THE FORTIES: "IT WAS A DIFFERENT TIME"

THE FORTIES: “IT WAS A DIFFERENT TIME…”

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“So many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in these streets.” …..Gibran

A good photo of old Main Street taken in 1945. The historic Red Bricks
are plainly visible as a “Red-and-White Bus” is shown turning right or
east onto E. Grand. A bus ride in those days cost a kid a nickel.

Several things are obvious to any old citizen of Clovis…perusing the
picture: the water tower is plainly visible, the face-in parking was still
in vogue, and it is a morning pic---the awnings are down, protecting
the merchandise in the show windows.

An interesting thing is that there are relatively few cars actually driving
on Main itself.

On studying this scene, and seeing Clovis National Bank, Jack Holt the
Clothier,Fox Drug, (and I think I see Duckworth Drug), my thoughts raced
back in time to the way things were once, when maybe one could say:
“Things were simpler and certainly cheaper.”

-------You could buy a Snickers candy bar for five cents at Tom Phelps’
Red-and-White Store out on West Grand. They coast 75 cents now.

------You could go to a Saturday afternoon double feature at the Lyceum,
with a “Perils of Nyoka" serial and a “Looney Tunes” for a dime. Popcorn
was a dime and they didn’t sell sodas.

-------You could get a hot dog at Coney Island for 20 cents or a ham salad

san at Woolworth's for the same price.

------Soda popes of all flavors, including NEHI grapes, BARQ’S big oranges,

Root Beers, Squirts, twelve ounce Pepsis, and  cokes in little weird green

bottles could be bought for a nickel.

------Five and Ten Cent Stores such as Woolworth’s or Sprouse-Reitz were

found in nearly every town.

------Donuts were five cents at just about any bakery. A yellow Dixon-

Ticonderoga pencil with eraser for school kids was five cents at Clovis

Printing Co.

-----At Barry Hardware where the boys checked them every Saturday,

you could get a good Case pocket knife, with yellow scales for $4.95.

------Haircuts at Jim’s, Jenk’s, or Cotton’s were fifty cents until after

WWII.

------There was a Green Stamp Store at Sixth and Main, run by Mrs.

Pike.

-----OK Rubber Welders on West Grand fixed flats for a time at FIFTY

cents and sold recaps for $5.95.

------Magic Steam Laundry, also on West Grand, turned out a fine

starched, white dress shirt —- folded and banded for fifteen cents.

------Harley Sadler Shows came to town once a year and set up its

big tent on the vacant lot behind the Country Store. At other

times a traveling skating rink rented the same vacant lot.

-----THE OUTLAW, with Jane Russell, came to the Sunshine Theater in

1948 and was billed as an “adults only” movie. The high school boys

tried to figure out some way to get in.

------GONE WITH THE WIND finally opened at the State Theater in

1946 and we heard our first cuss word in a movie…ever. This was 

to pale into insignificance as one recent nomination for “best

picture” had 143 f-words and other profanities.

-------Ah, there WERE minimum wages, not ordered by the government

but set by the employers, being it is a free country. My pay at Jack

Holt’s (a fine gentleman and employer) was 75 cents an hour. (My former

yard man recently charged me $90 for an hour and a half of routine work.)

------In those times people didn’t “eat out” much. Until the Boys’

Debating Club banquet held at El Monterrey in the spring of 1948,

I had never eaten any store-boughten Mexican food. We had

enchiladas that night. We bought our chili con carne from Duran

at Bristow’s Food Market on W. 7^th. It came in big orange frozen

greasy blocks.

…….During  WWII, a movie came to the Lyceum…one which I’ve

never forgotten. It was THE SULLIVANS. Another came during 

that time with much interest to us kids:  THIRTY SECONDS OVER

TOKYO, with Spencer Tracy. (I met the Doolittle Raiders in person

At KAFB spring of 1986…when their reunion was held in ALBQ.)

-----Did you know that Eddie Arnold gave a “concert” at the old

Clovis Wildcat Stadium in the spring of 1948. I got a job selling cokes

and hot dogs out there.

-----During WWII times, when the paper boy delivered the Clovis News

Journal to Art’s house on Thornton, we boys would spread it

on the grass and read the latest on Joe Palooka and Jerry Leemy

behind the lines in France, fighting the Nazis.

------Along about 1945 toward the end of the war, a captured Japanese

Zero fighter was placed on a vacant space on the corner, just across

From the State Theater. It cost twenty five cents to climb a ladder

and peek in at the controls. I was amazed at how small and tight the

little cockpit was…and how big overall the plane seemed.

-----The New Year’s of 49-50 was kind of a scary one…the forties with

all the war effort and bad news, nonetheless was a time of growing up

for us…from second grade to high school…and there we were facing 

a new-half-of-the-century.  Mardis, Sieren, and I were hanging out

in front of the State Theater and Maxine Brake (Levi’s sister) and June

Matthews came walking up and we decided we’d just take in the New

Year midnight movie.

It was TWO WEEKS WITH LOVE, with Jane Powell. In it the teen-age

Debbie Reynolds sang with Carleton Carpenter “Aba Daba 

Honeymoon.”

When we left the movie, we were in 1950 and we wondered what the

next half century would bring.  Little did we realize that we would all

eventually leave our beloved hometown, with its Red Bricks of Main

Street… the only world we knew---and tho’ it would always be OUR HOME…

it would be only in memory.

MIL

23 SEPTEMBER 2017

"THE WONDER OF A BABY SKUNK"

PHOTO BY MIL, 5-31-'68

There was once a white-haired retired

Baptist preacher living on maybe thirty acres

a few miles southwest of Los Lunas, New 

Mexico.

He and his wife were kind of "old-timey" as 

the saying went....they were senior folks and 

I coulda been their son, age-wise. He wore

faded-out overalls most of the time, and his 

wife, a lovable little lady, was partial to calico

dresses and wore an old-fashioned bonnet,

especially when hoeing their gardens in the

hot NM sun.

I'd stop by and visit them when in the area

and we'd do a little target practice on his back 

acre, or sit in the shade of a cottonwood

for a spell and he'd reminisce about his old 

preachin' days...

Sometimes he ask me to sing "Amazing Grace,"

or "Shall We Gather At The River?"

Here is the fascinating thing: he had the 

most interesting little "farm." He must've had

a small tractor, though I never saw it.  There

were fruit trees and maybe a few acres of 

alfafa---memory says he had several gardens,

a grass pasture with a few cows grazing, and

pheasants galore running free.

He liked to keep stuff, like cars and mechanical

things and had a junk heap over a little knoll,

kind of out of sight. ("You never know when you

might want an old part and save yourself a trip to

the hardware store.")

The thing that perhaps was the most interesting

about his whole place, besides their cozy little

farm cottage, was the menagerie.

You see, not only did he like to grow plants, but

 he raised animals. I don't know where he got 'em all, 

maybe bought some of them, but he had a lot of

critters growing and I mean---not just chickens

and pigs and cows...but rabbits in cages...and tame

geese and quail running around loose.

Since I led the music for a while in the little 

church down there, I dropped by from time

to time and took my youngest son Bri. He 

liked to head out with me in my old green

1960 Chevrolet pickup....when I had a day off.

One spring day when my boy was about 

four-and-a-half years old, he and I stopped 

by "The Preacher's Place" as I called it,  to say

hello.

My little son was fascinated by the myriad

of interesting stuff around that place....

especially the skunks . I don't know if the 

adult skunks had had corrective surgery or

what---I mostly steered clear of their 

domicile.

But Preacher had some skunk babies, whose 

plumbing was yet to develop and he said

to my boy: "How would you like to hold a 

baby skunk in your hand?"

Kids are not picky and they relate to other small

creatures, and my boy said: "WOW...SURE!"

The photo tells the rest.

++++++++++++++

MILS PLACE

by Mil

27 SEPTEMBER 201

(B.E. found this old photo in the garage

yesterday, while rummaging. I had just

taken up photography that spring of '68 

and processed the 8X10 in my darkroom.)

SOME LIKE AUTUMN BEST...I DO

 SOME LIKE AUTUMN BEST…I DO

*******************

Some like

The angle of the sun in September

      as it heads south toward Capricorn

They like the cooling of the hot days

     from the fever of the summer

The cooler nights, which sometimes

     Call for a light quilt

Ah…and relief from the boring

     Dog Days of August

I do

Many like the maturing and harvesting

     of the fruit

Apples turning red on loaded-down trees

The veggies  all in their final ripening, and

the  great big orange pumpkins,

      so colorful and practically crying out:

“It’s fall time! It’s fall! 

     Cold times are coming!”

And some like it when 

      The “silence of autumn” comes---

a mysterious time when everything seems

       almost muted …the sounds lose

their stridency

      and even the sun seems to cut it’s output

 as if resting from a busy summer

It’s then that an unperceived and almost

     unnoticed  silence 

and a kind of gentleness pervades the 

     cooler air

I like it.

The birds seem to have lost some of 

      their summer laziness

and are eating more, getting ready for

     Old Man Winter!

Even the big white billowing thunderheads

     left over from summer…seem to 

kind of float around with little purpose,

     Trying to decide whether  to rain a little…or 

not---and 

Wispy frazzled pieces of baby clouds trail along

     miles behind, trying to pull themselves together

and catch up with the group

I like it all

Some like it when in the lingering light

    And coolness of the autumn evenings

The sidewalks are filled with dog walkers

     And exercising people …who have

Joined life again…

The green chillies from the fall harvest

     are roasting all over town 

at food stores and in front of farm trucks—

     (making one  hungry for a chile relleno)

and the marvelous smells are filling the air!

The State Fair has begun and somehow

    on certain evenings you can hear

music from the carnival “midway”---

    almost ghost-like

when the breezes are right....

The first big norther will soon blow into

     town….whipping thru the trees and

scurrying the leaves (as yet barely turning)

      across lawns and  along curbs---

Time to stock up on soup bones and 

      check soup recipes, stack firewood by

the back door, and get out a quilt for the 

     old Lazy Boy!

Or head up to my cozy attic, build a fire

    In the little  wood stove, find my Faulkner,

stretch out on my GI half-bed, and open a 

    can of Beanie Weenies!

Oh yes, fall is here again!

Some think it is the most wonderful time

     of the year.

I do.

BY MIL

12 SEPTEMBER 2017

"THERE'S FOREVER A 'CLANG-CLANG' IN MY SOUL"

"THERE'S FOREVER A 'CLANG-CLANG' IN MY SOUL”

(It is said that once there were a
hundred windmill companies in the US....
but now...less than six...

                        ***************************

O you really haven't lived
or fully known the depth and
joy of being an American
until
you have drunk---on a hot
summer day

cold clear water from deep
underground, purified by
pristine rocks and sand
and brought up to you
by a windmill...

....a collection of pipes,
"sucker rods," and a big
fan that catches the wind...
and turns...and pumps...

On ten million farms/ranches across
America, over centuries,
such wonderful water, from coast
to coast made a
"thoroughfare for freedom"
possible....

This pure water is still there
under the ground, only deeper
now...and mostly raised by
unpoetic electric pumps--

Windmills have gone the way
of mules and plows, quiltin'
parties, people who pick cotton,
and hog killin' at Christmas...

The water still sates the thirst
of the body
but maybe not the soul, as when
a farm boy fills his straw hat
to the brim...and dumps it
over his head on a 95 degree
plow-day...water right outta the ground...

...with the wind a'blowin'
and the windmill a'pumpin'
to beat sixty...
and the "CLANG-CLANG"
in the pipes....always
beating along in rhythm...
with his heart.
***************

MIL
13 AUGUST 17

Writer's note---The old leaning windmill,
halfway between Clovis and Roswell at
Elkins, New Mexico, (a half mile behind
the store,) was photographed by me
with my 3.5 Rollei, with a red filter,
and a crawl under tight-barbed-
wire. on a spring day in 1969.

The picture won a First Place in an
Albuquerque Tribune contest, 1969,
an award at the State Fair, and
others...

My wife and I passed by Elkins in 1992
and slowed down, searching for "my
old windmill," but alas...it was gone.

The skyline was empty. Sadly so... 

PHOTO, MIL, 1969:

                        "Leaning Windmill and Painted Sky"

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