Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
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The US Supreme Court’s July 1 decision to grant absolute immunity to a President’s official acts is indeed, as Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote on X, “a sad day for America” and “our democracy.” Donald Trump and future presidents are evidently now free to follow their worst instincts if they don’t like the result of elections—or anything else. Absent any guardrails, presidents, by claiming they are acting in their official capacities, may incite insurrections, order the justice department to d...
From Possum Trot, Ga. to the Grand Ole Opry and beyond, Wally Fowler blazed musical trails. I’m proud to record those times in the pages of history. The year was 1948, Dudley J. LeBlanc, the inventor of Hadacol, had come up with a great promotional idea, a Hadacol caravan featuring the biggest entertainment talent in the country. The show traveled the United States and admittance was free. Just one box top from a box of Hadacol is all that was needed to catch the biggest s...
DEALING WITH COVID For over three years Roy had been very cautious to not be in contact with COVID. He quit going to the office and avoided being around people. He and his family knew that because of existing health problems it would be nearly impossible to overcome a battle with COVID. He and Phyl didn’t take any chances. They took all the shots, all but the last booster shot. They had let their guard down somewhat and didn’t wear their mask while doing doctor’s visits. They...
7 FADES INTO HISTORY Well, we’ve come to the end of another year. 2023 went by with rapid speed. The weeks and months just ran into one another. I don’t recall a year passing so fast. Maybe it’s because I kept my nose to the grindstone. *****Nationally, we’re ending the year on a high note. The stock market is at an all-time high. I’m really optimistic about 2024. I see a boom because of rising companies launching initial public offerings, potentially creating over 14 m...
The knowledge of mankind has fast-forwarded to unbelievable heights in the span of one lifetime as has today’s temperatures reach record heights. When I was a lad in the Cajun country in the late ‘30s and ‘40s, South Louisiana was no paradise. The heat and dust, along with humidity, was almost unbearable. With today’s temperature it would be almost impossible to carry a sack. Dust so heavy it filled your nostrils, your body became covered with the mixture of dust and sweat....
It was a dark day in the U.S.A. on Oct. 24, 1929, the day the Great Depression began. The stock market crashed investors and wealthy people lost everything. Many committed suicide, jumping out of skyscraper buildings. No one was spared. Two of my father's brothers, who owned Dunn Brothers, the country's largest pipeline stringers, lost everything with the exception on one brother who had a banker friend who tipped him off before every bank in the country went into lockdown....
On New Year's Eve, December 31, 2021, Phyl and I will celebrate our 67th wedding anniversary. Over the Thanksgiving Holidays we had all three of our children, five grandchildren and eight of our nine great-grandchildren with us. Our oldest great-grandson Nate, in the Air Force, is stationed in South Dakota. It was such a joy to be around the small ones. There are four of them that are five years old and younger. Each one of them has their own personality. When our...
THE YEAR 2021 WHEN WE NEARLY LOST OUR WAY When January 1, rolled around we were already facing the head winds of a worldwide pandemic, COVID-19. Fortunately a vaccine had been developed in record time and others on the way. There wasn't any concerted effort being applied by our government to get shots into citizen's arms. We faced the possibility of losing millions of American lives. Shortly after the Jan. 21 inauguration of President Joe Biden, his administration went into...
I don’t have very many good memories of Christmas in my childhood. We were extremely poor, in my very early years, so I don’t recall that I ever received a store-bought gift. Sometimes I got a handmade toy but mostly a useful item like a pair of socks, maybe a new shirt or pair of church pants. Never in my early years did my family have a Christmas tree. When I was about in the eighth grade, the teacher gave me the classroom tree when school let out for the holidays and tha...
For more than a year, President John F. Kennedy had sought the trip to Texas that ended tragically the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963. The national pain and trauma that followed his assassination produced the Kennedy legend. Kennedy had two distinct purposes in mind, and wanted the visit to Texas to achieve them. The first was to raise money. The second was to improve his own political position in a state that promised to be critical in the presidential election of 1964. Nationwid...
From the 40s to the 60s organized labor was the most potent political and economic force in Southeast Texas. Jefferson and Orange Counties had the highest per capita income in the state, wonderful school districts and everyone seemed to be prospering. At the time it was difficult, if not impossible, for someone politically inclined to win election without labor support. Even with the benefits, Labor was not without its crises at the time. Critical times in the area included...
NO GOOD TIME TO EXIT President Joe Biden said Monday he made the right call to pull Americans troops out of Afghanistan. “I stand squarely behind my decision” Biden said. He also said Afghan officials, including former President Ashraf Ghani, had assured him Afghan forces would fight the insurgents. Taliban fighters completed their sweep of the country by seizing control of Afghanistan’s capital Sunday as American troops scrambled to evacuate thousands of U.S. diplomats and Af...
Union Pacific's Big Boy No. 4014 steam engine train arrives in Orange Thursday for a whistle stop at 9:30 A.M. at Holly Lane crossing. The engine was built in 1941, during WWII. The smaller steam engine train played an important part in my childhood and the coming of Big Boy prompted me to write about it. I loved those old trains. Our house, a one-room shack, rested next to the railroad tracks and an old sugar cane derrick. The derrick was a beehive during sugar cane...
This is for those youngsters who will be graduating this month, who will be leaving the protection of home and striking out on their own. You have absolutely no idea what the future has in store. You will have great things happen, and you will also get a lot of hard bumps. The bumps will seem harder to you than they really are. Your parents, up to now, have been taking many bumps for you, sheltering you against them. Later, you will do the same for your children. Time will...
Memories of the past are a reflection of the road we've traveled and where it brought us... In my mind, from time to time, I go back to times of my youth. Raised on Young Switch Road, named after the railroad switch station, less than 150 yards from Mom and my grain storage shack we called home. It was salvaged from a farm and drug to our spot by a team of mules, pulling our shed on a sled. That little one-room building was our castle. It had room for one bed. I slept on a cor...
I was watching CNN just before 10 p.m. Sunday, May 1, 2011, when a newsbreak announced President Obama would be addressing the nation. A newsbreak this late on Sunday made it evident to me that this was going to be something big, but I didn't imagine how big. Osama bin Laden, 53, Al Qaeda leader and chief architect of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States was shot in the head, killed and his body buried in the ocean. It was a great plan, over many months,...
Mark 2:1 "And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house." Here in this passage we see the phrase, "…it was noised that he was in the house." Capernaum is the town where Jesus resided and ministered out of in His travels. What a great place to live where Jesus the Son of God dwelt. Now what's my point today? Can it be said of your community that there are houses where the resurrected Christ dwells? Oh, it would have to be e...
Orange, Texas in the 1950s was a great place to be a kid. Orange had a burst of prosperity during the World War II years and an explosion of population due to the shipbuilding for the war effort. Building warships had ceased but storing them was beginning. The U.S. Navy had built an inactive storage base in Orange and retired warships were being brought into Orange, along with Navy personnel. The shipyards still had business but were downsized a bit. New industry was coming to...
Bridge City today is far different than it was 62 years ago when the Penny Record first hit the streets in April, 1959. My roots run deep in Bridge City soil. My dad, Clay, first located here in 1928, when he established the Silver Slipper Club on Lake Street. At the time, Lake Street was the main road and was an extension of Ferry Dr. The Bailey's had settled on Lake Sabine around 1926, near the ferry crossing to Port Arthur. In 1946, after World War II, dad put in the...
After what little supper we had was eaten, the chores of another day put away, we gathered on Grandma Avelia's little front porch. She rocked in her favorite rocker holding her rosary. That rocker today is a prized possession of mine. It sets proudly in my bedroom where it's a constant reminder of those simple days of my childhood. Spring was a favorite time for porch sitting, with lightning bugs glowing beautifully and a cool breeze usually blowing. Porch sitting wasn't only...
The Civil War had come to its conclusion. The year was 1865. Dr. Stephen Dunn had been one of its casualties. He was survived by his wife, Sarah Jane, and one eight year old son, Allen. Alone and penniless, the mother made a decision to take her young son and travel to Eastland County, Texas, where she had a brother. Allen, his mother and an aunt traveled by covered wagon from Searcy, Arkansas. The trek took several months and they were met with many hardships and delays....
On February 19, 1959, 62 years ago last Friday, my father Clay Jackson Dunn died on the operating table. He had a gallstone lodged in an unusual duct and had turned jaundice. The doctors at the big Dallas hospital said surgery to remove the stone was the only options, even though his cardiologist advised against it. He had suffered a major heart attack earlier and his doctor said his heart would never stand major surgery. The operation was set for 9:00 A.M. In order to get the...
Several events, as of late, got me to thinking about my longtime friend Johnny Preston Courville, Jr. My mind is wandering back over 60 years to a period that is unique. The Gulf Coast Sound or Swamp Pop music was born at a time between big band, Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Frankie Lane, the arrival of Elvis and before the Beatles came ashore. A group of talented young musicians, most with some Cajun background, sprang up down the coast from Beaumont to Abbeville. Feb. 3 marked...
The Legislature has ended its first week of session. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the Senate has decided to recess until January 26th . However, we will still be working hard in the meantime on legislation for Senate District 3. Here are five things happening around your state: 1. The Texas Legislature begins the 87th Legislative Session This week, the 87th legislature gaveled in for session. Though opening day looked a bit different than usual, with fewer guests in the galler...
There was no way of knowing our late years would get down to isolation because of a life threatening pandemic. It's certainly not the way we wanted to spend our final years. However, after being in lock down for the past few months, after 66 years of marriage, Phyl and I have found a silver lining. It all started when Phyl started writing down the names of everyone we could remember who we had crossed paths with or were dear friends. Most who were our ages, 84 and 86, had...
