Island Moon January 6, 2010
Port Aransas Year 14 Issue 353 North Padre Island - Flour Bluff - Mustang Island
Birds And Beach Bits
When Port Aransas Had Casinos
By Jay Gardner Well loyal readers, I hope you’re sticking to your New Years Resolutions. Keep eating better, stay off the smokes, treat everyone kinder this year, and stay out of the passing lane while driving 55 MPH. Personally, I resolved three New Years ago to quit making New Years resolutions. Easiest resolution I’ve ever made. Hey, you gotta find something that works for you and stick with it. Digging Out
By Mary Craft To tell the history of the Wilson and Nelson families in Port Aransas is to tell the history of Port Aransas. The two families are among the oldest in the town and the forebears of the current family members have a varied and colorful past that paints a vivid picture of life in Port Aransas in the century just passed.
Even turtles that appear dead may still be alive and able to be re-habilitated. Keep your eyes peeled and your phone handy on the water. Who Ya Gonna Call? Bean Counters.. While the Big Daily covered the story they neglected to give out the number to call. Ha! The Moon is awesome! Not only can we write you a pretty story, but we can give the pertinent information too!
So much going on I don’t even know where to begin. This year has really just hit the ground running. UnI attended a public less you’ve been vacascoping meeting last tioning in Tahiti for the week up at TAMUCC. past month, you know The TPWD was takit’s been cold. Really ing public comments cold. Cold enough to regarding three issues kill a bunch of fish, and that they were considat the last count, over ering changing. While 420 sea turtles up and two of them were down the Texas Coast. frankly “bean-counI would venture to ter” issues, the third call that a devastating Why did the Albino Grackle cross the road? To get to the puddle on the one was indeed interestfreeze. What a toughother side of course. ing, and understandably environment we live in gained the most attention. folks! If the red tide doesn’t get you, the freeze will. It will take several years for our fisheries to rebound A “faction” in South Padre petitioned the TPWD to from the effects of the past five months. It will take consider lowering the limits on snook, basically from decades for the turtle population to recover just to the 24” minimum length to 22” minimum. The theory levels we had last year. And folks, remember those is that it would allow the harvesting of upper sized turtles were so few that they’re listed as Endangered fat snook. (Remember, we have at least two species here, the common snook which get really big, and the Species anyway. What a tough blow. fat snook, which rarely get above 20”. The fat snook Islander’s Respond are the most commonly caught species around the jetDonna Shaver’s team and Tony Amos’ team and the ties and piers). aquarium and TPWD guys out at the hatchery and The People Get It Right lots of others have been working around the clock trying to locate and rehabilitate any turtles that have So the TPWD had scoping meetings up and down the come in. While they are running patrols, if you see coast, and the one that was held here was pretty tame. a turtle, dead or alive, please call the Stranding Hot- Some were for changing the rules, and many were line at 361-949-9173 ext 226. The biggest supporter not. I don’t think they got a clear answer from our of this effort is YOU the PUBLIC. Without reports of group, although I like to think I made it clear that the where these turtles are stranding from fisherman and TPWD needs more life history research on fat snook boaters in general, many of them wouldn’t survive. before they adopt a rule to start killing them. I hear the one on South Padre was really well attended, however had some surprising results. Although the faction down there was the source of the TPWD scoping the proposed changes, they almost unanimously voted to NOT allow a fat snook take slot limit. Cool. I believe that we need to manage the snook fishery for Common snook, which is the real source of the economic dollars, and also the stuff that dreams are made of. Imagine a huge linesider coming up and smacking your topwater, then going totally aerial as your drag screams. Gets me hot and breathing heavy thinking about it. Now think about ensuring that same fish crashing on your children’s’ topwater, and their children’s’ topwater. That’s what I’m talking about. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I am a “fin-atic” when it comes to those snook. So anyhoo, I’m glad snook got the attention, and I’m glad the public mostBirds Continued PA 4
Fat Tuesday in Port A
Photo By Mike Ellis
Laissez les bon temps roulez! Hooray! Hooray! Mardi Gras time on Mustang Island is coming up. Time to party down, eat some mudbugs, put some extra hot sauce in your gumbo and load up on beads… got to have lots of beads. And where do you get these beads? You stand on the streets of Port A around five o’clock on Fat Tuesday (February 16th) and wait for them to come to you. The 14th Annual Port Aransas Mardi Gras Parade will make sure of that.
Travis Wilson was a plumber and sheet metal worker in Fort Worth as was his father before him. When the Depression hit he did what he had to in order to
support his family and went to Galveston to work for “Big” Sam Mateo and his brother. The Sicilian brothers started out as barbers in their teens but found a career in bootlegging and gambling to be more financially rewarding. They eventually created a gambling empire with many illegal casinos on and near the seawall in that city. It was there Travis learned how to operate a gambling establishment and he used that experience in his own gaming rooms when he later opened shop in Port Aransas and Corpus Christi. Big Sam opened a casino on the seawall in 1929 that became so popular that a 600-foot pier was added and the name changed to the exotic Balinese Room in 1942. It was a popular Hollywood star destination for Bob Hope, Groucho Marx, Sophie Tucker and other
Brown Bag Lunch Lecture Series Listen to speakers on interesting topics at the 2010 Brown Bag Lecture Series. Come and bring a lunch, if you would like, every Wednesday at noon through the middle of March at the Pollock Center at 129 S. Alister St. in Port Aransas, and enjoy learning about different topics as you eat.
Meditation/Relaxation Class
making a big circle. It will depart the Gaff down Beach Street towards Allister. Go right towards Old Town and circle the Flats area around Shorty’s. Come out on Cotter in front of the Tarpon Inn and head left down to Station Street...then right back down to Beach again. The day’s festivities will kick-off at The Gaff, whose krewes will have three completely tricked out floats in the parade. This is definitely the best place to get centered for this raucous occasion. Kip Shannon, owner of The Gaff, tells me they take their Mardi Gras seriously. In fact, he’s been putting more and more effort into it each year in hopes of someday giving Fat TuesdayContinued PA 3
and the patriotic patrons would stand at attention restricting access to the back casino along with a series of glass doors the Rangers had to negotiate to get to the gambling area. One of Travis’ duties for Big Sam was to travel to Mexico to buy liquor. The Island was a natural It was a big job to quench the thirst of all those dry gamblers. Travis would go to Mexico to buy liquor for the casinos and on a trip there he met Maurine, his soon to be wife, at a supper club. She was a Denton graduate with a degree in Education and had taught for a while before getting a position as an assistant to Wilson Continued PA 3
Port Aransas Happenings
For more information, contact Parks and Recreation Community Program Coordinator Pam Greene at 749-4158 or pamg@cityofportaransas.org Some People Just Love A Parade More than Others!
When there was a raid, gaming tables were changed to backgammon tables and slot machines were folded up into the walls like Murphy beds. To give extra time for the change, the band near the entrance would play “The Eyes of Texas” to announce the Rangers arrival
Balinese Room on the Galveston sea wall was a popular destination for Hollywood stars in the 40’s. Around 1950 they moved their partying to Las Vegas where the gambling was legal.
Up next are : Jan. 20 – John Metz-NOAA, Weather Outlook for this upcoming Spring and Summer; Jan. 27 – Joyce Williams, Haiti missions [donations collected this day will be sent to earthquake relief in Haiti]; Feb. 3 – Larry & Charlotte Davenport, Quebec Ice Hotel & Dog Sled and Feb. 10 – Lu Ann Ferguson & Randy Johns, U.S. Air Traffic Control System.
Mardi Gras literally means “Fat Tuesday” and “carnival” has become known as the time between the Epiphany or Twelfth Night and Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of Lent. Mardi Gras is typically celebrated by over indulgence, wild parties and colorful parades in the name of decadence before abstinence, in many places around the globe.
The parade will follow the same route as last year
Down at the Balinese
The series is a joint effort between the City of Port Aransas Parks and Recreation Department and the Joint Effort Leisure Ministry (JELM). Anyone of any age is invited to attend. Donations are accepted to help the JELM Center with utilities for the Pollock Center.
by Ronnie Narmour
The Port Aransas Mardi Gras Parade is an island tradition started by PALS (Port Aransas Leisure Society), a coalition of island residents who are serious about their fun. Usual parade participants each year include The Gaff, Sharkeys, The V.F.W., The Parrot Heads, The Red Hat Society, PALS, Island Cycles, Lug Nutz, The Romeo’s, CC Magazine and The Island Moon. Anyone who wants to, can be a part of this parade by simply showing up at The Gaff with your “float” by 4:00 with lots of beads to throw out. The Island Moon krewe will be throwing out the traditional Moon Pies as usual. Understand, of course, that the term “float” is a loose interpretation and many people walk in this parade, but make no mistake about it; this is a real parade complete with city permits all in order.
We recently sat down with Peggy Nelson who lived in Port A from 1940 until 1980 to get a living history.
celebrities of the time. Entertainment was provided by popular entertainers like Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. The gambling part of the facility was at the end of the pier to provide time to hide the evidence before the Texas Rangers got there. Stories of the Balinese echoed down the years all the way through the 1970’s when that Little Old Band from Texas, ZZ Top immortalized it in their song Down at the Balinese.
Every other Thursday evening you can learn how to handle everything life throws at you during a free Meditation/Relaxation Class. The next class is January 21st. The class is a City of Port Aransas Parks and Recreation Department event. It is held at 6:30pm, in the Port Aransas Girl Scout hut, 739 W. Ave. A, now while weather is bad. It will resume in the Roberts Point Park small pavilion when weather permits. Rebecca Haworth of Rockport shares the teachings of yoga she has practiced for more than 15 years. No physical movement is required…this are mind centering techniques good for people of any age. For more information, contact Parks and Recreation Community Program Coordinator Pam Greene at 749-4158 or pamg@cityofportaransas.org Beach Walk
Just what is on the beach in Port Aransas? Find out at a free guided beach walk courtesy of Port Aransas Parks and Recreation Department. The next walk is set for Friday, January 22nd, 9 a.m. Meet guide Shirley Fischer on the beach under the purple flag near Horace Coldwell Pier at the end of Beach Street. Bring something to collect your great “finds”. Port Aransas Sand Slam Poetry Slam Series Celebrate performance poetry with a good laugh or cry during the next Port Aransas Sand Slam poetry competition. The January 22nd competition will be held at the Tarpon Ice House, 321 N. Alister St. in Port Aransas. You don’t have to know anything about poetry, just have an open mind. This poetry competition is held the 4th Friday of each month. Competitors and poetry lovers are needed to make each event a success. Poetry selections range from fluff to extremely serious, hilarious to heartbreaking, and always promise a night of entertainment Port A style. Sign up for the competition and the open mic is at 7:30 pm. The evening begins at 8 pm with an open mic session where anyone may read or recite his/her own or anyone else’s poetry of any kind. The competition starts after the open mic with 3 rounds of competition. The presenter must use poetry he or she has written. Music may be integrated into the presentation. Competitors in the poetry slam should bring at least 3 original pieces to perform. Competitors will be judged by five members of the audience from 1.0 to 10.0 with the highest and lowest scores dropped to eliminate friends and enemies, then the other 3 scores are added for a total each round. The highest scorers make it to the last round to compete for the grand prize gift certificate and sometimes money too! Happenings Continued PA 4