OLD CLOVIS----REMEMBERING THE FORTIES

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"TOO MANY FRAGMENTS OF THE SPIRIT HAVE I SCATTERED
IN THESE STREETS." ----KAHLIL GIBRAN

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Clovis friends, and others, stick with me for a random---no particular order--- trip down Memory Lane around old Clovis, the place where we did so many things and have so many great memories. If I am wrong on any dates or facts, it is strictly unintentional.
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BLACK-OUT- Very soon after December 7, 1941, probably that month, Clovis had a "black-out." All lights in town were turned off, or shades drawn, and planes from the young base flew over town. All the neighbors were out on their lawns. (I was never quite sure who it was---who might be bombing us, so far inland.)

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EARLY AIRPORT-- The first airport was five miles west of town. There was a store there and folks drove by it and up across the tracks and turned right and there was a big hanger.  It was popular among the citizens in the late thirties to drive out on Sunday afternoons and park, and watch planes taking off and landing. The planes in those days were mostly two-wing jobs.
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JUNIOR HIGH FIRE-- Sometime around 1939, there was a big fire in the east wing of Clovis Junior High. I was small and didn't know much about it.
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EXPLOSIONS AT THE FOOTBALL FIELD---Do you remember that troops stationed at Camp Reed or at the base, early in the war, put on a military demonstration of attacking troops. They carried rifles, started at the north end and "attacked" to the south, using blanks and dummy ammo, but small explosions were rigged as they moved across the field. A big crowd attended. (It probably didn't enhance the turf very much!)
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NO BOOZE---Clovis was "dry" during most of the forties. They tell me the nearest booze was in Taiban.
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A WET YEAR---Check it for yourself---1941 was one of the wettest  years in Clovis history. Water backed up out of that old lake bed at the west end of Fourteenth Street and I know it was standing in some vacant lots. People had boats out there. As to house damage, in the area, I'm uncertain. It is likely that the Wildcat football field was under water also.
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PLANES CIRCLING---Throughout the war, planes of one kind or another were stationed at the Clovis Air Base. They were seen and heard all through the day, though I don't remember them at night. There were B17's, B24's, and B29's, as well as random others.
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TRAIN SOUNDS---In our first years in Clovis, beginning in 1938, we lived down at 415 W. Grand, two or three blocks north of the train tracks and the ROUNDHOUSE. There were constant sounds of trains clanging, bumping together for hook-ups (I suppose). There was a seemingly constant Choo-Choo-Choo, and now and then a release of steam that sounded like a giant sigh, of an old engine that was tired and ready to rest  a bit. I want to tell you that I grew to love those sounds...and trains. They didn't bother me at all.
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HAMBURGERS---FIVE CENTS---Did you know that there was once a "gap" in the Main Street frontage, immediately north of the State Theater? Yes, there was a small greasy spoon cafe that sold hamburgers for a nickel---there adjoining the theater!
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ANOTHER "GREASY SPOON"---Going north of the state Theater three or four stores---was another little cafe; it had stools, a counter, and a pin ball machine that Levi Liked. We used to go in there for coffee, if we got tired of dragging Main. This cafe endured into the early fifties.

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 A FREE SINATRA MOVIE---The year I was in the fourth grade, the State Theater had a program whereby some classes at the grade schools (I don't know the ages) were given on a selected afternoon, a free movie. Ms. Holloway's  fourth grade paraded down Sixth Street one afternoon and got to see a free Sinatra movie.What I remember about it is that the girls in the film were swooning over Frank. I bought two Hershey bars and bribed a cute chick in the class to sit with me!

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PARADES IN CLOVIS---I never missed one. My parade review spot was in front of Woolworth's looking west. Grady Maples and R.B. McAlister were up there over Wooly's, hanging out of their KICA Studio wimdow, giving a play-by-play of each parade. Parades started at First and Main and broke up at Eighth and Main near the bandshell. I always enjoyed the Shriners in their fezes and the Mounted Patrol guys. Early in WWII, we had marching soldiers on Main Street in parades. Check out old parade photos.
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RODEOS---We had them southeast of town. I'll never forget the announcers---when a guy was dumped by a bucking animal: "Give him applause---your praise is his only reward."
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EDDY ARNOLD---Eddy did a concert at our old Wildcat football field; I sold balloons, popcorn, and cokes. The year was circa 1948.
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NO CAFETERIAS---In all my years in school in Clovis (1939-1951), I do not remember any lunch facilities--ever. It was brown-bag it or go home. In junior high we used to take our lunches, and sit in the old gym on the north side... in the winter time. Some kids got hamburgers at Johnny's Drive-In, just east of the junior high.
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JOHNNY'S--- One day, circa 1948, several of us guys were getting a coke from Johnny's after school. He knew all us guys and he said: "My garage storage shed back there needs cleaning out, and stuff thrown away. I'll give you guys a nice hamburger meal if you'll get back there and clean it out and sweep it." We got with it, threw away stuff and did the job. There was a pretty nice, but dusty old sport coat back there on a nail---a mustard tan---and I tried it on. I was a perfect fit. I took it up to the cafe and said: "Hey, can I have this?" "Yeh, sure, take it," he said. Though it had several moth holes, I had it cleaned and wore it until I outgrew it. I liked Johnny. (I wore the jacket to my first BDC banquet at El Monterrey,)
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DRUG STORES---Over the years, there were three different drug stores at the Fourth and Main location. When we moved to Clovis in 1938, it was Fox Drug. Later it became Cretney's, and finally Roden-Smith. (I think). I don't know what's there now.
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THRIFTY DRUG---On the opposite end of that block, at Fifth and Main, there was the Thrifty Drug store. It was right next door to the Sunshine Theater. I one day bought a $5.95 "CLIX-O-FELX" film size 127 camera there at Thrifty, that served me for many years and made a lot of keepsake photos.

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THE SUNSHINE THEATER---When I was about 10 years old, I was in law enforcement, working for Chief Pennell, head of the Clovis Police Department. You see, I was a member of the Clovis Junior Police. We met every Saturday morning at Sunshine Theater, with our Chief giving us a "briefing," and also extolling us to walk the straight and narrow. I had a gray/blue uniform shirt with "JUNIOR POLICE" on the left sleeve, but alas, I must report to you that I made no cases or arrests----it was all I could do---to just keep MYSELF on the "straight and narrow!" But the Saturday morning movies were great and cost only a dime!
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SANTA FE HEIGHTS---Do you remember that war-time housing addition, built at Thornton and Fourteenth? It was roughly four blocks long and two blocks wide, and held a lot of people. As far as I know, it was, I think, mainly for the glut of war-time railroaders moving into Clovis, a main railroad town. I had several friends who lived there.
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BELL PARK/PIONEER FIELD---It seemed awfully big in those days, didn't it? It always seemed full of fans! Pioneer players would hit home runs and walk around the boxes of the businessmen there behind home plate, and  collect rolled-up bills through the chicken wire. Out on the first base line sat your wild and wooly tobacco-chewers and cigar-smokers. That was the fun place to be, though the concrete seats were hard----you might get a foul ball out there!
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A "SANGIN'" AT EUGENE FIELD---Do you remember, KICA broadcast a very informal Grand Ole Opry-type "sangin'" at Eugene Field auditorium, every Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. Radio was pretty slim on Saturday nights in those days, but I never missed this "sangin'" though the singers and the songs were pretty near always the same!
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"TWO WEEKS WITH LOVE"---What were YOU doing on the big "turn of the half-century" date of December 31, 1949? I'll tell you where some of us were. It seems that Mardis, Sieren, and I were hanging out and driving around. We saw a couple of girls---(friends of ours from church) at a drive-in getting a coke and we all decided we'd all take in the New Year's midnight movie at the State Theater, "Two Weeks With Love," starring Jane Powell. It was the first time I ever saw Debbie Reynolds. She sang "Abba Dabba Honeymoon" with Carlton Carpenter.
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A JAPANESE ZERO FIGHTER PLANE--- Somehow the US captured a Jap Zero, the incredibly fast and maneuverable ace-in-the-hole plane of the enemy air force. The Americans learned how fight them and had found one serious flaw---the gas tank was not armored, nor the pilot's area. Armor was sacrificed for light weight and speed. This captured plane was sent on tour around the US and when it came to Clovis, it was set up in a large tent right across the street from the State Theater on the corner of Fifth and Main, east side. It cost twenty-five cents to see it, and I walked up a ladder by the cockpit and looked in---and the amazing thing was that the cockpit was so small and tight. Also amazing was how BIG the plane seemed to be, overall.

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THERE, ON THE CORNER, BY BARRY HARDWARE---In my other writings, I have noted that KICA Radio Station blocked  Main Street, at Fourth and Main,  with a speaker-van, one Saturday afternoon, mid-August, 1945. A crowd was gathering as I came out of the Lyceum Theater, and stood there by Barry Hardware, and heard the announcement  over the loudspeaker: "the Japs have surrendered!" That was the day I said to myself: "Thank God, no more wars!" I've always had a fond spot...for Barry Hardware.

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BY MIL
3/01/13





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