"....those matchless days in Clovis...."
(...Donald Todd)
ART AND BOB SNIPES, 2019
JAMES, ART, MIL, BILL AND BOB
ART AND MIL, 1940
MIL AND ART, 1947
I'm proud of these friends. I'm proud
to have walked the Trails of Life with
them for eighty years. Our ways have
not always been in the same direction
but have crossed over and over.
When you think about it, there are not
many people in our lives that we have
known for eight decades.
Art and I met at Clovis La Casita School,
Seventh and Thornton, in the first grade,
September of 1939. Bobby Joe and I
first met a year later, October 1940,
when we moved to 1100 Reid Street--
one block west of their house at 1020
Thornton. It was a nice new
neighborhood, just south of the brand
new Clovis Memorial Hospital, in the
1200 block of Thornton.
From our big many-paned living room
window, looking east down unpaved
Eleventh Street, you could see their
house and backyard clearly. If they
"came outside to play," we were down
to their house immediately! Anytime.
During the WWII years, Jake, their dad
built little white buildings in their
backyard and they had a horse, cow,
and chickens--as was the custom of the
times--and we had the same...plus
rabbits.
Being normal energetic kids, we played
hard all over the area. We played
"America" football, baseball, croquet,
Tarzan, Gene Autry, Batman, marbles,
tops, built mud houses in the shade of
the elms, and nailed everything in sight
(that needed nailing) with our little
claw hammers.
We played "Jap Zeros Down In Flames"
with the garden hose and puddles of
water in our rich green clover lawn...
in the hot summertimes...and heard
the B-24's and later B-29's from
the Clovis ASFB droning constantly
around the edge of town.
We played "army" and fought the
ever-present war in that vacant lot
across from Art's house, complete
with foxholes.
In the summer of 1941 the rains came
in record amounts, never since
surpassed, and the water came up
out of the old lake bed almost to the
hospital. People had boats out on the
prairies...houses were under in spots.
About that time the city was putting
in new sewer piping and blocks of
Reid and uncurbed, unpaved
Eleventh Street had eight foot deep,
ten foot long trenches--half filled with
water.
My little brother Bill, age five, picked
one rainy afternoon during this time,
to wander off down Reid to visit an
uncle...and my mama just about
panicked, and the fire department
came to pole the ditches...when he
came wandering nonchalantly home.
Safe.
All the neighborhood kids were out
searching. Probably Art and Bob too!
The stories about kids growing up--
would fill a book.
We shot many a basketball goal at
Bob's "alley goal post," Ruined several
nice balls out there. It seems that
Clovis' alleys were all cluttered with
rusty nails, screws, broken glass,
rocks, gravel, "stickers", and these
things chewed up basketballs...
Our Magic Steam Laundry was at
417 West Grand and Art and Bob's
dad Jake owned the popular O.K.
Rubber Welding business at about
301 Weat Grand. When walking to
town from the laundry, I used to stop
off at OKRW and watch those boys
change tires and do recapping. They
were hustlers...and efficient.
So the years went on, and we moved
to Axtell in 1948. We all graduated
from CHS, Art and I in '51 and Bob in
'53. Bob once came down to HSU
spent the night on my dorm room
floor.
Art married right out of high school
but I always stopped by his business
to see him, when I was in Clovis. Then
he moved to Albuquerque in 1988 and
eventually lived only three blocks down
the street from us! A nice surprise.
And I sang at Bob and Betty Rae's
wedding in 1954. When I began writing
MIL's PLACE in 2011, Bob, who loves
and knows Clovis history, became my
valued right-hand-man and helper.
Our old neighborhood is still there,
and the houses after over a half
century seem to have been maintained
pretty well. But strangely the GREEN
seems to be gone-- (remember the elm
disease) and the lawns are no more.
It is not a custom any longer for towns
to allow livestock or chickens within
the city limits. In those earlier simple
times, folks were still basically rural
at heart, and fresh off farms.
A lot of water has "gone under the
bridge" since that long-ago time
when I met these special friends--
the old sun still seems to shine just
as brightly...
...our story of growing up couldn't
very well be told without all the
stuff we did...we were shaped by the
times...as people always are...
...and our neighborhood is still some-
what sacred to me--because
Something important happened
there..in TIME..something that
can never be lost...Friendships,
fine, warm, meaningful.
priceless...that will endure.
--------
MIL
13 May 2019
(...Donald Todd)
ART AND BOB SNIPES, 2019
JAMES, ART, MIL, BILL AND BOB
ART AND MIL, 1940
MIL AND ART, 1947
I'm proud of these friends. I'm proud
to have walked the Trails of Life with
them for eighty years. Our ways have
not always been in the same direction
but have crossed over and over.
When you think about it, there are not
many people in our lives that we have
known for eight decades.
Art and I met at Clovis La Casita School,
Seventh and Thornton, in the first grade,
September of 1939. Bobby Joe and I
first met a year later, October 1940,
when we moved to 1100 Reid Street--
one block west of their house at 1020
Thornton. It was a nice new
neighborhood, just south of the brand
new Clovis Memorial Hospital, in the
1200 block of Thornton.
From our big many-paned living room
window, looking east down unpaved
Eleventh Street, you could see their
house and backyard clearly. If they
"came outside to play," we were down
to their house immediately! Anytime.
During the WWII years, Jake, their dad
built little white buildings in their
backyard and they had a horse, cow,
and chickens--as was the custom of the
times--and we had the same...plus
rabbits.
Being normal energetic kids, we played
hard all over the area. We played
"America" football, baseball, croquet,
Tarzan, Gene Autry, Batman, marbles,
tops, built mud houses in the shade of
the elms, and nailed everything in sight
(that needed nailing) with our little
claw hammers.
We played "Jap Zeros Down In Flames"
with the garden hose and puddles of
water in our rich green clover lawn...
in the hot summertimes...and heard
the B-24's and later B-29's from
the Clovis ASFB droning constantly
around the edge of town.
We played "army" and fought the
ever-present war in that vacant lot
across from Art's house, complete
with foxholes.
In the summer of 1941 the rains came
in record amounts, never since
surpassed, and the water came up
out of the old lake bed almost to the
hospital. People had boats out on the
prairies...houses were under in spots.
About that time the city was putting
in new sewer piping and blocks of
Reid and uncurbed, unpaved
Eleventh Street had eight foot deep,
ten foot long trenches--half filled with
water.
My little brother Bill, age five, picked
one rainy afternoon during this time,
to wander off down Reid to visit an
uncle...and my mama just about
panicked, and the fire department
came to pole the ditches...when he
came wandering nonchalantly home.
Safe.
All the neighborhood kids were out
searching. Probably Art and Bob too!
The stories about kids growing up--
would fill a book.
We shot many a basketball goal at
Bob's "alley goal post," Ruined several
nice balls out there. It seems that
Clovis' alleys were all cluttered with
rusty nails, screws, broken glass,
rocks, gravel, "stickers", and these
things chewed up basketballs...
Our Magic Steam Laundry was at
417 West Grand and Art and Bob's
dad Jake owned the popular O.K.
Rubber Welding business at about
301 Weat Grand. When walking to
town from the laundry, I used to stop
off at OKRW and watch those boys
change tires and do recapping. They
were hustlers...and efficient.
So the years went on, and we moved
to Axtell in 1948. We all graduated
from CHS, Art and I in '51 and Bob in
'53. Bob once came down to HSU
spent the night on my dorm room
floor.
Art married right out of high school
but I always stopped by his business
to see him, when I was in Clovis. Then
he moved to Albuquerque in 1988 and
eventually lived only three blocks down
the street from us! A nice surprise.
And I sang at Bob and Betty Rae's
wedding in 1954. When I began writing
MIL's PLACE in 2011, Bob, who loves
and knows Clovis history, became my
valued right-hand-man and helper.
Our old neighborhood is still there,
and the houses after over a half
century seem to have been maintained
pretty well. But strangely the GREEN
seems to be gone-- (remember the elm
disease) and the lawns are no more.
It is not a custom any longer for towns
to allow livestock or chickens within
the city limits. In those earlier simple
times, folks were still basically rural
at heart, and fresh off farms.
A lot of water has "gone under the
bridge" since that long-ago time
when I met these special friends--
the old sun still seems to shine just
as brightly...
...our story of growing up couldn't
very well be told without all the
stuff we did...we were shaped by the
times...as people always are...
...and our neighborhood is still some-
what sacred to me--because
Something important happened
there..in TIME..something that
can never be lost...Friendships,
fine, warm, meaningful.
priceless...that will endure.
--------
MIL
13 May 2019
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