If you did, you really missed a special event held on Saturday, March 8th at the POC Community Center Pavilion with lots of handcrafted items and art with the artists, along with handcrafted jewelry, crosses, Easter yard art, special wooden vases, crafted wooden canes, wreaths, crosses, handmade knives, glass bird feeders, wooden writing pens, wooden fish and nautical items, great furniture, special ergonomic tools for ladies, purses to hold handguns, hummingbird feeders, metal cutouts, framed pictures of Port O’Connor, a book sale, and many other items including lessons given on turquoise stones. There was also a large lighthouse that was sold very quickly. It just marched off. There were baked goods sold by the Lions Club, kolaches and other baked goods by the D.I.V.A.S. Girls of Seadrift, and for lunch, The Smokin’ Nuts had wonderful barbeque sandwiches. Donnie Haynes, Henry Pongratz and their teammates can really serve up some good barbeque. The talent of these vendors is fantastic.

The Port O’Connor Lions Club sincerely thanks all those who participated in the Festival and made it fun. Please accept our deeply grateful and heartfelt “THANKS!!”. The weather cooperated somewhat in the morning but became windy and cool in the afternoon. The days before and after the Festival were worse weather-wise, so we did have some help from our Higher Authority for whom we thank. He did not send any rain that day and we are thankful.

The Port O’Connor Lions Club is grateful for the vendors who brought their wonderful items to us and all the people who turned out to shop. Two of the vendors traveled from other Lions Clubs to participate. Sure hope you shoppers got that special item. We are also grateful to the many donations made by the community for our bake sale and the really nice raffle items which were enjoyed by those in attendance. Debbie Michalec, Vice President of the Port O’Connor Lions Club did a very good job asking for donations for the raffle with our community responding with their donations. Diane Cooley, Secretary, and her Husband, Jim Cooley also did a very good job on the raffle and with helping out with the preparations and set up before and after the Festival. Jim Cooley made and donated the popular Texas Flag decorated wooden bench that was so coveted and in demand for raffle tickets.

Linda Butler, Treasurer and Jim Butler, Director, did an excellent job on helping out with the acquisition and sale of drinks during the Festival. That was a job well done.

Lynn Reeves, our Zone 12 Chairman and President of Seadrift Lions Club came out and graciously worked the entire day. We appreciate all the help she gave us. My Husband, John Jordan worked on the preparations for set up and clean up also. He and Jim Cooley had the task of marking off all the booth spaces and hammering in the stakes before the Festival along with other chores.

Sadly, one of our vendors, Mr. Victor Z. Martin, Wildlife Artist, was not there as he had planned. I found out the night before the Festival that he had passed away around the end of January. We all missed him. He is the artist who set up a booth at The Fishing Center for a good number of years with his paintings during Fourth of July and Poco Bueno.

All in all, it was a good turnout and Festival despite the weather since many vendors were asking for the date of the Arts & Crafts Festival for next year. We collected used eyeglasses for refurbishment and donations for White Cane Day supporting the Lions Eye Bank of Texas located in Baylor College of Medicine in the Medical Center of Houston. A collection box for used eyeglasses is located in Cathy’s Restaurant on Byers at Hwy. 185 for additional deposits of used eyeglasses to be refurbished and given to those who cannot afford glasses.

THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO DONATED AND HELPED TO MAKE THE FESTIVAL A GREAT SUCCESS!!

For information or to find out how you can become part of the Port O’Connor Lions Club, please contact Joyce Jordan, President at cell #361-655-7999.

Carol and Gib Fox about to purchase some of Jenny O’Neill’s homemade dewberry jelly. Jenny also displayed her beautiful photos on canvas. Carol and Carly Rosenboom made unique hand-sewn aprons and other items displayed for sale in the same booth.

Donnie Haynes serves Randall Goode a delicous barbecue sandwich.

Pat Hatcher and Linda Butler show one of Jim Butler’s unique sand art clocks.

Barbara Crouch, Mary Ann Claiborne, and Paula McCauley manning the Friends of Port O’Connor Library booth.

It is this time of year that sometimes we tend to fool ourselves about things. We use all sorts of gimmicks let us say we have done one thing when we have done something entirely different.

If you ask anyone how many hours there are in a day they will answer twenty-four. Those 24 hours are divided into daylight and night time. Some persnickety folks might argue there are four divisions and add the morning and evening twilights.

That set aside we can agree that between Sunrise and Sunset we are in daylight. Most of us would agree we have no real control of that time. It was common in ancient times to talk in terms of working from “can till can’t”. This meant when there is and isn’t enough light to work.

Over the years man developed methods of creating light other than sunlight. We now use electricity that does most of the lighting of the night. If one looks at satellite pictures of, say the US, we can see lots of that light in the night. This tends to cluster around cities and is much dimmer in rural areas, In fact many astronomers complain about how hard it is find a place dark enough to watch the stars.

Man has also invented ways to measure time. The latest technology is to count the vibrations of certain atoms to determine time. This leads to incredibly small divisions of a second. This is often sent to our cell phones and in some cases has replaced wrist watches. Some of those clocks can even tell you the exact time of Sunset or Sunrise.

However, only the slowest folks would believe a person who said that they could shorten or extend the number of hours between those two exact times. Mother Nature and the ecliptic are in complete control of that.Even so we fool ourselves by using what we call daylight savings time. Here we call it CDT. No daylight is saved. The net effect is that the clock says that sunset is quite an hour later in the day than it would in what we call Standard time.

This is merely a change in the clock time. When we reset the clocks, we Spring forward by getting up an hour earlier. We Fall back by sleeping an hour later next Fall. So we just balance the hours we sleep several months apart.

Now don’t get me wrong as a sort of night owl I like the later time of sunset. This was especially true when I had to get up to go to work at an early hour but had more daylight time after work.. I would have complained vigorously if I was forced to get up an hour earlier with the clock set on standard time. We fool ourselves by the trick of changing the clock setting and do learn to live with that hour earlier. I hope it isn’t so easy to fool ourselves on more important matters.

The past two meetings of the POC Service Club have been solely involved with the upcoming Bi-Annual Garage and Bake Sale, which is scheduled for Saturday, April 5, 2014. Held once again at the Pavilion building of the Community Center, and starting at 8:00 a.m. that morning, a mammoth turnout is anticipated. If only the weather really cooperates.

Under the Chairmanship of Peggy Elliott, and ably assisted by Debbie Busby, Kay Middleton, Linda Orrick and Marie Hawes, various duties are being assigned to the working members. And Ginnie Lichac, Chairman of the Bake Sale, has reminded members to be certain to deliver their delicious items prior to the 8:00 a.m. opening. Ginnie will be assisted once again by Helen Hardcastle and Pat Turk in pricing and labeling the many cakes and cookies on display for sale.

A new member of Club, Iris Shuh, presented additional information to Club members concerning ways of rating applications for scholarships as based on merit. This will be extremely helpful for selecting the winner of the new Scholarship that the Club has decided to fund in honor of Agnes Valigura, and that scholarship will be a one-time only award in the amount of $1,000. More information will be available at a later date for high school graduating students from Port O’Connor who wish to apply. This one-time only scholarship is in addition to the other scholarships awarded annually by the Service Club to a graduating senior from Port O’Connor and our School.

There’s an empty place now at the Officers’ Table of the POC Service Club. This is the left- side area where Agnes Valigura has sat for many years in her role as Parliamentarian. Each morning during the meeting she would be there taking role, and often, I and many others present, were the recipients of that beautiful smile which would then catch our eyes. When she spoke in relation to a discussion, one almost had to strain to hear that softly spoken voice with just a trace of a very charming accent as she made her point.

This lady, though somewhat physically limited, had an indomitable spirit that conquered her lack of mobility. She was an active member of the Service Club, never missing an event, and to see her at the Garage Sales pricing items was a joy. She constantly baked for the various Bake Sales the Club has had in the past; her pecan pies were fought over and the winning purchaser often spent over $50.00 for that luscious dessert.

Agnes unconsciously taught us all a lesson; that despite hardships you continue to strive and then prevail; something she emphatically did. Port O’Connor has not just lost a remarkable lady with her death last month, but an Icon for us all to admire and emulate. We miss her now and in the future.

The next meeting of the POC Service Club is scheduled for Thursday, April 3, 2014, and we welcome all interested women in this area who desire to be a part of the continuing change for the betterment in our Community. As that meeting will be two days before our Bi-Annual Garage and Bake Sale, why not plan to attend the meeting and get involved in the Garage Sale? Contact Membership Chairman, Shirley Gordon at the Library, 983-4365, or our President, Janet Johnson, 983-4737 for more information. See you there!