THE VICKSBURG POST
TOPIC SUN DAY, DE cember 26, 2010 • SE C TI O N C LOCAL EVENTS CALENDAR C2 | WEDDINGS C5 Karen Gamble, managing editor | E-mail: newsreleases@vicksburgpost.com | Tel: 601.636.4545 ext 137
THIS & THAT from staff reports
Poverty Point taking trees for recycling Poverty Point State Historic Site will recycle live Christmas trees through Jan. 5. Trees, with all the decorations removed, may be dropped off at 120 Maple St. in Epps, La., next to the Epps police station. The trees will be turned into mulch and used to landscape the park, which is located east of Monroe on Louisiana 577. Call 888-926-5492.
Film fest seeking music videos Crossroads Film Festival’s Music Video Showcase is accepting applicants through Feb. 1. Organizers will select videos that will be included in the 2011 festival, set for April 1 to 3 in Jackson. Mail entries to: Crossroads Music Video Showcase, P. O. Box 22604, Jackson MS 39225. Entry is free. Call Andi Agnew at 601510-9148 or visit www. crossroadsfilmfestival. com.
‘You can quote me’
Architecture subject of Monroe lecture The Cooley House Foundation at the Masur Museum and the University of Louisiana at Monroe will present a talk by John H. Stubbs, vice president of field programs for the World Monument Fund, Jan. 27. Stubbs, the son of architect William King Stubbs, will talk about local architecture designed by his father. The free lecture will be at 6 p.m. at the Emy-Lou Biedenharn Recital Hall at ULM. A party will follow at the Mary Erwin House, designed by the elder Stubbs. Tickets are $50 and are available by calling the museum at 318-32922378 or e-mailing evelyn. stewart@ci.monroe.la.us.
Jefferson College displaying local art Historic Jefferson College near Natchez will present an exhibit by one of its most active donors, Robert Burns Jr., and others through Jan. 7. Burns will display his artwork in memory of his parents, Robert and Hortense Burns, in the Prospere Hall Visitors’ Center. Admission is free. The college is four miles northeast of Natchez off U.S. 61 North. Call 601-4422901 or e-mail hjc@mdah. state.ms.us.
Dyslexia Symposium set at Southern Miss The DuBard School for Language Disorders at the University of Southern Mississippi has set its 15th annual Dyslexia Symposium. Workshops will take place Feb. 4-5 at the Thad Cochran Center on the Hattiesburg campus. Registration is $115 per person before Jan. 7, and continuing education units have been approved for speech pathologists, educators and school administrators. Call 601-266-4186.
KATIE CARTER•The Vicksburg Post
Wardell Wince has opinions, not afraid to share This is the first of a two-part series based on an interview with Wardell Wince, who grew up here, joined the Marines and returned to Vicksburg. • If you don’t want to hear a straight-from-the shoulder answer, don’t ask Wardell Wince a question. The 77-year-old Marine (“Once a Marine, always a Marine”) was born here the day after Valentine’s in 1934. He’s compassionate, has a quick wit and is vocal in his opinions — and doesn’t mind being quoted. Retired from two professions — 20 years in the Marines and 20 years in security at the Vicksburg Hospital—Wardell lives with his cat Button (“cute as a button”) is twice-married and twice-divorced and has no children. His years in the Marines made him aware of the importance of education and discipline. He was 16 when he jumped a freight on Levee Street, a bitter teenager with two peanut butter sandwiches that lasted him for 2 1/2 days. “I couldn’t have told you
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where I was going,” he said, but he wound up in the town of Harvey, Ill., about 21 miles from Chicago. When he jumped off the boxcar, a man who was a railroad detective yelled at him. Seeing that long-barreled pistol, Wardell ran to him rather than trying to get away. The detective questioned him, and Wardell had a hard time answering him. He had a fear of jail, he said, and for the third time in his life, he cried. About that time, the section chief walked up, and the detective told him that “this young fellow is going to mess up my weekend” because he had to take him to the police station and book him. The section chief quizzed him: How old are you? 16. Why can’t you be 19?
Wardell Wince, at age 18. Wardell didn’t know. Well, would he mind being listed as 19? No, as long as he didn’t have to go to jail. So Wardell went to work for the railroad, living in a converted boxcar with other laborers, getting paid $1.25 an hour, then after three months found another place to stay for $15 a week. After 18 months in Illinois, a friend suggested they join the Army, and at first Wardell said, “No. There’s a war
Wardell Wince was 16 when he jumped a freight on Levee Street, a bitter teenager with two peanut butter sandwiches that lasted him for 2 1/2 days. ‘I couldn’t have told you where I was going,’ he said, but he wound up in the town of Harvey, Ill., about 21 miles from Chicago. When he jumped off the boxcar, a man who was a railroad detective yelled at him. Seeing that long-barreled pistol, Wardell ran to him rather than trying to get away.
going on.” He was talked into it, but he flunked the test for the Army, the Air Force and the Navy. So, how did he get into the Marines? Well, he initially failed that test, too. But as he was getting ready to go back to Harvey, he saw a fellow standing in the doorway, “sharp as a tack. He didn’t even look like he was breathing,” and though someone basically warned him that he didn’t want to be in that outfit, he asked the sergeant if there was any way he could sign him up. The officer reviewed his test score and asked, “Why didn’t you go any further than the fifth grade?” The Marines took Wardell, sent him to boot camp in San Diego and he got a taste of what was in store. He endured the mental abuse, everything that was thrown at a raw recruit, and finally at midnight, physically drained, the drill instructor stood in the barracks doorway and asked, “Are you people asleep?”
“And some idiot answered, ‘Yes, sir,’ and I won’t tell you what happened next,” Wardell remembers. “But I thought about my grandmother’s biscuits and fatback and asked, ‘What have I got myself into?’” Wardell ended up in Korea, “and I couldn’t have told you why I was there.” After three years, his time was up and he wanted to re-enlist. First, he had to see the regimental commander who had the records before him and said, “Wince, you have a very impressive record, but if you want to stay in the Marine Corps, you are going to have to improve your mind.” Wardell said he couldn’t read a paragraph when he went into the Marines, but on his own time he went to school so he could remain in the Corps. From experience, he knows the value of education, “because I didn’t have anyone to make me go. I have been on my own since I was 13. That’s why when I see See Wince, Page C2.