That’s a question I’ve had placed to me a number of times. With its more-or-less central business district and its large school building, Seadrift appears larger to me, even though Port O’Connor is more spread out. But I was never sure about this until I checked with the latest U.S. Government Census. With births, deaths, and re-locations, the numbers may have changed somewhat, but according to the 2010 Census, Seadrift has 111 more residents than Port O’Connor. (Seadrift, 1,364; Port O’Connor, 1,253)

There are more housing units (1,723) than people in Port O’Connor, but we already knew that there are quite a number of vacation homes in Port O’Connor. Of the 579 occupied units, 490 are owner-occupied, while  372 of Seadrift’s 496 occupied units are.  (The total number of housing units in Seadrift is 817.)

Although the population of the state of Texas is 25,145,561, only 21,381 of us reside here in Calhoun Calhoun County.  That’s not much larger than what is usually considered a “small town”. But, to those of us fortunate enough to live here, we’re happy to be living where the traffic is sparse, the people are friendly, and “everyone knows your name” (that is, at least everyone knows someone who knows your name).  And many of us, myself included, think it’s a big deal, and a real chore, to have to occasionally drive to the “big city” of Victoria (population 62,592).

See “Fish Out of Water” in this issue for a perspective on moving from the big city to a small town.