"DRAGGIN' MAIN" --- WHEN DID IT BEGIN?

CLOVIS MAIN STREET 1908
(See heifer, bottom left, cruisin')

After extensive research, we have assumed that  draggin'

Main  began early after 1907, when HEIFERS were seen 

doing the eight blocks....and that's NO BULL!

In a more serious vein, it was possible that teams and

wagons cruised Main, but we have no definite proof of 

that---it is mere speculation. Whether kids got the wagons

for Saturday nights is a fact lost in the mists of time.

The dragging Main-in-automobiles likely began sometime 

in the thirties. Most Clovis kids my age learned about it in the

forties  when we got our driver's licenses.

Before that, we had "no need to know."

Main dragging times were Friday and Saturday nights, and

Sunday afternoon.  On Sundays, traffic was bumper-to-

bumper---better not look around.

I did---and rear-ended Jimmy Abernethy in front of Montgomery

Ward. Meador's Chevrolet charged $55.00 to fix my dad's

pickup---a $1,000 job today.

All kids had different dragging routines. (Some parked and 

watched.) Tiring of the eight blocks of Main Street, we often

went out First and circled back around on Prince to 14th

to Thornton, Grand, and Main again. 

Sometimes we'd head out Seventh all the way to a movie

in Melrose --- usually on a Saturday night.  There

was also a movie in Portales and a pool hall in Texico.

We never touched booze, but one night, a bit bored, we

headed out all the way to Taiban, just to see what all

the fuss was about. Well, there were six or eight cars

out there, west of Clovis, parked at a seedy-looking little 

building, which we assumed was a bar selling liquor. A 

wasted four or five gallons of gas....

In those days gasoline was twenty-five cents a gallon.

With several kids in the  car, we could easily buy twelve

gallons of gas.

Susan Stebbins Mallory shares her memories of those

days...."I know it ended many years ago. I left Clovis for

the last time in 1968 and there was no dragging Main then.

We often drove out First, circled a drive-in out there---

returned to Main and then went out Seventh to circle

the Foxy...and gas started to get more expensive, and

many started parking around Gateway Auto at Main and

Sixth, and stood around talking and watching the cars.

As gasoline went higher, more and more friends joined

us there.

On Sunday afternoons we'd drag Main til six p.m. and 

then we had to head home.

What fun times we had in those days---especially when

we could turn around at the end of Main, near the train

station! Do you remember the crows which gathered

in the trees around there and the city had trouble 

getting rid of them?"

Who would have ever dreamed that "Draggin' Main,"

as we knew it, would end. I guess it went the way of

many good Clovis things...such as our dear old high

school building, Coney Island, Busy Bee, El Monterrey, 

La Casita School, Eugene Field (?), Woolworth's, Barry

Hardware, Duckworth Drug, Carmack's, Jack Holt's, and

others.

Maybe it's on its way back, with the "Gear Head

Gathering and Main Dragging" of June 28, 2014.

I was unable to attend that event, but Bobby Joe, 

one who loves Clovis history was there, saw and 

absorbed it all, and got great photos.

His pictures will appear on MIL'S PLACE.

(I personally saw Bobby Joe dragging Main in

his neat little maroon 48 Chevrolet coupe,

after a Friday night football game, circa 1952.)

*******30******
BY MIL
7/12/14