Pages past - March 10

On this date ...

1971: King Aitken, president of the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce, estimated 20,000 people came through Tucumcari in December. That calculation came from a total of 4,771 cars counted on Interstate 40 during the month. Multiplied by four people per vehicle, Aitken came up with 20,000. “If we can prolong the stay for a small portion of those 20,000 people for either the overnight or days, the chance that our friendly town will so sell itself that some of those folks may eventually move to stay,” he said.

• Andy Hovanec, 55, died at the Veterans Administration hospital in Albuquerque. He had been market manager at Safeway in Tucumcari for 21 years until becoming ill two months ago. The World War II veteran was active in the Kiwanis Club, Cub Scout Pack 652 and the Center Street United Methodist Church.

• By popular demand, the Odeon Theatre in Tucumcari was screening a double-feature of “Planet of the Apes” and “Beneath the Planet of the Apes.”