Pages Past - June 17

On this date ... 1970

• A reporter at the scene of an accident at Center and Rock Island streets between a cement truck and a car carrying two people said it illustrated citizens’ complaints about ambulance service in Tucumcari. A dispatcher could be heard frantically trying to send an ambulance driver to the wreck. The dispatcher made the call at 12:08 p.m.; the ambulance arrived at 12:20. One bystander said: “We could get the San Jon ambulance before this one.” The same day, the city commission learned during a special session the New Mexico Corporation Commission’s Traffic Division offered to send two new ambulances at no cost to the city. The state commission, city and county earlier withdrew a $400 subsidy to Foster Ambulance Service.

• A Budweiser beer truck overturned on Interstate 40 west of Tucumcari, spilling its contents. Five pickup loads of beer in cans and bottles were brought to Tucumcari Motor Co., awaiting disposition. A mechanic there said he was looking at more beer than he’d seen in his life. Quipped one employee: “The party starts at 8.”

• The Odeon Theatre was screening “Two Mules for Sister Sara,” a western starring Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine.