Turkey Dinner October 27
St. Patrick Church Annual Fund Raiser

St. Patrick Church in Seadrift will hold its annual Turkey Dinner & Fund Raiser on Sunday, October 27th at 11:00 am. There will be a raffle, bake sale, eggrolls & rummage sale. The plates will be $8 with turkey, homemade dressing, sweet potatoes & green beans with all the trimmings.

The rummage sale will start on Saturday, October 26th at 8:00 am.

Gosh, can’t believe we are already in the 9th month of 2013. I was driving by the Public Boat Ramp on Friday morning, there were 25 boat trailers or more in the parking lot; this is pretty good, considering school has started.
The “Labor Day Bash on the Beach” was a great event and a great way to end the summer. “THANKS” go out to Russell Cain Real Estate and Port O’Connor Rentals for bringing the bands and music to town and paying all the expenses for them! Also to all the wonderful people that made donations. What a fantastic thing they helped make possible for Port O’Connor. Now that’s over, the Chamber is already working on the “Annual Lighted Boat Parade”. This will be held on December 7th. They are working to make the 2013 parade the best ever. If you have a boat, it’s not too early to start making plans and getting excited about being in the parade. It will be here before we know it.

The October meeting of the Chamber will be on Monday, the 7th at 6:30 p.m. in the meeting room of the Port O’Connor Community Center.  See you then!

The evening of September 3, 2013 meant a fun night for those indomitable Bunco players as almost a full house of women were present and all eager to begin playing. A special player of the evening was Judy Overton, a former resident who has returned to our community. The night was made even more special when Judy told the group that Bunco had first started with a small number of active women who played in Judy’s home! Hostesses for the evening were Annette Leach and Diane Cooley and the first part of this meeting was just to enjoy the delicacies as prepared by those two and catch up with what’s happening in everyone’s life. And then these ladies started playing with Evelyn Lewis once again winning. She seems to have incredible luck and so she left with the award for most games; most Buncos won by Judy Overton and Pat Ekstrom aptly earned the booby prize! The hostesses for the October 1st session will be Biddie Hileman and Sally Jones, and when those two get together, watch out! Call Shirley Gordon at the Library, 983-4365 for further information.

The 8th Annual Grand Slam Fishing Tournament honoring the memory of Chris Ragusin is scheduled for Friday, October 4 and Saturday, October 5, 2013. This is the last of the big fishing tournaments of the Season and will be well-attended. Further information and registration for each boat and fishermen can be obtained by contacting Amy Gosnell, 361 935-8745. Friday’s activities include the Captains’ registration and meeting; followed by a brisket plate dinner for $10.00 and winding up the evening with a silent auction. Saturday’s schedule starts with the weigh-in at 3:00 p.m. and then a delicious dinner of freshly caught fish will begin at 5:30 p.m.; awards at 6:30 p.m. and the main auction of incredible items to begin at 7:00 p.m. The public is invited to join the fishermen and families at dinner on Friday and Saturday nights; all proceeds from this event are then returned to our community in various supportive ways.

October 26, 2013 is the date for the 5th Annual Chili & Gumbo Cookoff at Hurricane Junction! See Hoop for more details and how to enter this delightfully original contest! Once again, our local Library and its Building Fund will benefit. And participants can expect a wandering photographer and journalist to be there to sample the wares and discuss recipes with the chefs!

And also on the 26th of October is the annual Halloween Fest at our local school; this is when the kids and many adults try to outdo each other with some fascinating costumes. Check our paper or the school for further information.
But do save Saturday, November 9, 2013 for the semi-annual Fall Garage Sale as organized by the POC Service Club. And as always there will be a Bake Sale of totally enticing desserts whether they’re cookies or cakes or even pies to whet the appetite of the consumer. See the POC Service Club News for further information.

And a plea to our long-time residents; we in the Service Club are putting together a book of photographs and other information concerning our community to show our history and also the many families that have been a part of that history. Many of you residents may have pictures of your children at our School, a picture of the churches with their ministers and priests, the stores, and hopefully your families, grandparents and all. IF and that’s a big IF, you could share with us these pictures and a little information about them, we would be extremely grateful. Your treasured photographs would then be professionally copied and returned with much gratitude as each would then become a part of our Book! Please contact either Sue Kubecka, the Chairman of this endeavor at 361 798-0560, or Janet Johnson, the President of the Club at 983-4737 to become a part of this Book.

Friends: And one of mine so very happily gave me a large sack of Key limes and the instructions that it would take 1 cup of juice to make a pie. Emptying the sack I found a large amount of fruit of barely 1 inch in diameter, and then started squeezing. Time passed and the measuring cup seemed extremely slow to fill. Actually, it took over 80 limes to make that cup of juice. And then I wondered about that friend?! Or, as the saying goes, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts!” Really just kidding; it was quite an experience and there is now a full cup of juice resting in my freezer waiting for me to get the energy to make the pie!

We did not really realize how many fishermen were here for Labor Day weekend until we kept seeing the same boats, trucks and trailers going around the block a number of times. Sitting on the deck we found a long line of boats waiting to enter one of the four ramps at the Fishing Center. And this continued for almost two hours!

kubeckasue@yahoo.com
361 798-0560

Libraries

Libraries have always been a source of solace and solitude to me through most of my life.

I was one of those cliché kids that gets cut off from their peer groups and ends up having to spend most of their time alone. So living right across from the Scottsdale Branch of the Chicago Public Library, I ended up spending most of my days with biographies of Leonardo Da’ Vinci and the novels of Stephen King and Lillian Jackson Braun rather then seeing how far I could spit a wad of paper across an alley.

Remarkably, even in our information heavy world they still are a sacred place to many people from all walks of life.

Partially this has something to do with most library systems moving forward to the point that they offer more then dusty old books.

Today’s libraries offer DVD rentals and public computers right alongside the works of Dickens and Shakespeare. They offer community events that today go way beyond the screening of an old Walt Disney film from the sixties (You know the ones: The Cat From Outer Space or The Apple Dumpling Gang. That sort of thing).

However, libraries were also the internet before the first bloop or bleep was heard from one computer calling another. So libraries have moved forward from it’s old image of books and magazines to the age of digital media and community relations in an attempt to stay current and survive in an age where most people can ‘Google’ an answer from their smart phone.

The earliest form of library dates back to 2600 BC in Sumer. Much like the Egyptians after them, in this case the collection of stone tablets mostly consisted of a record for transactions and inventory rather than the latest mystery or suspense novels.

Later, the Mesopotamian culture created the Library of Ashurbanipal, where clay tablets were filled not only with religious texts but also knowledge of interest to scholars such as translation guides, medical information and word lists.

Time moved on and the libraries with it, as the Romans moved the idea westward and started a trend when most collections of books and knowledge were the exclusive privilege of those who were scholars or had access to the collections via other means.

Lincolnshire in England is the first place a modern ‘lending’ library for the general public was introduced when the Francis Trigge Chained Library opened in Grantham in 1598.

Americans got their first taste of bookish goodness in 1876 when the American Library Association was formed. It was also the year Melvil Dewey introduced his decimal system of classification that would be taught to American school children for generations.

After the American Civil War, many woman’s groups sprung up across the nation and one thing these groups did was take to the libraries of the United States as a shelter as well as a home in those post war years. Forming book clubs and social events, they also lobbied for more and more libraries in different locations, one of the main reasons many areas have a local library branch today.

It would appear the libraries have definitely stood alongside knowledge and record keeping as one of the most progressive moves we have made as a species. A viable collection of information that while once the privilege of the elite have been made available to all.

Now doesn’t that make you want to visit your library and pick up a good book for the cooler Fall weather ahead?

Join Friends of the Port O’Connor Library.

Enter and/or Support the Oct. 26
Chili & Gumbo Cook Off at Hurricane Junction

Buy and/or Sell at the Junk in Your Trunk Sale
Saturday, Oct. 5 at Seadrift Bank

Friends of Port O’Connor Library
P.O. Box 497 – Port O’Connor, TX 77982
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