Port O’Connor PTO is excited to announce the Christmas Store for students again this year. The Store will be open on December 11, 12, and 13. Items will be available for students to purchase as presents for their families at a cost of 25¢ to $2.00. The PTO will then wrap the presents to be sent home on the 13th.

Donations for the Christmas Store would be greatly appreciated. Needed are items that are either new or gently used (toys that are like new, gently used household items, etc.) Donations of wrapping paper, tape, gift tags, ribbons, bows and gift bags would also be greatly appreciated.

The PTO is accepting donations through December 2. Donated items can be dropped off at the school auditorium stage.
Thank you for making our students’ Christmas more meaningful as they share in the joy of giving. And don’t forget, the Port O’Connor School Christmas Program will be held December 17th at 6:30 in the gym!

The Port O’Connor Chamber of Commerce has had an awesome year. The organization has worked diligently toward the goal of building a new pavilion on King Fisher Beach. The existing pavilion is in need of replacement. The community and friends of Port O’Connor have been instrumental in helping and working with the Chamber to go forward with their plans for the future pavilion.

Mark your calendar to attend the Annual Lighted Boat Parade on the ICW, December 7th. Everyone is invited to decorate and enter their boat.

December 9th is the Annual Christmas Party and Election. It’s not too late to add your name to the ballot if you would be interested in running for a director position for 2014. Contact Donnie Klesel donnieklesel@hotmail.com .

Chamber meeting and election will be held 6-7 p.m. and Chamber Party will be 7-9 p.m. This year the event will be held at The Sanctuary at Casa Grande–entry code is 1209–RSVP to 361-983-2696.

December 11th and 12th will be judging for the Annual Outdoor Lighting Contest. Entry form must be received by December 9th.
If you need more information on any of these events please call 361-983-2898. Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving.

New & Renewed Members:
Alan R. Berger
Donny Haynes
Gary & Carolyn Garrison

One Roemer Closer

Throughout my journey to discover more about Seadrift, often times Long Mott comes up in conversation as well as Roemerville. However my search for information of the latter often leads to a dead end.

This time, I found a family tie which was able to get me one step farther to learning more about the small town which was located on Highway 238 about six miles northeast of Seadrift.

German immigrants were the first to settle in Long Mott around 1853; one family in particular – the Roemers. In fact, a member of the Roemer family has been exploring Texas since as early as 1845. I’m referring to the ‘father of geology of Texas,’ Ferdinand von Roemer who was dubbed this title due to his in-depth writings on the subject.

He published Texas in Bonn, Germany in 1849. The book covered his journey and observations of Texas as it was from November 1845 to May 1847. It was translated in English by Oswald Mueller of Houston in 1935 and has become better known as Roemer’s Texas.

I was able to locate other family members but I found very little. Ferdinand was brother of Friedrich Adolph Roemer, also a German geologist. Frederick W. Roemer was the first postmaster in Long Mott in 1893. Dr. John and Anna Mary (Braentegam) Roemer were also early settlers in Long Mott. It is thought that Roemerville was named after Dr. John Roemer.

That is as far as the search led me so I decided to find Roemer’s Texas to see if I could piece together more of the puzzle as I was not sure how the Roemer family tree branched out.

The following day I sat at the library in Victoria with the book in front of me. I was eager to learn about our great state as seen through Von Roemer’s eyes. In the preface, Mueller explains how he translated the book in celebration of Texas’ Centennial celebration and may I say he did an outstanding job!

As I browsed through the Table of Contents and Index, I skimmed to a chapter which mentioned Lavaca Bay, I was immediately drawn into the book. It was very well written and seemed more a book of fiction – primarily because the landmarks, climate, vegetation and wildlife were so contrasting.

In Chapter III, he wrote, “Accordingly I took leave of Galveston on the afternoon of January 12, 1846, and boarded the steamboat Spartan. The trip from Galveston to Houston requires on the average twelve hours. The fare, including accommodations in a cabin, and meals was three dollars.”

Incredible! What is presently a 50-minute drive took 12 hours in 1846! I had so many questions flood my thoughts as I read further, all the while keeping this in mind. The hours passed but they seemed like minutes – I barely noticed when the lights dimmed signaling it was time to head home. I could not take the book home with me as it lives in the Texas Reference section, but you can purchase your own copy of Roemer’s Texas via Amazon.com and various other websites. Von Roemer passed away in December of 1891 and in his lifetime published over 350 works!

While the pages I read did not cover family nor our area in particular, I have since uncovered more about the Roemer’s and Roemerville. But I’ll leave that till next time!

I also ask anyone that has any information or photos of Roemerville to please contact me before the next issue of the Dolphin Talk (see our contact page.). I’d also like to take a moment and thank all of you out there that have taken the time to share your stories and photos with me and our readers throughout the years. You’re the best! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Jasmine Gordon is researching the history of Roemerville. She would like to hear from anyone who has information or photos about this former area settlement.

These girls were quite pleased with the stuffed animals they found at the Port O’Connor Service Club’s Garage Sale. Photo by Sue Kubecka

The last meeting before the Service Club’s semi-annual Garage Sale was held on Thursday, November 7, 2013, in the Pavilion of the Community Center. The Garage Sale was impending with lots of work to do both Thursday and Friday, but a few items were on the agenda concerning the Christmas Luncheon on Friday, December 6. Sign-up sheets for preparing various dishes will be passed at the next meeting, November 21st. Sue Kubecka, Co-Chairman of the Decorating Committee, then issued an invitation to all members to be certain to attend the TRIM THE TREE PARTY on Monday, December 2nd at 9:30 a.m. There will be a huge amount of goodies to consume, all accompanied by Christmas music, even some crazy Cajun, and a very good time should be had by all.

Energetic and helpful members of the Coast Guard, Andre Moore and Cesar Tamayo, were at the County Barn to do the heavy work of packing the waiting trucks and then unloading them at the Pavilion Club members assisted them in carrying the goods to the waiting tables.

However, despite the work by all Club members, without the assistance of providing trucks and trailers by many husbands, this semi-annual event could not be done. Therefore, we thank once again for the help of Tom Ekstrom, Bob Allen, Andy Wright, Jerry Lichac and Calvin Ragusin along with David Wright, a friend of another member. GUYS, WE COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU!

Thursday was a long day for many members and also their husbands, as I’m sure they (like mine) were forewarned to get something for dinner that night and also for Friday night. Don’t forget, a Bake Sale was also on the agenda on Saturday; this meant that each woman then returned home late Thursday and Friday to bake.

And Saturday morning dawned quite early for many members with the admonition of delivering their Bake Sale items no later than 7:30 a.m. and others to be ready to help buyers with clipboards, pens and listings of all prices of items for sale. Concluding Saturday afternoon after 3:00 p.m., everyone present including all our officers and Debby Busby, Chairman of this Sale, found a chair to drop in and grin and exclaim what an outstanding event this was; and thank heavens, the next one won’t be till April of 2014!

Now, if there are any young and energetic newcomers to our Community that think they’d like to participate in an activity such as the above or any of our other semi scheduled events, please contact our President, Janet Johnson, 983-4737, or just show up at the next meeting, Thursday, November 21st at 10:00 a.m. in the Meeting Room of the Community Center. We’d love to meet you and acquaint you with the purpose of the Service Club; don’t be scared or put off by some of the foregoing; we do have a lot of fun too.

Cash Shirhall, grandson of Kenny and Dwana Finster of Seadrift and Donna Shirall of Atlanta, Texas, poses for a picture with the dolphins at the Port O’Connor Community Garage Sale.

Photos by Sue Kubecka

It is star gazing time this fall and winter. The operative word in that sentence is star. Star is one of those nouns that have multiple interpretations, If we were talking about entertainment it might mean one or all those shows where the stars give themselves awards for all the good things they did this year. Recently George Strait was named entertainer of the year. Heck he has been a good entertainer for a lot longer than a year.

This is the time of the year for all those award shows and most of us enjoy watching those celebrities pat themselves on the back and say thank you to all the folks who helped them get so popular.

However, the stars I was really thinking about are the real ones that sparkle in the night sky. In the fall and winter we often have those cold north winds that give us cloudless night sky. That makes that star gazing really exciting. This is especially true here where we do not have excessive light pollution like in Houston or some other big city. Even in the slight pollution we have you can find a place that minimizes the light pollution even more.

One of the delightful things of such a night sky is that awesome view that gives our galaxy its name the Milky Way. Because I lived in the country up north I must say it was probably a little more spectacular up there, but that could be because I was younger and more impressionable. I remember one night I took my son, who was a city boy at the time, out in the family timber and literally no light pollution. He looked up and saw the Milky Way and asked “what the devil is that”? I laughed and we had a short discussion of the galaxy and its name and place in the universe and our place in it..

When we came to Calhoun county and settled on the west side of Carancuha bay it was a surprise to find that looking out my bedroom window around midnight that the Big dipper was framed upright across the bay and just above the horizon. It is true that the official name is Ursa Major. However, it looks more like a dipper to me than a bear. Most folks who look at stars rather than study them agree. In fact I can’t even see a bear.

The outer edge of the dipper points over to Polaris or the North Star. That star has helped guide seafaring folks find their way for centuries. Winter is when it is just right from my window.

Polaris is 434 light years away from earth. That is about 260 trillion miles which is further than the federal debt is big. Besides that, it is still in our galaxy. There are galaxies beyond ours. That says we live in one huge universe. As one gaze at those stars it can cause us to wonder. Good star gazing to you because wondering is really wonderful.