Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Pages past, July 14: That time Birdie won a pair of hose

On this date …

1961: Birdie Rackler was hoping to win a pair of hose when she signed up for a contest at Portales' Mode O'Day clothing store. She did win the hose, but also learned she was the winner of the store's top prize in its nationwide promotion - a trip to Europe.

She didn't really want to go to Europe.

“I've never had any desire to go to Europe or anywhere else,” she told the Portales News-Tribune. “I'm satisfied with home.”

Her neighbors and children may have been more excited than she was about her good fortune.

“Everybody wants us to go,” she said. “I suppose I would want to go too if we were younger or my husband's health were better. Now it just seems like a worry.”

Each of the store's 650 locations across the country awarded three prizes in their drawings - a dress for first place, a slip for second place and a pair of hose for third place. All three prize recipients were then entered in the national drawing for the trip.

Rackler said she had forgotten all about the contest until her husband, Robert, answered a phone call from Los Angeles, where Mode O'Day was headquartered. “I found out it was a call from California and I thought something had happened to our son who is stationed at Fort Ord,” she said. “The only thing I could say when they told me I won was, 'It couldn't happen to me.'”

The Racklers, who farmed near Floyd for years, ultimately sold the trip to Europe to the wife of a Portales veterinarian for $500. Then they took the money and put it toward a Ford Falcon.

“The first new car they ever had, said Jo Rackler, Birdie's daughter-in-law who still lives in Portales.

Grandson Mike Rackler was born the same day the car was purchased. Rackler family members, including Mike, drove the Falcon until “they eventually wore the car out,” Jo Rackler said.

Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens. Betty Williamson contributed to this report. Contact:

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