THE MAIN STREET "WATER WAR"

Another Story of Growing up in Clovis

  by Richard Drake

            As school was coming to an end for the year before the summer of 1952 every student could not wait to get out of classes and do “something”.  However, there was not a lot to do to entertain ourselves.  During the school year we had plenty of activities.  If you played on one of the teams, the coaches filled in your time.  Also, there were the band, choir practice, scouts and church activities.  Yet most of us were bored dreading the coming summer boredom.   In the search for something to do, the Clovis Water War of 1952 occurred.   As in all of my stories all names are withheld to protect the guilty.

The war started innocently with one boy bringing  a water pistol to school  Between classes, at lunch break and after school, the “armed” squirter wrecked havoc throughout the school population.  The girls squealed and the boys ran away in “mock” panic.  After school all of the boys who could, armed themselves with an appropriate weapon.   The Clovis High School grounds became “ground zero” for the conflict.

The war soon spread to Main Street which became hostile territory.  Remember our favorite past time was dragging Main. We did not have air conditioned cars so the windows were always down.  It became  likely that drivers got a face full of water from most passing cars.  Hand held water guns were just not adequate for proper retaliation. Thus, an arms race started.

One of the guilty parties came up with a large, high pressure, “multi – pump” gun.  It was a major escalation.  War councils were held and scouting parties were sent out to forage in of all our friends’ barns and garages for any available equipment that could be converted from its peace time use.     A fire extinguisher that could be pressurized with air hose was a major intermediate weapon. It would shoot 20-30 yards – well out of the range of the other water weapons.   But, it was war and we intended to win. One Sunday afternoon one of our planners of advanced weapon design  came up with the idea to add Kool Aid to the water, our version of “Biological Warfare”.   It made the windshields of the chasing vehicles sticky which took them out of service for maintenance.  Also, the girls in their pumping got “yucky” and had to go home and change clothes. That reduced our foes’ available personnel.

Pumps of all types were discovered.  Water barrels were mounted in the backs of pickup trucks.  Squads of strong armed pumpers were recruited and trained.  The best weapons were ones with a large hand -cranked pump that would pour out a steady stream of water.  You could drown your foes but, of course, you were getting drowned in return.

It was soon learned that the best tactic was to get an enemy vehicle to follow yours.  If your driver could maintain speed, you could drown  the people in the trailing vehicle, but the slip stream of air would blow their water right back into their faces, a double dose.  So the war spread to all of the streets of Clovis.

Now a major problem had to be solved.  The streets of Clovis also acted as the storm water drainage system with four dips at each intersection.   Vehicles traveling at a sufficient speed to keep out of the following vehicles’ firing range could easily throw the “water soldiers” in the back onto the street. My group of buddies was lucky.  We had the best driver in Clovis High School.  He had mastered the technique of swerving his dad’s pickup into the right edge of each intersection.  With one set of tires in the dip to the right, he could minimize the bounce and maintain his speed without losing anyone.

A group of the “wet” losers thought they had the answer-- heavy bombardment from above.  They took balloons filled with water to the top of Hotel Clovis and tried to hit the vehicles.  Luckily their aim was not good and no one was hit. However, the impact of the balloons hitting the street below was impressive.  At that time the Clovis police stepped and enforced an armistice.

 The war was over but the memory lasts forever within the “Band of Brothers” from WW 52, the “ big wet war”.

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For Mil's Place
Richard Drake
Guest Writer