Issue 558
FREE
The
Island Moon
Free
Weekly The voice of The Island since 1996
December 24, 2014 The only Island in Texas with more parks than traffic lights
Around The Island By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
Things have been slowing down on our little sandbar this week as we head into the holiday season and wind down toward the New Year so we’re going to keep it short.
Photo by Sharon Watkins
Happy HOlidays! SPID Traffic Light Moves Through City Committee
The first day of winter arrived on Sunday but you wouldn’t know it by the weather around here. As of this writing a Blue Northern is headed our way but compared to last year folks, we got nothing to complain about weather wise; the fall this year came in like a lamb compared to last year’s roaring lion. Water temps are still warm for this time of year and our beaches have been beautiful of late.
By Dale Rankin
A few early bird Winter Texans have arrived and we saw this bumper sticker on a car from the Upper Midwest on one of them.
The City of Corpus Christi’s Traffic Advisory Committee heard testimony this week about the proposed traffic light at the SPID/Aquarius intersection but did not make a recommendation. The city staff said they are still negotiating with the developer.
Stuff I Heard on the Island
What’s Going on at Schlitterbahn?
By Dale Rankin
Thanks for the warning ma’am. We’ll see everybody at the Beltsander Races. In the meantime have a Merry Christmas everybody, don’t forget to get a present for your dog friends so they don’t feel left out, and say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Perfect Fit
Meet The Islanders’ Coach By Andy Purvis He moves with long deliberate strides that tell you he knows where he is headed. A great smile and eyes that sparkle; he puts you at ease quickly. This guy loves basketball. His first words may have been the “Big O” and “Wilt.” In a crowd, he appears more comfortable than an old baseball cap. He is intelligent, gives credit to everyone but himself, and is a fine speaker. Some say he could draw a crowd at the North Pole. He’s a guy that doesn’t mind showing you the way to success; it remains up to us to
Coach Wilson and Andy Purvis follow. He knows we only get a short amount of time to be great at what we want to do, so he does not waste time. He understands that sometimes greatness is about struggle not victory. It’s about finding out what’s inside, the reason for being who you are. He also knows that regardless of the score, there is always time to coach. Shooting free throws with this guy for ten minutes will teach you more about him than 15 years of sitting at a desk across from him. He’s a fine man, good husband, great father, trusted friend and a basketball coach. A teacher in tennis shoes, Willis Wilson is the perfect fit for Islander basketball.
Character, Toughness, and Talent The first time I met Willis Wilson was at the 2011 NCAA Final Four. Where else would you meet one of the most respected basketball coaches in the land? Interestingly, Willis, the newly-named Head Coach of the Texas A&M--Corpus Christi Islanders, was introduced to me by the Islanders’ original coach, Ronnie Arrow. We shook hands, spoke for a minute, and made plans to connect later back in Corpus Christi. I grew up in ACC country and, like Willis,
Purvis continued on A8
The San Antonio real estate firm of Turner Busby Development owns nine acres on the east side of SPID at the location and plans to build
Light continued on A4
As I have made the rounds of Island holiday parties this Christmas season the most common question I have heard is what you see printed above: “What’s going on at Schlitterbahn?
Inside the Moon
I have refrained from writing about it because I have been awaiting the resolution of events going on behind the scenes that I know will sooner or later get straightened out and my intent was to wait until that happens to say anything. But as time has gone by the stories have gotten wilder and
Schlitterbahn continued on A8
La Posada A2
Message in a bottle
Thanks for Saving My Life Forgive Me for Borrowing Your Husband
By Ronnie Narmour It has the makings of one of those melodramas on the Lifetime Network. A rescue at sea, a shared lover named Rondo, grandkids, an ocean cruise, and finally a hopeful, poignant ending of forgiveness that has everyone living happily ever after. All that's missing is a little organ music and a picture of Fabio with his hair blowing in the breeze. It’s all contained in three somewhat cryptic handwritten pages on stationary from Carnival Cruise Lines and tossed overboard somewhere at sea fourteen months ago that fate delivered to the beach in Port Aransas.
Seashore A3
It all started when Winter Texan Sue Woodard, from Decatur, Illinois was taking her regular beach walk near Mile Marker 60 the other day with her Jack Russell Terrier named Dottie when she noticed something unusual. There on the sand, next to a Styrofoam float and a patch of Sargassum weed was a peculiar looking bottle with something inside.
Fishing A7
Message continued on A9
A little Island history
When German U-Boats Roamed the Gulf The legend of U-166 and Mexican gold
By Dale Rankin It was the summer of 1942 and the German Kliegsmarine was out to sink American shipping in the waters off the Texas Coast. U-166 had laid her mines off the coast near the mouth of the Mississippi River where she had recently sunk the freighter Herida and the tanker McKelvy off Mississippi Pass and had then damaged a liberty ship within sight of the sea buoy at Galveston. She headed west in the Gulf and was now off Port Lavaca working the shipping lanes headed east out of the Port of Corpus Christi in only ten fathoms of water; barely enough to submerge a 240 foot U-boat. In water that shallow she could dive but would likely be visible from a reconnaissance airplane. Why an experienced U-boat captain like the one onboard U-166 would be
Sports A8
in such shallow water has fed the mystery. Hunting in the Gulf Just after dark the Mexican liner Oaxaca cleared Pass Cavalla and rounded Decros Point eastbound with general cargo and caustic soda. She passed the Naval Air Station and headed out to sea. Less than ten miles offshore she took a torpedo from U-166 and went to the bottom. The captain of U-166 then ran east back toward the more fertile hunting grounds of New Orleans. On August 1 she was running in a calm sea when at 1:30 p.m. a Coast Guard aircraft piloted by Henry C. White was patrolling its assigned area sixty miles off the Louisiana coast near the wrecks of the Herida and McKelvy. From 1500 feet White caught sight of U-166 rolling on the surface. He banked to circle toward
Port A Christmas Parade A11
Deck gun on U-166 wreck the sub’s stern in the manner American pilots were taught to use when attacking German submarines but as he circled the boat began to
History continued on A5
Christmas in Korea A12