Inside the Moon
Barefoot Kickoff Party A2
Fishing A7
Sports A8
Winter Texan Roundup A13
The
Issue 613
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
January 14, 2016
Around The Island By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
Weekly
FREE
Barefoot Mardi Gras Tickets Available
You can’t make this stuff up In non-Island related news the Tax Assessor-Collector in Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley was arrested this week for allegedly selling fake vehicle registrations taken off old junked cars for $100 apiece out the backdoor of the courthouse. When the confidential informant working for the Texas Rangers went in to make the buy the chief investigator from the Assessor’s office saw him adjusting his idden microphone in the mens room. But when he was searched the mic was nowhere to be found. When the investigator said he wanted to conduct a body cavity search things got testy. They do things a bit differently down there in The Valley.
Barefootin’ The seventh version of the Barefoot Mardi Gras is coming up on Saturday, February 6 and we talked to Jim Beal who is part of the band for the King and Queen’s Ball that night and we’re trying to put together a Gospel Brunch for the following Sunday. We should have a definitive answer by our next issue. Aside from our usual practice of tossing Moon Pies to the crowd the Moon Monkeys might have a little surprise cooked up for the parade which this year will begin at the end of Whitecap. The event raises money for two great non-profits, the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program which has been onboard since the beginning, and new this year is the Island Foundation schools here on The Island. Get your tickets early. We’ll see you there and in the meantime say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Bingo is Coming Back to The Island Circle six Dates for Fun and Prizes By Brent Rourk ‘O-75…O-75’ and many other needed numbers will be summarily called soon at the Holiday Inn on the Island as the Kiwanis Club of Padre Island begins their series of six BINGO at the BEACH evenings. Much like in past years, there will be a large variety of varied prizes (including cash) and fun.
Bingo continued on A14
Photo by Miles Merwin
A little Island history
94 Year-Old World War II Fighter Ace Scores Hole in One “I hit it into the fog”
By Dale Rankin When it comes to tall tales about the only thing that can beat a good fish story is a good golf story. But what happened to Islander George Kirk when he stepped up to the tee box on the second hole of Palmilla Beach Resort and Golf Club last week is a golf story you couldn’t make up.
We talked to Patti over at CVS and she recommended an over the counter remedy which helps to dampen the symptoms, which the best we can tell last about seven days if you take the medicine – about a week if you don’t.
But be careful out there and avoid The Brainfog if you can.
Live Music A16
Free
The soundtrack for our little sandbar this week has been hacking and coughing and speaking voices in the sound register of foghorns. There’s a fungus among us everybody and it’s a booger. It creeps up like a coyote on a pocket gopher but stays as long as relatives from an East Texas trailer park.
Our friend Billy got the crud, he calls it “the Brainfog “and got a little too much of the cough syrup and when he went fishing along the Packery his waders filled up with cold water and now he claims he’s got walking pneumonia; did we mention that our friend Billy may have had a little too much of the cough syrup?
Mardi Gras Registration A15
Barefoot Mardi Gras is only three weeks away and tickets for the seventh annual Kings and Queens Ball are now available at the Veranda Restaurant at Schlitterbahn where the party will be held from 7 p.m. – midnight on Saturday February 6. Tickets are $25 and include a Cajun dinner and music by Miss Neesie and the Earfood Orchestra which have become part of the Barefoot Mardi Gras tradition. Earlier on Saturday the Barefoot Mardi Gras Beach Parade will kickoff at 11 a.m. on the beach at the end of Whitecap. The parade route was lengthened this year due to overcrowding on the shorter route which had been used since the event’s inception. New this year, orange markers will designate the parade route along the beach and cars can park on the beach on either side of the markers.
Also new this year, an afternoon festival will be held at Briscoe King Pavilion which begins at 11:00 a.m. when the parade begins and run until 5 p.m. It will feature exhibits, a children’s area, artists, live music, food and beer.
“The fog was so thick we couldn’t see the green, George said. “It was a 140-yard hole and I could only see about 80 yards. The wind was out of the north so I took out my driver and let it rip.” But as George got ready to dig in his bag for a new golf ball one of the other Throw Up Gang members happened to walk by the hole.
The event is a fundraiser for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Corpus Christi and for the Island Foundations schools on Padre Island. More information is available on the Barefoot Mardi Gras Facebook page. A parade map, registration forms for the parade, and a full schedule are included in this issue.
“What kind of ball were you hitting George?” When George and the other members of his thrice-weekly golf group, who call themselves the
And there was George’s ball in the hole. A hole in one. “I couldn’t believe it,” George said. “It was in the hole.”
Mardi Gras Schedule, Parade Map & Registration form A15
GLO Coastal Bend Winter Beach Cleanup February 13th Seven beaches targeted for trash pick up
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush is calling on volunteers for the 12th Annual Winter Beach Cleanup Saturday, Feb. 13 at seven Coastal Bend beaches. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. The cleanup will take place from 9 a.m. to noon. The locations participating in the Winter Beach Cleanup are:
near Packery Channel. Contact Uma Venkat at 361-882-3439 or via e-mail at uma.venkat@texasadoptabeach. org. • Port Aransas − Check-in is at Avenue G at the beach. Contact Deno Fabrie at 361-749-0256 or via e-mail at deno.fabrie@texasadoptabeach.org
• Padre Island National Seashore − Check in at the Malaquite Visitor Center, 20420 Park Road 22, contact Buzz Botts at 361-9498068 or via e-mail at buzz.botts@ texasadoptabeach.org
• Aransas Pass/Redfish Bay − Check-in is at Lighthouse Lakes Park, four miles east of Aransas Pass on Highway 361. Contact Richard Gonzales at 361-779-7351 or via e-mail at richard.gonzales@ texasadoptabeach.org.
• Packery Channel − Check-in is at the parking lot off Highway 361
Cleanup continued on A8
The Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill Throw Up Gang got to the green and they could only find one golf ball and it wasn’t George’s. “We looked in the weeds and we looked in the bunkers, we looked all over the place, “George said. “I figured with my driver I had hit it all the way into the next fairway.”
A hole in one for a three-times per week golfer might be a real lifetime highlight for most 94 year olds, but George isn’t your average 94 year old.
Ace continued on A3
Winter Texans of the Week Winter Texan Roundup A13
Naval Air Station Corpus Christi is celebrating its 75th anniversary NAS Corpus Christi is celebrating its 75th anniversary with several events leading up to a culminating event on March 12, which will include an official ceremony, flyover, static displays, tours, concert and fireworks. A golf tournament is scheduled for Friday morning, March 11. And, the South Texas Navy Historical Committee is planning a 1940s-themed gala Friday evening. The official ceremony will be held Saturday morning, March 12, beginning at 11 a.m. - 75 years to the minute that the commissioning ceremony was held. Following the ceremony, the festivities will continue with static displays, tours, entertainment, concert and fireworks. Sunday morning, March 13, a nondenominational church service will be held at the Protestant Chapel, followed by breakfast at the Catalina Club. The station was about 70 percent complete when it was dedicated March 12, 1941.
Capt. Alva Bernhard, first commanding officer of the U.S. Air Training Center at Corpus Christi, proclaimed the facility, "the University of the Air." And, during World War II, 35,000 men successfully completed flight training here. It was said that during the war there probably was not a pilot in the Navy who had not landed at the air station. Either the pilot took flight training at the Corpus Christi base or stopped here on a cross-country flight. Surrounded on three sides by water Corpus Christi Bay, Oso Bay and the Laguna Madre -- Naval Air Station Corpus Christi's primary mission continues to be flight training. Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and foreign student pilots earn their "Wings of Gold" training in the four squadrons of Training Air Wing Four, using NAS' Truax Field and outlying airfields. More than 12,800 service members, civilian employees, contractors and family members, live, work and play aboard the air station.
Larry and I arrived December 29, 2015, beginning our 5th year in this lovely town. We spoke with my Mom this morning and it is 3 degrees above zero..in northern Iowa, where we call home for 9 months of the year..the other 3 months or maybe 4 or 5 next year., our home and hearts are in Port A. We had wintered in Florida for 3 years and decided it wasn't for us... went searching on the internet and wanted to be near a beach and small town feel...Port A came up and that was the
beginning of our adventures here on the island...great choice for us..We love the small town atmosphere, the variety of music venues, the delicious dining options. But most of all and the most important, the friends we have met here...They know who they are and how much we love them..the joy and comfort they have brought to our lives will never be forgotten... And yes, Ronnie Narmour, we did have the best rocking New Year's Eve party ever seen. Blessings to all... Larry and Cheri Zubrod