Island Moon 3-21-2013 Section A

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Spring Break From a Local Perspective A9

Owl No More A2

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March 21, 2013

Photo by Miles Merwin

The Island where Spring Breakers Come for Vacation and Leave on Probation Next Publication Date: 3/28/2013

Around The Island

By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com

The worst of Spring Break 2013 is behind us and with only a couple of exceptions it came and went with more of a whimper than a bang.

The only thing left now is to pay our traffic tickets and check to make sure none of our friends are behind bars. First indications are that sales at Island businesses, at both ends of The Island, are down some from last year; some Port Aransas business owners report their sales down as much as 40% from last year.

The traffic jam at Zahn Road was not nearly as bad as the last two years and for most of the week and weekend the normal one-way beach entrance at Beach Access Road 3 was open to two-way traffic when it usually is restricted only to vehicles entering the beach.

The beach between Zahn and Newport Pass has become so narrow that there just isn’t enough room to hold a sufficient number of Spring Breakers to jam the highway anymore.

The traffic on SPID did not back up to the JFK as it has the past several years.

Word spread quickly that a few miles down the beach in Kleberg County there was plenty of beach where there were relatively few cars and even less law enforcement.

The arrest numbers for North Padre and Port Aransas are included in this issue.

Up Port A way there’s some trouble brewing among the locals about the way they were handled by the out of town officers who made use of the public streets more trouble than it was worth.

The crowds there were large but at the height of the onslaught on Saturday the traffic was not nearly as bad as recent years. All the breakers were trying to get to the same short section of beach between Newport Dunes golf course and next beach access road up SH 361. It took more than two hours to get to the beach on either road and then back to the highway on Saturday but once drivers got past that bottleneck it was clear sailing on into Port A.

First event April 20-21

Island Moon Newspaper Artwalk & Beach Market Coming to The Island Free to Vendors and Public Live Music!

For artists and vendors looking for a free place to sell their work the first monthly Island Moon Newspaper Artwalk & Beach Market is coming to the Windward Parking Lot along the Michael J. Ellis Seawall on Saturday and Sunday, April 20th and 21st. The second will be at the same location on the seawall on Saturday and Sunday, May 11-12.

The event is free to all vendors - including food vendors - and to the public and is sponsored by several Island businesses and clubs, including the Island Moon Newspaper. The Island Moon is working with Island non-profit groups and area artists to provide a free outlet for artists, non-profits, and any other vendors who wish to attend.

Market continued on A16

Islander Donna Shaver Wins Prestigious National Park Service Award for Turtle Program

When plastic bags or trash are picked up by the wind they often end up on spoil islands where they become a permanent eyesore and threat to wildlife, unless Islanders do something about it.

On March 23rd starting at 9:00 a.m.

Islanders will fan out across the spoil islands to help clean up the Spoil Islands & canals. The event is sponsored by the Island Beautification Trust and Padre Island Yacht Club.

Owners of small boats and other volunteers are needed – please plan to muster at 8:30am at the PIYC courtesy dock or at the Cobo De Bara or Cartagena boat ramps to collect gloves, trash bags and other supplies.

Boaters and volunteers will navigate through the Spoil Islands and canals collecting trash and debris. After filling trash bags, boaters will take them to dumpsters located at PIYC or Cobo De Bara or Cartagena boat ramps and repeat until around noon.

The Beautification Trust will provide lunch… hamburgers, chips, soft drinks & PIYC will provide dessert around noon on the bottom deck of PIYC. Also, prizes and give-aways will be awarded during dessert, so come join in the fun and support cleaning up our Island.

To participate just show up at one of the three dumpster sites to pickup gloves, trash bags.

For any questions e-mail Vic at vicschreck@ yahoo.com or call him at 214-668-6263.

We’ll see you there!

By David Stone Special to the Island Moon Thanks to the work of a dedicated group of Port Aransas residents, a large portion of the Mustang Island city likely will retain its charm for many years to come.

Pat Farley and Rick Pratt, members of the Port Aransas Preservation & Historical Association, met with City Council last month to discuss the creation of an Old Town historical district in the city. The Council gave PAPHA the green light to proceed with the project.

Rick Pratt

According to Pratt, director of the Port Aransas

Old Town continued on A 16

150 show up for Vendors’ Day About 150 vendors turned out at the Padre Isles Country Club on Tuesday to sign up for business with the Schlitterbahn Waterpark and Resort.

Now’s the time to get out there and enjoy the surroundings.

Annual Spoil Island Cleanup Is On!

Old Town Historical District Aims to Preserve Port Aransas Style

Schlitterbahn Developers Reach Out to Local Business Owners

All in all it was a relatively slow Spring Break 2013 and on the bright side we should now have The Island to ourselves with the prospect of smooth sailing through the April season and on into May until the Memorial Day Big Bang makes its appearance.

Saturday, March 23

Spring Break 2013

Members of the group are setting up proposed boundaries for the district, and City Council could approve those boundaries next month.

But late afternoon Saturday the line heading into Port Aransas was backed up all the way past the Corpus Christi City Limits, a good ten miles and was moving at a snail’s pace as rebel flags and jacked up pickups littered the landscape.

Say hello if you see us Around The Island.

Facebook: The Island Moon Newspaper Year 16, Issue 466

Islander Dr. Donna J. Shaver, Chief, Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery at the Padre Island National Seashore, has won a Director’s Award for Excellence in Natural Resource Research. National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis announced the awards in Washington D.C. this week.

“These awards are based not upon years of service, pay grade or position, but on scientific Award continued on A 16

Island Easter Egg Hunt Hiding Just Around the Corner 16th Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Billish Park What do you get when you combine 20,000 eggs and a park full of kids? It’s the 16th Annual Kiwanis Easter Egg hunt and it’s free and everyone is invited.

Saturday, March 30 is the day, and Billish Park is the place.

The fun starts at 11 a.m. with a Moon jump, bouncy house sponsored by Island Baptist Church, a merry-go-round, train, and face painting for the kids. The Island in the Son Methodist Church is providing hot dogs.

Things kick off at 11 a.m. and the egg hunt starts at noon with categories from babies all the way up to 12 year-olds. There will be 20,000 eggs, some of which will have dollar coins donated by First Community Bank.

Billish Park is located at the corner of Gypsy and Fortuna Bay. For questions or to participate as a sponsor call Signa Pappas-Prather at 361 774-0424.

They ranged from beach wedding planners, to furniture merchants, to plumbers, security services, and construction workers.

It was the first, and under current plans the last, cattle call for potential venders wishing to work with or for the new park. Those wishing to do business with the park should now contact them

at Schlitterbahn.com/ccvendors.

Prefabrication work on rides and other attractions for the park continues in the company’s headquarters in New Braunfels.

Parts of those items are expected to begin arriving at the site in the next two months.

Meanwhile, permitting work continues on some sections of the park and the surrounding area.

The projected opening date for the waterpark remains Spring of 2014.

A Little Island History

Come and Take It. Anyone who was on The Island for Spring Break probably noticed the popularity of the Come and Take It flags which adorned many a pickup truck. While the current bearers of the flags may have a more contemporary theme in mind – the current debate on gun control – they were on the right track; the Come and Take It flag was in fact a statement on gun control that kicked off the Texas Revolution prompted by a series of actions by none other than Jim Bowie himself.

After Bowie escaped from a Mexican jail in Matamoros he spread the word throughout the Texas colony that Mexican troops were on their way by ship from Matamoros to the Texas Coast to put down the burgeoning revolution against Mexican rule. Bowie’s actions in raiding a Mexican arsenal for weapons and his capture of 200 Mexican troops in a hostile action lead to a demand

by Colonel Domingo Ugartechea that the Texans at Gonzalez

return to the Mexicans a cannon which they had been given to protect them from Indian raids. The response was the Come and Take It flag which flew over the battle at Gonzalez and signaled the beginning of the Texas Revolution.

Meanwhile in late September 1835 General Martin Perfecto Cos landed on Copano Bay in mid-September with a small force of Mexican soldiers which he intended to march to San Antonio.

History continued on A3

Island Moon

A 2

Big Week in Dogland

The Travelling Moon

March

21,

2013

By Riley P. Dog Wow this was the biggest week in Dogland since I scored three T-bone steaks at a cookout gone horribly wrong at the Tarpon Ice House two summers ago.

It started out like any other Dogland week with me just chasing birds and stealing catfood and not having much success at either.

Big John Ridgway took the Moon traveling to Ranch House Tavern in Pryor, Oklahoma.

This was taken of me last week in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I finally remembered to get the dang newspaper out of my suitcase.

Notice the beleaguered Carnival Cruise ship in the background - not a good week for Carnival - AGAIN. Brent Rourk

For the last three years I have been chasing a big tall fellow – my humans say he’s a heron – who likes to sit on my back deck by the pool and leave a real mess behind. It causes my humans to say words not in the Bible and they tell me to catch him but he’s a fast one.

But two weeks ago Dr. Christi over at the Animal Hospital of Padre Island put me on a diet and when I got weighed in on Tuesday I had lost four pounds. Four pounds! That’s almost thirty in Dog Pounds. I’m down to a skinny 90 pounds now after only two weeks on my special dog food and new diet that doesn’t include hot dogs from the nice ladies at Stripes.

I still miss those hotdogs.

The Moon traveled to Seattle with Island artist Betsy Bowen, seen here at Dragon Boat practice with her sister Barb Kittell. As you might notice the rest of the paddlers got rained out and were already in the hip waterfront pub with their artisan beer. The all-women teammates are active and enthusiastic cancer survivors, Team Seko Northwest.

The Island Moon travels with the Gibbs family to Sun Valley Idaho for spring break.

The night before my weigh in my humans forget to put a block on the stairs and when they left I went upstairs and cleaned out the cat vfood. I turned the cats’ bowl over and ate every morsel of cat food that I could find and boy was it good. Besides, that’s what they get for being cats. I got yelled at and locked out on the deck for a while but it was worth it.

I’ll do it again if I get the chance.

But after I lost four pounds I was a quick-moving bird chaser and he didn’t count on that.

Island Creations

That heron must have told the owl that he would never get my kitties as long as I was around because since I lost four pounds I’m faster than a bird. I’m so fast if I had wings I’d be the first Flying Dog on The Island. The owl must have heard about that because on Wednesday morning that owl turned himself in to authorities and was taken away by some Guy to be fixed up and relocated. He’s going to have to find a new place to hunt because there’s a new skinny dog on deck around here.

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But then things started looking up here in Dogland. My loss of four pounds caught the heron by surprise and brought the owl to justice.

When I first started chasing that heron I just rushed him and I never got close before he flew away. Then I figured out if I snuck up on him and then rushed him I could get pretty close but I still couldn’t quite get him.

I got close enough that I shook his tailfeathers Guy Davis comes to the rescue While I was out there the before he flew up in the air Great Horned Owl that and then turned around to tried to fly away with one of my kitties last week give me the business with his wings. Boy was came back. He has had our deck on his nightly he a mad heron. He swatted me in the head with rounds and when he hears the Flying Cat talking his wings a couple of times which caught me off he comes circling in low. The Flying Cat is old guard and we had a little bird/dog standoff until and slow and not real bright but fat enough that he said some words in bird I didn’t understand when that owl got his claws on her he couldn’t and flew off. We haven’t seen him since but when he comes back I’ll be another four pounds lighter and he’ll be in trouble. But I think he’s been talking to the owl.

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carry her and she escaped under the deck. She’s got six puncture wounds in her back where he got her and now when she’s outside my humans make me go with her but she won’t get out from under the tables and chairs. When that owl came in I saw him and gave a shout out and he flew away before he got very close.

While the owl was being loaded into the car I made a run for the catfood but was cutoff by a sneaky human. But that’s okay because with the owl gone the cats will stick around so I’ll get more chances at the catfood.

In the meantime…me so hungry.

Riley P. Dog at his weigh in.

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35

Aerial Photo of Spring Break Crowds

March 21, 2013

Island Moon

History continued from A1 On to Bexar Bowie had no intention of missing out on this action. Bowie and his small band of friends pushed their horses and caught up with the Texan army headed by Stephen Austin at Cibolo Creek only twenty miles from San Antonio.

Bowie knew most all of the officers in Austin’s command and according to one present, Noah Smithwick, “Bowie’s prowess as a fighter made him doubly welcome.” As a former full-time resident of San Antonio he arrived with a full description from friends of the fortifications put in place in San Antonio by Cos. Austin was not by nature a wartime commander and spent much of his time in his tent with his head in his hands burdened with the knowledge that he and he alone was keeping the volunteer army together and a single bad move on his part could cause it to dissolve. But for a man of action like Bowie it was the type of situation he lived for.

Austin assigned Bowie to his staff as a Colonel and Bowie sent a letter to a friend in San Antonio and the next day several dozen Tejanos slipped out of town to join the Texan army, providing more information about where the Mexicans had placed their cannons on the roof of the Alamo and how they had divided their forces between the mission and the town.

The Texans were short on supplies and when word came of a Mexican wagon train carrying food to San Antonio, Austin sent Bowie with a company of men, along with Captain James Fannin, to look for the train and to retrieve any food left in the missions which surrounded the city. Missions San Juan Espada, San Juan, and San Jose (which all stand today) were all on the La Bahia road which any supply train heading into the city would have to use.

Bowie also could occupy and fortify one of the missions and command the road against future supplies. He was also looking for the Mexican caballado – horses that could not be foraged in San Antonio and had to be kept on the open prairie.

The group reached Mission Espada and found some corn and beans but it belonged to Tejanos who lived in the city. Rather than take it, Bowie sent infiltrators through the Mexican lines to negotiate a purchase with the owners. Bowie’s knowledge of the city and its people provided him with valuable information about how Cos was fortifying it. Citizens were being forced to work on the Mexican defenses; Mexican engineers were fortifying the housetops at every street corner, cutting holes in the walls of homes. Cos had eight small four-pounder cannons and one larger gun mounted on the Alamo with powder and ammunition stored inside. Bowie requested that Austin move closer to the city and block the Camino Real road from the north while Bowie blocked the road from the south at Mission Espada, isolating Cos in the city.

Starve them out or whip them out Bowie believed the Mexicans numbered about six hundred men and two hundred horses which were grazed outside the city each day and brought in at night. His only bad intelligence was that the Mexicans had only about five days worth of food – a gross underestimation.

Bowie and Fannin spent from their own pockets to provision the Texan army. Thirty Mexican soldiers snuck into the town but many more Tejanos were leaving to join the Texian side.

Austin indecision as a wartime leader began to weigh heavy. Bowie had been attacked at Mission Espada and his volunteers who had expected to be gone from home only a few days had been in the field for two weeks with no action and were now isolated far in advance of the main body of the Texian army. Bowie sent a letter to Austin “suggest – nay urge, the propriety – the necessity of some movement, which will bring us nearer together, and shut in the enemy, and either starve them out, whip them out, or dishearten and beat them in small parties.” Then Bowie’s old friend and newly commissioned Captain Juan Seguin arrived to raise a cavalry company from loyal Tejanos.

Father of Texas made a drunken speech But in Cibolo Austin continued to waffle; at a muster of the entire Army on October 25 Sam Houston, already well into his whisky supply, rose to encourage the entire army to retire to the Texan capital at San Filipe – under his leadership – because it was too weak to take on the Mexican army. It was a demoralizing show for the future Father of Texas and the idea was voted down by the army. Houston took refuge in his tent with his bottle and began shouting for a pistol with which to shoot himself. Bowie restrained him and took away his guns – in a move that may have changed our state’s history in a fundamental way.

The next day the Mexicans were seen placing a sixteen-pound cannon on the roof of the Alamo and Fannin withdrew from Mission Espada after an attack by a large body of skirmishers sent to cover the arrival of Mexican reinforcements.

The next morning they returned to it as Austin moved his entire army there in preparation for a siege. But, possibly due to Houston’s urging against it, Austin now seemed ready to attack across the eight miles that separated Mission Espada from the Alamo and San Antonioo. He sent Bowie and Fannin ahead with a small force to find a place on the San Antonio River where the entire army could follow and camp for the night.

First battle They advanced to Mission Concepcion on the tree-lined banks of the river where they skirmished briefly with Mexican cavalry. Five hundred yards from the mission at a bend in the river Bowie positioned his men in two groups among trees with the river at their backs. For a

man with no military training other than hard experience Bowie instinctively understood the basics of maneuver warfare; with his men in good cover, to attack him the Mexicans would have to come down the opposite side of the river, under fire, cross below them, then approach across the open plain. He also commanded a good field of fire on the road leading into the mission. That evening a Mexican sent by a padre of another mission arrived with a bag of candy called pilancillos and a bottle of mescal. Bowie kept pickets out and seven lookouts in the mission’s bell tower while he chewed on candy and drank mescal. At dawn a heavy fog set in and Henry Karnes, for whom Karnes County is named and who is buried in the Milam Park cemetery in San Antonio, saw the legs of a horse ridden by a Mexican scout under the fog bank. Both men fired and immediately Mexican infantry, which had crossed the river further south, appeared with a cannon and was advancing.

“When the fog rose it was apparent to all that we were surrounded and a desperate fight was inevitable,” Bowie said later.

Bowie moved his men to create the best crossfire and his men dug in along the riverbank where they could use its cover to reload their rifles. At 8 a.m. the Mexicans began firing in rank in the European style while the Texans, trained as Indian fighters, fired at will at targets of their own choosing. The Mexicans fired a round of canister – like a giant shotgun shell – then sounded the assault. “As if by magic” Bowie wrote, a Texian volley turned back the attack and brought down the cannon crew. The canister shot went high into the pecan trees sending the nuts cascading into the Texian lines and Bowie had to admonish some of the men who stopped firing to scoop up the nuts like manna from heaven.

On to the cannon and Victory With each volley Bowie had the men move secretly to their right, closer to the Mexican cannon. He walked the line telling his men to stay calm, choose their targets, and reserve their fire between the Mexican attacks. As each man fired he dropped below the riverbank to be replaced by a man with a loaded rifle, meaning the Texians kept up a continuous fire.

Finally, Bowie shouted for the men to move “on to the cannon and Victory” and the Texians sprung from their line and rushed forward taking the cannon and turning it on the Mexican infantry in the open plain putting them to flight.

After starting the day surrounded in his trenches Bowie was now victorious and had a captured Mexican cannon.

Bowie, never shy about tooting his own horn, said later, “thus a detachment of ninety-two men gained a most decisive Victory over the main Army of the Central Government – having at least an advantage of numbers in their favor of four to one.”

His company had defeated a force of 475 Mexicans with the benefit of the longer range of the Texians’ hunting rifles over the Mexicans’ Brown Bess muskets, inflicting sixty casualties with fifteen of them killed. Bowie had one man wounded and one man dead.

That night they fired a volley over the dead man’s grave – including a round from the captured Mexican cannon – and Jim Bowie, gambler, land grant forger, knife fighter, fortune hunter, and now revolutionary commander had won the first pitched battle of the Texas Revolution.

It was time to move on to the Alamo.

A3

Stuff I Heard on the Island

by Dale Rankin One of the most memorable characters I ever met was a guy named Big Bill Lister. Bill was about 6’ 4’ and skinny like a mesquite tree. He was about 70 when I met him and I never saw him without his silverbelly Stetson set back on his head and a smile on his face. He lived in a small but respectable house just outside Boerne about 15 miles north of San Antonio.

But before he moved to Boerne he had lived in a small tract house on the near Northside of San Antonio; a place where he had lived since the late 1940s. He moved there as a matter of convenience.

In the late 1930’s there was a radio station in Piedres Negres Mexico called XERF (a story for another day). It was an outlaw station licensed to one million watts and it blasted its signal from Mexico to Canada and during its heyday it could be picked up on barbed wire fences as far north as Nebraska. It became a home for a variety of country acts who later became household names. Some of them settled in San Antonio because it was the biggest city around that part of the state.

San Antonio 1835

As a result, a concert circuit developed for country acts who began and ended the tour in San Antonio. The circuit was called the Red River Tour and in the mid 50’s it attracted Hank Williams as a headliner. The opening act was none other than Big Bill Lister.

Luke the Drifter Bill and Hank made the circuit several years in a row. Bill was never clear on exactly how many years or shows because some of the tours were not finished due mostly to way too much conspicuous consumption by the star. They would travel in two or three big Chevrolets and one big Cadillac belonging to Hank. Often the order of the acts or the lineups of the bands would be all jumbled up due to car troubles or hangover troubles, or women troubles...or a combination of all three.

They would set out from San Antonio and work their way through West Texas and the Panhandle, then on to New Mexico and Oklahoma then swing back through East Texas and back to San Antonio. The circuit could take anywhere from a month to four months depending on how many shows could be booked.

According to Bill, Hank could have made a living just on the Red River circuit because his music lended itself to two-stepping. Many of the country acts of that day didn’t even have a drum kit, death in a Texas dance hall where Bubba needed help keeping his feet from getting all tangled up while he did some buckle polishing.

Hank was an unvarnished hit with the Texans even as Nashville still tried to figure out if they liked him or not. And Bill got to go along for the ride - how many people can say they toured with Hank Williams and lived to tell the tale. I knew from the moment I met him that the softspoken man in Boerne was the real deal. He wasn’t braggin’ he was just telling it the way it happened to him.

An RC Cola and a Moonpie Big Bill had written a song called An RC Cola and a Moon Pie (and a Maple on the Hill) and the record company wanted a new single out before he and Hank started the next tour. The problem was the record had two sides and Big Bill only had a song for one. He didn’t have anything to put on the B-side. The record company wanted a “beer drinking song” and Big Bill, to hear him tell it, wasn’t much of a beer drinker or a beer drinking songwriter.

But Hank was. Bill tells the story of Hank riding along in his Cadillac working out the lyrics to Love Sick Blues while he beat out the rhythm with his palms on the dash. At the next stop the band would play it just the way Hank heard it in his head. As Bill put it, “Guys who can play it after somebody sings it to ‘em are a dime a dozen. Guys who can hear songs like that in their head are few and far between. Hank was one of those guys.”

So when Big Bill needed a drinking song he knew right where to go. He told Hank about it and the next morning Hank went into a local radio station, I think it was up in the Texas Panhandle somewhere, and he recorded a demo on a78 rpm acetate. It was just Hank and his guitar on the recoding that he handed over to Bill and Bill recorded on the back side of An RC Cola and a Moonpie (and a Maple on the Hill).

Skip ahead about thirty years.

I was looking for a story one day when the guy on the assignments desk says, “Hey Hank Williams has a new song out and it was written by some guy in Boerne.” I was pretty sure there was a factual error in there somewhere but about fifteen seconds later I was out the back door headed for Boerne.

When I got to Bill’s house he was sitting in a lawn chair in his backyard playing a guitar with Haggard written in big mother of pearl letters in the neck. He didn’t know I was coming out there that day so unless he was just an obsessed fan he must have some connections in the music business.

“Yea ole Merle give me this when I was broke one day and didn’t have no guitar to play a gig.

I guess I just forget to give it back and he has never asked for it. But I got it here if he’s ever broke too and needs it.”

“So tell me what you know about Hank Williams,” I said.

Hank was a good ole boy “Well, Hank was a good ole boy. He’d give you his last dollar as long as you gave him yours.

And I tell you one thing. I got down to my last dollar and needed his a lot more than he needed mine.”

He said Williams writing and his drinking binges seemed to go hand in hand. When the world closed in on him Hank reacted by

drinking and when he drank the words built up.

They built up until he had to let them out...they often spilled out two or three songs at a time.

Seldom written down - at least by Hank - on the theory that if they weren’t memorable enough to remember on their own they probably weren’t worth writing down anyway; a belief many songwriters hold to this day.

Bill said he had just gotten married and was expecting his first child and was desperate for money when he and Hank were about to start a tour. He struggled for several days with the writing of a drinking song and was getting nowhere. “Just stupid stuff trying to rhyme words with “beer” and “love” and just the normal stuff that guys like me come up with.”

So he told Williams, “If I don’t come up with a drinking song they aren’t going to put out my record. I’m gonna have hospital bills.”

The very next day Williams handed over the acetate, “He said, ‘Here, that’ll put some tears in your beer’.”

Big Bill listened to the recording and got the words and music down and recorded the song.

It did well enough to pay for the birthing of his first kid and Big Bill never forgot the favor that Williams did for him - “never asked me for a cent.”

Big pile of records in the attic

Then one day in the mid-1980’s Big Bill and The Mrs. decided to move out of San Antonio to the Hill Country. Bill’s wife told him, “There’s a big pile of records up there in the attic Bill and if you don’t get ‘em down I’m going to have them all thrown away.” So Bill’s son dragged them all out into the backyard and wrapped them up in an old rug. They set out there cooking in the Texas heat for about a week - after they had been cooking in Bill’s attic for the past thirty years - until Bill decided he couldn’t put it off any longer. He started digging through the pile.

Most were 78-rpm acetates. That was how they recorded demos and radio ads in those days. They were big thick, fragile pieces of clay meant to be used only to learn a song or play an ad before it was discarded or used again; the way a modern day songwriter might use a handheld tape recorder.

Big Bill had just piled all his up in the trunk of his car then thrown them in the attic when he got home. Now as he sorted through the pile in his backyard he found one that he didn’t recognize. It didn’t have a label on it and it looked a little different than the others. He took it inside and put in on an old turntable that could still spin records that fast. For the first time in thirty years the sound of Hank Williams’ voice and his guitar jumped off the clay and through the speakers.

Big Bill played it a through a few times as the memories of another place and time flowed over him and took him back thirty years to a life that only existed in the minds of himself and a few others who had lived through it.

Stories legends and lies

All the stories, legends, and lies that had sprung up around the Hank Williams myth were just memories of miles of highways, one-night stands and the favor of a song passed between friends so long ago. Big Bill felt it was time to give something back.

He didn’t know Hank Williams Jr. but he did know Minnie Pearl. He called her in Nashville and told her what he had found. About two years later Hank Williams Jr. was playing in San Antonio and Big Bill got a call. It was Hank Jr. He said,” Minnie Pearl told me that a lot of people claim they toured with my daddy but there’s only one alive that really did and that’s Big Bill Lister.”

A few weeks later Hank’s producer showed up at Bill’s house in Boerne and Bill got out his old record. He told the story of where he got it and put it on the turntable.

“About two seconds after that needle hit the groove the first couple of chords from Hank’s guitar came out through my little speakers.

Before Hank started singing that fella jumped across the living room and almost knocked me down. He grabbed that needle up off that record and said, “don’t play that anymore.”

The concern was damage to the thirty-year-old temporary recording.

That night Big Bill met Hank Jr. backstage at his show and they talked for several hours about Hank Sr. As Bill’s son, who was there, told the story Hank said he had never met anyone who had toured with his father at the peak of his career for any extended period of time. It was one of those times I would have liked to be a fly on the wall but later I was at least able to pick Bill’s brain about things he remembered from his days on the road with Williams.

“Hank Jr. took real good care of me”

So Hank Jr. took Bill’s old record back to Nashville where he used digital recording techniques to clean up the sound. He also altered old Movietone footage of his father to create a lifelike video duet with he and his father singing the song that Big Bill found cooking in his attic.

Bill wouldn’t say how much money he made off that record. All he would do was smile and say, “Hank Jr. didn’t owe me a dime. I was repaying a favor his daddy did for me thirty years ago...but Hank Jr. didn’t see it that way, he took real good care of me. More money than I made in all the years I toured with his daddy put together.”

Every Hank Williams anthology published before that time had suddenly become obsolete.

There was an original Hank Sr. song missing.

A drinking song originally released by Big Bill Lister on the flip side of “An RC Cola and a Moonpie (and a Maple on the Hill). It went like this here...

A7 D There’s a tear in my beer ‘cause I’m cryin’ for you, A7 dear you are on my lonely mind. t

A 4

Island Moon

March 21, 2013

The Island Moon Newspaper

Artwalk and Beach Market The Island Moon Newspaper is proud to announce the beginning of The Island Moon Newspaper Artwalk & Beach Market at the Michael J. Ellis Seawall parking lot.

ATTENTION ARTIST, CRAFTERS, MUSICIANS & FOODIES

Saturday April 20th & Sunday April 21st

The Island Moon Newspaper is proud to announce the beginning of The Island Moon Newspaper Artwalk & Beach Market at the Michael J. Ellis seawall parking lot.

The Artwalk & Beach Market will be held the 3rd Saturday and Sunday of every month starting the weekend of April 20th and 21st on both Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. until 6:30. The Island Moon Newspaper Artwalk & Beach Market is free to all artists, craftspeople, local restaurants, food and drink vendors, nonprofit organizations, churches, schools and everyone in between. Just come on down, set- up and let the community see and purchase your works.

There’s no need to contact us but space is limited so be sure and set-up early. If you have any questions you can send us a message on facebook at “The Island Moon Newspaper” or call us at 361-949-7700.

Artwalk 2012

The Island Moon Newspaper Artwalk & Beach Market is presented by The Island Moon Newspaper publishers Dale and Jan Rankin and supported by the following local businesses: Aloha Wa

Island’s Edge Hair Salon

Padre Island Mail Plus

Animal Hospital

Island Italian

Padre Landscapes

Sweet Swirl Frozen Yogurt

Deluxe Nails

Isle Mail N More

Padre Pizzeria

Tango Tea Room

Dragonfly Restaurant

Island Tire

Scuttlebutt’s Bar & Grill

The Back Porch

Farmer’s Insurance, May Nardone

Johnny D’s

Sheehan Company

Two Sisters Vintage

Lyco’s Nails

Snoopy’s Pier

Whitecap Liquor

Island Creations

Michelle’s Salon

Surfside Sandwich Shop

Wrightway Accounting

See You There!

March 21, 2013

Moon Monkeys Mike Ellis, Founder

Island Moon

Letters to the Editor ADA

Palm Bay

Editor’s note: This letter is from Robert Gramer who has been working to correct problems with the boat ramps on Zahn Road and at Clem’s and Billings next to the JFK Causeway that make them difficult to use for persons with disabilities. He met with city staff late last week and sent this letter after that meeting. He wrote it in the first person for use as a news story, we included it here instead as a letter to the editor.

Moon,

Distribution

At the 3 PM meeting today in City Hall, City employees Jamie Pyle and Natasha Fudge thanked Bob Gramer for reporting the ADA noncompliance problems for the three boat ramps on Packery Channel. Others attended the meeting, including Judy Telge, Interim Executive Director of the Coastal Bend Center for Independent Living.

Pete Alsop Island Delivery Coldwell Banker Advertising Jan Park Rankin Office Classifieds Arlene Ritley Design/Layout Jeff Craft Contributing Writers Devorah Fox Mary Craft Maybeth Christiansen

They also visited the other boat launching ramps located near Clem’s Bait and Billing’s Bait and observed more noncompliance to ADA, according to Fudge.

Jay Gardner Todd Hunter Danniece Bobeché Brent Rourk Dr. Donna Shaver Photographers

But the bids for the two parking lots at Clem’s and Billing’s will not be awarded until mid-July, 2013, followed by a 120-day period allowed for finishing the construction.

Miles Merwin Jeff Dolan Mary Craft

Other than problems observed today, the parking lots at Billing’s and Clem’s are not accessible, even though the ramps were constructed a long time ago. This means that, until late Fall 2013, those ramps will only accommodate able-bodied persons.

Office Security/Spillage Control Riley P. Dog Editor/Publisher/Spillage Control Supervisor Dale Rankin About the Island Moon

The Island Moon is published every Thursday, Dale Rankin, Editor / Publisher.

Total circulation is 10,000 copies. Distribution includes delivery to 4,000 Island homes, free distribution of 3,000 copies in over 50 Padre Island businesses and condos, as well as 600 copies distributed in Flour Bluff, 1,400 copies on Mustang Island and Port Aransas businesses.

News articles, photos, display ads, classified ads, payments, etc. may be left at the Moon Office.

The Island Moon Newspaper 15201 S. Padre Island Drive, Suite 250 Corpus Christi, TX 78418 361-949-7700 editor@islandmoon.com Facebook: The Island Moon Newspaper

Where to Find The Island Moon

Stripes @ Beach Access Rd. 1A

Port A Glass Studio The Gaff Wild Horse Saloon Tarpon Ice House

North Padre

Miss K’s Catering & Bistro

All Stripes Stores

Amano

Whataburger

Felder Gallery

Doc’s Restaurant

Island Woman Boutique

Snoopy’s Pier

Coast Club Coffee Waves Moby Dicks

CVS

Isle Mail N More Island Italian Ace Hardware Holiday Inn

Party Supply Liquor Store

Texas Star (Shell)

IGA Grocery Store

Jesse’s Liquor

Port A Business Center

Padre Isles Country Club

Carter Pharmacy

Scuttlebutt’s Restaurant

San Juan’s Taqueria

Subway

Wash Board Laundry Mat

Island Tire

Port A Parks and Rec

And all Moon retail advertisers

Public Library

Flour Bluff H.E.B.

Chamber of Commerce Duckworth Antiques Back Porch Woody’s Sports Center

Liquid Town Whataburger on Waldron

Shorty’s Place

Ethyl Everly Senior Center

The Flat’s Lounge

Fire Station

Giggity’s

Police Station

Stripes @ Cotter & Station

Stripes on Flour Bluff & SPID

Gratitude Gift Shop

Floyd’s

Keepers Pier House

Cats need help!

Fudge said that funding is available now to make repairs and adjustments to the Luby Ramp, after an investigation to determine how the errors happened.

Ronnie Narmour

Pioneer RV Park

Palm Bay Winter Texans, friends, and grandkids listened to David Smith discuss his operation in Taft recently. We shopped later for candied dill pickles, cranberry chipotle and other tasty items. A tour of the Old Tyme Museum across the street was also enjoyed.

However, they did not measure the angle slope of the walkway from the parking lot to the pier, because they did not have the necessary equipment with them. Reportedly, they will return to do that at another time.

Joey Farah

Lisabella’s Restaurant

Moon,

This morning before the meeting, City employees went onsite to check the boat launch ramps on Packery Channel for ADA compliance.

According to Major Project Engineer Natasha Fudge they found problems with the railings, which were spaced too closely and made too tall for ADA compliance.

Lisa Towns

Port Aransas

A5

Gramer also indicated that many other public recreational sites along the shorelines in Corpus Christi are not ADA compliant. For example, there is no ramp at the Packery Jetties to allow access. Since construction, those jetties remain only available for the able-bodied. Private payfor-fishing piers also cater to the able-bodied.

Some have steps and no ramp. They do not have accessible restrooms, including the publicly owned and operated Bob Hall Pier.

The net result, Gramer said, is that fishing and saltwater recreational opportunities in Corpus Christi primarily are available exclusively to able-bodied persons.

Gramer came to the meeting with the anticipation that the City would commit to a schedule to remedy the problems addressed at the meeting. That did not happen.

However, Gramer credited those City employees in attendance for their positive attitudes and willingness to openly discuss the problems found and for explaining all the complications that impact schedules for finalization. Meanwhile the disabled cannot enjoy the same opportunities as the able-bodied, Gramer commented.

Unfortunately, there was an official televised attempt to falsely deny any problems existed with ADA access. Corpus Christi City Engineer Dan Biles, in an interview broadcast on TV Channel 3 on March 14, 2013, stated that he “believes it is just a case of misunderstanding.”

City employees in the meeting did not comment on why Biles called it a misunderstanding. (It seems Biles is their supervisor, the head of the department where they are employed.)

What Biles said was in direct contrast to the actual reported observations by City Engineers, along with several emails sent by City employees during a period of two months.

The facts should show that Biles made a false statement.

FYI, Biles did not attend the meeting; however, he was observed in the hallway just outside the meeting room.

Robert Gramer

Islanders want answers about Spring Break Law enforcement crackdown Editor’s note: Mr. Hoskins is the owner of the Tarpon Inn in Port Aransas.

Moon, As you know, we get a birds eye view of the activities of the DPS as well as the PAPD, that being the case I will relay what I, my employees and my guests witnessed over the past couple of weeks ending this past Sunday.

The first weekend of Spring Break, all of the various law enforcement agencies descended on the unruly and lawless citizens of Port Aransas (I suppose, because there were no Spring Breakers yet). The tactic of choice appeared to be to stop as many cars as possible with the obvious objective of stopping all cars on the road. More than half of my employees were stopped at least once and approximately 1/4th were stopped multiple times. Most of my employees are in their 20’s to 30’s and most of them get off work between midnight and 1:00 am. None of them had been drinking and extremely disappointed, and I might add very young 20 something, DPS officers were forced to let them go. I also had numerous guests at the hotel complaining about being stopped for some lame excuse or another, officers making U turns and nearly hitting them head on.

We had guests that checked out early in disgust at the Gestapo behavior of not only the DPS but the PAPD and TABC as well. My general manager watched a black and white take off from Port A Outfitters as fast as his car would go, run the stop sign at Allister, run the stop sign at Station Street and catch a car that pulled on to Cotter off of Tarpon before the car could get past Mustang RV, all of this without flashing lights nor siren.

Another extremely dangerous and intimidating tactic was to get so close behind a car at a high rate of speed that the car they were following could not see their headlights and if they swerved or acted nervous, then they would pull them over to see if they had been drinking.

In their normal straightforward manner, the DPS used their unmarked spotter cars to follow cars out then hand them off to waiting black and whites.

I cannot speak for other business owners but as a hotel and restaurant owner in the center of old town, I have never seen anything any more dangerous than a 20 something DPS officer driving a 200 mph car in downtown Port Aransas as fast as it would go,with total disregard for stop light, stop signs and pedestrian traffic in my life.

It is truly a miracle that they did not run over any pedestrians and I understand that a DPS officer turned in front of an oncoming car on Hwy 361. It appears that there is no oversight on these folks and I think that makes the State of Texas, the Governor’s office, the State Senators, the State Representatives, the Nueces Co. Judge, the Nueces Co. commissioners and the Port Aransas city officials all get a black eye due to the lack of oversight regarding obviously over staffed as well as over zealous employees of the tax payers of the State of Texas.

I personally feel that the DPS in particular and most law enforcement officers in general, tend to forget who pays the taxes that fund their various departments. Whoever sanctioned this type of behavior by State of Texas employees should be fired and these Gestapo like tactics need to be stopped!

A good solution for these over zealous officers would be to put them in the same shoes as the Port Aransas businessmen ie: no paycheck after September 1 no paycheck for the rest of September, October, November, December, January, February and then, just when they think they might get one the middle of March, we all go to Austin and take the funds away from the DPS with the U.S. Army. Maybe then they would have some idea of the importance of Spring Break to a very small coastal town with no industry but tourism! By the way, the Commissioners of the Department of Transportation should be aware of the unique requirements of a tourist town as well as the adverse impact their lack of oversight regarding this department has created.

I have been to New Orleans and its famous Bourbon Street and have never seen a state trooper and have seen very few NOPD, same is true for Key West Fla. and they have a lot more people, congestion, larger crowds and bigger celebrations than Spring Break!

I have seen enough of the State’s interference in the tourist trade in downtown Port Aransas and I intend to find out who is responsible for this State imposed Marshall Law and I will not rest until they have been replaced with people that understand the impact out of control law enforcement can have on a small tourist town.

Regards Lee R. Hoskins

Is anyone able to take care of 2 sweet outdoor cats for the summer? We have been feeding these abandoned cats (NOT feral) but we are winter texans and will be leaving soon. Aurora Delmar I just received an email saying someone at the moon has outdoor cats for adoption. I would be very much interested in finding out more about the cats.

Thanks. Linda Sharlow Hi

I posted on the Island Moon Newspaper’s facebook page the other day about 2 sweet abandoned cats living in the storm drain on Yardarm. I forgot to leave contact information, so I just went in and did that now. We leave April 19th and so they won’t get food anymore.

I don’t want them to be coyote bait! My name is Anita and I am at 949-0923 if anyone can feed them.

Island Farmers Market

Hi Dale and Jan: First of all, thanks for bringing those great bags to our market today!

The vendors are sooo impressed with us island folk, says we are friendly and supportive. You guys are a big part of that!

Thanks, Kae Berry

Keep Port A Beautiful Moon,

I am pleased to announce that Keep Port Aransas Beautiful’s submission for Port Aransas in the Governor’s Community Achievement Awards, Category 2 has been awarded 1st Place.

This carries with it $110,000 landscaping award administered by TXDOT. Mike Secich KPAB Chairman

Spring Break Policing Hurt My Business

“The overwhelming police presence early in the week negatively impacted business on Alister St., including ours. It’s one thing to enforce the law. It’s entirely another thing to actively provoke trouble by stopping pedestrians and subjecting them to apparently random sobriety tests. As the week progressed the situation improved, either in response to our complaints or because the police were drawn to the enormous crowds on the beach. No one is questioning the need for added law enforcement officers during spring break. Crowd and traffic control are perfectly legitimate duties, but please don’t harass our guests.”

Jay Honeck.

Owner Amelia’s Landing Hotel, Port Aransas

More Police Problems Dear Moon,

Last Thursday, my husband and I took our lap dog in the car thinking we could just cruise down the beach. We had no intention of stopping or getting out of the Bronco, just kind of wanted to see what was happening on the shore with the spring breakers, no big deal.

On Zahn Rd. we were stopped at the turnoff for the Packery boat ramp, by an Officer. K. Russell and told we could not go any farther with a dog in the car. Now, I can understand apprehending an offending dog ON the beach itself if they are out of the vehicle, but I didn’t know it was illegal to ride on the beach, a legal Texas thoroughfare, with a dog in your car. If they can issue tickets for speeding, drinking and expired inspection or license plates BECAUSE IT IS A TEXAS ROADWAY, how can they say we can’t have a dog in our car?? That’s like saying you can’t have a dog in your car on Ocean Drive.

Long story short, we turned around back to 361 and headed to Port A, where we spent over $25 for a nice lunch, bought $60 in gas, got to see all the well-behaved young people, having a good time on the beach, oh, and bought another $30 or so dollars in trinkets for my granddaughter.

Why is Corpus purposely turning away tourist dollars and still spending my tax dollars on advertising and importing self-important LEOs?

Yes, I live on North Padre, full time, and I am obviously over 60, so did they think I was going to stage Min-Pin fights on the beach?

Mary Stallings

A 6

Fundraising for New Art Center of Port Aransas Center is Moving Forward

Island Moon

By David Stone

executive director Mary Rose.

Special to the Island Moon

“Everyone at the center is extremely enthused about this project,” Dan Winship said. “Our current facility has served us well, but we need more space to display the work of area artists.”

The reality of a new showplace to exhibit paintings, photographs and sculptures by Coastal Bend artists is drawing nearer.

The new $1.25 million Art Center of Port Aransas will be located about two blocks south of its current location on Alister Street on property that has been home to the Sportsman’s Lodge for more than 60 years, said Dan Winship, chairman of the center’s fund-raising committee.

So far, Winship’s committee has raised more than $165,000 toward the purchase of the Sportsman’s Lodge property. The Art Center will take ownership of the property in April, but the Sportsman’s Lodge will remain open through the summer, he said.

“We have had a lot of support during our fundraisers, but we still have a long way to go,” Winship said. “Construction won’t begin until the property is fully purchased. We still need $340,000 to buy the property so donations from the community are still needed.”

The current building is about 2,400 square feet, but display space will increase to about 4,000 square feet at the new location.

Winship said the building project has been in the works for about three years. Center officials had tried to work land deals for two other Port Aransas locations, but those negotiations did not work out. The Sportsman’s Lodge was ideal because the size of the property. The new location will provide more exhibit space, more classroom space and more parking spaces.

Once the purchase of the Sportsman’s Lodge is finalized, Winship said most of the cottages – the first of which was built in 1949 – will be torn down and replaced with a single building.

Three cottages on the backside of the property will remain and be converted to a pottery barn and storage buildings.

The Durrill Foundation, a Corpus Christibased organization that helped fund a memorial bench project on that city’s seawall, has offered the Art Center a $50,000 matching challenge grant, and Winship said the facility already has raised its share.

“We are enlisting the support of prominent Coastal Bend residents to help financially and to recruit others who are willing to donate,” he said.

Easter 1000-Meter Swim at Collier Pool

Winship said the fund-raising committee is putting together promotional literature and a video to help sell the project to folks interested in helping with the project.

The Corpus Christi Parks & Recreation Department invites swimmers to compete in its Easter 1000-Meter Swim on Saturday, April 6, 2013 at Collier Pool, 3801 Harris Drive. Come test your endurance and set your personal best time. It will be a day of fun and fitness, and you may even go home a winner! Swimmers of all ages are invited to participate.

“The video will be on our iPhones so we can show potential donors what we are trying to do,” he said. Members of the fund-raising committee – Greg Smith, Louis Garcia, Lynn Kramer, Charlie Zahn, and Winship – will have access to the video, as will long-time Art Center president Karen Winship and Art Center

Swim start times are 8am, 9am, 10am, 11am, and 12pm. Space is limited, so please register early to reserve your spot! Cost is $20 per swimmer. Cost includes a t-shirt for persons competing in the swim and who preregister by Friday, March 22, 20103. For more information, call 361-852-0243.

Robert (Bob) Forest (1934-2013) You are cordially invited to attend a memorial for Robert (Bob) Forest on Sunday, March 24, from 1-4 p.m. at the Padre Island Yacht Club (end of Whitecap on the Island).

If you would like to share a favorite memory or express your sentiments please contact Jim Weatherill - 361-774-0177, Annie_wxill@hotmail.com by Friday, March 22.

Did Ya’ Hear?

March 21, 2013

By Mary Craft Send your business news to mkay512@aol.com

New Advertisers 13702 Three Fathoms Open House will be held Sunday March 24th 1 – 4 pm. This fingertip lot has 200’ of waterfront on the main canal.

There is a pool and both inside and outside hot tubs. This four bedroom four bath open plan home is for sale at $845,000. Call 548-8667 for more info on this for sale by owner home.

The Island Presbyterian Church and Island in the Son Methodist Church will have Ecumenical Easter Service 7 am at the end of White Cap on the beach. Rev. Rick Mills and Rev. John Smith will deliver the Easter message. The fellowship ministries will be serving coffee and sweets. Everyone, including pets, are welcome!

Business Briefs The New Island Moon Newspaper Artwalk and Beach Market will be held every third Saturday and Sunday of the month starting April 20th at 9 am. It is free to all food vendors, craftspeople, artist, churches, schools and anyone else who would like to get involved.

There is no need to contact the Moon just set up early for the best spot at the Michael J. Ellis seawall. If you have questions call 949-7700 or ask them on our Facebook page.

Bert’s Feed is having their Grand Opening on Saturday, March 23rd with discounts, samples and door prizes. They carry pool supplies, plants, live chickens, organic garden supplies and more. They are located at 9825 SPID. A 1990 Ski Barge perfect for family cruising or fishing is for sale for $2500 or best offer.

This 20’6” fiberglass pontoon boat is equipped with a 90 HP Johnson 2000 and has been kept on a lift. Call 728-4772.

Estate Sale at 15202 Main Royal every Friday and Saturday starting March 22nd 9 am – 2 pm until all is sold. Furniture, appliances, fishing items, tools, housseware and more.

The Island Easter Egg Hunt is at Billish Park Saturday, March 30 with fun starting at 11 am.

Merry-go-round, train, face painting and more for the kiddos.

Johnny D’s is now taking reservations for their Easter Sunday Brunch that will have a special menu. Brunch is served 11 am – 2 pm weekly and you can enjoy a drink from the Bloody Mary Bar for $3. Call 949-2500 for reservations.

The Boathouse Bar & Restaurant has begun demolition of the one story building next to the Lighthouse near the Holiday Inn.

Padre Island Brush Pickup Schedule Heavy brush or bulky items -- Set out starts March 30 - pickup April 8 Clean light brushSet out starts June 15 – Pickup June 24 Heavy brush and bulky itemsSet out starts August 31 – pickup September 9 Clean light brushSet out starts November 16 – pickup November 25 The big change this year is that setout time has been shortened to 8 days from the previous 2 weeks

Clean brush means it can be used for mulch – which comes back to the Island in many loads which are available at Billish and Douden parks

Speaking of Trash...

The Trash Heap of the Week this time looks like an old freezer left on the side of County Road 2, which has become a dumping ground for palm tree trimmings and now, large appliances

Robert “Bob” Forest Memorial will be held at the Padre Island Yacht Club on Sunday, March 24th 1-4 pm. Favorite memories will be shared along with snacks, drinks, music and dancing.

Snacks, drinks, music and dancing. The dress is Island Casual. Memorial donations may be made to your favorite charity.

Hope to see you all on Sunday.

The BACK PORCH oPEN 7 dAYS + nOON-2AM Live Music

Melissa Brooke

March 22 The Scarecrow People March 23 BACK PORCH Kevin Higgins March 29 Ruben V Bar March 30 Joe Mack

Mike Milligan & the Altar Boys

The

Shellac S p eSpecial! cial B i k i Real Makes n i W aNails x $ 2Lasts Stronger, 5 . 0 0 Longer

April 5

April 6

s Pedicure...$20.00 s Manicure...$10.00 s Full Set from...$22.00 - $30.00 s Fill...$15.00 - $20.00 s European Facial...$40.00

BACK PORCH

$2 WackyBar Wednesdays!

ON THE WATERFRONT

132 W. Cotter St.

In Big Shell Plaza on the Island NEW Around corner fromLOCATION! Subway Sandwich Shop

14457S.S.P.I.D. 14225 P. I. D.,Suite Suite109 7 Corpus Christi, TX 78418

PortA

Under the Bridge Serving South Texas Seafood for Over 30 Years Open Daily 11:00 - 10:00

Snoopy’s Scoopy’s

AlsoScoopy’s Veranda With Sweet Treats, Soups, Salads & Sandwiches (361) 949-8815 (361) 949-7810

13313 S. Padre Island Drive Corpus Christi, TX 78418

March 21, 2013

Island Moon

A7

Where’s the Beach?

Peace of Mind for You & your Loved Ones In Home Medication Organization, Monitoring and Management

Private Duty Care Available

by Licensed Nurse

Providing coordination with Pharmacy & Doctors Pharmacy pick up and delivery Full Vital Signs monitored

In a final effort to clear off any remaining Spring Break visitors, the Gulf invaded the beach Wednesday, with windblown tides pushing the water up to the dunes.

Call for a Free initial Consultation Kelly Byrom LVN 361-244-6081

Kelly

Care

Aloha Wa

Next Luau

Saturday April 6

ALOHA WA

Inside the Holiday Inn

Aloha Wa means “good times”.

It is our hope that you will always feel your time with us is remembered as a “good time”.

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT (361) 949-8041 alohawatx@gmail

Sit back, relax, and enjoy a full 3view of the Early Bird Specials $8.99 ocean .”semit doog“ snaem aW aholA syawla lliw uoy taht epoh ruo si tI si su htiw emit ruoy leef .”emit doog“ a sa derebmemer

We love our Winter Texans

Try out our new seafood menu or join us for Friday Night Seafood Buffet

If you don’t believe us read our article

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Weekend Breakfast Buffet $8.99

Join us for our Sunday Brunch Party Meet our regulars, drink champagne, enjoy a great meal and even dance

AWALOHA AHOLAWA Inside the Holiday Inn

Beach Babes of the week dancing at the Back Porch

AW AHOLA

Show starts promptly at 5:15 pm

Inside the Holiday Inn North Padre Island

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Located in the Holiday Inn Sunspree

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Aloha Wa means “good times”.

Dinner It is our hope that you will always served nightly Tuesday thru Saturday feel your time with us is 4:30pm-9:30pm Featuring Fresh seafood, New remembered as a “good time”.

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Like us On Saturday, Join Us Face book

March 23rd For Our Spring Festival! 10:00am - 4:00pm The Whole Family Will Enjoy Inflatables, Games, Food, & Fun! Also Appearing, “The Raptor Project” And the BAFPI Worship Band Led by Jennifer Pena!

15201 SPID Ste 200

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Island Moon

A 8

March 21, 2013

Senior Moments

Skywatch

A Daily Astrological Timing Guide for All Signs Research & Analysis

by Islander W. Lance Ferguson

By Dotson Lewis dlewis1@stx.rr.com

Available online at www.skywatchastrology.com Thursday, March 21. Caution lights. The Moon is Void of Course from yesterday until she enters Leo at 1:50 am early Friday morning. Stick to routine and play it safe today. Impulsive Mars meets rebellious Uranus in the heavens tomorrow afternoon in the sign of Aries and this energy is with us today: impulsive, explosive, rebellious and like a wild stallion. Kids will be fired up as the Aries energy encourages competition and fights on the playground.

In the news tomorrow: computers, cars and electricity ruled by Uranus; Mars rules the military, cops, athletes and guns. And there’s always something unpredictable about Uranus contacts. So this is a day and night to play it cool and safe. Let times change.

Friday, March 22. Hot. Dangerous. Brilliant.

Rebellious. Explosive. In a strange twist of timing cycles, Mars meets Uranus in the heavens in the sign of Aries, ruled by Mars, today. The last time this happened was in 1934. (Uranus only moves through Aries once every 84 years and has just entered over the last year.) Exact at 1:17 pm, this conjunction fires us up and will spark contests and arguments around the water cooler and probably short out a few computers and the souls who have a lot of anger stored inside. Watch the parade today and don’t rush into anything. Keep it simple Friday night.

THE WEEKEND: Pull back on Saturday and let the world go by. The Moon is Void of Course from last night until she enters Virgo Sunday morning. The main event is Jupiter making an inconjunct to Saturn, exact at 9:51 pm Saturday night. This is one shot of tequila too many and not the night to gamble or risk anything—the odds are not nearly the best.

You’ll hear sirens in the city Saturday night.

Sunday’s Skywatch is low key. The Moon is Void of Course until she enters Virgo at 10:49 am. Green lights come on then as the Skywatch clears. The only exact marker on Sunday appears at 6:08 pm when the Moon lines up opposite dreamy Neptune. Yawn.

Quiet hours follow. As times change.

Monday, March 25. Trouble is brewing.

Stick to routine on Monday as the Moon turns Void of Course at 7:45 am and stays V/C until she enters Libra tomorrow afternoon!

Another unusually long V/C period turns on the caution lights. Mars in aggressive Aries now moves into a welcome sextile to generous Jupiter suggesting a good day to make new contacts and explore new options. Mars is also moving into a square with dangerous Pluto— both connections will be exact tomorrow but in full power today—Mars likes to show up early for the fight. Advise you to keep your radar on today for good ideas and people with Jupiter in the mix. But don’t force the issue or make demands now, and lock up. Pluto rules criminals. This is the wrong night to be in the wrong place. As times change.

Tuesday, March 26. Back off. The Moon is Void of Course from yesterday until she enters Libra at 4:32 pm. The main event in the Skywatch today is Mars in impulsive Aries

lining up in a 90-degree angle to powerful Pluto in Capricorn, exact at 10:44 pm Tuesday night.

Arguments, accidents, breakdowns and violence— worldwide—shadow this most difficult pairing. Plus, a Full Moon will be perched in the heavens tonight; she sits opposite to Venus, the planet of love. Chill out today and tonight and keep it simple. You may get some extreme reactions from others today as their hidden compulsions surface—Pluto.

Be aware: you could do the same. As times change.

Wednesday, March 27. Tackle the hard jobs first thing. A Full Moon in Libra becomes exact at 4:27 am (yes, this is why you woke up early) Wednesday morning. Luna opposes jumpy Uranus at 7:05 am but then trines optimistic Jupiter at noon. Get the important stuff done in that window of time as the Moon squares inflexible Pluto at 12:27 pm and then opposes feisty Mars at 1:14 pm. Worse, the Moon then turns Void of Course until tomorrow night! Stick to routine while the Moon is V/C and keep it simple.

If your birthday is this week (Mar 24– 30), you’ve got an extraordinary line-up of planetary aspects in your new Solar Return, Aries. This will be a year like no other as Venus, Mars and Uranus sit next to your Sun in the chart of your new year. Venus helps you find love and money. Mars gives you courage and energy. Uranus is the rare visitor who only comes this way once in 84 years. He is the agent of change, independent thought and action. Astrologers associate him with “the truth.” This is the year to get on that pony and ride, Aries—work and play. Delays and minor detours are certain with Jupiter inconjunct Saturn and Pluto in this new SR. They will be short and temporary. Commit to taking your game to a higher level this year, Aries.

The only thing in your way is you. As times change.

Thursday, March 28. Shocking! This is a wacky Skywatch day with great possibilities if you know when to hold ’em. First, the Moon is Void of Course from yesterday until she enters Scorpio at 7:54 pm Thursday night. So hold off on making final decisions on matters. But keep your radar on as logical Mercury trines dependable Saturn at 4:48 am Thursday morning. Even better, the Sun meets sweet Venus in the heavens at high noon and you know everyone will be more open to suggestion then. A buzz is in the air in the hours that follow as both the Sun and Venus meet “The Awakener” Uranus at 7:38 pm.

This could be love at first sight or the truth suddenly appearing—Uranus energy is unpredictable and often shocking as he is the rebel who lives by his own code. If you are single, this is an exceptionally good afternoon and evening to be in circulation and meeting new people. In business, this is a good day and night to consider changes, new computers and technology, but not the day to pull the trigger.

Wait. Let times change.

Senior Moments In A Digital World Dotson’s note: More than half of Americans over 65 are online.

Online life for seniors has reached a major point. In 2013, more than half of Americans age 65 and older are online. Well over a third of those older Internet users are now active on social networking sites such as Facebook.

Plus over two-thirds of older people now have cell phones. This includes 13% who have smartphones that can browse the Internet, load videos onto YouTube and launch apps for everything from newspapers to maps to magazines to novels.

Older adults took a little longer than twentysomethings to embrace the three largest technology revolutions of the early 21st century: Internet, cellphones, and social networking. Pressure from grandchildren and children, the workplace, lower costs for hardware and software, and the value of the online environment combined to cause many older adults to adopt digital tools.

Fully 60% of Internet users 65 and over now get news online. Many use multiple platforms like TV, radio, newspapers and the Internet daily to get news. It is common now for seniors to “surf the net,” for news all through the day, rather than relying on TV and/or radio headlines on the hour and the evening news. About a tenth of older online users have also become news producers or participators. Blogging, commenting on news stories, sharing links on their Facebook news feed or uploading photos of events they witness.

Some 58% of older people who go online have found detailed information about medical symptoms, checked on treatment options, schooled themselves on drug side effects, read doctor and hospital reviews, and found patient and caregiver communities to help them cope with chronic illnesses. These “e-patients” often bring material discovered in online searches to their doctors. Some of them even add insights about the latest medical findings on their condition.

About two-thirds of these users research products online, and more than half have bought products and services online. The take advantage of the Internet’s quick price comparisons and consumer reviews. In the mobile era, this can be done in real time. During the gift-giving season at end of 2012, 22% of older consumers who own cellphones called a friend while they were in a store to get advice about what to buy; 4% of them use a smartphone to read product review of good they were considering as gifts: 3% of them used a smartphone to compare prices with what they were seeing in the stores.

The digital world has also changed people’s relationship to one another. An interesting fact is those age 75-plus who belong to Facebook have an average Facebook Network size of 42 friends, while not as large as those in their 20’s, who average 319 friends. But this is confirmation that social networking and the Internet are no longer just places where young folks hang out. The charms of digital technology span generations.

Dotson’s note: My thanks to Lee Rainie, Director the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project for allowing me to use the results of her research in this article for the Island Moon.

If you need to catch up with the digital world, the SENIOR MOMENTS COMPUTER INTERST GROUP can help. We meet Mondays 12:30-2 pm at the Garden Center, 5325 Greely (Near Cullen Middle School). We discuss topics of interest and attempt to answer questions.

You are invited to attend and have fun while learning. There are no dues or attendance fees.

There is a wireless hot spot if you wish to bring your laptop or tablet.

It’s Not Too Late To Sign Up For A Class This Spring The Del Mar Senior Computer Program is offering the following classes during April and May. You can sign up for a class by calling 361698-1328. If you have any questions about the program, please call Dotson Lewis at 361-9497681. The tuition for one 20 hour class is a whopping four bucks.

Bobby Dodd says: happiness is taking a senior computer class at Del Mar College

You are eligible to take any or all of these classes if you have been around 50 or more years. The state of the art class rooms are located on the South Campus of Del Mar College, 3209 South Staples. That is just across Staples from Ray High School.

Here is the April & May 2013 class schedule.

Please register soon to insure a seat in the classroom.

• Beginning Computers (For Beginners-“Starting with Start”)

Computer

• April 1-15, 2013 • Instructor: Dotson Lewis • Monday-Wednesday-Friday; 8:30-11:30 am; • Windows 7 Basics • April 6 - May 18, 2013 • Saturdays; 8:30-11:30 am • Instructor: Dotson Lewis • Windows 7 Basics • April 22 - May 6, 2013 • Monday-Wednesday-Friday; 8:30-11:30 am: • Instructor: Dotson Lewis • Introduction to the Internet (Emailing & Surfing the Net) • May 13 - May 27, 2013 • Monday-Wednesday-Friday; 8:30-11: 30 am • Instructor: Dotson Lewis We could also use your help as a volunteer instructor (all of our instructors are volunteers).

Ethel Eyerly Relocation Sites

Dotson’s note: Shown below are the relocation sites for the activities that were being held at the Ethel Eyerly Senior Center. We will keep you posted as to new changes. Call 361-937-3218 for update information.

Relocation Sites Ethel Eyerly Senior Center Activities For Persons Age 50 and Over DAILY ACTIVITIES NUTRITIOUS MEALS SERVED For Persons Age 60 and Over AT 11:30 p.m. ($1.50 SUGGESTED MEAL DONATION)

Waldron Baptist Church, 2042 Waldron Rd. (Flour Bluff)

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY Silver Haired Fitness-10-11 a.m.

Caribbean Baptist Church-3125 Waldron Rd (Flour Bluff) MONDAY Computer Interest Group 12:30-2:00 p.m.

Garden Senior Center, 5325 Greely (Near Cullen Middle School) Chair Volleyball –12:30 p.m.

Waldron Baptist Church 2042 Waldron Rd. (Flour Bluff) TUESDAY Table Games-12-1:30 p.m.

Waldron Baptist Church 2042 Waldron Rd. (Flour Bluff) Zumba Gold (Co-Ed.) 10:30 a.m. ($20.00/mo, or $3.00/session)

St. Paul the Apostle Church 2233 Waldron Rd. (Flour Bluff) Table Tennis– 12:00 p.m.

Garden Senior Center, 5325 Greely Road Dr. (Near Cullen Middle School)

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Art Class 1-3 p.m. (TBA) AARP #4181 @ 1 p.m.

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2nd Wednesday @ St. Paul the Apostle Church, 2233 Waldron Rd. (Flour Bluff) Next Meeting Wednesday, April 10th THURSDAY Wii Bowling-12:30 pm -1:30 pm

Waldron Baptist Church 2042 Waldron Rd. (Flour Bluff) Table Games- 12-4 pm

14813 S.P.I.D. Corpus Christi, TX 78418 (Next Door to Island Wash) Salon: 361‐949‐4890 www.michellessalon.com

Garden Senior Center, 5325 Greely Road Dr. (Near Cullen Middle School) FRIDAY Table Tennis– 12:00 p.m.

Bingo-12:30-1:30 p.m.

Garden Senior Center, 5325 Greely Road Dr. (Near Cullen Middle School)

March 21, 2013

Island Moon

Spring Break 2013 From a Local’s Perspective

By Ronnie Narmour

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The beast known as “Spring Break 2013” has come and gone. There’s nothing left now but the lobster tans and memories but there’s not a soul on this island that doesn’t have a strong opinion about it.

Every single citizen here was affected in one way or the other whether it was an especially long checkout line at the grocery store or a monstrous traffic jam in every direction. You simply can’t be neutral about 100,000 people descending on your backyard. The convenience and grocery stores, hotels/condos and restaurants faired well. The local bail bondmen did the best. And, there’s a new hobby on the island with many of the locals… listening to the police scanner. During spring break, it was a thrill a minute and everyone was in it.

DWI Task Force Working as a DWI task force, 20 DPS officers in 10 cars, hit the streets of Port A with an amplified presence on Tuesday, March 5th and by the weekend most of the population was keenly aware of their aggressive behavior. It wasn’t uncommon to see three or four troopers pulling people over at the same time.

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We heard first hand accounts of many local residents being pulled over for minor traffic infractions that tested the limits of probable cause. Generally speaking, the ones who were not arrested for DWI were let go with a verbal warning after intense scrutiny. One resident told us she was stopped by DPS four times in one day and another man told about being pulled over every day for three straight days. And, locals weren’t the only ones subjected to the DPS presence, many out-of-towners also found themselves in trouble with the law.

All tolled, the final count was 411 arrests (of which 290 were alcohol related) during the twoweek period by all of the agencies combined.

The word around town spread quickly… if you dare to venture on to the streets of Port Aransas during spring break, it’s likely that you will have a confrontation with the police and the chances of being arrested are quite probable if you’ve had more than one drink. The jail was literally full and prisoners eventually had to be processed to Nueces County via Skype.

And they just kept coming Yet, the people kept coming and coming. By Saturday afternoon (March 16), traffic on and near the beach was severely gridlocked. We had reports of travel time from Padre Island to Port A on Highway 361 reaching as much as two hours or more. The ferries were also maxed out with comparable waiting times to get on The Island. All of the beach access roads were backed up to the main roads and beyond. At one point, police had set up roadblocks on 361 and were turning people, who couldn’t prove they lived in Port A, away from The Island and sending them back to Corpus. According to a half dozen bar owners in Port A this killed their business and left their weekly totals lower than a normal spring weekend; the beaches were full but the town was empty.

Police Chief Scott Burroughs gathers information at a fight scene on the beach

breaks that he’s been here, this is by far the busiest he’s seen. We spent most of the day telling people to sit down in their golf carts and the back of their pick-up trucks and to move off the road so traffic could get by. I observed PAPD and state Game Wardens respond to a half dozen fights and witnessed only one arrest when a man hit another vehicle and fled the scene. At one point after Burroughs pulled a car over with two people riding on top of their SUV on a city street, he let slip, “if stupid was a felony, they’d all be in prison.” Burroughs also told me that if they had 100 more cops to help out with controlling the crowds on the beach during spring break, it still wouldn’t be enough.

At one point when I was riding with the Chief, two small children, an eleven year old girl and her three year old brother, became separated from their mother and the mood became serious. All agencies (PAPD, DPS, State Game Wardens) responded immediately and worked together to quickly find the children. Early in the search it was reported that they were last seen in the water and the Coast Guard was notified. The DPS helicopter began flying low in the area, announcing on it’s loudspeakers that the children were missing. As it turned out, the children were found on the beach about a mile from the mother and were reunited within fifteen minutes.

Organized chaos with no organization

Burroughs also reported, “There’s nothing routine about spring break. It is an organized chaos but there’s no organization. This year we’ve been lucky. There have been no serious violent episodes, no shootings, no stabbings… we’ve taken about ten guns off the beach.

There have been no sexual assaults. There have been lots of wrecks on 361 but luckily, no bad injuries.”

The Chief I observed had the patience of Job and showed an amazing even temperament. I never saw him rattled and I never saw him show anything less than respect to every citizen he dealt with in this trying environment. I even saw him keep his composure when a quite large, angry, drunk man shouted at him. He started every delivery with “please” and ended it with “thank you”… and this was after putting in a 100 hour week with no rest in sight. I found the 30 year police veteran to be a decent and fair man. BTW, he rocks a pretty good mustache.

Police ride-along

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I rode as an observer with PAPD Chief Scott Burroughs for about four hours on Saturday afternoon, where I observed the police mainly trying to control the massive crowds on the beach. Burroughs told me that in the five spring

Police breaking one of many fights on the beach in Port A.

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Island Moon

A 10

March 21, 2013

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