Temptations of a cultural, local nature

Clyde Davis

It’s comin’ up pretty soon — next weekend, in fact. The next presentation in the ENMU theatrical offering for this semester.

There is always one conjunctive with Homecoming, and this year it is The Picnic. I suppose because I have an unusual number of theater, dance, and drama people in my freshman writing classes, I am more than usually aware of this event.

The plot is deceptively simple and unwraps in layers. Let me just say, since I don’t want to ruin the play for you, that it concerns male/female relationships, the effect that some folks may unwittingly have on others, and the ability of men and women to change, shape themselves in response to events, and grow when given the proper catalyst in the form of person or event.

Any more would be to give too much away.

So I am talking to Roger on the phone and you have to understand that for about a year now I have been trying to get him to come out here. Yes, in the form of a permanent move, but at least to look things over.

I am pretty well convinced, having known Roger for almost 30 years, that if he came out here and spent some time, he would move here.

I tell him we could ride our bikes for miles around here without humping a hill, and I tell him there are even ways that he could grow stuff outside in the winter, like greens and onions and so on. And I tell him about the proximity of Santa Fe, and how it really is the City Different. Cause see, I know Roger pretty well, and I know what would appeal to him.

Then he gets to culture and sports. And that, my friends, is what this article is really about. So instead of poormouthing it, like so many do, I start to tell him about Eastern New Mexico University and Clovis Community College, and the fact that between the two of them, with the Cultural Arts Series and the theatre/drama/music departments there is barely a week goes by without something going on at one place or another.

I tell him about our Artsfestival, and I explain to him that, while ENMU athletics is not professional, it is a darned good and dedicated bunch of college athletes, playing to the best of their ability. Plus which you don’t have to go without dinner to afford the price of a ticket.

It is a bell I sound every now and then in my column, and since Homecoming is coming up, I will sound it again.

Here is the parade, there is the game, there is the drama presentation. Jana Stanfield will be coming to town and doing a concert in the Portales High School on Homecoming Saturday.

The social and activity schedule between now and the holidays will be pretty full, with affordable, varied offerings from our communities and our two centers of higher learning. I’ll be covering some of those in more depth.

Hey, I don’t know if I’ve convinced Rog. I mean, it’s not like he is from some metropolis; he lives in this little town on Lake Erie (Well, Lake Erie is one thing we do not have...)

And I guess I have failed to convince you, if you read this and figure you still have no choice but to sit on the couch and bemoan your boredom.

But I hope to see you instead, at some of the stuff that is going on.

Clyde Davis is pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Portales and an instructor at Eastern New Mexico University.