As It Should Be

We like to see the rain gauge looking like this in early spring. The little creek into the stock tank is running this morning, everything is growing like crazy and more precipitation is in the forecast.

I'd like to mention the names of folks who have contacted me. I didn't realize there was no way for me to be reached, so I have a direct email link in the right hand column or you can send me a message from my profile page.

Last week I heard from Tom Hargrove, Durwood "Kinney" McKinney, Bell (Martinez) Moore and John Martinez. Kinney told me the following story about him and my dad:

"Your Dad, Mickey, and I were drafted into the Army in November of 1961 in Sweetwater. We went through basic training together in Ft. Carson, Colorado. When we got out of basic in January of 1962, we got a leave and travel time to report to our new station. We got a ride with another guy who had a car and was going to Ft. Bliss in El Paso, and he agreed to take us as far as Lubbock . Just south of Raton, New Mexico, he blew the motor in his car. We were in some small town about 50 miles south of Raton, I can’t remember its name. There was no bus service and no rental car agency. We went to the train station and the man told us there would be a train going back to Raton in an hour or so, and that it wasn't scheduled to stop, but if we bought tickets he could flag it down and we could get back to Raton where we could rent a car. Mickey and I bought tickets, the guy flagged the train down and we rode back to Raton. We got off the train and found the Hertz agency, which was a GM dealer. He wouldn’t rent us a car all the way to Lubbock because he said it might take a long time for it to get back to Raton but he agreed to rent it to us for as far as the airport in Amarillo. We took it and called Becky, who had finished the fall semester at Tech and closed our apartment in Lubbock and moved back to her parents, Tom and Bargy Hargrove, in Hobbs until I got out of basic and was assigned somewhere. Becky had planned to meet Mickey and me in Lubbock, since that was far as we had a ride for. Instead she met us in Amarillo at the airport at about midnight and the three of us drove back to Hobbs that night. As I remember, we got to Mickey's house about 4 a.m. and let him out. I haven’t seen him since that night in late January of 1962."

I was surprised to hear this story, as I thought Dad had told me all of them. He added his own embellishments when he read this. He said he was kinda glad the motor blew, because the guy was going about 110 when he came off the top of the pass. He thought they were gonna die before they ever got to Lubbock.

Other folks that I've heard from in the past are Barry Dean, Loretta J. (Cave) Carter, Don Cave, Sue Vaughn, Dolores (Doey) Groves Greer, Juanelle Jordan, Pat Porter and Wes Hale. Wes sent me a great story about how his mother, Kathleen, met the Williams family:

"This is how my mother, Kathleen Hale, was "formally introduced" to the neighbors (the Williams). She was teaching in Snyder and was driving..uh sliding down the dirt..uh mud.. road towards Hobbs when she got stuck and a "wall" of water came gushing down the wash out before Spring Creek and washed her car into the pasture. Luckily it was in yelling distance to the Williams' house and Andrew and Ricky came to the rescue and pulled her to safety in the Tractor. The car was washed away and is probably now sitting at the Bottom of Lake Possum Kingdom."

I have one person I correspond with quasi-regularly, Phil Jennings, who is not from Hobbs, but bought some land across from the cemetery. I'm always glad to hear something from him.

Send me your stories and I'll print them here. Even if you don't want them told publicly, send them to me to read, anyway. The more stories I hear, the more I get a picture of what Hobbs used to be.