OLD CLOVIS: FROM THE MISTS OF TIME

"There has always been a drug store..on that corner".....Unknown

Someone, maybe it was esteemed Editor 

David Stevens  (CNJ), posted this photo

recently on FB. It is the ever-present drug

store on Clovis' Main Street at Fourth Street,

in some unnamed year...

"Ever-present" meaning there was always 

a drug store on that corner, as if it was the

heart-beat of downtown, tho' the stores 

did have several names, over time...

Did it finally become...Cretney's?

(Someone wrote recently that there is a

church there now, but  I don't know about 

that.)

When we moved to Clovis that hot Great

Depression summer of 1938 to own and

operate the Magic Steam Laundry, the 

drug store on that corner was THE FOX 

DRUG.

There were small signs over the entrances

with cool little black running FOXES...like

silhouettes almost. 

There was a large lunch room over in

the far right back corner with tables and

maybe waitresses., as well as a long soda 

fountain counter out in the store running

from west to east up to the front...

On the far north side, toward Anthony's 

was a fine news stand facing Main Street.

They sold kids' comic books for 15 cents

each.

There was a pharmacy in back by the

rear exit onto Fourth.

In our simple little pre-war city, KICA

Radio was a big thing! Grady Maples

and R.B. McAlister operated the station.

It broadcast a men's quartet, singing 

Southern Gospel each day at 

12:45-1:00 p.m. from Fox. There was 

a piano up front by the slanted door at 

the corner...and they rolled it onto the 

sidewalk and broadcast from right there.

My uncle sang first tenor in that quartet.

The Fox Drug was a handy place for little

Clovis kids whose big entertainment was 

walking through every store in town, but

with no money to buy anything.

In through the news stand, up and down 

the aisles and out the back door onto

Fourth. That was the "drill."

Robert Stebnins, CHS '51, remembers a

women's dress shop back behind Fox

Drug, abutting the alley. He thinks it was

"Doreen's."

There WAS such a business there for 

years, and I salute Robert for his memory...

of the store's name. I didn't recall that.

But sit down for this one. There was also

once a small barber shop back there...and 

It was there either before Doreen's or at 

the same time.

I know, for that's where I got my first-ever

store-boughten haircut. One Saturday night

Dad took me in there. (Stores in those early

times stayed open until 9 or 10 on Saturday

nights.) For your info, I was age five.

The name of the Barber Shop escapes me

but it was run by a short little man named Mr.

Jenks. My barber was a tall rather handsome

man named Mr. Nolan.

(In 1961 when we moved to Albuquerque 

and I sought out a barber shop, I stopped

in at the Princess Jeanne Addition barber

shop and in the subsequent conversation

discovered the young man cutting my hair

was named Nolan. His father cut hair in

Clovis, once.)

That was an interesting corner, Fourth and

Main...there was a Woolworths on the SE,

a Barry Hardware on the NE, May's Jewelry

was south of Fox Drug on the SW corner.

On that grand and fateful Saturday afternoon,

circa AUGUST 15, 1945, about 4 p.m. when

I wandered out of the beloved LYCEUM 

THEATER into the bright and blinding 

sunshine, traffic was stopped on Main 

Street.

There was a KICA RADIO VAN parked 

catty-wompus under the stop light almost 

in front of Barry Hardware... the loud speaker

was announcing: "TODAY, THE JAPANESE

HAVE SURRENDERED. WWII IS OVER."

I stood there stunned. 

I thought and it's true: "Thank God, no more

wars."

My twelve-year-old heart was fed up with that

war----

      We kids had gathered all kinds of old

        rubber ties, scrap metal, paper, 

         grease, glass and bought 10 cent

           war stamps...

       When we were rather small we had

         watched during hot summers, 

            and heard the B24's as

           they droned around town, 

             training to head to Europe...

                some 55,000 never 

                  came home.

        At the laundry we did thousands

          of bundles of clean uniforms

             for the men at the Clovis 

               Air Base...I met them all...

         Yes, that FOX DRUG STORE corner

            does bring back memories

               of life as it happened decades

                 ago...it was just as real as

                   life is today, and just as

                     important to us, then...

            When I walk Main Street, or

              drag it today, even if only

                 in memory...I get a deep

                   feeling of reverence

                      for times, and friends...

                          long-passed.

                 

---------------------

MIL

28 JUNE 17