Rugby on the Beach
Issue 539
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The voice of The Island since 1996
The Island Moon
August 14, 2014 editor@islandmoon.com
The Get-It-While-You-Can crowd descended on us last weekend as the kids’ summer vacation winds down and everybody between Swinney Switch and Baja Oklahoma with a car that runs headed OTB. The crowds on our beaches which were as large as we have ever seen with two to three rows of vehicles packed in door to door from Newport Pass to Kleberg County. It is hard to see how any more people or cars could have been shoe-horned onto the beaches. Every square foot of drivable sand was covered with people or vehicles. For the first time in memory there were people with chairs and shade set up at the foot of the dunes because the water-side of the road was too crowded.
Urban Traffic The concessioners, particularly in Port A. are reporting that the long ferry lines are altering the patterns of visitors coming to The Island. On busy weekends the beach crowd packs the beaches, but the more savvy uplanders are waiting until the days after the big weekends to head this way. As a result many watercraft operators, from fishing boats to jet skis, are seeing slower crowds on Saturday and Sunday and an increase in business on Monday and Wednesday as frequent flyers dodge the ferry lines by heading down on weekdays. No matter how they are managed the ferries can only handle 650 cars per hour and that is without delays while ship and barge traffic makes its way down the ship channel. There doesn’t look to be a lot of relief in sight as the Port of Corpus Christi gets busier by the month with fifteen to twenty ships at any given time waiting in the Gulf to enter the port.
Weekly
2 weeks to Labor Day - Where did the Summer Go?
CCPD Island Bash Set for August 23
Around The Island By Dale Rankin
FREE
The Last Days of Summer
The Corpus Christi Police Department will hold a CCPD Island Bash Event on August 23rd at the Packery Channel Boat Ramp, located at the corner of Zahn Rd. and S.H. 361, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. This is the first year we had an Island Police Substation manned on a daily basis to assist tourists and the community with any police related issues. Throughout the summer, we have held several small events to promote our substation. Summer 2014 is now coming to an end and we will be closing this location on September 1st. The Corpus Christi Fire Department and the Flour Bluff Volunteer Fire Department will have fire trucks on display. Driscoll Children's Hospital will provide bicycle safety presentations for children and they will be giving away FREE bicycle helmets. A safety seat belt demonstration will be provided by the Texas Department of Transportation. Parks and Wildlife will have a boat on show and a Game Warden will be available for any questions. The Corpus Christi Police Department will exhibit the Police Museum, Bomb truck, SWAT truck, Dive Team boat, and the K-9 unit. These specialized units will have respective Police Officers on hand for any demonstrations and questions. For questions contact Sgt. Luis Flores at 361-728-3668.
Back to school for Island kids
Inside the Moon
Look for more and more traffic to make The Turn at SPID and SH 361 because when the ferry line gets to a one-hour wait or more it’s quicker to go around.
Island Moon Newspaper ArtWalk As we said last week the Island Moon Newspaper ArkWalk is moving to Schlitterbahn on Saturday, October 25 where it will remain for the foreseeable future. Interested vendors can contact us here or contact Jordan at the park at Jgreer@schlitterbahn. com.
Greatness Continued We Moon Monkeys have been working on a book for about a year now; it takes forever to read one of those things. But Moon columnist Andy Purvis has gone and finished yet another one of his own called Greatness Continued about some of the sports figures he has met along the way. Andy is having a book signing on Saturday August 16, from 5:307:10 p.m. at Hook, Line and Sinker at Whataburger Field. That may sound like a bait shop but it’s not. So go by and see Andy and in the meantime say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Island Legends
On the Rocks... Idle Iron A6
By Brent Rourk
SMA and SLC staff members gearing up for the year. Photo by Shannon Trial Learning never stops
The blissful summer passed by in a ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ for the staff at Seashore Middle Academy (SMA), however, staff members all managed to find their way back to the school front door last Thursday as they began preparations for the coming school year. They looked wiser, refreshed, and loaded with new ideas about teaching our children.
Uneventful return Their return to campus last week was uneventful, unlike the case in some schools around the country.
A teacher in Oklahoma allegedly reported to work the first day last week completely drunk and unable to do much more than breathe. Apparently, she also forgot to wear her pants. A few years back 171 teachers in Philadelphia simply did not show up for the first day. A principal in Massachusetts delivered a baby on the first day of school. No such misfortune, surprise, or malfeasance here on The Island as all the SMA teachers attended and embraced the first day of meetings and in-services.
Buttercup on the Washtub Bass
By Jackie Bales They called her Buttercup. No one really knew her real name. With a name like Buttercup Hartman you didn’t need a real name. Her husband, Bob Hartman, played the piano while Buttercup plucked away on her number 3-washtub bass contraption. They played the beer joints, brothels and bordellos from San Francisco to Saint Louis to New Orleans. It was widely rumored that Buttercup was a centerfold “pin-up” in her younger days. They wound up on this little strip of sandbar in the 1950’s. You would find them anywhere there was a rickety old piano. It didn’t have to be much of a piano. “If it’s not tuned you just play it
louder”, Bob Hartman once said. And that he did. They played the Red Horse in Karnes City and always made the Town and Country Days and Fair up in the little cow town. One could find them at Hogan’s Bait Stand on the Aransas channel between Port Aransas and Aransas Pass. They would rock that little shack apart while the fisherman guzzled beer and joined the chorus. The year is 1960 and I am nine years old. While wrapping up my daily work at Mathews fish house I would hear the old piano chime across the flats. It sounded like a carnival came to town. It’s was Shorty’s place where the islanders would meet to drink beer and stomp the old wooden floor so hard that dust fell off the ceiling. Shorty didn’t allow kids around after dark but I knew a
During the summer several teachers took classes, began graduate programs, or received credentials to teach new classes, quickly dispelling the myth that ’teachers have the whole summer off’. Many of the staff members were able to squeeze some travel as well as some reading into their busy summer schedule.
Backwater Adventures... Land Cut Trout A7
Students must report to school on Monday, August 18th with supplies and smiles. Students will be directed to report to their homerooms
Seashore continued on A3
Three Eagle Scouts for Island Troop By Ken C. Harrelson
Colleen McIntyre... Where does your tax money go? A12
Scoutmaster Troop 949 Luke Howell, Kunal Patel, and Ryan Harrelson are all members of the Island Scout Troop 949 and all three are now officially Eagle Scouts.
Buttercup few nooks and crannies where I could sit undetected most of the time. Shorty’s place was the thumping heart and soul of the little community back then. I often went to see my dad, Roy Bales, and Uncle Leslie Willey
History continued on A3
All three of these young men started their involvement in > scouting over a decade ago in Cub Scouts and achieved the Arrow of Light, the highest achievement in Cub Scouts. They all persevered until they achieved the highest rank in scouting whicn is the rank of Eagle. Placing them in the elite of Scouting ( Less than 5% of all scouts achieve the rank of Eagle ). Luke and Kunal will be will be attending A&M and UT in the fall and Ryan will finish his senior year
Scouts continued on A9
John Cornyn... Texas' Painted Churches A15
Live Music... Green Light Pistol A18