Jefferson's premise and told 
me so. I almost ceased to write---with only one under 
my belt.  Then I realized that you have to write as best
you can and if someone doesn't agree, not to worry
about it.

Over the five, almost six years we have been posting 
MIL'S, one of the things I'm proudest of is the number
of writers who have  contributed stories and poems.

Some have authored quite a number of pieces and
other have offered. shorter comments and paragraphs..
At the risk of leaving someone out, I have tried. to
recall these writers.

Most of them are "kids" who attended Clovis Schools 
and  graduated from CHS. I have compiled a list of
fifteen or so, and their CHS classes were 1950, 1951,
1953, and 1957, as best I remember. Ned, who was
to become a famous football coach, attended La
Casita circa 1947.

Listed alphabetically they are: Ned Biddix, Levi Brake,
Bobbie Burnett, Albin Covington, Richard Drake, 
Wylie Dougherty, Sue Hale, Don Phillips  Art Snipes, 
Bobby Joe Snipes, Robert Stebbins, John Sieren,
Elizabeth Sieren,  Gene Walker, and Vernoy Willis.

All good writers, helping remember things that would 
have otherwise been lost from the history of our
lives and times. My deepest appreciation to all of you!

(There are several classmates that I have invited  and
encouraged to write, as yet to no avail. B.E. herself,
is an excellent writer, but as yet she is contented to
edit and post.  She is, in fact,  a most important
person, and I thank her immensely. For you see, I 
don't have the moxy to put these stories on.)

My first career was spent in almost twenty years as
a Gospel singer, and there are some twenty hymn
stories which appear on MIL'S. These are among the 
most-read of all, according to tallies, which we can
trace.

I was seventy-seven years old when we started MIL'S
PLACE on March 31, 2011. Have you ever scraped a 
watermelon with a table spoon, out on the farm, until
you were down to the rind?

That's how my mind felt a few times..."scraped out,"
A good feeling really, because it seemed to fill up
with fresh ideas.

Then I was inspired by the unforgettable poets Mary
Oliver, Robert Hass, and William Carlos Williams
and started writing poems.

Writing poetry turned out to be incredibly interesting
and satisfying, as well as fun . And it smooths out the 
wrinkles ...levels out the mind.

There is a stack of pieces,  maybe four feet tall, resting
and jelling in the corner of my writing place, awaiting
fine-tuning and publication. Ninety percent will likely
never make it---unless I should become famous and
every scrap should be searched out by the literati.

I have tried at every turn, to always extol our great 
hometown of Clovis, its wonderful people,
our beloved parents, the finest teachers in the world,
friends of our youth, love for the USA and patriotism,
and above all---our Creator and our blessed  Lord
and Savior.

All of life is a story...or a poem...waiting to be told.

And thanks so much to the kind readers who have
encouraged all us "writers!"
****************
THE SIX-HUNDRED-NINTH POST
BY MIL & B.E.
11-16-16