When I first heard about the plight of Joe ‘Hurricane’ Dore, the bisexual hero and storekeeper of a little Texas alligator town, I was fascinated.
After all Texas is ranked as one of the worst US states for LGBTQ equality.
And Joe’s story had come to light just a few weeks after Donald Trump had moved to roll back government-funded health and welfare protection for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.
In the Lone Star State, where he has massive support, laws are described as barely meeting basic standards of equality.
So, Joe’s tale – extraordinary in so many ways – was obviously one worth telling. The Big Guys are standing up for the little guy.
It was a timely and positive story.
Its tabloid bones were simple too: The men and women of a town so tough they take hurricanes on the chin and turn alligators into sausages, were standing up for a store keeper who is glad to be gay.
But it didn’t go down that way all over town…
This is what my original story said: “People in an old Texas railway town claim their local ‘dollar’ store manager – a hurricane hero – has lost his job because of a candy bar competition.
Affable Joe Dore, a diminutive man in his early 60s, who spends his free time rescuing animals from the side of the old state Highway 24, lives with his pet cat, Dash, 30 miles away.
But he has worked at what used to be described as the old ‘five and dime’ for more than three decades.
And the store is still a five and dime in everything but name, selling just about anything you might need at a knock-down price.
Despite being bisexual – a life-style many of the Trump voters in the Lone Star State disagree with – Joe has won massive respect from them and other residents of Winnie.”
And that’s when certain member of the community of Winnie and its environs turned on me. The emails came flooding in, including this one saying: “u a very low person to turn this into something its not. u using joe’s story to cause more hate to Trump supporters. and that sir makes u worst then family dollar.that sir make u only using joe for ur on benifit.”
Those fifty miss-spelt and inarticulate words seemed to confirm my idea about the red-neck state where the women look like men except for their hair curlers and the men are all crocodile wrestlers who drive camo-ed Chevy Suburbans with Trump bumper stickers and Ted Nugent blaring through their open sun roofs.
But my impression was wrong.
A few days ago I was told that the battle for Joe to be treated fairly by his former employer is still going on with passion and heart.
In fact locals claim they are still boycotting the Dollar Tree store … and say ‘by taking Mr. Joe away from us, they took the heart of the Winnie community away too’.
One Winnian wrote to The Society saying: “They can fire someone like Mr Joe who always helped the community and it will not make any difference to them because they don’t live in Winnie.”
Despite this, Joe has told people his new job is much less stressful and that he’s happy. But he still wants to be a part of the Winnie community, even though lives 30 miles away.
Winnie is a small township which had high hopes when it was created by the railways way back in 1895.
Sadly it failed as a railway town and fell victim for decades to floods and hurricanes. And alligators in the marshes.
And it was here in this woebegone by-water that Joe took on the mantel of a super-hero.
Hurricane Joe.
It was well-deserved … for decades, come hell and high water, as the winds howled and the rains whipped, homes were trashed and crops decimated, Joe often single-handedly kept the dollar store open day and night.
People in boats and canoes trusted he would be there so they could collect everything from bottled water to life-saving equipment while hurricanes like Imelda and Ike ripped through the township.
Alligator farms suffered too. Marshes that held tens of thousands of alligators have at times been left all but devoid of them.
Hurricane Ike, for instance, pushed a 20 feet deep wall of saltwater 15 miles inland killing thousands of alligators that lived there.
Despite all this elemental horror though, Winnie still today keeps a semblance of small town dignity, hosting the Texas Rice Festival every first weekend in October. And there is a local beauty pageant too.
And the Dollar stores had retained their own quaint ways. One of them still is the Candy Bar Competition, a store-to-store ‘war’ to see who can sell most candy bars. Joe’s store had won the promotion a number of times over the years.
But it is claimed by locals there was some misunderstanding about it a few weeks ago and ultimately that’s why Joe no longer works in the job he loved.
Dollartree bosses have refused to comment on the situation, saying they are protecting Joe’s privacy.
But, despite the attitude adopted by Dollar Tree, the story is anything but private. Locals say they will continue to boycott the store until Joe gets ‘justice’..
And with that same true grit that keeps them living in this alligator-ridden area they have been getting together to hold regular protests outside the ‘dollar’ store in the horse-shoe like commercial centre of town.
Recently local writer SC Bryson wrote about what she believes has happened exclusively for The Society.
We also have recordings of Joe telling his own story which we hope to publish next week…
Sue tells the story: “The sixth day of June is a significant World War 11 anniversary. This significant day reminds us of once-in-a-lifetime sacrifice!
Southeast Texas seems to have no connection to that era, those brave people on their noble yet doomed missions. But there certainly is a vital connection…
Service and Sacrifice.
Joe Doré received a termination notice after a stellar career with this retail establishment. Many days have passed since this unexpected and unwelcome event. Winnie, Texas, was the location of this unfathomable occurrence for Joe Doré was, is, and always will be a real hero of this little town.
This is Hurricane Joe’s heroic tale.
Joe Doré was born in August, 1957. He looks like an ordinary discount store manager but no one can see his invisible Superman attire beneath his work clothes. His apartment is his sanctuary from the hard work that occurs everyday at Family Dollar/Dollar Tree.
He is modest, intelligent, hard-working, compassionate, knowledgeable, honest and friendly. He knows every local customer’s name, and often, those of their family members. He has worked for this company for nearly thirty years.
The store is a success because of him, and the employees that he trained, guided and nurtured. He created a loyal base of dedicated customers too.
We all love him.
His customers call him Mr. Joe or Uncle Joe. People could buy necessary items from other establishments, and from online stores, but they would not receive genuine Texas hospitality and concern.
Joe also rescues turtles and wild birds from impending death, and he would do so much more.
But he is totally dedicated to the Winnie and Stowell customers who regularly shop at his store.
He continued serving these small communities while he battled cancer and diabetes.
Hurricanes are devastating natural disasters. Residents stay glued to their television sets, computer screens and smartphones as they try to forecast which direction, and what dot on the map, the swirling white mass, on millions of screens around Southeast Texas, has decided to plunder.
Mandatory evacuations are issued after the professional prognosticators have all come to agreement. People hastily gather necessary provisions and lots of money, and then they flee.
But some brave souls steadfastly guard their plots of Texas soil, and everything on it. Joe Doré is one of those individuals who choose to face Death, without blinking. And he has done it many times in recent years.
He smiles as he provides the local citizenry with bottled water, canned goods, cleaning supplies and other commodities that are crucial hurricane survival tools. His heroic presence is quite calming. This store manager is not a newbie. He has been an outstanding leader for nearly thirty years.
This remarkable manager guided his store through very unsettling times. Family Dollar was open during multiple hurricanes and tropical storms that caused as much devastation as a hurricane would have meted out. This venerable store manager carried on with routine business, in the dark, while the store utilized generators. The competitors were closed up, and their employees had evacuated.
Mr. Joe did not leave his customers in dire straits. Autumn of 2019 brought national attention to Winnie, Texas. 80% of this town flooded, but people could still purchase their necessary supplies although their means of transportation changed from cars and trucks to boats and speed boats.
Joe Doré won two very significant awards during his long tenure. He received the Store Manager of the Year award for Region One which represents approximately 800 stores. He also received The Chairman’s Award from Mr. Howard Levine, the owner of the Family Dollar stores.
He spent nearly every waking moment…building this Family Dollar store into a genuine small town success story.
Why did he have to move on?
This Hurricane Hero now needs his own hero!! Well, lots of them.”
And his has them in the often water-logged town of Winnie and maybe what has happened there is something which other people in the America can take on board to unite the States.
Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas, said: “Texas has a way to go to secure basic equality for LGBTQ+ people. Although 70 percent of Texans believe that discrimination against LGBTQ+ people is wrong, many are not aware that their LGBTQ+ neighbours can be refused housing or denied public accommodation simply because of who we are.”
Let’s take a lead from an unknown alligator town where the winds blow high and help us all to become equal.
Thank you Sue and also Gracie who helped us research some of the issues in the story.
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