Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1982)
state Battalion/Page 7 October 6, 1982 sian child meets ted long lost parents United Press International ? ress W j S ■ IlDALLAS — Separated for l ^‘f'Marlv a decade by a war and a iljohsh hostile peace, an Asian boy ;ear becausei,L n( j Vietnamese mother r al . weie reun > tef l Thursday with Oallas tor a[/jMj e j r A, ner j lcan father who I the Nationally t j ie moment was w it- jiessing childbirth. “It’ll be like having a new- rn son,” Robert Reighard, ithe child’s father, said. “We |e very, very excited.” After her son arrived a day Ijte at Dallas Fort Worth Re gional Airport, mother Dang will jeopati Reighard, and son Trinh i Excellence mlj fter the Nova we are be some strongi Congress fot he said, of the it tie gains tMs Q aoc N am , 10, held each fordisadptj 0 (jt er silently in a tearful recent yearst ; eni brace while family mem- ederal suppoc |hers and friends gathered pose to see the youth they [knew only through newspap- ler accounts and letters. Even the clergy was repre sented with Thick Tri Hien, 42, Zen Buddhist master of Grand Prairie temple. Reigh ard, a former Buddhist con vert, helped build the temple two years ago, Brian Rieghard, holding his older brother’s hand, said he was considering teaching Trinh either soccer or the video game PacMan. Ushering his family into a white, convertible limousine — decked out in Texas lon ghorn hood ornaments and state flags — Reighard, a Gar land, Texas, engineer, said he felt bitter about all the red tape. “The communists do use the children as blackmail,” he said. Trinh’s arrival ended a four-day journey across two continents and included 27 hours of air travel. Sunday night, shortly before he began the final two hours of his homecoming, his parents tele phoned to tell him to spend the night in Los Angeles. “The family just felt that he deserved a rest,” said Allen T. Dorough, a spokesman for Delta Air Lines, which pro vided the connecting flight from Los Angeles. Trinh, the offspring of an officially hated enemy, was denied housing, ration cards and schooling. Reighard said he was forced to leave the child with a grandmother when he was hastily pulled out of the country in 1973 with only two hours notice. “We thought we could get (him) out sooner, but we we ren’t able to financially,” he said. Tribute to orange opens reciative friends bury forsaken woman uit claimed ik p J United Press International HOUSTON — The late Jeff McKissack was a little offbeat. The retired postal worker spent the last 25 years of his life build ing a tribute to a fruit in a vacant lot across the street from his house. His almost religious belief in the orange grew into a brightly colored, Grandma Moses-like collection of orange-ana — a tiny theme park tucked into McKissack’s neighborhood of bungalows in south Houston. The Orange Show’s brightly colored walls feature tile slogans such as “I Love Oranges”,“Go Orange; Be Strong” or “Eat Oranges and Live”. The park has gallery of stuffed dummies acting out scenes honoring the orange, a motorized steamboat in a dry pond, painted antique tractor seats, spoked farm im plement wheels, weather vanes and other junk artistically arranged. McKissack, 77, sculpted a couple of palm tree of metal. He sat a couple of concrete lions on pedestals and named them Mike and Judy. His was an eclectic taste. McKissack finally opened the show to the public in May 1979 and, for a $1 admission fee, per sonally conducted tours whenever people showed up. When he died in January 1980 the show’s future was in doubt. No one is laughing at the World’s First Orange Show now. It has become honored folk art, a semi-official city treasure com plete with its own supporting foundation. It officially reopens to the public Saturday. The Orange Show Founda tion grew from Marilyn Lubet- kin’s purchase of the park to save it. She bought it from McKissack’s heirs for an undis closed sum and turned to 20 friends for support to maintain and reopen the show. The Barry Morris architectu ral Firm was hired to refurbish the show and strengthen some of McKissack’s amateur architecture. Nearly $200,000 was spent. “The biggest part of it, in terms of time and money, was cleaning and repainting,” pro ject architect Jack Kent said. “He had vast amounts of metal work done in different colors. “We had a couple of areas where there were real structural problems. Those we had to shore up. “I think it’s wonderful,” Kent said. “It’s a little bit crazy in cer tain ways. It’s a little bit off from the way most other people would do things, but he had a really incredible sense of space and a sense of detail that was very fine.” The foundation had a series of fund-raising dedication par ties the weekend of Sept. 25-26, charging $100 a couple Friday and Sunday and $ 1,000 a couple for a Saturday night gala. Foundation member Max Miller, himself a metal sculptor with an appreciation for McKis sack’s work, made some replicas of McKissack’s metal palm trees and is selling them to raise money. One went for $2,500. We’ve made enough to pay for the work on the park and the first year’s operating budget, Max Miller said. TYPEWRITE PROFESSIONAL TYPING SERVICE 4340 Carter Creek Pkwy., Suite 104 Bryan, Texas 846-9182 All kinds of TYPING including: letters, Term Papers, Newsletters, Manuscripts, Proposals, Resumes and more. TYPEWRITE handle RUSH jobs! result in overo T leased traffic.) K United Press International id usage at otk 8) A LI. AS — Irene Walker de ties. fied prejudice in a lifetime spent rent admimsi helping others, so those she ton seems toe loVed saved her from a pauper’s ncerns too mi funeral Tuesday, vironmental«f»Last week, the woman died a forsaken and forgotten woman mm countete who was to be buried in a paup- iing bodiesarer’s grave. i three areas® Most of her relatives and ^ake Bardwellitinie of her friends no longer d Lake Sonirdaimed her because they felt too had reached many of the people the white the Corps ti'wpman had helped over the open. Hesaidyears were black. way ^ 9%| About 17 years ago, while SsSKi f f m y he Bo « el l* ote >- Wal- ie attorney gem vsuit. There oject whereb 1 1 local goverr^ ^ to keep these e is another »| none effective s announced would close IShe took the toddler to her own rooms, and when his mother finally returned, Walker approached her about the boy. Despite opposition from friends and family, Walker kept Steve Thomas and referred to him as her son. She tried in vain for years to adopt him. “She told me that she was my legal guardian, but all in all, I would say she was my mother,” Thomas, now 22, said. “Mrs. Walker took on the responsibil ity of raising me, even though the white people didn’t like the idea of her raising a black child.” About nine years ago, Walker helped Sarah Herron, who was ill and ran short of food. “She helped and helped and helped until she died, Herron said. ■ Walker died Sept. 27 at a Dal las hospital. The only relative still in contact with her was Mabel Britton, 71, a half-niece who lives on Social Security and could not afford a funeral. Herron learned Walker would be buried in a crude Wooden box at county expense and decided to “work in the name of Jesus to get up some money so she would be put away like a human and not be thrown away like a dog.” Friends called the American Legion auxiliary which raised $800, one of Walker’s neighbors donated a cemetary plot and a sympathetic mortuary owner agreed to take a loss on the bu rial. Singer interrupts robber, ets handcuffed to soap dish DOUGLAS JEWELRY 15% STUDENT DISCOUNT WITH CURRENT A&M ID (REPAIRS HOT iriCLUDED) Keepsake Registered Diamond Rings PULSAR, SEIKO, BULOVA CROTON WATCHES AGGIE JEWELRY USE YOUR STUDENT DISCOUNT TO PURCHASE A DIAMOND FOR YOUR CLASS RING (ANE LET US SET IT FOR YOU) 212 N. Main AND Culpepper Plaza Downtown Bryan College Station 822-3119 693-0677 MC VISA DINNERS CLUB AM EXPRESS LAYAWAYS INVITED SUNDAY THRU WEDNESDAY FREE KEG # 2 FOR 1 DRINKS, & NO COVER TILL THE KEG FLOATS! Sunday through Wednesday with A&M I.D. Dallas Night Club in the Duex Chene Complex Behind K-Mart, College Station 693-2818 5 the nation onstraints. United Press International J^ALLAS — Grammy Award vinner Boz Scaggs was left hand- :ufled to a soap dish by an armed obber who ransacked the sin gers downtown hotel room, aolice said. gScaggs and a companion in- frupted the well-dressed rob- •eanng news ^ ^ ho was looting the room iiys victory<K Mondayi The robber escaped )W battlefield with $1,800 and three rings taken from Scaggs and two friends, police said. Scaggs, unharmed, was left handcuffed to a soap dish in the shower. A female companion — identified by police as Victoria Pryor, 23, of Dallas — was bound with a necktie to the doorknob of Scaggs’ room. She also was un harmed, police said. Both she and Scaggs were freed by another member of Scaggs’ party who blundered into the robbery. Jack Hobday, a member of Scaggs’ group, was forced to lie on the floor while the robber escaped, police said. Scaggs was in Dallas for a wed ding reception, investigators said. VOICE! -6687 O 10:45 Al NT nIT SITY 5 ABOll RTMENl MIC AF UM .m. ige INTRODUCING OUR ALL NEW... TAMU STUDENT RENEWABLE MEMBERSHIP Tone and shape your figure amidst the plush garden setting. Relax in the sunken whirlpool. Tan yourself indoors or out in the private courty ard. Pamper yourself. Working out at ShapeWay is the way to make your day, and yourself feel special! • FLEXIBLE PLAN — TO USE JUST WHILE YOUR HERE, OR TAKE WITH YOU FOR THE SUMMER... WHICHEVER YOU CHOOSE. • PAY AS YOU GO — NOT ALL AT ONCE. • FULL FACILITY — YOU’LL LOVE YOUR WORKOUTS.. . AND YOUR RESULTS. $ INITIATION FEE REG. $57 CALL: 846-3794 for your FREE VISIT WOMEN’S FITNESS CENTER MUST HAVE YOUR (OR YOUR SPOUSE’S) VALID TAMU I.D. CARD 3710 E. 29th • 9 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Sat. 9 a.m.-l p.m. • Judy Rychlik, owner STEVE SMITH has more experience in the County Court at Law in both criminal and civil cases. In a recent poll, a majority of active Brazos County lawyers affirmed him as “best qualified" to be Judge of the County Court at Law. The record speaks for itself. Steve Smith has a much broader background in the law, considerably more experience in both criminal and civil cases in the County Court at Law, more seasoning in contested matters and a record of public service to the community. The Judge of the County Court at Law is not an extension of the prosecutor's office. It is a place for the citizens as a whole and as individuals to find justice. The person who sits as Judge needs to be well versed, fair and experienced. Steve Smith is best qualified to hold this important office. We ask for your vote and support. STEVE 2^ B SMITH Paid Political Advertisement by Committee to Elect Steve Smith/Don Dillon, Chairman/Judy Rychlik, Treasurer, Box 9213, College Station, Tx. 77840.