Las Sabinas, Volume 23, Number 3, July 1997 Page: 1
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Las Sabinas History Journal and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Orange County Historical Society.
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TEXAS MEMORIES AND OUR MOVE OUT WEST
By Ray W. Toronjo
JUNE-1948-OUR TEXAS WORLD-ORANGEFIELD
"Go West Young Man!" Horace Greely, a New York newspaper publisher, gave this
advice to the readers of his newspaper. We, Jay and I, did not read Greely's editorial, it being
published before our time on earth...however, we did go west. It was June, 1948 as I recall.
We did not go as young men, though we may have entertained that notion. We were two knot
headed, Piney-Wood-Rooter twelve-year-old boys raised in the thickets of scrub pine, oak, sweet
gum and blackberry briars that constituted our world in that portion of Orange county--
Orangefield--where we had been born and were then in process of being raised. This was the
world as known to us and it was pretty much to our liking.
Rare forays, as far south as Port Arthur, west to Galveston and excursions to the city of
Beaumont had provided excitement and adventure at one time or another...but these places were
not taken seriously as being a permanent part of our world. These belonged to another world,
one made to visit, but who would want to live that far from home.
We were aware that there was another, greater world...well outside the County
boundaries and lying further West than Galveston and to the east of Orange. This world was to
be seen occasionally in grainy newspaper photos or the inside pages of glossy picture magazines,
read about in the Weekly Reader, heard from pretty regularly on radio news shows, sung with
the Grand Ole Opry, and presented in a more fantastical form in serial radio shows such as "Just
Plain Bill" and "Stella Dallas" as adults fare and "Little Orphan Annie", "The Shadow", "Green
Lantern" or "Bobby Benson of the B-Bar-B" for the younger set. This colorful, if less than
accurate picture of that greater world was something to be considered...but not as real.
If I give the impression that we, that is Jay and I, were pretty well pleased with the way
things were at the time, we probably were. Together with Captain America, Hop Harrigan,
Commander Don Winslow and other legendary heroes we had played a major role in the winning
of a World War...survived the complexities of grade six, and were currently on summer
vacation. Occupied with berry picking, continuous exploration, woods running, sand-bar
swimming, fishing, and when required, hoeing weeds in the family garden or taking care of
chickens we had just about all we could handle. All in all, it was adding up to another pretty
good year in Orangefield--Orange County.
COUNTY HAPPENINGS
Dudley LeBlanc was doing even more than the New-Deal Democrats in the way of
providing real good feelings and down-home entertainment with his patented HADACOL tonic
and the traveling All Star Country Music Medicine Show. Both the Hadacol and the Opry stars
that paraded around with Dudley at his medicine shows made you feel like tapping your toes.
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Orange County Historical Society (Tex.). Las Sabinas, Volume 23, Number 3, July 1997, periodical, July 1997; Orange, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth312901/m1/7/?q=%221920~%22: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Orange County Historical Society.