Pages past - March 21

On this date ...

1973: Paul Crume, was a well-known columnist for the Dallas Morning News, with roots in Farwell. He contacted Clovis News-Journal Managing Editor Bill Southard to share a memory of a favorite teacher.

In his column called, “Big D,” Crume said he’d written about the plural of the word “goose” and had some readers who contended that when talking about five or fewer of the big birds, the correct plural was “gooses,” and that “geese” only applied to larger numbers.

“I was aghast at hearing this,” Crume wrote to Southard, “because it is a direct violation of Miss Walker’s instructions in the high school freshman class at Farwell High School and it was well known that her authority on English stood next to God when God chose to speak English. To our generation, the plural of ‘goose’ is ‘geese,’ period.”

Southard said the Miss Walker in Crume’s memory was now Mrs. Earl Booth. While she had retired from the Farwell schools, “obviously her influence carries on.”

1963: Six hundred twenty-five members of Future Homemakers of America chapters across New Mexico, as well as 73 of their advisors, were due to arrive in Clovis the following day for the state FHA convention.

The event was hosted by the Clovis and Texico FHA chapters, with the assistance of members from other area chapters including Portales junior and senior, Melrose, Elida, Logan, Floyd, Dora, and Fort Sumner.

The theme of the meeting was “The Spotlight is on You,” and the keynote speaker was Bess Rothman, a nationally known lecturer and consultant on “charm, fashion, and self-improvement,” according to the Clovis News-Journal.

Rothman’s keynote address was titled, “It Does Make a Difference,” a primer on “the importance of correct posture in walking, standing, and sitting, and how it affects one’s image,” the article promised.

Pages Past is compiled by Betty Williamson. Contact her at:

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