I'm on vacation this week, so I'm bringing back this column, which originallyran in the El Paso Times on Dec.12, 2009.
Dear Trish: Between 1955 and 1960 there used to be an Oasis drive-in on NorthMesa Street. We used to stop there when we came to El Paso from Las Cruces. Can you tell me where it was located and when it closed?
Mesa Oasis Restaurant opened in 1964
The restaurant you are asking about was at 700 N. Mesa St. and is listed in the 1964 city directory as Mesa Oasis Restaurant. It was owned by former Mayor Fred Hervey. I wasn't able to find a date of the closing.
At one time, Hervey owned several Oasis Restaurants: the Five Points Oasis was at Birch and Montana streets; Plaza Oasis was across from the Plaza Theater; the Town Pump was opened at Cotton and Montana and was the first drive-in restaurant in El Paso; and the Alta Vista Oasis was at Copia Street and Pershing Drive.
Hervey started out as a youngster with a soda pop stand at a corner of Gold and Piedras. His father opened an open-air movie theater at Five Points, and Hervey moved the soda pop stand into the theater. The soda stand quickly evolved into a full-fledged concession stand with popcorn and candy.
At the age of 19, he left his theater stand and went to work for a bank in Mesa, Arizona. He lost his job at the bank due to the Great Depression. Hervey returned to El Paso in 1929 and opened a root beer and sandwich stand at Birch and Montana. This was the first Oasis Restaurant.
He served two years in the Navy during World War II. During his service in the Navy, his wife and daughter ran therestaurant.
Hervey elected mayor
In 1950, he entered politics with an unsuccessful run for Congress. The following year, he ran for mayor of El Paso and won. He served as mayor until 1955. He was elected to another two-year term in 1973.
As mayor, he created the Public Service Board to oversee the city's water utility and also led the push to annex Ysleta. During Hervey's tenure in the 1970s, the city bought the streetcar system and clashed with the press over open-meetings laws.
Mayor Hervey also helped make it possible for Hispanics to serve with the Fire Department and for Hispanics to be promoted to higher ranks in the Police Department.
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In 1951, Hervey purchased Paramount Meat Market and Kay's Drive-In Food Stores; their grand opening was on March 30, 1952. Hervey quickly expanded, and soon had 12 locations in El Paso and one in Alamogordo.
Hervey then planned two Kay's Drive-In Foods in Phoenix, but there was already a company there with a similar name — K's Food Products. That's when Hervey changed the name of his stores to Circle K.
According to Circle K's website, there are now 3,000 Circle K locations in the United States and more than 4,000 locations around the world, including in Japan, Mexico, China and Guam.
Hervey also owned Sun World Savings and Sun Publishing. He died Sept. 1, 1999, at the age of 90.
Bobby Knight ejected from Sun Bowl Basketball Tournament
A reporter from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram called me this week, trying to verify some information for an obituary on Tommy Taylor, a longtime Fort Worth educator. Taylor was also a football official, was a replay official for Southern Methodist University football and officiated TCU basketball for more than 30 years.
In El Paso, he was the official who ejected Indiana coach Bobby Knight from the 1972 Sun Bowl Basketball Tournament championship game against UTEP.
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Law escorts Knight off the floor
Dennis Kincaid reported in a Dec. 30, 1972, Times article, "Paced by a second half scoring performance by sophomore Frank Keton, and the all-around play of freshman Gary Brewster, the University of Texas at El Paso knocked off 15th-ranked University of Indiana 74-65 to win the 12th annual Sun Bowl Basketball Tournament in Memorial Gymnasium Friday night.
"With 7:03 remaining in the second half, Indiana head coach Bob Knight found his team behind 63-48 and a call by one of the Southwest Conference officials didn't please him. At this time, Knight came off of his chair and went after the official verbally and in return received three technical fouls on the mentor, and the local law escorted Knight off the floor."