OLD FOX DRUG (NOW POTTER'S HOUSE)
The 2015 Clovis Main Dragging event is history. It
was held this past Saturday, June 27, 2015.
(Who ever thought, back when the Forties "lasted
forever," that we'd ever see a date this late?!)
Reports have come to me that it was a great success
and maybe twice-as-well- attended as last year's first
one!
Donna and I didn't get to attend, but my lifetime friend
and neighbor from 1940, Bobby Joe Snipes, is an
excellent photographer and has sent me a couple of
dozen great photos.
We will put together a story or two on MIL"S PLACE
in the next two weeks.
Sitting here in my Lazy Boy this hot afternoon, and
going through the photos of car-filled-bumper-to-
bumper-Main-Street, I saw this photo of the building
that was once the FOX DRUG.
That was in the summer of 1938.
At that time, there were several little signs, front
and side, saying "Fox Drug," with a stretched-out-running
red fox on the signs.
At that time, that center-of-the-world intersection had
Barry Hardware right across the street, east. Woolworth's
was just across Fourth on the SE corner...with May
Brother's Jewelry right across from Woolie's.
Whole stories could be written about that area--- after
all the Lyceum was just across Main from Fox Drug,
three doors to the north---where marvelous "shows"
were enjoyed by entertainment-starved 1940's kids.
You've read my account of coming out from the
Lyceum into the bright Mid-August -1945 afternoon
light...a KICA loudspeaker ban was blocking the
intersection and announcing "THE JAPS HAVE
SURRENDERED!" I stood at Barry's corner...
On an earlier April 1945 day, I rode my bicycle from
La Casita straight down to Barry's, walked in to
buy a bolt and nut, and people were clustered around
the radio...some were weeping....a lady saw me and
slipped over and said: "President Roosevelt has died."
I was to come to love history and my library of history
volumes...so maybe the reader can sense how I feel
about our U.S. history, and the time and place where
these events were reported.
Back to the Fox---the Jeris Hair Oil that boys liked
was right there on the south wall. They had a nice
sandwich shop on the north side, full on Sunday's
after church. In front of that was a newsstand opening
into Fox...they had all the best Roy Rogers, Gene
Autry, Batman, Captain Marvel, and Tarzan comic
books---@ 15 cents--on the north and west walls.
Every week day at Fox at noon, a piano was rolled
out near the slanted front door and a male quartet at
12:45 p.m. sang Pickering Family-type songs.
They were broadcast on KICA.
My uncle, from west Texas, was working in Clovis
at that time, and sang first tenor.
There was a little barber shop behind Fox and next to
the alley...in 1939. It was run by a man named Jenks.
In later years Fox Drug became Cretney's and then
Roden-Smith.
Folks are all different in many ways. Some care little
about past times and others, often with photographic
memories, are tied to old times, with great interest.
The Main Dragging Event always seems to stir up
communication among the older Clovisites (wherever
they are in the world).
In noting my "lack" of world travel, my old friend Levi,
of many Main Street draggings wrote:
"Well Pard, having worked abroad a number of
years, and having been a bit of a world traveler,
I'll tell you that you haven't missed much by not
having strayed far away from those old red bricks
of Main Street."
Times over 80 years have changed, the buildings
have mostly all new fronts, but the warm memories of
happy times, tough times, beloved parents,
teachers and friends, ever remain....
BARRY HARDWARE BUILDING
LYCEUM THEATER
OLD WOOLWORTH BUILDING
----------
MIL
July 1, 2015
Photos by Bobby Joe Snipes
