Cellphone on a Kite by Steve Coons
Issue 554
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The voice of The Island since 1996
The Island Moon
November 27, 2014
Weekly
The Island where every day is Thanksgiving
New Traffic Light on SPID to Get Hearing on Tuesday
Around The Island By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
By Dale Rankin
We took a hit from three blustery northerns this week but we’re still here. The Weather Wonks predicted 80 mph winds and hail the size of dinosaur eggs but all we got was a bit of brisk air and just enough rain to fill the bar ditches.
A plan to place a new traffic light on South Padre Island Drive at the Aquarius intersection near the base of the JFK Causeway will get a hearing at the Island Strategic Action Committee (ISAC) meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 2, at Comfort Suites on Windward Drive.
Here’s a little tip for Island Weather Watchers…when the Weather Wonks say the wind is going to blow 80 miles an hour for an hour figure 40 mph for thirty minutes. If they say it’s going to rain an inch figure half an inch. In the world of Weather Wonkery it’s much better to spray gloom and doom and be wrong than to underestimate the weather and leave people wading through deep water when they didn’t expect it. The Weather Wonk’s life has so few rewards. Look for the rains to bring back a healthy crop of mosquitos and add a few new steps to the Skeeter Dance. Red polka dots are in for golfers this season as they leave blood spots while doing the Skeeter Dance while out there whacking whitey.
The developers of a $30 million project on the east side of that intersection, including a 101 room hotel and retail sites are scheduled to make a presentation to ISAC members.
The Island in Autumn, photo courtesy of KII
La Posada 2014 Shaping Up to be Biggest Ever Kickoff is Tuesday at Scuttlebutt’s By Dale Rankin The 40th Annual La Posada Lighted Boat Parade festivities begin on Tuesday, December 2, with the kickoff party at Scuttlebutt’s Bar and Grill and culminate with the lighted boat parade on the Main Canal on Saturday, December 13.
There’s a lot going on Around The Island and here is some of it.
Go Hornets! The Flour Bluff Hornets continue to plow their way through the football playoffs. Dotson has the whole story in this issue. Go Hornets!
KIII camera
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La Posada Begins December 2! Full Schedule on A16
In between, eight different events are on tap with the addition this year of the Land Parade on Monday, December 8.
th 0 4 Annual
LA POSADA
Lighted Boat Parade
“Each year we have been adding a new event, and this year we are adding the Land Parade in cooperation with the Yorktown Fire Department,” said Vic Schreck, Commodore of the
La Posada continued on A16
Walter Busby, Managing Partner with Turner Busby Development in San Antonio, is the developer of the project, which is called Packery Pointe Subdivision. Busby said the light is necessary in order to attract the hotel development which is essential to the entire project. “We need the hotel to make the retail development viable,” Busby said, “and we need the light in order to attract the hotel.”
Turner Busby Development developed the 3500-acre Alamo Ranch subdivision in San Antonio, several hotel projects, and Eagle Ford Landing which is a $31 million, 378-unit apartment community on the southeast side of San Antonio. Busby’s partner in the company is Tom O. Turner whose grandfather was the founder of Sigmor and the developer of Sonterra Country Club in San Antonio. Aside from the hotel, Busby said a Starbucks coffee house and other retail developments are planned, along with a small bar/restaurant operation which would be located on the portion of the site which fronts Packery Channel on the east. He said in order for the hotel to be included in the development a traffic light is needed at the intersection of SPID and Aquarius. “We need to have something to slow down traffic in that area,” Busby said. “It will stay green most of the time, but it needs to be there for safety.”
Traffic Light continued on A8
Sports Talk
Flour Bluff Smashes Mission Veterans Memorial Advances to Third Round of Playoffs Next Game Friday at Alamo Stadium
Watch Friday Release Of Cold Stunned Green Turtles By: Donna J. Shaver, Ph.D. National Park Service, Padre Island National Seashore E-mail: Donna_Shaver@nps.gov
KIII Television now has a new beach camera on top of the Holiday Inn which can pan the beach from Bob Hall Pier to Packery Channel. So far the camera is only being used for weathercasts but maybe in the future it will be available to surfers, boaters, and fisherpersons to use to check conditions.
By Dotson Lewis Special to the Island Moon The Flour Bluff Hornets football routed the visiting Veterans Memorial Patriots (Mission, TX), 48-14 in Friday's Area game. The Hornets advanced to the Region IV semifinals of the Class 5A Division I playoffs. They will play the Austin (Leander ISD) Vandegrift’s Vipers at 7:30 p.m. Friday at San Antonio’s Alamo Stadium. Vandegrift is a third-round participant in the postseason for the first time.
It’s a great vantage point from up there.
Turkey bowling This Sunday afternoon marks one of the bittersweet days of the Island calendar. Each year the Back Porch Bar closes for the season but not before defying the laws of gravity. Yes, it is true turkeys can fly; but only for one day of the year when the Back Porch hosts its Turkey Bowl and some lucky soul gets to spend the next year with bragging rights as Turkey Bowler of the Year and gets his/her name on the trophy and a little glimpse of immortality. It’s a great day when the locals line up at the Fowl Line and knock down bowling pins for fun. This year will mark the first year without the Island’s most Infamous Bowler Lighthouse Rick who is the only Turkey Bowler ever known to take out a motorcycle by flinging a frozen turkey over the roof and into the parking lot. Rick has now moved to Nicaragua so there may not be any parking lot action this year but it will be the last hurrah for the venerable Back Porch until next spring when they re-open for the season. It’s an especially sad day for Island dogs who visit with their dog friends while their humans exchange fish stories at the Back Porch. Our favorite story heard at the Back Porch this season was about the fellow who broke his arm in two places. Wow, two places we said. Where? At Shorty’s and the Flats! Now that’s a story friends. Ah well, we look forward to next season and at least we still got the Belt Sander Races. We’ll see you trackside. In the meantime say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Due to a rapid drop in temperatures over the last few weeks many green sea turtles were rescued and rehabilitated by several agencies with much help from volunteers. It is now time to return these sea turtles into the Gulf of Mexico. Members of the public are invited to come watch
the release of about 60 cold stunned green turtles at 2:00 pm on Friday November 28. The release will be held in front of the Visitor Center at Padre Island National Seashore (on North Padre Island), and will be open to the public free-of-charge.
Turtles continued on A6
A Little Island History
It Wasn’t Official – But the First Thanksgiving in America was Celebrated on the South Texas Plains in 1534 By Dale Rankin It wasn’t an official Thanksgiving as there was no such thing yet. It was November, 1534 and four shipwrecked Spanish wanderers making their way across the prairies of what is now South Texas had little to be thankful for – at least until the end of November rolled around and their fortunes began to change.
A Moorish prediction Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus 52 Sundays, when people were required to attend church and forego work and sometimes pay for expensive celebrations. In 1536 reforms reduced the number of Church holidays to 27 and the Thanksgiving holiday as we now
know it began to take shape. Days of Fasting were called for after the drought of 1611, and for relief from the plagues of 1604 and 1622; in 1588 it was the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and in 1705 the deliverance of Queen Anne, then the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. These were Protestant celebrations that were foreign and probably unknown to the four Catholic Spaniards who had found themselves washed upon what is now the Alabama shoreline on November 4, 1528. The men had set out from Spain in 1527 to seek their fortune in the New World. On their voyage to Florida by way of Santo Domingo a Moorish woman had predicted that few of the men who went ashore would survive and anyone who did
History continued on A6
Dotson’s note: In order to keep you as up to date as possible as the Flour Bluff Hornets work their way toward the 5A Division I Texas UIL football championship game, the following are reports of the Area games won by the Hornets and the Vipers. Hopefully these reports, gleaned from many sources, will give you in-
depth knowledge as to the way each team plays, thus providing you with information to help you enjoy the game.
Vandegrift Outlasts Lockhart to Win 5A Division II Football Playoff Vandergrift outlasted Lockhart and the weather to storm into the third round of the UIL football playoffs on Saturday. Jamie Hudson accounted for five touchdowns, and a much-maligned defense stole the spotlight as the Vipers posted a 42-13 victory. Vandegrift’s 29-point win in the Class
Football continued on A8
Inside the Moon
Thanksgiving: An Alternative Story By Dale Rankin We all grew up hearing the story of Thanksgiving. You know the one, the Pilgrims suffered through a tough winter with the help of their Native American friends and then threw a big party to celebrate and bang, we got Thanksgiving. Well, that makes for a warm and fuzzy story but that may not be exactly how it went down. Author Richard Zacks in his book “The Pirate Hunter – The True Story of Captain Kidd” tells a slightly different version.
Airtales A9
North Beach in the 40s A12
England 1695 The story begins in England in 1695 when some of the most powerful men in the Empire put financial backing behind the voyage of ship captain William
continued on A5
Live Music A16