Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1958: Clovis police arrested 12 people for gambling at Teddy's Shine Parlor, 521 W. First St.
The Clovis News-Journal reported:
"Those weren't the popping of shoe shine rags echoing from the back of Teddy's ...
"Neither was the chanting that of a shoe shine boy.
"The popping was the dice hitting the sideboards of a pool table. The chant was the voices of players calling out for the dice to 'win baby a new pair of shoes. ...'"
The newspaper reported a police officer cruising the streets noticed a crowd at Teddy's, slipped up to the unguarded back door and heard the dice game in progress.
The officer recruited help and police swept into the business so quickly the lookout "didn't have time to give out a warning," the paper reported.
Police caught most of the ivory polishers flat footed, but most of the evidence was quickly destroyed or ended up in the hands of one player who managed to escape.
In all, police reported they confiscated $1.35 and one dice.
"Someone apparently swallowed the other piece of evidence," the newspaper reported.
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