God Bless You, And Have A Blessed Christmas. The Staff Of The Record Newspapers
H The Home Of Seattle Seahawk Earl Thomas III H
County Record Vol. 56 No. 36
The Community Newspaper of Orange, Texas
Week of Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Orange County employees make their exits David Ball
For The Record
County Judge Carl Thibodeaux isn’t the only one who will be terminating his employment with Orange County at the beginning of the New Year. Jill Shores, personnel director for the county, reported in addition to Thibodeaux’s departure, 12 others have given notice they are ending their employment with the county. Some elected officials and department heads are included on the lilst. Owen Burton, Precinct 2 commissioner for 11 years, didn’t run again in the November General Election. Barry Burton will be sworn in as the new commissioner on Jan. 1, 2015. Likewise, Janice Menard, Precinct 3 justice of the Peace, lost her election to Joy Dubose Simonton. Menard’s last day is December 31. She has worked in the JP3 office since 1982. Karen Jo Vance, longtime county clerk, ran unopposed in the General Election, but she decided to retire at the end of
THIBODEAUX
VANCE
the year after being re-elected. Vance wrote in an email she is the happiest and feels the most peace than she has in years over her decision. “I didn’t know the stress I had. I guess it took April 2014 to roll around on the calendar for me to see I’ve spent more than 40 years of my life in this office,” she wrote. “But they weren’t by any means the best years of my life. Thanks to the Good Lord Above who kept putting retiring into my mindset. I kept dismissing the very idea of it, but it kept nagging at me.” She added several close family members have become very ill and she had to take off from work to care for them. “I realized I didn’t miss work one bit. I realized the office did not need me there to run fan-
tastically and without any problems whatsoever,” Vance stated. Vance concluded her email by writing her 60th birthday is on December 28 and retirement will be the best gift. “I will not be back in the office. I’ve cleaned out my personal belongings so this is goodbye,” she wrote.
Vance plans to do some traveling while retired. “I like to travel, my husband, Robert, not so much .... So I will probably be doing lots of solo traveling with the Ellen Ray and Patsy Peck group tours. “Then, once a year or maybe twice, Robert will travel with me and I’d love for him to see Wales, my favorite so far. I
haven’t seen Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and much much more of the grand old USA, so catch me if you can.” Other than traveling, Vance will be “doing lots of relaxing and not thinking about getting elected again.” “Being an elected official is not for sissies,” she joked.
Two other department heads leaving are Jeff Kelley, emergency management coordinator, and Shores herself. Kelley will be working in the Austin area to be closer to his children. He began working for the county in 2006. Shores has spent 20 years OC EMPLOYEES Page 3A
Reminiscing: Christmas in the ‘50s
Looking south, the intersection of Fifth Street and Green Avenue in Orange is covered with snow in the mid 1950s. On the right is the First National Bank and on the left Belile’s Men’s Wear, two of the business on the Fifth Street shopping district.
The Civil War cannon at the Orange County Court House is adorned with Christmas lights. RECORD PHOTO: Mike Louviere
Courthouse cannon unusual decoration Mike Louviere For The Record
One of the more unusual lighted Christmas decorations around Orange is the cannon on the lawn of the Orange County Courthouse. The venerable old artillery piece has been mounted in concrete and sitting in the same place for decades. Someone decided that it would look good with white and red lights. White lights surround the concrete base and the bronze cannon is wrapped in red lights. The cannon was manufactured for use in the Civil War, but not much is known about where or when it was used. Dr. Howard Williams in research for his book “Gateway to Texas” found that information about the cannon is stamped around the muzzle. Williams also gave the story of how the cannon came to be a part of Orange history. “1863” is the
date of manufacture. “1200 pounds” is the weight of the barrel. The initials “J.T.R.” are the initials of the inspector. “Revere Copper Company” is the company that cast the bronze cannon barrel. This is the company that was founded by Paul Revere. It is a “12 pounder”; a cannon that fired a ball weighing 12 pounds. It is a model 1957 bronze howitzer commonly known as a “Napoleon style”. These cannons were the workhorses of the Civil War and hundreds were used by both the Union and Confederate sides. After the war ended, Orange was occupied by troops of the 37th Illinois Infantry that were sent to the area from Houston. When the Reconstruction ended and the army left, the military in Orange was transferred to the Texas
Ross Smith’s
CHRISTMAS Page 3A
Mike Louviere For The Record
The 1950s were a simpler time. TV was black and white, channels were limited, usually only three, there was no cable TV, computers were the size of small houses, and telephones were hard wired into the house. Christmas sixty years ago was very different from what we experience in the 21st Century. Artificial trees were rare, the few that were around
were shiny aluminum; some were lit with a spotlight that had rotating colored lenses. It was not out of the ordinary for a family to go to the “woods” and cut their own tree. Many houses had the smell of a freshly cut pine tree for weeks. If a family going to the woods came across a suitable cedar tree, they thought they had found a treasure. As time went by the fresh green tree would begin to change color and by the time, often New Year’s Day,
that the tree was taken down the needles would often be a shiny brown. Lights for the tree were about the size of an adult’s thumb. LED lights were not on the inventor’s list yet. On most of the strings of lights if one burned out, each light on the string would have to be checked because one light burning out killed the whole string. If two or three strings were plugged together, the problem was compounded. It could often take as long as an
hour to check the string of lights, find the burned out bulb and replace it. One of the popular things to put on a tree were the little strings of shiny soft aluminum called “icicles”. The soft strings were often placed carefully on the tree at first, making a nice pattern, then as those applying the icicles got tired or bored, they were often tossed on by the handful, landing in clumps. Those CHRISTMAS Page 3A
Life Skills, teaching math to manners Mike Louviere For The Record
The Life Skills program at Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School is much more than the two word description. It is program that gives its special needs students the basic educational courses, but goes much further by teaching the students how to live in the world outside the classroom. The complex at LCM includes a classroom, a parlor, a dining area, and a kitchen. Terrie Parker has been the instructor for the program for the last 13 years. Parker is assisted in the
program by paraprofessionals Betty Guidroz, Stacie Peveto, Mamie Johnson, and Morgan Milligan. The students have the regular curriculum as prescribed by the state. In addition they also learn practical life lessons. “We give our students regular instruction, and we also teach them basic things like how to shop for groceries, how to handle money, things they need to know to be functional in everyday living. We have trips to Walmart, to the Lutcher Theater. We go out to LIFE SKILLS Page 3A
The Life Skills program at Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School creates cheese logs as a Christmas fund-raiser.