The Island Moon Published by Island Moon Publishing, LLC 15201 S. Padre Island Drive Ste. 250 Corpus Christi, TX. 78418 editor@islandmoon.com (361) 949-7700
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Island Moon The Island Newspaper
Island Area News ● Events ● Entertainment
August 26, 2011
Phone (361) 949-7700 ● Email editor@islandmoon.com Where Island Children go to the Seashore and parents go to the beach
Around The Island
Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time “when the seas boiled and wine turned sour, and
Newspaper Facebook: The Island Moon
Longtime Owner of Shorty’s and Island Icon Dead at 84
A couple of whoppers The talk of the Island this week has been about sharks. Big sharks. The first was a 12’ 6” Tiger Shark caught August 13 off Bob Hall Pier about 600 yards offshore. The shark was tagged and released. That’s right folks. The boys tagged and released a twelve and a half foot shark. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department currently has no record of a Tiger Shark ever being reeled in, tagged and released in the Lone Star State. The largest Tiger Shark ever caught before that was 11’9” which was caught and released in Florida. The Bob Hall shark was caught on a 15 pound cownose ray and and tackel of Nick Meyer over at Break Away Tackle & Development. We congradulate the crews for catching and especially for releasing the shark, that’s a whopper.Although now we may think twice about swimming around Bob Hall for a while.
Then a few days later a crew of Islanders were boating near Bob Hall when it got really hot and they jumped Here is a nice shot of Dusky in the 7 ft range. in the water to cool off “Wish I had a bigger boat” comes to mind. only to have the life guard inform them a Photos Courtesy of breakawayusa.com. 12-foot Tiger Shark dogs grew mad.” The Moon Dogs had been caught - and released - in are always mad and Island wine the same water a few days before. doesn’t survive long enough to turn They jumped back in the boat but the
By Mary Craft
Her name was Rose Marie Gates Smithey, but to everyone on The Island she was Miss Rose and since 1977 she has been the owner of Shorty’s, Port A’s Oldest and Friendliest watering hole. Her history and the history of Port Aransas since the 1940s are one and the same. The two major annual events held at Shorty’s Place have become Island traditions. The first is the anniversary party in April and the other is Rose’s Birthday Pig Party in October. Miss Rose collected pig memorabilia over the years which adorns the shelves of the bar along with old photos.
Miss Rose first came to The Island in the 1940s with her family. Her father Mac Fowler was a carpenter from West Texas who retired here but his wife at age 41 was not yet ready to retire. She had managed a restaurant before but did not want anything to do with a kitchen so they decided to open a bar and named it Shorty’s, a nickname which she was not fond of but at 4’ 10” it was a hard one to shake.
Around The Island Continued A 6
In 1962 Hurricane Carla destroyed most of the town including Shorty’s completely. Miss Rose and her husband owned the ABC Motel which was located across from IGA. All the units were blown away by the storm but the office and lobby remained intact. They moved that building to Shorty’s location and the motel building became part of the building which stands today. Miss Rose ran the Rod and Gun with her husband known by Islanders as Mr. Gates while Shorty ran her place next door until 1977 Shorty was tragically beaten to death with a pool cue for a small sum of money
Now is the Time for All Good Islanders to Come to the Aid of Their Bridge
Head for City Hall on Tuesday, September 13 Proposed Roadway elevation
The Corpus Christi City Council is set to vote in their regular meeting on Tuesday, September 13 on whether to fund a boat and pedestrian bridge under SPID (Park Road 22) on The Island. Backers of the plan at City Hall are asking that Islanders who support the plan make the trek downtown to show their support. Plans for the bridge, which would be located near the 11th green of the Padre Isles Country Club, began in 2004 when voters citywide approved $1.4 million for water exchange tunnels under the roadway to bring fresh Gulf water to the Island’s canal system through Lake Padre. However, over the years the project was expanded as development plans on The Island change and current plans call for the project to include a bridge with an 80’ wide channel and 14’ of clearance for boats with paths for pedestrian and golf cart traffic. The bridge would connect canals planned from each side to be paid for with private development money. That would allow boats with a clearance of 14’ or less to travel directly from the canals to Packery Channel and
Inside the Moon
Island Eyesore of the Fortnight POA Rules A7
Island Kids are National Champions Story on A 15
In 1980 Hurricane Allen destroyed the Rod and Gun building. The bar inside it was made of glass blocks and most of these were broken by flying lumber. One block was found with a fish swimming in it and the remaining glass blocks were used to make the current corners of the bar in-
Shorty’s is known for its collection of caps which line the ceiling. It started in 1983 when Boat Captain Woody Molina tried to put his cap on Miss Rose’s head which she did not want to disturb her neatly coiffed hair. But Molina persisted telling her to just wear it for a little while. “I had someone put it up on the ceiling and when he came back for it I told him he gave it to me,” Miss Rose said. That cap said “Pure Oil” on it and started the collection. The most famous one came from Jimmy Buffet when he visited Shorty’s. In recent years Shorty’s has been operated primarily by Miss Rose’s daughter, Joy George and her grandson, J.W. George.
Three Sea Turtle Species Set Nesting Records B1
Miss Rose was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and daughter, Janice Underwood. She is survived by her son, Jimmie W. (Tessa) Gates of Port Aransas; daughter, Joy Gates George of Port Aransas; eight grandchildren and 10 greatgrandchildren. Expressions of sympathy may be made by donations to the ARK (Animal Rehabiliation Keep) in care of The University of Texas, 750 Channel View Drive, Port Aransas, TX 78373.vvv
Real estate Roundup
Schlitterbahn Update, Hotel Rumblings, a Wildlife Rehab Center
-14 ft
Elevation of Current Roadway
Water Level
Miss Rose took over the work of running both clubs but eventually it became too much, and she closed the Rod and Gun Club but Shorty’s flourished during these years as a place to enjoy a cold beer and live music. There were house instruments which included a guitar, piano, Mac’s fiddle and at times Buttercup would bring her washtub bass to play. In the eighties a large patio was added to the front which moved the music from inside to out.
side The Flats.
Hurricane Carla
Year 15, Issue 395
Shorty’s and its caps
Arrived in the 40’s
In the same interview Miss Rose said the Rod and Gun Club became a center for gambling and stayed in business because the state gaming agents had to reach The Island by ferry and the deckhands would notify the Rod and Gun when they were on the way. She said most businesses in town then were owned or run by women.
motor wouldn’t start. It wasn’t that far a swim to the shore but all they could hear was the theme from Jaws so they sat tight and sweltered in the boat until they were about to beach when finally the motor kicked in and off they went.
at the age of 72. The killer was a sixteen year old deckhand who was from South America and had just been in town only a few weeks. His name was Bennie Dupnik Jr. and he drove off in her car but only got about four miles down what is now Highway 361 when he had to stop to fix a flat tire. It was here police caught him after a chase through the dunes by foot. He is still in prison.
Miss Rose tpassed away Friday, August 12, a memorial service will be held Saturday, August 27 at Marshall Funeral Home in Aransas Pass.
In 1954 Mac and Shorty built the Rod and Gun Lounge next door where the Flats Bar is now located. Miss Rose told us in a 2008 interview, “They built it for me because I said I was leaving Port Aransas and they did it to keep me in town.”
sour but it wouldn’t surprise us if somewhere the sea is boiling. The dog days of summer may be over but our cannine friends are still wearing their fur coats so keep them cool and don’t tie them up in the sun or make them run along side you on your bicycle. A cool dog is a happy dog.
Next Publication Date: 09/9/2011
Miss Rose is Gone
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com The dog days of summer may technically be over but somebody forget to tell Mercury because he’s still telling us it’s hot. The Romans referred to the dog days as dies caniculares and associated the hot weather with the star Sirius and they considered it to be the “Dog Star” because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Large Dog).The Dog Days of Summer officially ended August 24th but as far as we can tell the Moon Dogs can’t tell any difference. They are still staying under the porch, coming out only to jump in the pool.
Photo by Miles Merwin
By Dale Rankin 40 ft
Person Reading Island Moon
on to the open Gulf. The current plan would build a decorative structure with a facade and would cost about $7 million. The September 13 vote is to approve the remainder of the money needed for the project which would come from funds leftover after the completion of projects in both the 2004 and 2008 bond packages. The council vote to allocate the money for the bridge would be contingent on the committment of the private money to build the canals to the bridge. Current plans call for the canals to tentatively be finished by early 2013. The exact time day for the September 13 vote will not be known until Friday, Septebmer 9 when the council agenda for the Tuesday meeting is released. If it is available before that time we will included it in the next Moon which will be published that Friday. If not, we will place the exact time of the vote on our Facebook page theislandmoonnewspaper as soon as it is available. Dale Rankin
The real estate world on The Island these days continues to revolve around the possibility of a Schlitterbahn Resort and Waterpark, or to be specific, when/if it is coming to the Island. Here’s what we know as of this writing. A group of city officials including Council Members Chris Adler, and Mark Scott, Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Keith Arnold, Island Developer Paul Schexnailder, an official with the Corpus Christi Economic Development Foundation, and probably others we don’t know about, went to New Braunfels to meet with the owners of Schlitterbahn on Friday, August 12. By all accounts the meeting went very well and several things are moving forward on parallel tracks. The hurry up and wait stage From what we hear the various projects - bridge, Schlitterbahn, riverwalk - are now in the permitting phase and this is expected to take nine months to one year. That doesn’t mean it will be that long before a formal annoucement is made, but it does mean there is no hurry for an announcement. The planners have said all along they would like to have the waterpark ready to open by Spring Break 2013 and that, as far as we know has not changed. But plans/negotiations now are at a delicate stage and patience is in order. Tha’t does’t mean there is a problem, it’s just that projects this big don’t happen overnight. Especially on a barrier Island where envinorn-
mental concerns and regulatory jurisdictions are heightened. SPID bridge The move to build a water exchange bridge to connect Lake Padre to the Island canal sytem is making progress. In his address to the Padre Island Business Association in early August City Manager Ron Olson said the money for the bridge has been identified from money left over from bond packages in 2004 and 2008. He said the money is there and if there is the “political will” to build the bridge it will happen. As of this writing the City Council is set to vote on the money for the bridge in their September 13 meeting but that could change. It is a good assumption that the basic
texas coastal ildlife Wrescue and rehabilitation Real Estate Continued on page A 9
A2 (Right) Isabel Holland recieves her prize for the overall largest fish, a 34 inch redfish, from Tournament co-chair Kim Grassedonio (Far Right) Kim Grassedonio congratulates son Matthew who took second place in the 8-12 year old division with a 31 inch redfish.
Island Moon
August 26, 2011
Kid Fish (Below Left) Reagan DeJohn poses with her father John DeJohn after taking first place in the 3-7 age group with a 31.5 inch redfish. (Below) Island Foundation’s Kidfish was a huge success! Held at the CCA/AEP Hatchery on Waldron Road, the tournament had 125 eager fisherkids ages 3-12 who caught record numbers of fish. The little guy with the redfish is Jacob Cain posing with Mike Robertson from the TP&W Hatchery. Jacob reeled in a 28” redfish by himself. The battle went on for 15 minutes. Jacob placed fifth in the 3-7 year old division.
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A3
Island Moon
On the Rocks By Jay Gardener So I was cruising off the rocks the other day towards my truck, and walked down the beach a little bit. There was a lady with her kids and one of those “creature catcher” aka “ghost-shrimp pumps” casually walking along working their pump. The “lady” would suck the ghost shrimp out of their holes and pump them onto the sand above the water line. The kids would come along behind her, pick them up, and then throw them up higher on the sand, leaving them to die. I watched them go along for about 50 yards, and by my count they managed to kill somewhere between 30-35 ghost shrimp. Just for fun. I couldn’t help myself, and walked up to the lady and asked her why she was killing the ghost shrimp. She said “that’s what the people at the store said that the device was for, to suck up ghost shrimp.” I explained to her that some people do it to use a few for bait, not for wanton waste (against TPWD rules, by the way). I started to launch into a question on why she was showing her kids a bad environmental ethic, but instead called her “Little Bunny Foo Foo.” I have no idea what got into me by saying that. But it was completely lost on her. She shrugged and ignored me and kept going. But only for a few more and then I think her conscience got the
best of her and she went on back to the vehicle. Some people just don’t think about their actions. Then again, I guess some people don’t think about going around quoting childrens songs like regular conversation. I’m still not sure to this day who seemed weirder than who to each other, but I like to think I took the high road. At least that’s what most of the voices in my head tell me. Well, it’s a busy time both on our island and also on South Padre Island. Seems everyone is trying to wedge in a little more fun in the sun before school starts. I managed to catch a snook at the Rio Grande a week or so back right in front of Playa Baghdad, so I got mine in. Ha! Back when I was going to school, I hated the end of the summer fun even though I looked forward to seeing some old friends. These days, I guess I’m showing my 39 years by looking forward to all the kids going back to school. Maybe I’m getting old and maybe I’m selfish; I like the crowds to go back north and stay home and the kids do homework. Its that magical time of the “season” where the blue water comes in close and we have some flat calm days. On Labor Day the beaches will be crowded with the last hurrah of the summer. For the locals, make sure to fill up the gas tank and grab your supplies Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. Blue Water Blasting We took advantage of one of those days last weekend and blasted out of Packery on the Superfishal. It was
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Al’s birthday and we had a mission to get him on a mahi. The blue water was within 4 miles of the beach and the conditions were ideal. Shrimp boats dotted the horizon, and hopes were high of getting on some quality fish. We pulled up to the first shrimpers and nothing. We blasted out a few more miles to another shrimper, and casted a few times. I lost a couple good hits, and then nothing. The water was absolutely beautiful cobalt blue, and as I looked down from the bow, I could see some gold rays gently swimming in the currents below the boat. It was really majestic. We bombed around and found a few week rips with lots of bait on them, but no predators. Likely this was due to the full moon we had a couple weeks ago. By the time this comes out, the moon should be new and offshore/nearshore fishing should be en fuego Cool Mahi So we cruised around, and glad it was Al that spotted it. “IT” was something white floating about a half mile away. Any structure offshore can hold mahi underneath, so always check it out. As we pulled closer, we realized that it was a refrigerator. Weird! So we started casting, and sure enough, after a few minutes the mahi sluggishly came out and we got on a few, with Al striking first. We put a few in the boat and they quit biting. They swam around, but quit biting. Full moon fever likely. We didn’t fill the cooler that day, but we had a really good time with some great folks. Thanks Dave and Heidi for the hospitality aboard the Superfishal, and Happy Belated to Al. In addition, Jaime caught her first Mahi a couple weeks back, and she was pretty stoked about it. Babes on Baffin Candace tells me there’s still one or two spots left for the Babes on Baffin ladies fishing tournament. (as of this writing) Make sure to login to babesonbaffin.com and get signed up. Also make sure to contact me (jaygardner@scientist.com) if you are interested in being a sponsor or potentially putting something in the goody bags (coupons, items, etc). It’s a great way to promote your cause or advertise to a specific market. This years’ competition will be a good one with cash and prizes galore. The “team” has really stepped up and reached out to new advertisers and sponsors. Look forward to at least coming down to the weigh in and check-
$14.50 $15.50 lb $12.80 lb $12.70 lb $12.55 lb $3.90 lb $5.50
ing it out. Talkin’ to Tony The beach has been absolutely gorgeous. The water is finally a great color, the shelling is pretty good for summer, and the sargassum is all but gone. The little white straw-looking things are sheaths from the base of seagrasses from the Caribbean (is what Tony Amos tells me). There are also a few Porpita coming up (blue buttons). They are little discs with purple arms around the outside. They are in the same family as the Physalia (man o’ wars), but they feed on plankton and smaller food prey, so their nematocysts (“stingers”) have considerably less punch. They float along offshore waiting to pump into food that they like. There is actually a snail (Janthina) which feeds on the blue bottons (and man o’ wars) that takes on the purple colors. They wash up at the same time and I have seen quite a few of them lately. Some really cool pelagic species washing up on the beaches right now. Beer & Ammo Well, the end of summer and consequently dove season is upon us. South Texans are quickly filling their spots and getting excited about blasting harmless birdies out of the sky. I know I am. I’m also looking forward to the comraderie that is associated with these traditions. Good times with good folks. And firearms and beer. I can’t wait! I know, I know, some of you are thinking its dangerous and barbaric. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Guess I’m not too much unlike the lady killing the ghost shrimp, although I’m eating my prey. The thought of eating a ghost shrimp sounds pretty gross though. To each his (or her) own. Cheap Seat Snookin’ At the end of the day, we’re all on this planet together. While some folks might think less of others and their behavior, its just because we all have different views of how we should conduct ourselves. Some people hold themselves to a higher standard, and sometimes it seems some people have no standards at all, LOL. Maybe that’s just the view from the cheap seats. The important thing is that we all get along and try to leave this planet for the next people down the line. At the end of the day, this planet is all we have. Stay out of the sun and trouble, and I’ll see you on the rocks soon jumping tarpon and harassing the snook population.
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Island Moon
A4
August 26, 2011
On The Hook Seatow Rescue By Captain Arthur Helmsteadt and his dog Fred Recent weeks have yielded a handful decent offshore opportunities. The blue water has worked its way inshore and has brought some great fishing with it. This has caused a pleasant shift where many of my calls come from. I’ve finally gotten to run offshore for a change. There hasn’t been a single occasion I remember where I’ve run offshore and not been amazed at something I’ve seen. Branch Ecosyste,
One of the massive marlins caught at the Legends Tournament held recently in Port Aransas
About 2 weeks ago we were headed out to Baker to pick up a boat with damaged steering. Roughly 30 miles out we came across a small branch on the edge of a rip. It was absolutely loaded with all kinds of fish and other little creatures. It’s incredible how a small branch drifting with the currents can host its own little ecosystem with sea life ranging from the smallest of crabs all the way to Mahi-Mahi. We were kicking ourselves for not have our poles with us. That mistake will not be repeated. Last weekend we had to pick up a boat about 35miles straight out of Packery. The vessel had broken both upper engine mounts on the outboards. As it turned out he was still able to make headway at about 6.5 to 7 kts. He just needed an escort in case he got in trouble coming in the jetties.
From beginning to end Seashore Learning Center had a great first day back at school. Mrs. Powell’s first and second grade class began the day with the pledge to the flag and five happy students awaited parents in the afternoon, eager to share their first day experiences.
JB’s German Bakery & Café 15137 South Padre Island Drive Corpus Christi, TX 78418 Phone 361‐949 – 5474 Hours: Tue – Sat 7 am – 7 pm Sunday 8 am – 6 pm Monday closed We serve Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Blake (my deckhand) and I dispatched from Port Aransas and followed the shoreline about a mile out until we got to Packery. From there I plotted a course to intercept the disabled vessel which was now only about 20 miles out and slowly making its way inshore. At roughly 2 miles offshore of Packery Blake shouted sail! I looked in the direction he was pointing and expected to see dolphins jacking around in the swell. To my surprise the black silhouette of a sailfish leaped into the air less than 100 yards off our bow! I‘ve heard of them coming this far inshore but have never actually seen it…wow! We continued to head towards the damaged vessel. Along the way we passed a ton of birds working bait and even a few very large sea turtles relaxing on the surface and enjoying the calm sea conditions. We finally intercepted the damaged vessel at about 15 miles out and found they had several baits out and were making the best of a bad situation. Offshore Fishing After a quick conversation with the captain, I established his motors weren’t going to fall off and the boat wasn’t in any immediate danger. We fell in behind them and Blake set our own offering to the fish gods. It wasn’t long and the clicker went off. We never got hooked up but it was still a good hit and certainly enough to get your heart rate up.
At around the 5 mile mark Blake swapped to a squid jig on a steel liter. Though young in years he knows a helluva lot more about that kind of fishing than I do. Soon after the clicker went off again, this time he brought the fish in. It was a nice sized Spanish Mack. Nothing exotic but still fun, and remember we’re supposed to be working. The rest of the call went uneventfully and the damaged vessel and its crew got back to shore safely. Hopefully the coming weeks will afford even more offshore opportunities. Membership
I’ve never really talked much about the company I work for and I’m not going to start now. I don’t feel plugging them would be right. I will tell you that two companies exist locally who specialize in the towing and salvage business. Both organizations have membership programs to cover recreational and commercial boaters in the event they need assistance; towing, ungrounding, fuel, salvage, etc. The price for these memberships is less than the cost of a single fishing pole on most boats I see. The cost for a single tow to a non-member is usually more than the cost of a full year membership.
Most calls I run average 500.00 to non-members. It’s not unusual to tally bills over $1000.00 for longer tows. Belonging to one of these companies’ membership services means these services are typically free of charge. Sounds like a pretty good deal huh? IT IS!!!
I don’t care how many years you’ve been on the water in this area and never broken down. I don’t care how many friends you have that you can call. There will come a day when your brand new outboard will leave you stranded and not one of your buddies will answer their phone. Forget about the Coast Guard because they’ll only come to get you if you’re sinking or dying. That’s when you’ll meet me or one of the other local captains doing this kind of work. I promise you won’t like the price tag at the end of the service. It’s usually $200.00 an hour or more. Please, please,, make sure you’re covered. You don’t want to tap into the kid’s college fund just to get your tail back to the dock. Think of it as car insurance. You hardly ever use it but you darn sure don’t want to be caught without it. Remember folks… Keep the water on the outside.
Island United Political Action Committee Meeting Set for September 7 The Board of Directors of the Island United Political Action Committee will meet on Wednesday, September 7, 2011, 6:00 PM at the Puente Vista Condominiums clubhouse, 14300 Aloha. The Board Agenda will include the PAC’s impact on Island issues and development. Board meetings are open and attendees are encouraged to express their views and discuss Island needs.
The IU-PAC is a non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting voter turnout. All registered voters in Precincts 40 and 81and those registered voters in Precinct 19 who are eligible to vote in Corpus Christi elections are deemed to be members of the PAC. Further information may be obtained on Facebook and at islandunitedpac.com.
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August 26, 2011
Letters to the Editor Scuttlebutts
Dear Editor: I am writing to applaud the letter to the editor in the August 12th Island Moon written by Sarah Schneider. Her comments about the noise level in Scuttlebutt’s from the “music” were right on target. Just this week I was playing cards with 8 women, and we had a discussion about this very issue. Most of us said that we no longer go there because of the inability to communicate with our dining companions due to the loud music. It’s a complaint I’ve heard over and over from my friends. And, Ms. Schneider is correct that the management will do nothing to correct the problem when it is brought to their attention. Ms. Schneider, we may be fuddy-duddys but I’d say a majority of Island residents would agree with our position. It’s really a shame since Scuttlebutt’s is one of the few dining options on our island. Beverly Abel
Padre Island Enrichment Club, Inc. B-I-N-G-O !! That was the word of the day at our August luncheon (8-12-11) and there were lots of laughs, lots of fun and lots of great prizes. Katherine Pierce, our Program Chair, has a knack for getting us those great prizes ! September is FIESTA DAY. The plan is to have a great South Of the Border luncheon. A nice door prize will be waiting for one lucky attendee, so be sure and make your reservations (by 9-7-11) to PIELuncheon@aol.com BTW: P.I.E. is a social club open to ladies who live or own property on N. Padre Island. We have lots of activities, functions and just plain fun – contact Sheila @ 9492072 for more information.
Who Are the Moon Monkeys
Mike Ellis, Founder Distribution Pete Alsop Island Delivery Coldwell Banker Advertising Jan Park Rankin Office Lisa Towns Classifieds Arlene Ritley Design/Layout Jeff Craft Contributing Writers (In no particular order) Devorah Fox Sunny Reed Mary Craft Chris Adler Maybeth Christiansen Dr. Tom Dorrell Kendal Ezell Jay Gardner Diane Halfety Todd Hunter Mike (Murph) Murphy Ronnie Narmour Dr. Donna Shaver Photographers Andre LaVoy Patrick Lewis Miles Merwin Office Security/Spillage Control Riley P. Dog Editor/Publisher/Spillage Control Supervisor Dale Rankin About the Padre Island Moon The Island Moon is published every other Wednesday, Dale Rankin, Editor. 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. Mailed subscriptions are available in the US and are $100 per year. Next day home delivered subscriptions are $100 per year on Padre Island and in Flour Bluff. News articles, photos, display ads, classified ads, payments, etc. may be left in the Moon tray at Isle Mail & More, 14493 S P I D. For more information call 361-949-7700 or contact the Moon at 15201 S Padre Island Dr., Suite 250, Corpus Christi, TX 78418 or by e-mail to editor@islandmoon.com.
Trouble on Dasmarinas I am writing in hopes you can help get resolution to an on-going problem. For some time now, I have been aware that some residents on Dasmarinas have been trying to get speed bumps in their neighborhood. I agree with them that people drive too fast on that street. However, it appears that they are not getting any results and in their frustration have taken matters into their own hands. One or some of them are putting out various foods to attract seagulls so that cars will have to hit their brakes to avoid hitting birds. I think perhaps they have not considered that they are endangering not only their children again, but everyone who drives or walks down that street. If I have to hit my brakes to avoid hitting a bird, the young driver behind me may not be paying attention and could hit me, resulting in injuries to both of us. A person could swerve and hit a parked car, which could in turn hit a child on the other side. I realize they have no regard for the lives of the birds, but perhaps they have not considered how another human being could be harmed or killed and it would be a direct result of their action. How awful to have to live with that. This weekend, I passed by and again a plethora of birds were in the road. I went back with my broom to clear the food off the road. When one of them saw me doing this he ran after me, verbally attacked me saying really horrible things, threatening me and ordering me off the road. He actually threatened to twist my breasts off (but not in those polite words). This is not the first physical confrontation to have happened over this. I know a man jumped in front of a moving car screaming at them and forcing them to stop in the road. This is becoming a vigilante effort and it is clear that someone is going to get hurt. Either by a vehicle accident or by some sort of physical violence. I am no longer even comfortable in my own neighborhood after this attack. So what is the status of the speed bumps? What is it going to take to get some stop signs? While the tactics being used there are reprehensible, the problem is real and needs to be addressed before it morphs into something much worse. Please find out what it is going to take, what do we have to do to get something done on Dasmarinas so everyone else can have some peace? And maybe some seagulls can not be sacrificed. And maybe no one gets beat up or killed by a car trying to miss the birds or the leaping residents. And to the man who attacked me, First, I am truly saddened that you needed to say such awful things to me. I thought you were all nice people over there. Second, in case you didn’t know, it is illegal to threaten someone with physical harm and to litter in the road. Cleaning up litter in the road is not illegal. Might just want to think about that before you threaten to call the law on someone. Michelle Island Resident Editor’s note: Michelle, It was city council meeting day at City Hall when your letter came. We will get an update on the situation by next issue.
Symphony Hi Dale: I just read your newspaper and was so pleased to see how informative it is, the Island is lucky to have you. I was intrigued by your column, “Stuff I heard on the Island.” It brought back great old memories of the newspaper business when the layout guy, holding his trusty Exacto knife, cut & then carefully pasted the copy down on the page. Woe to the poor soul who wandered over to watch this process since the words, “Get Out!” were shouted strong & firm. As a writer I was always intrigued with this magic and was told to get out frequently. Thanks so much for using the Symphony Guild’s news release. I am now holding my breath waiting for the printers to call and tell me to trot on downtown to pick up the invitations. Taking on a large fundraiser takes nerves of steel! More later, Maxine
Saturday, August 27
Flour Bluff Lions Club Fundraiser The Flour Bluff Lions Club is hosting a car wash and dog wash on Saturday, August 27 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Flour Bluff Youth Center. The Center is located at 622 Claride Street, off NAS Drive behind the Oasis Tavern. There will also be a Bake Sale and Free Skate Day. All donations go to the Youth Center. For more information contact them at 361 937-6161, or flourblufflionsclub@ aol.com, or on Facebook. To volunteer call 563-4096.
Trivia Question of the Fortnight When was the Tarpon Inn in Port Aransas built?
Does anyone know why this dog is tied to a boat? Please don’t leave your pets outside without sufficient water and shade.
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Island Moon
Veteran of three wars
Long Time Island Resident Islander Colonel James Ruscitto Dies at 92 By Mary Craft Colonel James Ruscitto Longtime Islander Colonel James Ruscitto passed away last month at the age of 92. The Island has lost another Islander with a great military history having flown missions to protect our freedom in three wars. After receiving his Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Chicago he joined the Air force. He had a love of planes since the age of nine while living on a farm in Northern Wisconsin. A neighbor let him sit on his lap while he flew a single-seater plane. Ruscitto was a member of the 8th Air Force 350th Squadron that trained in Virginia and was sent to England the summer of 1943. The group flew P-47 Thunderbirds which were an advanced propeller fighter plane and his plane he named Natalie Ann. It was common to name your plane after a girlfriend or wife. D-Day and WWII in Europe On June 6, 1944, D-Day, the squadron of twelve along with others was called on to ensure the success of the ground forces on five beaches of the Normandy coast of France. According to Lt. Devine of the 350th “We had been flying three or four missions a day hopping across the Channel and hammering the rail traffic, truck convoys, bridges and tunnels, in fact, anything of a military nature”. Prime targets besides those were oil plants for necessary fuel, concentrations of troops and especially communications so the Germans would not be able to move troops and planes to the area. Pilot Ruscitto describes his dives over the Normandy coast Three days later the squadron was sent on a strafing run (dive down and bomb) on a truck convoy in France. Unfortunately over thirty enemy planes attacked them and they lost six pilots and 1st Lt. Ruscitto described the encounter. “Reaching our target area Dreux at 10,000 feet the lead flight went down below scattered clouds which were 2,000-3000 feet. The number two flight and our flight which was number three stayed at 5000 feet for top cover of the first flight which sighted a truck convoy. While diving down through holes in the clouds we were attacked by thirty plus Me 109s (German fighter planes) at about 2500 feet about 1000 feet higher than our flight. I started a skidding chandelle (a turn with a climb maneuver) to the left which put me about 1500 yards behind the last element of three enemy aircraft. As I tried to position myself in range I saw two P-47s hit the ground and explode and one white parachute floating down . At the same time I also sighted a lone Me 109 which was firing and getting strikes on the tail of a P-47 Seeing this I gave up the three enemy planes and dove down and positioned myself on the Me 109’s tail as it closed in to about 200 yards on the P-47. The P 47’s left wing was getting strikes all over it and it appeared to be on fire. Dog fights over Europe “I gave the Me 109 a long burst and saw it started for the ground and blow up in a ball of fire. As I chandelled up into the clouds I ran head on into 9 Me 109s which were about 2000 yards in front of me. I headed for the leader and his two wing men and fired at them when I thought I was about 200 yards away. The leader dove down and his wing men split each way as I fired. I flew through the flight and into a cloud (Ruscitto explained that hiding in clouds was a common escape). The other six did a 180 degree turn and started after me at about 3500 feet and I dove for the deck and headed home. On the way I saw what appeared to be a hay stack moving on the road. I
approached it and it was a tank which was camouflaged. It turned on me as I fired on it. Continuing on my heading for home base I flew right into a freight yard which had a goods train and fired into the locomotive and as I made a turn I noticed a cloud of steam coming from it.”
Captain Ruscitto was shot down September 1944 at the French/German border while flying a mission. A French woman took him to her home and arranged for Elsa Caspers who was associated with the Dutch Underground to get him to safety. During the Korean War Ruscitto was living in England with his wife and two children. Black ops in Korea
According to his son Jim “Dad would be called away by the RAF for temporary duty and would be gone a couple of weeks at a time. He flew black ops in North Korea where he would drop markers with radio beacons so our forces could track the enemy.” During the Viet Nam War Colonel Ruscitto flew reconnaissance planes on low level missions. According to his son Jim “They realized what was a Colonel doing flying missions and sent him to the Command Post in Thailand where his tactical experience was put to use.”
In the early 60s he was at the Strategic Air Command at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. He was commander of the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles. Later he was with SAC in Omaha, Nebraska from where he would fly all over the country to do sneak inspections. When asked how his Dad ended up on the Island Jim Jr. said “He always had an affinity for Texas. He was last stationed in San Antonio and made frequent trips to the Island. He bought a house on Eaglesnest in the mid 70s when there were only five houses on it. When he first retired here he sold real estate for the Padre Isle Investment Corporation and also built one of those five houses on his street.
Mystery People of the Fortnight
Here are the Mystery People of the Forthnight for this time. The solo lady is a known Island cutup. The handsome gentleman with the lady friend likes to make the Island beautiful.
Island Moon
A6
Around the Island Continued from A1
Remember when you are out in the ocean you are at the top of the food chain as long as you are in the boat. Once you get in the water you are chum.
Then a week or so later one of the fellows who works for Nick went down to the 39 mile marker on PINS where he went out to 7 Fathoms Bank in a kayak and was paddling around doing some fishing when a suddenly a dorsal fin about a foot long appeared above the surface near his small craft. It was checking him out. It went under and around the boat, maybe trying to see who/what had invaded its territory. After a few minutes of touch and go it took off. Nick, being a curious sort, decided he wanted to see the big shark for himself so a short time later he went to Seven Fathoms Bank (a fathom is six feet to us landlubbers) in a blow up raft and went to the same spot. Sure enough, there was the Dusky Shark in the “seven foot range” checking him out.
Nick says along about that time he was kind of wishing he had a bigger boat. The shark again swam back and forth under the boat. His girth was bigger than a human and the human was on the shark’s turf in a blow up boat. So those are the Shark Stories From The Island for this fortnight. Gull humps on Dasmarinas
This just in from the Moon You Can’t Make This Stuff Up Department. Seems the folks over on Dasmarinas are having a bit of a dust up these days over what some residents see as too speedy traffic. The way the rules work in the city, if people on a street think traffic on their street is too fast they can sign a petition asking for speed humps to be put in. If they can get sixty percent of the people on the street to sign then they approach the city which, with input from their traffic department, can put in the speed humps but at the expense of the residence at $1500 per hump.
Well, the folks on Dasmarinas apparently got the signatures but not the money so as of now they got no speed humps but they still got the traffic. So some of the folks thereabouts decided to create their own sort of organic speed humps. They began tossing bird seed out in the street during peak traffic hours. Anyone who has ever watched a bunch of tourists fling bread into the sky knows what happens when you start slinging around anything sea gulls can eat. They tell all their friends and the sea gull party is on.
So as drivers come tooling down Dasmarinas they suddenly find themselves in a bad Alfred Hitchcock movie but instead of crows attacking humans and seagulls flying into houses the gulls are forming a Flying Gull Speed Hump that is designed to make drivers to slow down. You may go in with a clean car but when you come out you got spots - sort of like a car wash only in reverse. Actually, that’s not such a bad idea for a Hitchcock movie.
While not necessarily wishing to fly into a covey of screaming gulls and especially not wanting to clean up after they leave, we Moon Monkeys must give a tip of the hat to the enterprising spirit of the Gull Gatherers. That’s making Gull Salad out of Gull, well, something or other.
That is not to say everyone on Dasmarinas approves of the Gull Traffic Control Program. First of all a the
leavings of a bunch of screaming gulls may pose asthetic problems, and second, not everyone slows down for seagulls so the gull mortality rate on Dasmarinas has peaked. We got a call from a nice lady who said while removing seed she was told by a neighbor that if she persisted he would remove some of her body parts in a most egregous manor. Ouch! Them gulls is creating some tension over there on The Marinas by serving as traffic cops. In the meantime if you drive down Dasmarinas be prepared to get Gulled. A shout out We want to give a pat on the back to the beach maintenance crews along Mike Ellis Beach of late. We know we have been kind of hard on them in the past but fair is fair. They’ve been doing a bang up job along Ellis beach of late and in fact, all the way up to the South Packery. Both Ellis and SoPac beaches have been smooth for driving in spite of the loose sand that comes with a dry summer, and best of all the crews have created a berm that keeps the water from getting to the dunes and helps build the beach. In past summers the sand scooped up from water’s edge has been dumped in front of the dune line which not only creates canals where the traffic lanes are that flood at high tide but also served to make the beach narrower. The berms now hold the water back and the receding water leaves behind a smooth driving lane while the sand from the berms helps form new dunes. As we get on later in the year dredging will begin in the Packery and the fine drift sand that comes up from the bottom of the channel will be placed on the south end of Ellis Beach. As it dries and starts to move with the wind beach grooming will be paramount. So to the city crews, keep up the good work. Island entrepeneurs While we’re on the subject of attaboys we want to hand out a couple to some Island entrepreneurs. The first is Phil Heiland over at Dodge City Steaks. You may have seen him out on SPID of late with his refridgerator truck. He’s handing out samples of his prime steaks. Phil has been around for many years as the owner of Bay Breeze Carpet Cleaning but has now moved into the steak business. And how many times over the years have we all heard someone say they would like to go to Port Aransas for some fun but don’t want to drive back after a night of revelry. Well, Tony Adams over at Paradise Limo has a solution. A round trip ticket to Port A and back for $25. That’s a deal. We salute everyone taking the inititave and starting up a new business on The Island and encourage everyone to buy local. So the kids are headed back to school, water temps have started to drop a bit, we got cool dogs, sharks, steak, limo rides to and from Port A...is this a great Island or what. Say hello if you see us Around The Island.
This family from San Antonio spent the day at the beach and then had dinner at Barnacle Bill’s at the pier. The toddler in plaid is Uncle Ryan to the other toddler. Photo by Mary Craft.
NEW NEW THE COASTAL BEND’S FIRST BRAND NEW RADIO STATION IN NEARLY 15 YEARS!
August 26, 2011
Symphony Guild of Corpus Christi
Facebook: The Island Moon Newspaper
The Symphony Guild of Corpus Christi is pleased to announce “Melodies in the Moonlight!” Their annual fundraiser will be held in a spacious private residence on Saturday, October one, 2011 from 7 pm to 10:30 pm. Guests will have the pleasure of strolling around the grounds under the stars. Later while listening to the swinging music of Paul Bauman’s Quartet, couples will step out on the dance floor to show off their fancy steps. Sampling enticing items from the buffet is bound to be a draw after which the delightful paintings by a London artist will be available for viewing or for sale. When all of these activities slow down it will be time to be seated beside the pool to watch the auctioneer bring on the fun of the live auction while the guests bid on a superior selection of exciting pieces such as: a high style fur, a magnificent Bronze statue, an elegant statement piece of jewelry or a fishing & hunting trip to name a few. Next on the list will be a sensational poolside highfashion Designer Style Show comprised of magnificent Holiday Attire, Elegant Furs and an extensive collection of Exotic Jewelry presented by Julian Gold. At the conclusion there will be time to dance or walk through the “boutique” set up in the house to make sure you don’t go home without seeing and enjoying every single thing. This is going to be a bodacious high-stepping Texas event not to be missed!
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Island Moon
August 26, 2011
News From Your how hot it gets in the garage. A resident on one of our streets found a highly creative way, he thought, to slow traffic down. He put bird food out in the street so that birds would gather and thus cars would slow down so that they wouldn’t hit the birds. Unfortunately, the bird food creates another hazard - it can get slippery - and have you noticed the dead seagulls along Park Road 22. Folks don’t seem to slow down for much!
I heard about a situation recently where a pet owner had tied their dog to a boat and trailer.
We have been working with the City Code Enforcement officer who covers the Island on these overgrown properties. The City does have the ability to go in and clean up the yard. In fact, they have just adopted a new procedure for these types of properties. Hopefully, we will see some of these really terrible properties cleaned up soon.
I heard about a situation recently where a pet owner had tied their dog to a boat and trailer. If you are going to have a pet, you are responsible for their care and feeding. Leaving a dog outside without shade and water is not being responsible. I’ve also had calls about people leaving their pets in the garage with the garage door slightly raised.
The dog then just runs out and does its business. Of course, it runs to the neighbors’ yards. So, there are two violations, one for not having the dog on a leash and the other for not picking up after your dog. Not to mention
Dr. Tom Sheephead on the Fly
By Maybeth Christensen
If you notice a house with the yard overgrown with weeds, we appreciate receiving a call about it. I send a letter to the owner to remind them of our covenants as well as the City Code. However, sometimes we can’t find the owner due to the property being in foreclosure or already repossessed by the lending institution.
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Speeding on Whitecap, Gypsy, Dasmarinas and Aquarius continues to be a problem. I’ve asked the City for the mobile sign which flashes how fast you are driving. Hope to have it on the Island soon. Just confirmed that the City will do glass recycling at the POA office on Saturday, October 8 from 10 - 2. Volunteers are needed to help direct traffic and unload. We are also putting together an Island Clean-up in conjunction with the Litter Critter on September 24. We’d like to have volunteers pick up the trash along the streets and in vacant lots. A lot of this stuff blows out of the garage trucks, but there are still folks who throw this type of stuff out their car windows. If you’d like to volunteer to pick up in your neighborhood, give me a call.
The last few weeks have been a boat owners nightmare for me. My gear bow went out unsolicited on my motor with no warning at 70 hours. I was able to finally get her back in running shape on a tight schedule due to the guys at Chris Marine and Frank down at Tim Clancy’s place in San Antonio. Needless to say it was stressful with the family fishing vacations back to back in the middle of all that.
fall to the fly and the sun now is approaching 0830 where I can see shadows along the mud and oyster shell.
While I am whining I don’t have to tell you that the wind has been at April levels all year. In a nutshell it has been a struggle until I was able to sneak off into South Bay by myself a couple of Sundays ago.
Some of these shadows have definite convict stripes on them and are fairly large. The first fish I make a good cast to slams the fly unlike a sheepie but a short fight later I am looking at a nice 3 to 4 pound sheepie only the 3rd of my career on the fly........I am thinking very nice. This little foray continued for about 2 hours or more with a half dozen nice reds to the hand and another large sheephead.
These days I usually have company when I get out to fish but this particular morning everyone was worn out on the wind and sight fishing had been tough for us. I decided to go to South Bay down in Port Isabel the last morning of our vacation. Before daylight I slipped away with some morning Joe and eased into a little cove and put down the power pole.
Two sheepies in one am is a record for me and a nice showing of reds as well. I yearned for a nice snook but none were seen this trip. It just goes to show you that perseverance pays off. You may have several trips marred by mechanical or weather issues but sooner or later you will hit it on the head and all the troubles in the past will be forgotten for a little while.
A short wade later I was working in to a 10 mile wind along a mangrove shoreline. Reds began busting bait up into the shoreline and some large sheepies were tailing occasionally. The first fish I sent the fly upwind to about 50 feet away just pounced on it and then took off into the oyster shell and shredded my leader bummer... So quick retie with a little rabbit tail mud minnow with deer hair weed guard, black bunny tail, root beer ice chenille body and I am back in the game. Two more reds
I finally have put all those little family vacations behind me so we will be present on a more regular basis, thanks for your patience. Football is cranking up and initially should not affect us much until it gets dark a little sooner then I may have to leave a little early for practice some days. If you can earlier is better to ensure we can take care of you. I hope everyone is getting geared up for school and has a great year. Sincerely , Doc Tom
Island Eyesore of the Fortnight
This California King size quilt “Rockin’ and Phlockin’ in Margaritaville” was made by Barbara Creager of Corpus Christi to be raffled by the Port Aransas Parrothead Club as part of a fundraiser for the Animal Rehabilitation Keep (ARK) in Port Aransas. The quilt depicts parrots and many of the songs of Jimmy Buffet in bold tropical colors. Tickets will be sold at $10.00 each and are available by calling either Barbara 361-960-1500 or LuAnn Ferguson at 361749-5141 or from members of the club. The drawing will be held on October 8th, 2011. Parrotheads are “Pholks” interested in the music of Jimmy Buffet, the tropical lifestyle portrayed in his songs and writings, and participating in various charitable activities and aving “phun”, The members link to think of it as “partying with a purpose” or having “phun” while helping others.
This house in the 14000 Block of Whitecap is our Island Eyesore of the Fortnight. The yard is a virtual jungle. We contacted Maybeth at the POA and she says that they have tried to make contact with owner who lives in Michigan several times and have not gotten a response. The POA is currently working with the city to come up with a solution to these Island Eyesores. We’ll keep you posted.
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Island Moon
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Under The Padre Palms Appreciating Art By Arlan Andrews, Sr. So a group of us enjoyed a docent-led tour of a local art museum, folks from around the region there to visit the hallowed halls and absorb some of one of South Texas’ cultural institutions. Leading us was a tall, bubbly, bright-eyed blonde young woman with a T-shirt that read “I Love Art.” We never did see ol’ Art, but we did see a lot of ART.
ception, layers of meaning hidden amidst metaphors and metaphysics, even a glass monstrosity hanging from a ceiling, itself a threatening chimera of angry jellyfish genetically moshed with risible snakes, reminiscent of nothing more than one’s internal digestive organs after a bout with Montezuma’s motivating misery.
We saw landscapes and mindscapes and fantasyscapes and darkscapes and skyscapes and waterscapes and birdscapes and glassscapes and abstractscapes and realescapes and I will tell you, after a while the references to the convolutions of Jungian psychology and the depths of despair and desperation and divorce all dolloped onto perfectly good white canvases, made my head swim. Or in terms ol’ Art would’ve understood, had he been there, “Durn, but there was a lot of paint splattering yon and hither, of which I did not understand one speck.”
Amongst all these artistic expressions of emotions that I probably never encountered (or the chemicals that inspired them, either…), in the midst of obviously superior skilled artists and artisans and aesthetes, as a lowly engineer I felt a new kind of emotion – bafflement, surprise, tempered with just a slight tinge of disgust.
ART, or, Ambiguity Reigns Triumphant!
Believe me, in the middle of this museum of magical momentum, I was fairly lost. (The building was nice, though.) Something I Could Hang My Hat On
But suddenly, there it was! An artistic expression that As an engineer it was walloped into me quite good, a even I could understand, a beautiful example of deterlong time ago, that engineering is not, cannot be, ambig- ministic ART, ambiguous though concrete (at least that uous. I mean, when was the last time you saw an am- was what the wall was made of, like all the rest of the biguous suspension bridge? Or an ambiguous airplane? building); penetrating yet nuanced; a clash of cultures No, engineering design is concrete – or steel – or com- expressed in the media of steel and stone, anodized in posite materials – or plastic, or some such. In any case, a verdant coating, reminiscent of the greening of socian engineer can hardly ever hide his/her works – they are ety; harkening back to the Green Man of Arthurian legout there for the world to see, (or in the case of weapons, end and the Celtic mystery school of the ancient Druids, maybe to duck). An engineer has those shamanic predecessors of no excuses – the thing either works An artistic expression that even Western mysticism. or it doesn’t; it is either a Toyota I could understand, a beautiful It was, quite simply, a greenish (which works) or a Chrysler. metallic rod-like device, headBut art, I mean, ART! ART, my example of deterministic ART ed and threaded and penetratfriend, is ambiguity on canvas – or ing into the virgin wall of the maybe plywood or pasteboard or whatever the artiste had museum, obviously an expression of Industrial Man’s vion hand in the garage or basement or studio, becoming olation of the beloved stone of Mother Earth, a protest unknowable splatterings and unseeable geometries and therein and thereof. childlike daubings in that marvelous white building in downtown Corpus. Turns out, the less you can tell about At last, I thought, a piece of art that even I, inartistic and what you see, the more the artist gets paid. Rich people insensitive as only an engineer can be, that I, too, can aplike to hang these things on their party walls to impress preciate. Even if the scale was small (probably half an others of their class, and they all get to comment on the inch long), and even if this fine piece of representative art depth and breadth and Jungian convolutions of the swirls had no accompanying caption or label, it was, in and of and spatters and excretions of color on canvas. The more itself, just magnificent – simple, understated, in its sang people talk about it, the less they understand it, but some- froid (or is that schadenfreude? Always get those two where in there everybody gets impressed and they want mixed up…). one of their own and let the bidding begin! Meanwhile At that moment, as I was photographing the one marvel the artist and the agent and their debtors all smile and in the Museum of ART that I could understand, one of rack up another success to ambiguity. my fellow tour-istas came over and said, “With a whole museum of paintings, why in the world are you taking a Excessive Expression (or Indigestion)? photograph of a screw sticking in the wall? There’s not In the course of a couple of hours we hiked through halls even a picture hanging on it!” of bright white concrete, touring rooms adorned (or adurn-ed) with paintings of all sizes and descriptions and I sniffed haughtily at the bumpkin. Obviously, he didn’t indescriptions, somber depictions of depression and de- understand ART.
August 26, 2011
25th annual Adopt-A-Beach Fall Cleanup Sept. 24
Patterson invites everyone to help cleanup Coastal Bend beaches The 25th Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Fall Cleanup will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 24 at 11 sites in the Coastal Bend. Volunteers may register on-line at www.TexasAdoptABeach.org or become a fan of the Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach program on Facebook. Texans who can’t make it to the beach but still want to support the effort can make a tax-deductible donation at www. TexasAdoptABeach.org. Sponsorship levels range from $25 to $25,000. The Texas General Land Office AdoptA-Beach program began in the fall of 1986, when 2,800 volunteers picked up 124 tons of trash. Since then, it has grown into one of the most successful all-volunteer efforts in the nation. In 25 years, 413,000 Adopt-A-Beach volunteers have picked up more than 8,000 tons of trash from the Texas Gulf Coast.
The data collected from the beach cleanups played an integral part in the passage of MARPOL Annex V, an international treaty that prohibits the dumping of plastics in the world’s oceans. In July of 1991, the International Maritime Organization designated the Gulf of Mexico and the Wider Caribbean as a “special area” where the dumping of trash, with the exception of finely ground food scraps, is prohibited.
Shell Oil Company is the statewide sponsor for the 25th Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Fall Cleanup. Other sponsors include HNTB Corporation, AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry LLC, El Paso Corporation, Halliburton and the Ocean Conservancy.
For more information about how you can get involved, call 1-877-TXCOAST or visit our Web site at www.texasadoptabeach.org.
August 26, 2011
Island Moon
A9
Real Estate Continued from A1 elements of all three projects will be in place by the time that vote is taken because the city council’s greatest fear is they will build a Bridge to Nowhere if the bridge is built and the canals are never dug. That is a rational fear by the council and if the bridge is funded we can assume the canals will be built and if the canals are built the other projects are likely to happen. For several months Mr. Schexnailder has said he will, “Bring the water to the bridge,” meaning that if the city builds the bridge he will build the canals. (We ran the plans for the park and the riverwalk development in the last issue along with a design drawing of the bridge, we are including it in this issue for those who may not have seen it, and in bigger print for those who complained). So things are moving toward fruition and all the elements needed for success seem to be present. A guess: some kind of announcement on the bridge and/or a park in the next six weeks; but that is a guess. Land Since the last issue, a developer has bought land behind the Coldwell Banker offices that would become waterfront land if the planned 3600 foot canal is dug through that area. That comes in the wake of land being bought on the east and south sides of Lake Padre we wrote about in the last issue. Hotels In related projects we also hear that plans for two new “brand name” hotels are moving forward. The first, located near the Holiday Inn on the Mike Ellis Seawall we’re told is holding back on an announcement pending an announcement on the Schlitterbahn project. We hear a deal will move forward when the park’s coming is a certainty. A couple of issues back we told you of an option purchased by a group of Austin investors on 61 acress on the east side of SPID near the base of the JFK Causeway. We hear the group signed a 45 day option about 25 days ago so their clock is running. The plan we hear is for a marina along the Packery and a large chain hotel. Plans for the land included the preservation of an Indian graveyard in the area. The Corps of Engineers has agreed to let the developer pave the area with the idea of preserving it for future excavation.
put a Landry’s downtown a few years ago or only a related group. We have not heard of a specific location on The Island either. It is safe to say things are at a very preliminary stage at this point. Wildlife park
The Texas Coastal Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation project took a giant leap forward last week when its planners appeared before the Nueces County Park Board. The meeting was moved from the usual spot in the county building on The Island to the County Courthouse to accomodate the crowd. Backers of the project which included the Corpus Christi Convention and Vistitor Bureau, and director of the ARK in Port Aranas Tony Amos, said the park, which would be constructed on county owned land behind the current county maintance building on the east side of SPID near the base of the JFK Bridge, would be a big attraction for the 42% of the 6.6 million nature tourists who visit the Coastal Bend each year.
The facility would be a rehab spot for birds and turtles who are injured. The CVB said they will assist in the design of the visitors center and place a kiosk there for information, they are also assisting in providing signage for the park. The next step will be a vote by the Park Board to donate the land. No firm timetable has been set for that. Port A addition
We hear that a major chain of liquor stores is considering opening a superstore in Port A. According to what we hear they have not set a timetable but have been scouting locations. They also include high end groceries in their stores and are also looking at the possibility of a store in Rockport to go along with the one they already have in Corpus Christi and possibly even a fourth store in the area.
At the rate Port A is growing and new buildings are going they are going to need more stores. Port A realtors report that in spite of the nationwide downturn in the real estate market in recent years some of them are having banner years. Most of the buyers, in fact almost all of them, are coming from the state of Texas, they say. Some of the money is coming from the Eagle Ford oil play but not the majority.
Also along SPID
Casino gambling
Also on the eastside of SPID between the 61 acre development and the road a group of investors has nine acres they are working to develop with retail and commercial development. The group is also watching the Schlitterbahn developments closely. In the meantime they are talking to various business chains and would also like to include a bank in their footprint.
Renewed interest in the recently adjorned Texas Legislature has sent a delegation to Las Vegas in recent weeks to explore the possibility of putting a plan for gaming on a statewide ballot in the next few years. The legislature charged the Las Vegas group, which was headed by District 32 Representative Todd Hunter with looking at the various options that could be put before voters.
Landry’s
The Coastal Bend has long been considered a prime spot for casinos and would pump significant revenues into the local economy as well as provide jobs. We’ll keep you updated as we hear more.
We hear some Islanders have also been talking to a group from the Landry’s group of restaurants. We’re not sure if this is the same group that tried unsuccessfully to
Proposed Developments (Left) These are the current plans for the possible develpments on The Island. They include the proposed riverwalk and Schlitterbahn developments and the bridge under SPID. We ran them in the last issue and repeat them here for those who missed them last time.
Sheri Hargrove, owner of Port A Glass shows off one of her new works of art in progress.
JB Takes his duck on a night out in Port A Photo by Ronnie Narmour
Island Moon
A 10
By Cindy Eckhart
Grandma’s Travelling Spoons
As I anxiously awaited a phone call saying that I had finally gotten hired for a job, I realized that I desperately needed to find something to do, or I would go crazy. It was a way too hot Texas summer to go for walks, and since no job meant no money, the mall was off limits. I determined that the only thing left to do was the dreaded chore of closet clean-out. It has been put off long enough, and besides, by now I had other junk that needed closet space. Reluctantly, I started in one closet and methodically moved from room to room. It was in the study closet that I found a box that gave me the pleasant surprise that I think I was waiting for. It was a plain heavy box. I unsealed it, trying to come up with any memory of what it could be. When I opened it up, there they were. Grandma’s spoons. Not the little spoons that had a cute little emblem or crest at the tip. These were ordinary soup spoons, and quite a few of them. I had an inkling of a memory trying to come forward, but I just couldn’t think of why in the world Grandma had all these spoons. As I started taking them out, I realized that each spoon had been tagged with a note tied to the handle with a piece of blue yarn. Quickly realizing that most of the yarn had rotted, I tried to be careful while handling them but only a few managed to stay intact. Curious, I began to look more closely at the typed tags. Each had a date, name of the restaurant or café, who ate there, and some detail that made that day special. I began to ask myself if my grandmother was a kleptomaniac who “appropriated” spoons. But as I got further into my reading, I realized that these were her souvenirs from trips that she had taken. Family travels My grandparents were fortunate enough to be able to travel in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. And they loved to just get in the car and go. Some were day/weekend trips, while some were long and thought out routes with sights to see. Often times their son accompanied them; other times it was with siblings and in-laws. Their travel stops began to unfold in my mind, and I dug through the old photo albums until I found one where Grandma meticulously labeled each picture. Some of those tags matched that album. The big trip was in 1937. The trip which my dad often boasted that he visited every state except the thirteen colonies. The route took them to Raton, New Mexico, the Petrified Forest and Grand Canyon. Grandma tagged one spoon as Jackson, Wyoming, which she deemed the “last of the old west.” The route went through Yellowstone and up to Glacier National Park. They travelled into Canada, throughout the Mid West and into the Deep South. And when she could, Grandma got her spoon. The few with tags still intact gave me an idea. I got on the internet to see if any of these places still existed. I felt I needed to share Grandma’s hobby with the owners or family members. I had determined that instead of sitting in an old box, the spoons needed to travel back to their homes. And that decision has started a very rewarding journey of my own. Spoon chasing I started with the local chambers of commerce, sending an e-mail explaining the circumstances of the spoon ending up on my dining room table. Almost all of them wrote back, and I could almost hear them giggling about her collection. Many of them gave me additional pieces of the puzzle. And as I finally found the address of the owner or family, I placed the spoon and tag in the mail with a little note of explanation. One spoon was sent to the Santa Monica Pier to the historical museum that was being put together to show the history of the pier and ballroom. That spoon was tagged “Spade Cooley, a country singer who sang with the Sons of Pioneers and Roy Rogers and later had a radio show broadcast from the ballroom. I could just see Grandma and Grandpa tapping their feet and dancing to their favorite songs. Another spoon was labeled “Marfa, Texas.” I suppose they went out there to see the Marfa Lights, but we are still looking for Jimmie’s Café. Yet another spoon was from a restaurant in Rockport, Texas. Sadly it
had disappeared, but the local chamber told me there was an effort to reconstruct the giant papier mache crab that was the signature trademark of the Del Mar Café. Still another resides in the Port Aransas museum, in memory of the Sportsman Grille. Piedras Negras bulls One spoon marked the occasion when they spent the Fourth of July at the bullfights just over the Texas border in Piedras Negras. And one told of “the day Earle and I escaped” to Goliad and ate at Ramona’s Café. I found two navy spoons, one from my dad’s ship, the U.S.S. Jason, from the mid 40s. Sadly, it cannot be returned as the ship was scrapped in 2008 after a long service career. However, the curator at the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, D.C. gave me some tips on how to find out what ship might have been moored in Corpus Christi in 1936. There was one spoon that I knew where to send back home. It belonged to the Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg, Texas. The hotel no longer exists but the building itself now houses the Chester W. Nimitz National Museum of the Pacific War. I thought about keeping this one for sentimental times, but I just had to share it with them. It was an important one to me because without that trip, I may not have ever been born. It seems that my soon-to-be father, along with his parents, took his girlfriend there to eat lunch. After enjoying a meal at the hotel, they drove up to the nearby sight called “Enchanted Rock.” It was there that my dad proposed to my mom in October, 1949. They were married three months later. Perhaps my most rewarding one to date was from the Montier Café in Port Lavaca, Texas. The chamber representative knew of the café and even provided me with the owner’s name and address. A little internet research showed that a family with that last name did, indeed, live there, and the age of the lady seemed about right. Not wanting to surprise her in an unpleasant way, I wrote a note to the “family” at that address explaining my find. I gave them my telephone number and e-mail address, and told them if they wanted the spoon to let me know and I would send it. Spoon rage Two days later, the phone rang, and I ran to answer it, hoping it would be a job interview request. My disappointment lasted only a moment when the elderly lady introduced herself as Mrs. Montier. We had a very pleasant conversation about the “old days.” She told me that she bet my grandmother wasn’t a kleptomaniac because collecting spoons was the “rage” back in those days. She related that people would proudly display them on the coffee tables as conversation pieces, much like we do with books today. I promised to send the spoon to her. She said that she also sent me a letter giving me some background information on the café, and how my note made her day! She told me her grandson was interested in learning more about the family’s heritage and wanted to give him the spoon. I kept smiling the rest of the day, despite not getting a job call. What she didn’t understand is that she made my day! I will continue to try to find a way to return the spoons or at least make contact with the family or owners in the hopes that they, too, can take a stroll down memory lane. And as I dig deeper into each background, I think I begin to understand Grandma in a different light. She never seemed totally content staying in one place for a very long time. Being a rancher’s daughter, she didn’t leave home very often except to go to town in Bandera, or an occasional trip to San Antonio. I think she must have been anxious to see the country and its magnificent diversity. And I am sure she wanted to add to her spoon collection. Today, we use our cameras, recorders, and phones. We record a little sound bite, and once in a while we pull out the pictures and look and reminisce. But while Grandma took pictures, I think it was the spoons themselves that brought back her fondest memories. I kind of like her way better.
August 26, 2011
A little Island history
Rumors of Their Deaths Were Greatly Exaggerated, Death to the Frenchman, A Ranger Captain Goes to D.C.
By Dale Rankin Editor’s note: This is the latest in the saga of Texas Ranger Geroge Durham who rode with Texas Ranger Captain L.H. McNelly as they tried to round up the bandits that had been raiding across the Rio Grande all the way into downtown Corpus Christi. When we left the Rangers in the last issue they had just killed more than 50 bandits in a raid into Las Cueves, Mexico where the bandits were based and forced them to return cattle that has recently been stolen and crossed into Mexico. As the cattle began crossing back onto the U.S. side the Rangers expected to see around 250 head, but as the herd continued to cross there were more than 400 cattle and they were prime beeves. The raiders had already killed and skinned the “scrubs and she stuff” as Durham put it. These were two-year old and older steers with brands ranging from the Running W of the King Ranch to the Half-Moon from the Hale & Parker Ranch down south near the mouth of the Rio Grande. There were thirty-three head that bore the King Ranch brand and they were bunched up and driven off to the ranch. Durham went along in hopes of meeting a young woman who had served him coffee there on his last visit. It was almost Christmas and Durham was missing his family back on their Georgia farm. Living Like Kings
He lamented: I’d come to Texas to get me a piece of ground, maybe a few head of stock, build me a house. But what I’d really done was to hire out at thirty-three dollars a month to kill people. That’s all I’d done. Kill people. I’d been in Texas about a year, and all I still owned was what I wore from Georgia. Like a land terrapin, all I owned was either on my back or in my belly.” The Rangers were invited to eat with the King family but none had clothes for the occasion, even after they cleaned up, except a Corporal Rudd who was an Englishman with an education who had pants and jacket of good cloth “that actually fit.” When they refused to sit at a table with the women King had a separate set for them in a different room. The women brought in a cake, written on top was “Compliments of the King Women to The McNelly Rangers.” One of the women was Caroline, the niece of King’s wife, who Durham had come to see. She asked where he had gone and was told he had stepped outside. In truth, he was hiding behind a big stove because he hadn’t bathed since the weather turned cold months before. He had been sleeping on a saddle blanket.
set them free to steal again. And third, peace through superior firepower. The Sharps .50 caliber rifles that McNelly had been given by Sol Lichtenstein back in Corpus Christi had a range much greater than the repeater rifles carried by the bandits. That tactical advantage combined with the good horses provided by Captain King had allowed the Rangers to clear the Nueces Strip from the Nueces River to the Rio Grande of bandits.
In spite of their success, word of their demise had spread all the way to the east coast through the papers and the relatives of Durham and the others now sent word to Austin and on to the King Ranch that they would pay to have the remains of the Rangers retrieved from Mexico and brought back east for burial.
A month after the shooting at Las Cueves had McNelly, who was not big on paperwork, had not sent a report back to Austin about what had really happened. McNelly’s response was to tell his Rangers to write them and tell them not to pay attention to lurid stories they heard off the telegraph lines. Austin demanded to know if Brownsville Consul Tom Wilson had handled his surrender and under what terms. McNelly finally sat down to write the report he should have written a month before. While McNelly’s exploits had made him a folk hero in the Nueces strip his reluctance to write reports had made him virtually unknown to the outside world. His response to the Governor’s office was right to the point: “Do you think I’d make a dicker with outlaws? “Why would a Texas peace officer ever have to beg peace terms from bandits? We want dead bandits
To his Rangers McNelly had always been to the point as well, “We want dead bandits, not prisoners,” was about all he had to say about their mission statement. He wasn’t sent to the Nueces Strip to write reports but to bring law to a lawless country and prove Texas was bigger than any gang or gangs of bandits. The military made lots of reports but they didn’t get rid of the bandits. “Reports aren’t what bandits need,” McNelly said. “They needed bullets from Sharp’s.”
When word got back to Austin of what the Rangers had really done Austin, and the Mexican government officials for that matter, took a different outlook. Austin sent shiny new badges, one for each Ranger. The Rangers pinned them on and now wherever they went they were known and they still lived by the admonition given by McNelly in the beginning.
King took the cattle the Rangers returned and ordered their horns cut short and they were turned out to pasture with his order that they never be shipped or traded. They were now a King Ranch legacy and stayed around for years. The reason, it turned out, was that King had never expected to see them or any of the Rangers again.
“If citizens were trying to mind their own business and obey the law we had strict orders to treat them as our bosses. We never kicked their dogs, much less shot one that might be nibbling at our horses’ heels. We never went into even the humblest house, unless the man himself asked us in.”
The second Alamo
The Rangers work in the Nueces Strip had forged the basis for the Texas Rangers that comes down through history today.
It turned out that the man who had been manning the telegraph line from the scene of the fighting along the river was quite the storyteller. His name was Lieutenant Guy Carleton and he had been hacking out harrowing dispatches over the singing wire that had the fight at Las Cueves as the “Second Alamo” with all the Rangers dead on the Mexican side of the river. So when the Rangers came riding into the King Ranch there were viewed as ghosts by the natives. Now that they were alive they and Captain McNelly in particular had become Larger Than Life men who were the only thing between the ranchers and chaos on the border. They had tamed the border where the vigilantes and the U.S. Army had failed. They had done it with a few simple rules of engagement: First, travel as fast and light as the bandits. Second, don’t take prisoners. Taking prisoners simply meant going through legal proceedings which would eventually
The Rangers were camped on the King Ranch. The bandits had gotten the message and things were peaceful. A few raiding parties were rustling cattle in small bands near San Diego in Duval County but because the raiding parties were now so small the stockmen could take care of them themselves. The Rangers’ job was done. Death to the Frenchman
South of the River Portirio Diaz was heading a revolution that was sweeping the North of Mexico and Diaz was working to quell any border trouble that would bring the U.S. or the Rangers across the border. For the first time in a long time ranchers in the Nueces Strip were sleeping comfortably in their beds at night. Word spread among them that in fact it had been McNelly who had won the Battle of San Jacinto.
Diaz soon left his house in Brownsville and as soon as he set foot in Matamoros the former bandit Juan Cortinas surrendered the city to him and Diaz took the former outlaw/folk hero with him to Mexico City where the new president set Cortinez up with a pension on a big hacienda below Mexico City to keep him from stirring up trouble with the Americans along the border.
The Rangers heard that the Frenchman who McNelly had gone across the river to kill after his doublecross of the Rangers had not been at Las Cueves but instead had been killed before the fight by Old Blas who had ridden with the Rangers earlier. Blas’ action wasn’t so much because the Frenchman had betrayed the Rangers but because he “had much gold in his saddlebags and a good saddle.” Blas disappeared into the border brush until nearly forty years later he rode up to the El Sauz section of the King Ranch where Durham was the foreman. He asked for protection as the Rangers were chasing him and Durham obliged since McNelly had given standing orders that Old Blas was not to be harmed by his men. Blas made it back across the river where he was killed by Black Jack Pershing’s men. McNelly to D.C.
While McNelly was resting on the King Ranch he got word that the Sergeant who had fired the Gatling gun at the charging Mexicans during the Las Cueves fight had been busted to private and that charges were about to be filed on Army Captain Stone who had stripped off his uniform to swim the river to help the Rangers fight the Mexicans. This was more than McNelly could bear. He caught a boat to Washington at his own expense and personally told Secretary Belknap to “Go to hell.” The Sergeant got his stripes back and Captain Stone went on to become a General who served in the Spanish-American War.
With peace in the Nueces Strip cattle drives north to the railheads began in earnest. Money from the cattle drives was making its way back home and towns began to spring up. Captain King sent his thanks in the forms of a wagonload of brand new 44-40 Winchester repeater rifles along with several thousand shells. The Rangers turned in their Sharps and decided they would do most of their fighting close in from now on.
Then one day the Frenchman Parrott rode into camp. He was the out of work circus performer and itinerant photographer that McNelly had sent north on a scouting mission some months before. He had two saddlebags full of photos that he dumped out in front of the Captain. The Rangers set out north immediately and they knew where they were going; King Fisher country.
Island Moon
August 26, 2011
Stuff I heard on the Island “No.” By Dale Rankin
“Okay, a truck payment?”
I was talking to my friend Robert Bob up in Bypass, OK the other day when the talk turned to Rednecks. I mentioned that for some reason I had crossed paths with a lot of them lately.
Well, heck yea. How else am I gonna afford to buy me a truck?”
“You have to understand,” Robert Bob said, “that all American Rednecks are not alike. There are several versions of Redneckus Americus and each one has his own idiosyncrasies”
This can go on for hours but no matter how many times you steer Redneckus Economus around his lap of circular logic it still doesn’t sink in and after a while it just gets boring. It’s sort of like a guy hitchhiking on the side of a NASCAR track. Even if he gets a ride he’s just going to go around in circles until he runs out of gas.
It started me thinking and Robert Bob is right. So I made a list. Redneckus Territorus Redneckus Territorus is the most simple minded of the species. This particular brand of territorial Redneck protects his property against perceived encroachments mostly of the imaginary kind. “Don’t touch my stuff,” is his mantra. He parks his car so close that you can’t get your door open just to establish that he owns his spot all the way to the line. Never mind that when he gets out of his truck he’s in your spot. Pointing this out will only lead to trouble. He parks his car in his front yard – on the grass with the front bumper just over on your side, just to push the boundaries of his empire. He’s prone to saying things like,”Half of the fence is on my land” and “you can’t cut that tree that’s hanging over your roof because its roots is in my yard, it’s my tree according to the law and I don’t want it cut.” For Redneckus Territorus is also an expert on things legal. He’s never actually checked the law but he knew this guy who talked to a lawyer – or at least a guy who he thought was a lawyer - once and so he knows all about it. Redneckus Suavecus This is the ubiquitous type of Redneck of whom George Strait once said, “In a minute or less he can be dressed fit to kill.” Fit to kill what is up for grabs. The first casualty is apt to be anyone standing downwind right after he gets “dressed fit to kill.” The knees of grown men have been known to buckle after getting an olfactory full of Redneckus Suavecus’ Old Yeller After Shave which he applies copiously for reasons known only to him and fellow members of the Redneckus Suavecus tribe. Much to the discomfort of his friends Redneckus Suavecus is also a fervent hand shaker. After you shake his hand you smell like Old Yeller for the rest of the day and the next morning your steering wheel still reeks of the stuff that has permeated your environment like a deadbeat brother-in-law. I accuse my friend Robert Bob of being a Redneckus Suavecus which he bitterly denies. “I quit wearing after shave three years ago,” he says. “And I never wore Old Yeller!” “Maybe,” I say, “but I can still smell it on your hat. It hangs on like grim death. That stuff has a half life of about six years.” He can’t smell it because Old Yeller has singed his nose hairs. Rednecjus Suavecus fancies himself a ladies’ man. He says suave things to his wife like,” Why honey it don’t matter what you wear you’d look good even if you was neked.” After he makes love to his wife he slaps her on the backside and says,” That ought to hold you hon.” Redneckus Suavecus is the most common version of the American Redneck. Dance halls all over Texas are full of them every Saturday night swirling their dates counterclockwise through a blue haze of Old Yeller. I find they are mostly defenseless to the wiles of women who play them like an old fiddle without Redneckus Suavecus ever knowing it. My advice when you encounter them is to stick to topics like trucks and digging holes. And if you shake their hand keep your hand away from your face. You’ve been warned. Redneckus Internetus This type of Redneck was unknown in the dark ages before Al Gore invented the Internet but has propagated quickly since. Redneckus Internetus is fond of chain emails that involve photoshopping the face of the President on the body of various jungle animals. He seems to find this uproariously funny and is absolutely convinced it imparts some type of universal truth which nevertheless he can never quite identify. As if his superimposition of a face onto an unflattering body is a revelation of profundity which imparts some kind of irrefutable stain on the character of the shopped, not realizing that the character it stains is that of the sender. And the next time you see him somewhere he inevitably asks, “Did you get that e-mail I sent you with Obama bin Laden? That’s some funny stuff huh?” I don’t tell him he has been on my junk mail list for the last four years ever since he started bombarding me with “The Plot by the CFR to Take Over the World!” “The Income Tax Law was Never Really Passed,” and my personal favorite “Willie Nelson is the Anti-Christ!” There was a peculiar variation of this type of Redneckus Internetus that did the same thing to George W. Bush when he was in the White House. These usually had something to do with draft dodging, being born into wealth, or being dumb. But his group fell more toward the Old Hippy types rather than straight up Rednecks but their zealotry was the same. I find that in both cases telling them to stop sending stuff only makes things worse. They stare at you like your are one of “Them.” They are beyond help and destined to a life of junk mail. Redneckus Economus This is a version of the Redneck that has surged back into prominence in light of the recent budget problems in Washington. They tend to talk real loud and say things like, “What don’t those people in Warshington understand!? Just run the datgum gumint like a bidness. You live on what you make, you don’t borry money!” This is usually followed by some Yea Buddy from his piers and often involves profanity. “But,” I like to point out, “businesses borrow money. Big corporations all have debt. So if you run government like a business you would borrow money. You’re contradicting yourself.” This confuses Redneckus Economus greatly and often makes him angry. Dichotomy is not a word in his vocabulary. “Just run it like a bidness,” he repeats only a little louder. “Don’t spend more than you make” and that’s final. “Do you make a car payment?”
“Isn’t that borrowing money?” “Heck no. It’s a truck payment.”
A 11 decided to call off the Spud Gun Shootout when a scary dude informed me “whatever you do don’t shoot a girl in a bikini in the ankle with that thing and make her go flying in the air boy. I tell you what the cops will come looking for you and take away everything you own. I tell you what.” Reckus Inventicus usually has an active mind but due to a lack of education lacks focus and structure. I firmly believe that if a perpetual motion machine is ever invented it will be by Redneck Inventicus. It will be made out of duck tape and a clothes hanger and will be something so brilliant in its simplicity that everyone else will wonder why they didn’t think of it first. Redneckus Dumbstunticus This particular branch of the Redneck family is best
identified by their mating call, “Hold my beer and watch this here.”
The mating call is usually followed by a splash, crash, thud, or scream. This act of fool’s bravado often involves high places and shallow water, motorized vehicles and immovable objects, or firearms they didn’t know were loaded. This species tends to have a short life span and often has difficulty finding a partner for reproducing so their numbers remain small. They are a colorful lot who, like the proverbial comet tend to burn brightly and flame out early. They also seem to run in families.
So that’s an overview of the family tree of Redneckus Americus but there are many more. So send in your own and we’ll run those next time. In the meantime, Watch This Here!
Redneckus Idiotus You know this type. Everyone in the world in An Idiot but themselves. “Well I was driving down the road and this idiot right in front of me is going like 45 in a 60 so I give him the horn and while I’m looking over at him this idiot stops right in front of me for no reason so I slam on the brakes and this other idiot cuts me off so I go down the shoulder until this idiot that’s about to make a turn is blocking the lane while he’s talking on his cell phone to some other idiot.” I like to point out to Redneckus Idiotus that birds of a feather tend to stick together. “It seems like you hang out with a lot of idiots,” I say, but it doesn’t dent his brainpan. “Yea, that’s because there are idiots everywhere,” he says. “We should just round up all the idiots and drown them in the ocean.” I think some idiot already tried that. Redneckus Haulinbuttacus This is the fellow you see coming up in your rearview mirror at ninety miles an hour when both lanes are blocked. He is too dimwitted to realize he is going to have nowhere to go and have to slam on his brake. As Robert Earl Keen correctly points out, “If you’re swerving on life’s highway, you’re running someone off the road.”
The Redneck Olympics
So he gets up a foot behind your bumper and tries to push you down the road. When he finally manages to pass he runs up on the bumper of the next “idiot” in front of him and repeats the process. Later, when you are both sitting at the same stop light you just have to look over and see what this fellow looks like, in case you run into him somewhere else. He is oblivious to the idea that his behavior might be viewed as abnormal in any way and in spite of his Haulinbuttacus habits he arrives at his destination no sooner than anyone else. His driving habits were set at sixteen and will never evolve. The numerous wrecks he gets into are always someone else’s fault and his vehicles tend to get higher off the ground as he gets older. Reneckus Haulinbuttacus can also be identified by inner tubes, beer cans, and shop rags flying out of the bed of his truck where he also carries wooden pallets full of nails which he is fond of burning on the beach while he drinks beer and drives off leaving a pile of beer cans and nails behind. We also have an Island variety who tear around the canals in boats bigger than their I.Q with a motor big enough to compensate for shortages in other areas. No Wake signs are less than a trifle to Island Haulinbuttacas as he blasts around The Island at the wheel of his perpetual wave making machine. I find there is little hope for helping Redneckus Haulinbuttacas. He is what he is. It may honestly be said of Redneckus Haulinbuttacus that he ran through the stupid forest and hit every tree.
Scoopy’s Veranda Sun - Sat 11am - 10pm
Redneckus Musicas A lot of us fell into this category as young folks. I myself had two loudspeakers mounted on the top of my 396 Supersport and a hundred watt power booster that I used to blast Nazareth and Savoy Brown at beachgoers whether they wanted to hear it or not. But at some point you should outgrow that, I’d say at least by your second year in college. But if your choice in music tends toward the kind with a lot of bass it should probably be earlier than that before your hearing goes. Every time I pull up next to a car with bass so loud it feels like the fillings in my teeth will pop out I keep waiting for all that vibration to start popping rivets out of the guy’s car. After a few years of all that bass the only voices he’s going to be able to hear are womens’ because the lower register of his hearing is shot. There is a great justice in that I think. Mother Nature has her ways. I fear that no matter what Redneckus Musicas is doomed to bump his head a lot as he makes his way through life. Some things are just a universal sign of ignorance and window rattling bass is one of them. Redneck Inventicus This is the most interesting of the Redneck species as most of these folks are really smart. They are the guys who hoist their single wide trailer – a French Fry in Redneck parlance – up on pilings because they figured out the wind blows harder up there in the summer and chiggers and skeeters don’t get that high up off the ground. A friend of Robert Bob’s invented the cell phone/cigarette lighter. It was an unweildy looking thing but it came in handy until he figured out that the people who will slip your lighter into their pocket after they borrow it will do the same thing to your cell phone/cigarette lighter. To solve that problem he added the cell phone/cigarette lighter/hammer attachment which made it too big to fit into a pocket and later on the bottle opener. It was a regional moneymaker until the Law of Unintended Consequences kicked in when a guy was opening a bottle and accidently hooked up a three way call between himself, his wife, and his girlfriend. There was a rumor that when he got home his wife used the hammer to drive home her point and the cell phone/cigararette lighter/hammer/bottleopener went the way of the Edsel. I first encountered Reckneckus Inventicus some years ago in Oklahoma when for reasons now forgotten I decided to organize a Spud Gun Shootout. I quickly learned there was an entire subculture of Spud Gun enthusiasts who could wrap enough duck tape around a piece of PVC pipe and pump in enough Aqua Net hairspray to fire a twelve ounce hunk of soggy potato at fourteen hundred feet per second. Moonshiners and contraband growers came out of the backwoods from every direction. The Spud Gun was the bazooka of their arsenal and a family heirloom. I finally
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Water Access Laguna Madre
361-949-1900
Island Moon
A 12
August 26, 2011
Did ya’hear? Business Briefs...
By Mary Craft
New Advertisers
Fly It Port A Kite Shop has been headquarters for fun on the beach and in the air since 1985. They have unique flying toys for all ages, as well as, windsocks, darts and yard art for any mood or taste. They also these fun helium filled remote controlled sharks and clownfish that are great for kiddie parties for just $41.95 each. This fun store is located at 405 Cut Off Road and are open 9am-5:30pm and Sundays 10am-4pm. Call 749-4190 for more info. JB’s German Bakery & Cafe serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily except Mondays. You can enjoy their fresh baked bread, pastries, sandwiches and soups daily 7am-7pm and Sundays 8am-6pm. Call 949-5474 for more info. Paradise Computer Services are experts in virus removal, networking, data retrieval plus they have ID and analog security cameras. They are located in Port A at 409 West Ave G and can be reached at 749-4960. Funtrackers Family Fun Center is a great place to take the kids for hours of fun. They have go karts, bumper boats, miniature golf, arcade and batting cages. While you are there check out the Raceway Cafe. They serve pizza, appetizers and for dessert funnel cake and churros. For adults they have cold beer served indoors or on the outside patio with misters. They are located near Flour Bluff Drive and SPID. Call 937-9400 for more info.
The Island Moon Newspaper Facebook has clips from Moon Mike’s Memorial Service that are both warm and funny. Some of Mike’s friends and family shared their stories including some stories from his college days told by one of his frat brothers. There are also posted Island history stories that have appeared in the Moon. Visit the site and become one of our friends although you can view the content without being a member of Facebook.
Island Deck Staining Deck Repair & Restoration Mildew Removal & Power Washing
Island Landscape
The Back Porch Labor Day Blowout will feature Emory Quinn on Thursday, Davin James on Friday and Larry Joe Taylor on Saturday. Don’t forget to spend Labor Day Monday there when we have the bar to ourselves while the tourists are waiting for a ferry.
Design & Restoration Original Brick & Stone Work Maintenance & Painting
Call the Specialists!
Island Day Spa is expanding their space to include “Massage, Massage Therapy Clinic”. They are offering a Beach Break special for $99 that includes a massage, facial and pedicure. They are located in the Day & Night Boardwalk shopping center. Call 949-1444 for more info. Dodge City Steaks has their USDA stamped sterling silver meats driven in from Kansas. These same cuts are those served at the high end steak houses. These meats are aged for 3-4 weeks and butcher cut and then vacuum packed. The truck is parked next to Coldwell Banker on the Island on Saturdays except for Labor Day weekend when it will be at the T-heads. You can call anytime for free delivery on the Island with a minimun ten steak order at 673-4153.
StainMasters
Call: (361) 444-9942 ● (361) 334-5193
Paradise Limousines, formerly known as Executive Limos is under new ownership. They are now providing dinner runs and club runs to Port A from the Island for $25 per person round trip. Call 877-LIMO (5466) or email Tony Adams at tony@ccexecutivelimos.com.
Business Briefs The Gaff in Port A has a Wing Ding Chicken Wing competition On Sunday Labor Day weekend at 2pm. To enter call 749-5970 which is the same number you can call to order ahead their delicious crispy thin crust pizza.
Why Purchase From Gary Lunt, Inc.? t 9 years of proven quality and service t Over 2,600 lights sold and working toDay t The only know system on the Gulf Cost which has actually passed the Building Inspector ’s test using the national electric code requirements u.s. Patent 7,008,081 Issued march 7, 2006
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Gary Lunt, Inc 361-537-8333 Port aransas “YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR”
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Great Seafood s r e g r u B d n a r Daily Specia u O y Tr 11Am - 5 Pm ls! Mon.- Grilled Tuna Tues. - Garlic Fish Wed. - Chicken Fried Steak Thurs. - Big Daddy Burger Fri. - Grilled Shrimp Sun. - Pot Roast
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Open 11 am - 2 am Kitchen Closes @ 1 am
One Bite & You’re Hooked
2034 State Highway 361 in Port Aransas
361 749- Taco (8226)
PIBA
August 26, 2011
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Island Moon
Island Police Blotter Machete Wielding Man Plays Through, Coca Cola Vandal 2:39 a.m. August 16 Evading Arrest SPID
14602
Officers contacted a Coca Cola vendor at the Stripes Convenience Store who reported a green Dodge Caravan drove over his merchandise and fled. While Officers were talking to the vendor, the suspect returned and Officers attempted to pull over the vehicle. The 20 year old driver refused to stop and fled again. He failed to negotiate the turn at Park Road 22 and Hwy 361, jumped the curb and came to a stop in the parking lot of the American Bank. The passenger remained in his seat, but the driver jumped into the back seat and lay down. He denied being the driver and told Officers he was asleep in the backseat. He had had to be physically removed from the vehicle when he refused to show Officers’ his hands and sustained abrasions to his face. He was medically cleared at the scene by CCFD emergency personnel. The driver and passenger who appeared intoxicated were arrested. Driver charged wiith Evading Arrest with a Vehicle, passenger charged with Public Intoxication. 11 a.m. Criminal Trespass 1200 Ocean Dr
August 22
An Officer enforcing the Criminal Trespass Authority at 1200 Ocean found 48 year old man and 45 year-old man drinking under the bright orange posted criminal trespass signs. The Officer pointed out the signs and both suspects were surprised to see them. Both men arrested and booked at the CDC. They were both charged with Criminal Trespass. 12:56 Aggravated Robbery August 22 1802 Ennis Joslin Officers responded to a shooting at Bay Point Apartments and arrived to find the 26- year-old victim lying on the ground bleeding from a gunshot wound to his left buttocks areas. The victim reported to Officer he was by the bay when two males attempted to rob him. The victim told Officers he took his firearm out to defend him-
self, but the suspects were able to take it away and shoot him. Even though injured, the victim was able to wrestle the weapon from the suspect and fire at them. He then walked back to his apartment, hid the weapon, and then asked for help. The victim was transported to Spohn Memorial for medical treatment. Through further investigation, Officers located the weapon used in the shooting along with several other weapons. Officers contacted the victim’s 23-year-old wife who reported they had gone out to dinner when the victim left her stranded at the restaurant after an argument. She walked home and arrived to find the victim bleeding on their doorstep. The investigation is ongoing. 10:43 a.m. Aggravated Assault August 10 5601 S. Alameda Street Officers responded to the Oso Golf Course for a man armed with a machete. Upon their arrival, they contacted four golfers who reported the armed White males walked across the golf course as they were about to tee off the 15 hole. The male removed his shirt and pulled out the machete from a duffle bag as he ordered them off his golf course. The male fled the golf course toward 5200 Greely. Officers searched for the suspect, but were unable to locate him. The suspect is described as an 18 to 24 year old White male wearing a black shirt, black shorts, and black socks. Golfers questioned officer whether they had to take a stroke for letting a machette weilder play through. Anyone having any information regarding this crime is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers at 888-TIPS or the Corpus Christi Police Department Homicide/Robbery Bureau. Oso Golf Course has hired security personnel as a precaution for the rest of the week. 14100 block Cabana East St. August 16 Assault Bodily Injury 10700 block S.H. 361 6:15 a.m. August 18 Unauth. Use of Motor Vehicle 14300 block SPID 8:37 p.m. August 8 Theft under $500 14400 block SH 361 5:30 p.m. August 17 Burglary of Vehicle 14400 block Compass St. 10:00 p.m. August 19 Theft of Vehicle Parts 15200 block Windward 10:30 p.m. August 9 Burglary of vehicle 15000 block Leeward 8 a.m. August 11 Theft from vehicle 13500 block Royal Fifth Ct. 12:01 a.m. August 17 Burglary of vehicle 13800 block Jolly Roger St. 9:30 a.m. Theft under $50
JMC ARCHITECTURE, LLC
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Phone: 361-288-8806
A Taste of Italy on the Island Gourmet Pizza Everything Made Fresh Daily Now Featuring Hand-Crafted in house Veggie Lasagne!
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One coupon per customer. coupons may not be combined with any other offer.
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Kiwanas Golf Tourney Set for September 17 On September 17 golfers will have a chance to help out local kids and have a little fun at the same time. The Kiwanas Club of Padre Island is hosting their annual charity golf tournament at Padre Isles Country Club. It is their major fundraiser and proceeds benefit Seashore Learning Center and Seashore Academy, Flour Bluff High School clubs, Timmon’s Ministries and many other organizations which help children. The tournament is a Florida scramble with Par As Your Friend rules and those 65 yoa and older tea off from the white tees. Cash prize for top finishers. They are looking for sponsorships, door prizes, and items for the goody bag. Sponshorships range from $150 up to $750, or any generous donation larger than that is greatly appreciated. For information contact Charlie Mater, 947-3947, or cmader@stx.rr.com. Entry forms can also be picked up at the country club. The Kiwanis meet at noon every Wednesday at Holiday Inn and anyone interested in joining is welcome.
Plan Now To Attend An Informative And Dynamic Meeting Of The Island Tea Party!
We will be meeting at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Thursday, September 1st. Come early (5:30) for a meet & greet gathering and join your friends for a light buffet. The price per person is $6.50.
The meeting will begin at 6:30. Todd Hunter is our first speaker. He will read a memorial resolution and make a presentation to Gloria in honor of her late husband, Don Wilson. Todd will fill us in on what the State Legislature accomplished this session and let us know what he is working on for our community. As always, he will address questions and comments from the crowd!
One or two members of the City Council will be at our meeting to discuss the waterpark, Park Road 22 bridge, and other plans for our island’s future. Everyone has heard the rumors that are flying around. This will be an opportunity to get your questions answered. If you have a badge, please wear it!
Trust Pad re
Islan da
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On Padre Island Since 1994. Locally Owned by Island Resident
Bill Schroeder 15481 SPID Just past Whitecap on Right
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Island Moon
The Traveling Moon Gets Around
August 26, 2011
The Island Moon traveled to the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE with Cindy Talbot. Cindy has moved to the United Arab Emirates to teach English and will be living in the Al Gharbia Region. More Moon travels to come.
My husband and I got married on June 18, 2011 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We took the Moon there to be with us on our big day. My name is Van Blize and Tanner Adamson took the Moon along on a recent trip to the hill country. They are (was) Shari Hemphill....now Shari Joglar and pictured above in front of Floore’s Country Story in Helotes, Texas. Apparently they don’t get along that entirely well and refused to be in the same picture. his name is Javier Joglar. My parents (John and Nancy Hemphill) live on Vivian Doran at BP OIL building in the island on Palo Seco and Javier and I have a Anchorage,Alaska. Our son Zack Doran, house on the island on Sabre Dr.Thanks!! Shari graduated U.T. in 2010 and was hired by BP OIL,as a Chemical Engineer in Alaska. We have a home on the Island for the last 8 years and love your paper.
COASTAL DIESEL INJECTION SERVICE
Truck Repair & Drive-in Diagnostic Service
Full Service on Motorhomes including all mechanical maintenance, engines and fuel systems
Your Diesel Performance Headquarters • Factory Authorized Technicians Michael and Vivian Doran residents on the Island. Enjoyed a temp. of 56 lows and the highest 73 in Anchorage,Alaska 2011
• Fuel Pumps & Injectors
Ultra Low Sulfer Diesel Fuel Additives Diesel Performance Products Power Programmers
• Electronic Unit Injectors • Turbochargers • Gasoline Injectors
“Joan Sowash of Aunt Sissy’s Kitchen takes the Moon and her husband Rick along to the Kitchen of the famous Bahama Breeze Restaurant in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. While there, Joan says she twisted a few arms along with some Southern charm and we should look for a new Caribbean Seafood Chowder on her John G Ford of Port Aransas about to board train from Anchorage to Fairbanks, AK. menu coming soon”
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7 Days 9-6 405 Cut-off Road 749-4190
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Exhaust & Turbo Kids for Dodge 5.9 / 6.7, Chevy 6.5 / 6.6, Ford 7.3 / 6.0 / 6.4 Powerstroke
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Call Toll Free 888-781-9700 www.coastaldiesel.com
Sonic Drive In ● 14401 Park Road 22, Corpus Christi, TX ● (361) 949-7886
Island Moon
August 26, 2011
A 15
August 16th PIBA Mixer at Keller Williams Realty Hosted by Keller Williams Realty and The Kiwanis Club of Padre Island
The Coastal Bend Audubon Society meets on the first Tuesday of the month from September through May at 7 pm at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science & History, 1900 Chaparral.
PARADISE P LIMOUSINES Welcome to Paradise!
$25
Now Providing Dinner runs and Club runs to Port A from The Island Call for additional information In Appreciation Of Our Local Heroes
(361) 949-1161 (361) 877-LIMO (5466) www.ccexecutivelimos.com
50%
off for all first responders on September 9,10, 11. Call for details.
13941 S. Padre Island Dr. Corpus Christi, TX 78418
Formerly known as Executive Limousines
GOOD-N-CRISP
CHICKEN Now has a full bar
Happy Hour Tuesday - Friday 4-6 Featuring a new appetizer menu
Lunch 11:30-2p.m Tuesday through Friday. Closed for Lunch ONLY on Saturday. Dinner 5:00-9:30p.m Tuesday through Thursday 5:00-10.p.m. Friday and Saturday. Remember to call for private parties or catering, we would love to accommodate you! For Daily Specials, see Facebook: Dragonfly Restaurant Twitter: Dragonflycuracao
Check out our menu online at www.DragonflyCuracao.com We can’t wait to see you at our new location!
14701 SPID , On Padre Island 361-949-2224
Padre Island Happy Labor Day!
Make Good N Crisp Chicken your place for
Chicken, Chicken Tenders, Made to Order Hot Wings Made Fresh - Never Frozen Try Our Made to Order Menu Items Homemade Onion Rings, Corn Nuggets, Fried Pickles Homemade Peach Cobbler Alamode
Check Out our Seafood Specials This Month Get your Spring Break T-Shirts!
Located on Padre Island Park Rd 22 / SPID @ Commodore Lane Call In Orders Welcome
(361) 949-0011
Award Winning Chicken and Wings Best of The Best and Wing Ding HAVE A GOOD N CRISP DAY!!
Above: Jackson Soward won the AAU Junior Olympics in New Orleans recently. Jackson trained six hours a day to compete in the event. He is a four time AAU national champion but this is the first Junior Olympic medal for him. Jackson hopes to compete in the Olympics when he is old enough. Way to go Jackson! Below: Jackson and Cassidy Soward recently won the AAU National Tae Kwon Do Championship in Austin, Texas. The twins trained at Lumampao Martial arts Studio in Corpus Christi. They both received gold medals along with the title.
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Island Moon
August 26, 2011