The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana • Page 231

take nos? IIISIDE DJ 1 6A Obituaries Saturday, 18A Religion Nov. 26, 1988 19A Business Educate-; i 1 Glhirisftmas iiainiftdlewini Early shoppers Post office making ready for yule rush Agency off ering weatherization aid Senior citizens and the handicapped may qualify to have their homes weatherized for the winter udder a program sponsored by the Caddo Community Action Agency. iThe agency is accepting applications now for the Petroleum Violation Escrow Weatherization Assistance Program. Among the program's offerings are attic insulation, caulking, weather-stripping, skirting, door repairs and minor repairs free of charge to those meeting eligibility requirements. i State regulations require that first priority be given to senior citizens and the handicapped.

Marler said there are various ways for postal customers to make their mailings go smoother. Contract stations in neighborhoods offer some convenience. Usually located in stationery stores or other retail outlets, these stations provide most of the domestic mail services available at a regular post office: Marler said Shreveport-Bossier City has three contract stations: at Broadmoor Drugstore, 3964 Youree Drive; at Lo-Mart Super Market, 4450 Blanchard Road; and at Bobbie Rose's Inspirations, 2801 Northside Drive. Marler said the post office will open a temporary unit in Mall St. Vincent on Monday to help with holiday mailings: He said the unit will remain open until Tuesday, Dec.

20. Marler said there are no plans to open temporary units at other local malls. He said Mall St. Vincent is providing the space free to the postal service for the temporary unit. In addition to contract stations and the See POST, Page 22A Stores fill, Page One of trees is their best ever.

Last weekend they sold 112 trees 111 to Loyola College Prep for a fund-raiser and one to a doctor who said he waited too late last year to get a good tree. Thursday and Friday they sold 75 trees, Hall said. The early buyers didn't surprise Vardaman Williams, who works at the Optimist lot at Kings and Youree in Shreveport. He said they had customers before they could unload the trees from the truck. "They were just smiling ear to ear.

'We were a tree. We just can't stand Williams said, quoting his customers. Williams' son, lot manager Don Wiliams, said they had sold 15 trees by sundown Friday. Business will really pick up when an expected cold front moves in, the elder See EARLY, Page 22A out to purchase trees to please By MARY SHARON THOMAS and ALISA STINGLEY The Times With 31 days to go before the big event, people in Shreveport were buying Christmas trees Friday. And they had been buying them for everal days.

Daisye Hall of Hall's Christmas Tree Farm south of Shreveport said they had a customer at 7 a.m. Thanksgiving morning. "He wanted a tree. He got one," she said. Her husband, Bob, said this year's crop By MARY SHARON THOMAS The Times The Christimas shopping season is well under way, but holiday mailings are not yet pouring in, local postal officials said Friday.

Jerry Marler, acting director of marketing, said the day after Thanksgiving is usually a moderate day for the mailing of Christmas cards and parcels. He said the volume of mail is expected to rise sharply next week and peak at about Dec. 19. "I haven't seen a lot of business out here at all," Marler said. "The heavy will start maybe Monday." 'Those interested in applying should contact one it of these CCAA Cedar Grove Community Center, 8001 Fair- i J.

field Shreveport, La. 71106. i1 David Raines Community Center, 2325 Daftd'ftaines Road, Shreveport, La. 71107. Community Center, 1530 Arling- La.

71103. Community Center, Rodessa Church Rpid, Rodessa, La. 71069. RuiraS schools foster unity, spirit Free from urban pressures, teachers, students learn, grow Injured teen still in ICU A teeiif Sjseriously injured in a Thanksgiving Day a'f cideht on Interstate 20 remained in the intensive tare imtfat Bossier Medical Center Fri-dayHtjji i' :JodiP.hillips, 16, of Lancaster, Texas, suffered to her right leg and was reported in gajitfed pondition. Her sister, 25-year-old Linda PJmlipsV, was released from the hospital Fri- Thpfjt women and three family members early Thursday morning when they RURAL ROOTS head-on by a driver traveling in the i w.rwig mrecuon on me interstate in Bossier uty.

lllfc Bell 46, of Shreveport will be charged 'Wsicounts of vehicular negligent injury and wnne intoxicated, second offense, when Hard times, Page One mm raSfleased from LSU Medical Center, police and a passenger in his car, Rose B. were in fair condition Fri- $1 and Dasseneers in the Rural life FRIDAY: Rural America, Including Northwest Louisiana and East Texas, is lerning to accept a changing economy without losing its heritage. People In small towns, like Haynesville, follow their football teams closer than some investors follow the stock market. van, and Agneitit Pqndfojthe van's driver, were in stable akwMer Medical Center Friday night. urged Shreveport police business owners to take extra precautions this holiday season to protect themselves from armed robbery attacks.

"The Shreveport Police Department recommends that individuals who work at any potential target of an armed robbery stay alert for both your protection and the customer's safety," says a Crime Alert released by the Crime Prevention saidj-the workers should keep constant TODAY: menaiy.eye contact with customers and should crept a(stdfciers as they enter. By ALISA STINGLEY The Times SALINE Kenneth Heron has no one else to blame if a student is still dangling participles, mixing metaphors or confusing Shakespeare with Shelley after a few years. Heron, 40, is the only English teacher for seventh-graders through, seniors at this rural school in Bienville Parish. "It's a situation I'm responsible for totally," he said. But that's also the bonus for teaching in a country setting.

Everybody does indeed know everybody, at least in this 5-acre school complex housing grades kindergarten-12. "Saline is still what you call a community school concept," said Principal William Britt, a 1965 Saline graduate. "Parents still support the school." The school, 20 miles west of Jonesboro, is among the smallest in Northwest Louisiana. Total enrollment this year is 309. The senior class has 20 members.

Kindergarten is the largest with 42. Cozy? Yes. Charmed? In many ways, according to students, parents and faculty. The high school isn't large enough to have a football team, but both boys' and girls' basketball teams playing in a 1940s gym have winning records. Most of the discipline problems are students who talk too much in class, said Britt, who has in the past offered misbehaving students the choice of running laps for 10 days instead of suspension.

In six years, only one student has been expelled, he said. And there are few if any alcohol, smoking or weapon-carrying problems, Britt said, adding, "Occasionally a student will bring a pocket knife to school. I have half a dozen in my desk drawer right now." This seems to be the kind of school that teachers flock to: There has been one teacher opening in five years. "It's the best smallest," said math teacher Ann Evans, who is also Bienville Parish Teacher of the Year in junior high. "There is a simplicity to the atmosphere a unity," she said.

"You know you're going to get more from the students so you try harder." Second-grade teacher Patricia Sullivan, a Saline High graduate, has taught here nearly 20 years. "There's just a closeness that you don't find in bigger schools," she said. Few students are strangers to one another. Newcomer Tonya Martin, who trans- rnhher 'rasincr' vnnr hneinpcs nrill from your normal customer," the i 'ma-w T' "if mt ifUiiirff 6r CteAfcays. Tough ecoiomic conditions and lack of iobs worry rural residents.

Classes are small, disciplinary problems are few in the rural school system. SUNDAY: Residents struggle with health-care issues in rural areas. Folkways step aside as rural areas begin to embrace technology 'Upti bridge work due Jj K8tshenof a bridge over Twelve Mile il being planned by the state De- iywlfin't Trapportatjon and Development. ppitiotiw approval to erect a new, thbayou has been received by the New Orleans. p.

iwo-iane Dnage ana aprpaches.fl beremoyed in stages before con yrrf ii 79 7 i Times photoLEE SHIVELY Kenneth Heron teachesa seventh-grade English class at Saline. He's the only English teacher for grades 7-12 at the school. strucpon of, the nerabridgOne side of the bridge Shrevsoort Bossier City ferred here when the all black Shady Grove school closed three years ago, said her peers made her feel welcome. "They mostly come up to you," the 17-year-old said. And for those who have been here all their school lives, like Melinda Choate, 17, "You know everybody.

You have the same friends." Melinda's father commutes to Shreveport to work as an accountant. Her mother said they once had the opportunity to move to a large city but turned it down. "We didn't feel like they would get a good education," said Linda Choate, also a Saline graduate. "And there would be more peer pressure on them." For all its ad vantages, this rural school system does have a few blights. The drop- out rate is in line with the state average, which is 37 percent, Britt said.

He feels that a two-diploma system would encourage lower-achieving students to stay in school: There would be one diploma for college-bound students; another for those going directly into the work force. Saline is trying to address its dropout problem with an after-school study program and a developmental program that targets weak prekindergarten children, he said. And, while half of Saline's seniors expect to go to college, Britt said, they will See RURAL, Page 22A "xV s'' 7 Joncibora i Tlmts graphic Opinions voiced across the rural Ark- La-Tex area 3 will be punt at.ai)nje tO jeptrafnc moving. Breaux insists on oil plan Sen. John Breaux, D-Isas he will oppose President-elect George BulfttCabinet nominees who fail to address the'-fcnjfft crisis.

Breaux said nominees Assure the Senate they will develop lan to deal with OPEC countries anfipftd of cheap oil. want them to fiBtfyls what they plan to do about it during as Cabinet members," he1 said in a press re'Egse. annponcfenent was in reaction to reports from Vieifaa that the Saudis might break ranks from OPEC to reduce their mounting budget deficits. Would-be nurses, apply Caddo Community Action Agency is accepting applications home nursing training. Applicants must' meet eligibility requirements according to the Job Timing and Partnership Act guidelines.

iThis training is being offered without regard to r4ce, creed, color; sex or national origin. Those interested should contact Antoinette Coleman at the Cedar Grove Community Center, 8001 Fairfield Shreveport, La. 71106. Japanese jobs available ipeople employed in English language instruction or international activities can apply in Shreveport for a yearlong work program in Japan. iThe Japan Exchange and Teaching Program w)ll sponsor 985 candidates from the United States 950 in English language instruction and 3 in international activities at the local government level.

The candidates, who will receive round-trip airfare and an annual salary of about $29,500, will work in Japanese school systems and in municipal government offices from Aug. 1, 1989, to July 31, 1J90. Applicants must have a bachelor's degree, be of US. nationality and be under 35. Applications are available at the Southern Uni-versity-Shreveport metro center at 610 Texas Street.

From Staff and Wire Report "II1 1 sS- Sense of community 34 Living conditions 33: Lack of social problems 20 i Economic problems 31; Public services 28; Isolation 13, Better Better in rural i -3J I Mm wU. i in city areas "It's a good place to live and raise kids." William Britt, 41, Saline principal. "I jlike the individualism. Teaching jis more rigid in the city. For everything there is a rule." Ann Evans, 57, Saline schoolteacher.

"Just peaceful and quiet. You used to know everybody. They knew your business and you knew theirs." Tom Vaughan, 76, Jonesville, Texas, storekeeper. 10-24 50 89 Job opportunities 76 Health care 51 Education 24 Moral atmosphere 2 Sense of community 2 Source: Hart Research survey ol 600 rural residents for Rural Voice Times flraphlcGARY GRACE.