Friends of the Port O’Connor Library 2013 Board of Directors Sitting, L-R: Mary Ann Claiborne, Assistant Treasurer; Paula McCauley, Secretary; Virginia Dell Lichac, President; Barbara Crouch, Vice-President. Standing, L-R: Carl Ray; Kimberly Bennett; JoAnne Ward; Leon Brown, Treasurer; Melissa Doggett; Sandra Lane. Not pictured: Sue Kubecka and Janet Johnson.

Friends of the Port O’Connor Library, Inc. membership meeting on June 20, 2013, was a success and those that attended voted in a new Board of Directors. We are now twelve strong and ready to move ahead with our goal of building a new library in POC! Encouragement of the community to join us in this exciting project will be strongly emphasized in the months ahead. One of the ways to help in this effort is to become a member of the recently created Board of Advisors. Please contact one of the Board of Directors for the goals and mission statement of the Advisory Board. And, of course, sending in your 2013 Membership Application is another great way to support “Friends!” Here’s wishing everyone a happy and safe summer!

-Virginia Dell Lichac, President

Friends of the Port O’Connor Library, Inc.
PO Box 497, Port O’Connor, Texas 77982
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION 2013

(Please check type of membership)
Name_______________________________ ____ ____Friend($15+)

Mailing Address__________________________ ____Sustaining($25+)

Residence Address________________________ ____Patron($100+)

City_______________State/Zip_____________ ____Sponsor($500+)

Home/Cell Phone________________________ ____Benefactor($1,000+)

E-mail Address__________________________

Checks may be payable to Friends of Port O’Connor Library

Featuring a Free Concert

Make your plans now for the Port O’Connor Labor Day Beach Bash with Larry Joe Taylor to be held on August 31 at King Fisher Beach from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, with the FREE CONCERT being presented by POC Rentals and Russell Cain Real Estate, the event promises to be fun for the whole family.

Bring your family and friends, and your lawn chairs and enjoy the music of Larry Joe Taylor, Bill Pekar and the Rainey Brothers, and Ransom Rhodes.

Enjoy fabulous food, including a shrimp boil, and cool off with cold beer and soft drinks. There will be games for big and little kids and a variety of vendors.

Proceeds from the event will go toward building a new pavilion on King Fisher Beach for all to enjoy. The Port O’Connor Chamber of Commerce is a 501–c6 nonprofit organization.

For sponsorship and vendor information, please contact: Mary Jo Walker at 361/920-4247 or Patti Elkins at 361/649-2265.

What a Fireworks Display in 2013! I thought last year was better than usual, but this year broke all records. The Chamber appreciates every cent that was donated, as this is what made it possible, also everyone that attended and enjoyed the event. July is the busiest month of the year, with Cula Roja, Poco Bueno, 1st Annual Concert and Car Show, music by Dee Ann, Lone Star Shootout and the Nails & Tails Tournament.

New/Renewing Chamber Members:
Kathryn Brown
Lone Star Boat Storage
Delmar Krenek
Captain G’S
10th Street Lodge

The August meeting will be on the 12th, 6:30 p.m. in the meeting room of the POC Community Center. We hope to see you there, getting involved in the community

Halt, who goes there: friend or foe?  This is the call from the sentinel in the playwright’s story.  This leads to the larger question many of us can ask about things that we are involved with in life.  The term friend or foe can quite easily be changed to good or bad.

We were reminded earlier this year by the explosion in West, Texas.  That explosion was from ammonium nitrate.  That compound by reason of the explosion can certainly be called a bad actor.  This asks the question, why was there the large amount of ammonium nitrate located in West, Texas?

Ammonium nitrate is also a dominant fertilizer. West, like Calhoun County can be called an agricultural location.  The farmers around West use the fertilizer to grow their crops.  Some say that without ammonium nitrate as a fertilizer the world could not support its current population. That it could, only support slightly over half of our world population.

This, of course, begs the question about how well that food is distributed. Some are well fed to the point of obesity. Some are not well fed to the point of starvation.  The world’s distribution is a problem.  Notwithstanding that, less total food would be a larger problem. So the net thing is that fertilizer can be classified as a good thing.

Ammonium nitrate has, more or less taken the place of dynamite which in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was the big explosive.  Dynamite is a tamed down version of Nitroglycerin. It was invented by Alfred Nobel to eliminate the danger that nitro presented because it explodes so easily. In any event they both are considered dangerously effective.

On the other hand, nitroglycerin is used as a medicine in treating certain heart ailments. It is made into a pill and eases heart pain and other things so it too is a dual good and bad substance.

Agatha Christie fans have learned that many plants that have beauty can also be poisons.  Belladonna was used as a cosmetic to increase Roman females’ attractiveness. If you didn’t appreciate her she could use it as deadly a poison. Many other plants have similar dual uses. They are pretty but can be dangerous. No further comment on pretty and dangerous issues.

We know of Alfred Nobel because of the Nobel prizes he established.. Maybe the most famous one would be the Peace prize. As the story goes, in 1888 when his brother died some French newspaper published Alfred’s obituary in error.  It said “Le marchand de la mort est mort (The merchant of death is dead)”. This bothered him and as a result he set up the foundation and gave most of his wealth so they could give prizes for good things like Peace. In a sense good came from bad.

It reminds me of the philosopher Wittgenstein who postulated that we should not look for the meaning  but look for the use.  The use of fertilizer or explosive asks a friend or foe question.

Poco Bueno is a maritime adventure that revolves around our own iconic fishing tournament here in Port O’Connor. The story is told from man’s point of view, and if you’re a man between the ages of . . . oh, say, fifteen and one hundred-fifty, you are bound to enjoy it. Heck, I’m a woman, and I loved it, as did many of the women who gave it five-star reviews on Amazon.com. Parks has taken his time with this well-researched story. The characters are fully developed, conflicted, and interesting. The voice is pitch-perfect, especially if you are a veteran fisherman. And, most importantly, the fishing is riveting. Seriously, this book contains some of the most engrossing, white-knuckle fishing scenes that I can recall reading in contemporary fiction. (And I read a lot of contemporary fiction.) I felt like I was there, on the boat and helping in the fight. But beware, if you read the book, you’re in for a shock. Yes, this is a book about fishing—pelagic, apex-predator, take no prisoners, competitive fishing—but it is also a literary novel. Underneath the fun, and often funny, surface of this story, the author deals with some heavy material, and he does so masterfully. The main character, Stokes, wishes to count for something, and is utterly confused as to how this can be accomplished. He is trying to figure himself out when the book opens. (Aren’t we all?) Then all hell breaks loose a few days before Poco, and Stokes’s life quickly unravels; but he decides to fish the tournament anyway. After all, this is Poco Bueno, the one event he waits for all year, and the most prestigious bill-fishing tournament on the coast!

If you’re scheduled for a long plane ride, or a day at the beach, do yourself a favor and buy this book. It is available in paperback, and in all U.S. e-book formats (Kindle, i-pad, Nook), plus Kobo, which is popular overseas. To buy it, go to www.Amazon.com and search Poco Bueno.

-Denise Huddle