- ^ ' "' -. "■
! 11 f \ ,
CETERA
r-f
--
Farm migrants’ children
hurt by school reforms
Associated Press
PHARR — Tears began to flow
from Mary Balboa’s eyes and her
voice cracked as she told how impor
tant education is to her and her mi
grant family. The 18-year-old high
school junior has worked in the
fields all her life, hut she hopes an
education will keep her from doing
that forever.
“My father tells me I have to take
advantage of the opportunities,”
Balboa said, wiping tears from her
eyes. “I put everything into my
(school) work.”
Her hope may be fading because,
ironically, state education reform
measures have made it tougher for
her to stay enrolled in school, school
officials said.
Jesse Vela, coordinator of the
Texas interstate migrant program,
said education reformers seemed to
have forgotten about the estimated
100,000 migrant students when for
mulating their new guidelines.
Restrictions on missed classes,
among other reforms, have hit hard
among migrants. Migrant students
do get tutors to help them, but many
times, Vela said, that is not enough.
to develop an interstate educational
program designed for the migrant
students so they would not lose cred
its when transferring from state to
state.
Many migrant students know they
need an education to avoid going
back into the fields year after year,
but educators said about 50 percent
drop out of school between ages 14
and 18, believing they need to help
support their families.
Educators say state officials need
Ramon Billescas, the migrant pro
gram director for Pharr-San Juan-
Alamo Consolidated School District,
in which 5,500 of the 16,000 stu
dents are migrants, said pride and
love of family separate migrant stu
dents from others.
The migrant families leave home
in April and follow the harvests in
northern states during late spring
and summer. They return sometime
in October and the children enroll in
schools, several weeks late.
Echo-less?
Bustling railroad town loses its steam
Slouch
By Jim Earle
I
i
‘If this works we f re going into bridges. ”
Vet group
fighting
fade-out
Associated Press
WORMLEYSBURG, Pa. - Bt
cause old soldiers do die, the null
of the American Legion
thinned to their lowest numberinS
years — and the Legion fears tie
will mean declining political clout*
a time when veterans’ benefits®
getting a close study by a deficit-cot.
scious Congress.
“All you have to do is lookattli
obituary column in the papersevtn
day and you’ll see where the veto
ans are,” says Edward Hoak.adjt
tant for Pennsylvania, the state»iti
the largest Legion delegation
‘‘They’re dying. We’re atthatage
ey re
Fifty-five percent of all Leg®
?d d
Vol. 80 No. 14
Associated Press
ECHO — Southern Pacific train
crews still begin and end their runs
here, but the bustling railroad com
munity that thrived for more than a
century is gone.
And the beanery, which used to
be the railroad crew’s eating place, is
now the bottom half of a nome on
We’st Bluff road north of here.
A worn butcher block once used
in the cafe now serves as the cen
terpiece in the kitchen of Jo Rogers,
a retired railroad telegrapher.
Rogers ended her years with the
Southern Pacific Railroad last Sep
tember, but the butcher block and
trains passing near her home in
Orange keep memories of Echo
fresh.
Locomotive engineer William
Schroder of Houston remembers
the echoing whistle of the steam
train.
“The settlement got its name from
the chilling echo of the steam loco
motive whistles in the woods,” he
said. “If you have never heard one,
it’s hard to describe.
“It’s the kind of sound that makes
young men want to leave home for
the outside world, one of the most
lonesome sounds at night that I have
ever heard. It is a sound not soon
forgotten.”
The beanery served railroad men
24 hours a day, seven days a week,
At this time it nestled near a com
plex of buildings that furnished
lodging for rail crews between runs.
YVhen Rogers retired, she was a
I train-order operator. She received
the orders from the Southern Pacific
dispatcher in Lafayette, La. and
handed them up to engine crews as
they passed.
Now Southern Pacific crews re
ceive their orders over a two-way ra
dio system.
Rogers remembers when the Echo
buildings housed as many as 50
trainmen at a time. Southern Pacific,
which set up the depot at Echo, tore
down the ounkhouses seven years
ago when the railroad began loaging
trainmen at a motel in Orange.
When crews demolished the Echo
buildings, they removed the butcher
block from the beanery.
“They were going to throw it
away,” Rogers said. “I took it home
with me.”
She and her sister, Peggy, remem
ber working during World War II as
telegraphers with Southern Pacific
)la<
mont and Orange called Terry.
“We bunked in a boxcar beside
the tracks and handed up the orders
as the trains passed,” she said. “We
were both girls then.
“Southern Pacific ran shuttle
trains between Beaumont and
Orange to carry shipyard workers,
and when we needed groceries we
would flag a train and ride into
town. Then when we finished shop
ping, we would flag one back.”
New attendance laws
troubling ag students
Associated Press
Roger’s sister is now married to
Jack Garrick, a retired railroad
freight conductor.
Garrick remembers spending
many nights bunking at Echo and
long hours riding the rails during
the war. Railroads did most of the
nation’s hauling then.
“When I first started sta\
tying at
Echo they didn’t even have electrici
ty,” Garrick said. “They used coal-oil
lamps. There was a great big build
ing that looked like a depot, a cafe
and a recreation room men played
cards in all night.”
at a place midway between Beau-
Echo is now a residential commu
nity near the site of the Southern Pa
cific railroad complex.
SAN ANTONIO — lexas’ new
laws on public school attendance
have put a crimp in James Cates’ fu
ture plans.
The 17-year-old wants to become
an agriculture teacher and hopes
that his current participation in live
stock shows will prepare him. But
Cates and hundreds of youngsters
like him will find it difficult to partic
ipate in these shows because of
House Bill 72, which allows students
only 10 unexcused absences a year
Students who miss more than the
limit would fail courses, and since
expositions usually last up to a week,
students are forced to either miss
school or have someone else watch
their animal.
Mary Nan West, president of this
year’s San Antonio Stock Show, said
the attendance requirement is going
to have a great impact on the stu
dents.
“I feel the bill should be modified
so these children can pursue educa
tion in agricultural endeavors,” she
said. v
At the Southwestern Exposition
and Fat Stock Show in Fort Worth,
participation among school-age
youngsters dropped 20 percent at
competition held on weekdays this
year.
“We attribute that 20 percent to
the school rule.” spokesman Delbert
Bailey said.
“We feel like the youngsters lost
something from the standpoint of
not being able to visit with other
youngsters from elsewhere in the
country. It’s an educational aspect
they’re not going to learn in the
classroom. We feel like it’s a bad
deal."
Although participation in the
Bexar County Junior Livestock
Show was also down 20 percent,
spokesman Doug Presley said offi
cials didn’t totally blame the educa
tion measures.
naires served during World WarD
Membership in 1984 dipped s
2,536,062, the lowest niarksincel,'
million in 1945 and far below
peak of 3.3 million in 1946.
To combat the loss, the
mailed 8 million letters in Feb:
to potential enlistees who ai
members. Special targets fq
younger Vietnam vets and wot
The plea to join was supported I
30-second television spots in 21
lected cities.
That Madison Avenue appi
departs from traditional mol
tions, which depended mainly
word of mouth or a beer blastat
local post. So far, recruitments
48,000 ahead of last year, and
Legion hopes to have 2,7 mi
members at year’s end.
"We were founded after
W at 1 as an organization that
go out of existence,’ says Nadu
Commander Clarence Bacon, j!
\ eteran of World War II and Koru
World War I was supposed tol V
the war to end all wars
In 1944, the influential Legion!
the push for passage of the GHl
which provides schooling and I
opportunies to veterans, along*!
low-interest home, farm and sml
business loans.
The Veterans’ Administrattl
budget this year is $25.8billion. |
Health care costs are likely to
The number of veterans agedfiji
over will peak at 9 million in 2i
triple the figure for 1980
to the VA. And the number i
over will climb from 859,000in
to 4 million at the end of then
m
m
tury.
PARADISE FOUND.
m
La
Your search for a new apartment can now end, happily. At
Treehouse Village, you’ll discover another world in apart
ment living — one that’s perfect for
a student’s way of life. Treehouse
Village is ideally located just blocks
from campus. These efficiencies and
one- and two-bedroom furnished and
unfurnished floor plans are full of ex
tras that — before now — you could
TREEHOUSE
•VILLAGE*
only dream of. Some two-bedroom plans also feature
fireplaces and washer/dryer connections, and handicap units
are available,too. Residents also en
joy use of Treehouse Village’s two
pools and hot tubs, jogging trail and
tennis, basketball and volleyball
courts. Find out how great apartment
living was meant to be. Discover
Treehouse Village. Your haven in the
apartment jungle. ^
Vhiti
Lasn
that i
|; in S ’
■ profi
A*M
APARTMENTS
LEASE NOW FOR FALL 1985,
Treehouse Village Apartments. From $295. For information, visit the Treehouse Village Apartments Leasing Office at
800 Marion Pugh Blvd.
College Station, Texas 77840
409/764-8892
Professionally managed by Callaway Properties.