March 14, 1974
A VERY ENTHUSIASTIC YOUNG COUPLE, Jay R. and Beverly McClellan, have just opened up their own business at 135 Court Street in the Socorro Unlimited, Inc. complex. Their business, Mini-Menagerie & Pet Parlor, and they plan to have available all kinds of pets. The McClellan’s specialize in tropical fish and professional dog grooming, any breed and trimmed to specification. Beverly has her graduation diploma from the well-known Tara Lara All-Breed Grooming School in Albuquerque. Their stock of birds, now out of season, will soon be expanded, as well as other pets including snakes, monkeys, and Easter bunny rabbits. They also will repair aquariums and order special fish and even take trade-ins if a customer would like a larger or smaller or differently equipped aquarium. They will also sell small animals on consignment. The shop is open six days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

March 19, 1974
FENCE ACRES BAR was leveled to the ground by fire early Sunday morning. Firemen were called at 4:30 a.m., units arriving within five minutes, but already the huge blaze was out of control for firemen to save the structure. The cause of the fire is unknown. The adjacent building housing the bowling alley sustained smoke and water damage, but the lanes were untouched by fire. A wall on the north end of the building caved in. There were 19 firemen on call, Midway Fire Department, the police, and the Ambulance Service at the scene. It took two hours to put out the fire.

March 17, 1999
TWO SOCORRO COUNTY students proved their stuff one on the court and the other on the field. Socorro High’s Paul Bustamante received the honor of being invited to the state’s high school all-star North-South AAA gridiron showdown. The top high school football stars from the north will battle the stars from the south in the state-wide battle held in Las Cruces. Magdalena standout Carolina Gutierrez was selected to play in the North-South A-AA Volleyball match. She was nominated as a setter. Gutierrez was also selected as the Journal Scholar Athlete. The classroom standout is currently ranked second in her graduating class. She is considering attending New Mexico Highlands University and plans to tryout for the Cowgirl women’s team. Students selected to play in the all-star games must be high school seniors, display good sportsmanship, maintain required grade point averages, and excel in the athletic division.

A SAN ANTONIO WOMAN was the winner of the second of seven Ford pickups being given away in the New Mexico Lottery’s “Trucks and Bucks II.” She received four scratcher tickets from her husband, a Socorro barber. She took delivery of the 1999 Ford F-150 from an Albuquerque Ford dealership. The winning ticket was purchased at the Sunwest/Pump N Save in Socorro.
March 13, 2017

TODAY MARKS ANOTHER closure of the Loma, Socorro’s only movie theater. Unfortunately, it may well be its last demise. After five years of trying to make a go of it, owner Todd Bloomhuff of Bloomhuff Theaters has called it quits. The Nevada-based theater operator is unwilling to invest the $40,000 needed to convert the circa-1950s 35 mm projector to a modern digital system, according to his landlord, First State Bank’s Holm Bursum III. For some time, the number of movie titles available in 35 mm film has been declining, and Bloomhuff said that on March 1, his source for these films had stopped distributing them altogether, according to Bursum. “You can’t get 35 mm film anymore. Everybody told us a year ago,” Bursum said. “He held out to the bitter end.” Recently, even Bessie Moya had no idea which movie they would be able to get for the week until it showed up on Thursday, making advertising the theater’s second-run flicks impossible. Bloomhuff could not be reached for comment.

Denise Ortega