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Jobs were hard to find in 1958, the year I was married. I was classified “1A” by the Selective Service System, which meant that I was facing being drafted into the army. No company wanted to hire me, only to have me leave within a year. After spending three months in the Golden Triangle area of Beaumont, Orange, and Port Arthur without finding work, my new bride and I decided to move back home and await the inevitable “Greetings” letter from Uncle Sam. Mr. Crowe, the managing engineer for the Texas Highway Department, took pity on me and gave me a job in their new office on Highway 96 north of town. I suppose that since I had three years of college under my belt, he felt that I might possibly learn drafting. So, he hired me at $325 per month and placed me under the tutelage of the senior draftsman, Terrance Price. The general secretary of the office was a young lady named Patsy. She was very efficient and reliable, and got along well with the all male crew. She took all the ribbing and jokes from the guys in stride, with a good humor. The head of the surveying crew, Jake, was one who loved practical jokes. No one was immune from him, and never knew when he might strike. Patsy fell into his sights one Friday afternoon in 1959. It seems that the survey crew found the skull and horns of a steer, perhaps a longhorn, out in the woods. They brought it back to the office prior to quitting time, but hid it from Patsy. This skull was quite large, perhaps eighteen inches long, and thirty-six inches from one horn tip to the other. Jake and an accomplice found some bailing wire and attached the skull to the back bumper of Patsy’s car. Everyone waited around to see her reaction when she left work and found this monstrosity on her car. Well, as we all know, the best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go awry. Patsy bounded out of the office and got into her car and sped away, never noticing the item wired to her back bumper. We all watched her car until she turned left at the circle and was out of sight. What a bummer – nothing happened, that is, until Monday morning. It seems that Patsy had driven all over town Saturday and noticed some stares and funny looks from people, but paid no attention. It was not until she was leaving for church Sunday morning that she found the skull and horns still attached to her bumper. Monday morning she arrived at work a little early. She retrieved the skull from her car trunk and took it over to Jake’s pickup and threw it inside the cab. When she came inside the office, everyone was very quiet, pretending to work, awaiting her reaction. She walked into her office, just like any other day, saying nothing. That is, until Jake walked into the office. He made a comment about finding a skull and horns in his vehicle, wondering where it came from. Then, Patsy, the patsy, struck. She ran out of her office holding an umbrella with which she proceeded to jab and strike Jake all over his head and shoulders. “Don’t you dare do anything like that to me again”, she yelled as she swung the umbrella like a baseball bat. Mr. Crowe, the manager, walked in about that time and put a stop to the assault. Then, everyone started laughing and things settled down. Jake apologized, Patsy apologized, and things were back to normal. I always felt that deep down within her soul, Patsy enjoyed the attention. So much for the steer skull caper. Other pranks were waiting to be played on people, and they were. However, I do not recall that Patsy was ever again the patsy. Apparently she made her point.

Spring has sprung, but flowers may not be the only things popping up in your yard; this also is the season when snakes come out of hibernation. There are almost 3,000 different species of snakes in the world, with less than a third considered venomous, according to the U.S.

Many landscapes were lost in the fires that burned rampantly throughout the Texas Panhandle, leaving some homeowners wondering what trees, shrubs and other plant materials to remove or replace to create a more firewise landscape for the future.

(The persons named below have been charged but not proven guilty of the crimes stated. This information is obtained by written request to the Sheriff from Sabine County Reporter. Under the Texas Public Information Act Government Code Chapter 551, the Sheriff has to furnish this information to the requester and is doing so only to comply with the law.

by Cecil Tatom Sabine County Reporter Hello, faithful readers! Me and my co-conspirator are back to give our hot takes on the important questions of the day. I had to reach out for assistance this week and the two queries came from friends of mine, one from the Great White North of Toronto, Canada and the other from my vivaciously spunky and drop dead gorgeous lady friend Johnai in Lake Charles, LA(Thank you, boo, I literally couldn’t have done this without you this week! Now the three people in this county who don’t know about you from me will read about you!)The questions are: 1. Do you think that Iran is attempting to provoke a response from the United States with their attack on Israel this past week? And 2. Has road rage spiked since the introduction of Covid-19? 1. We here in the US are truly in quite the pickle here. Whereas Israel is our staunch Middle East ally, thanks to the current “administration” and their Green New Deal policies we are currently dependent upon the likes of Iran for our oil. Biden unfreezing $6,000,000,000 of Iranian money has essentially made this all possible. We are also supplying Israel with military aid as well, so it would seem that we’re playing both sides, with Israeli citizens caught smack in the middle. This may aggravate some of my Democrat leaning friends but I reiterate: in my opinion had Donald Trump been president none of this would have happened. Period, end of discussion. 2. I did a little research on this particular topic and what I found didn’t surprise in the least. Road rage incidents have exponentially spiked since the introduction of Covid-19 in 2020, and I believe the reason for that is we were forced to stay home, away from all other human contact, and we have gone stir crazy. Human beings are social creatures that crave interaction with other humans, and when that is taken away from us(completely unnecessarily, as it turned out) it has damaging effects on our already fragile psyches. Look at how these masks have affected our kids. At their ages they are thoroughly dependent on seeing adult faces so they can cognitively develop properly, which the aforementioned masks hampered severely. So, as a result, what once was merely annoying driving habits of others get amped up to the n’th degree, leading some to bust windshields or rip off windshield wipers at the next stop light. Chris Reynolds Response: Q1: Is Iran attempting to start WW3 by attacking Israel & What should the U.S. response be. I believe that Iran is attempting to escalate an already ongoing & volatile conflict into a larger conflict for their own interests in that region. But this is nothing new to those of us old enough to remember the last 50 years. The 80's brought us the Iran-Iraq conflict, Iran's attempts to disrupt shipping in the Persian Gulf & the strait of Hormuz, terrorist hijackings of aircraft and a cruise ship, as well as numerous cases of support for terrorist organizations. Lately, the Iranian navy has again begun interfering with shipping in the above mentioned areas, in some cases, I believe even opening fire on some vessels. Once, I think, they even held some Marines in custody for a short while before releasing them. So I believe that Iran has been looking for a reason to escalate any situation in the Middle East and Israel gave it to them. As a Veteran, how i think the U.S. should respond is easy. We shouldn't make the situation worse by involving U.S. forces unless necessary. I would ask the countries on the Arabian peninsula to form a multi-national naval force to escort merchant vessels thru the area while not violating Iran's territorial waters with the CLEAR warning to Iran that ANY attempts to disrupt shipping in international maritime waters will be met with military force. I would intern any iranian ships in american ports & their crews be returned to iran or home countries immediately, as well as asking other countries to do the same. I would freeze or seize any Iranian assets until the attacks are stopped & place sanctions on any country supplying them. In the meantime, i would continue trying to de-escalate the situation in a peaceful manner. Q2: increasing road rage incidents in the wake of Covid pandemic. Covid affected us in so many ways. Daily life changed, the economy was affected, and lives changed. During the epidemic, people couldn't work, couldn't travel, couldn't visit loved ones, and couldn't conduct some personal business. We had to change how we did things like masks in public, using santizer, dealing with limited access to the things we take for granted like grocery shopping and bankng. We became terribly frustrated with how things were and one of the ways people vented was on the roads. Once restrictions were lifted, and people could get out more, the pent up anger and frustrations exploded. Researchers also have said that increased use of technology has led to a decrease in interpersonal interactions, young people acting out what they see on violent video games or vehicle-speed inspired action movies, and society's acceptance of non accountability for your actions. Like the case of the young man recently punished for doing doughnuts in a public parking area. Many people said ' Oh he was just being a kid'. They were condoning his actions. how about i come do the same thing on their property, then with a straight face say ' but i was just re-living my youth. It's okay'. likewise, some people have said that road rage incidents are just cases of people acting out, venting their frustrations. it should be okay. Well it's not 7 i think that if we stiffened laws concerning road rage penalties, maybe we'll see a decrease in incidents. ive even experienced these frustrations at times myself, but i didn't act on it.