Campus Spelling Bee Winners

The students who won the class spelling bee in grades 3-5 competed in a Campus Spelling Bee on February 3rd. The winners of the Campus Spelling Bee will go on to compete in the District Spelling Bee in Port Lavaca on February 21st. The Campus winners are:

1st place: Cierra Harper, 5th grade

2nd place: Adriana DiClemente, 4th grade

3rd place: Drake Dyes, 5th grade

Thank you to all the judges (Brenda Smith, Debbie Busby, Barbara Crouch) and the word caller (Robin Sonsel) who helped make the Campus Spelling Bee possible. Port O’Connor Elementary Spelling Bee Coordinator, Lynda Gosnell, says she is, “Very proud of the student participant’s hard work and dedication to spelling excellence”.

Campus Spelling Bee Winners shown here with Principal Lydia Strakos are Cierra Harper, Adriana DiClemente and Drake Dyes.

Third Graders Participate in the “Great Mail Race”

The Port O’Connor third grade class is participating in the “Great Mail Race.” Students used the internet to search for elementary schools in every state. Their teacher, Mrs.Sheryl Haynes, assigned each student two states and required the student to select one elementary school from each of the assigned states. Students wrote letters to the third grade class at the school they selected. The letters contained information about Port O’Connor and requested the other class reply with information about their school, town and state. The POC third graders hope to receive replies from schools in each state and will track their progress by coloring their classroom US map for each state who replies. Through this activity, the students learned the proper way to write and address letters and used their technology skills for research. As the replies are received, the students will also gain more information about the individual states.

First Graders Learn and Write About Groundhog Day

To celebrate Groundhog Day on February 3rd, Mrs. Anderson’s first grade class learned about groundhogs, colored pictures of groundhogs and used their time in computer lab to type their opinion of whether or not a groundhog could predict the length of winter. The following are responses written by three first graders:

“I do not think the groundhog knows the wether. I do not think 6 more weeks of winter. Animals can not read”. Written by Keaton Cady

“On groundhog day the groundhog comes out of his home to see the wether If he can not see his showd ther will not be no mor winter and ther will be mor sun. The groundhog dus not no the wether. Groundhogs ete plants and clover to. They live under gerownd and they sleep all winter wen they wak up they are hungery.”
Written by Arely Ixtepan

“I think that groundhogs can not talk because they are just animals. They don’t know because they can not tell if the winter is over and spring is coming.” Written by Ethan Redding

Arely Ixtepan, Keaton Cady and Ethan Redding show off their pictures of groundhogs and their written response to the question of whether or not a groundhog can predict the weather.

Jordan Blevins Shares Pumpkin Seeds With Mrs. Strakos

Second grade student, Jordan Blevins, shared some special pumpkin seeds with principal, Lydia Strakos. The pumpkin seeds were given to Jordan by his grandmother, Kathy Blevins. The seeds are reportedly from Tennessee and grow long pumpkins instead of round ones. Jordan says the pumpkins are supposed to make “very delicious pies”!

Jordan Blevins shares special pumpkin seeds with Principal Strakos.

Fourth Graders Study Word Structure

Fourth grade teacher, Lynda Gosnell, came up with an innovative way to help students recognize root words, prefixes and suffixes. Students created flowers and inserted a suffix or prefix in the middle of each flower. The flower petals contain words the students made by combining a prefix or suffix and a root word. Mrs. Gosnell says this activity is also a fun way to build vocabulary knowledge.

Fourth grade students showing their word flowers include: First row: Clayton Maraggia, Shayleigh Sprague, Sierra Posey. Back row: Thomas Hawes, Oscar Resendiz, Tyler Reed

Dates to Remember:

Feb. 14- Class Valentines Parties

Feb. 14- Valentine’s Store

Feb. 20- Student Holiday

Feb. 21- District Spelling Bee

Feb. 23- Class Pictures

Feb. 29- Report Cards go home

March 2 – Roller Skate Night 6:00-8:30pm POC gym

March 12 – 16 Spring Break

Roland Cain and son, Russell

Roland Sample Cain, 92, passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by his family and friends on February 2, 2012. Mr. Cain was a long time resident of Trinity Shores in Port Lavaca.

He was born July 24, 1919 in E. St. Louis, Illinois to the late Robert L. Cain and Mae Layton Cain. He is predeceased by his beloved wife Virginia Dora Cain after 62 years of marriage; also, brothers Donald Cain, Robert Cain; and sister Eileen Cain.

Roland is survived by his four children, Russell Cain and wife Cherre of Port Lavaca, Barbara Kolodzie and husband Mark, Alan Cain and wife Teresa and Sharon Smalley, all of Victoria; 12 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren as follows: Autumn and Ryann Smalley, and Caden and Kara Reed of Richmond, TX, Chris and Keilan Navarro, Jazmine Beckham, Donovan Oliver, Jack Alan and Charlie Roland Cain, and Sample Parker Cain, all of Victoria, Travis and Walker Wortham of Dallas, TX, and Alvia, Tres, and Josephine Jons of Kerrville, TX.

Also surviving are his sisters, Joan Levandowski and Gloria Doyle of Swansea, IL; his nieces and nephews, Cheryl Pride of Swansea, IL, Stella and Oliver Wischmeyer of Easton, PA, Roland and Betty Levandowski of Bethesda, MD, Janet and Walter Welch, and Gloria and James Middleton, all of Springfield, IL, Terry and Marry Harris of Collinsville, IL, and Kenny Harris of Belleville, IL.

Mr. Cain graduated Magnum Cum Laude from McKendree College with a degree in Chemistry. He enjoyed a long career of 44 years with Alcoa in Point Comfort, TX as Chief Chemist. He served in the U.S. Army, WWII in the European Theatre in Italy, Germany and France. In 2010, Congressman Ron Paul presented Mr. Cain with the distinguished WWII medals that he never received while in service. He was Past Commander of the VFW Post in Port Lavaca and also served as President of the Point Comfort Boat Club, Toast Masters, and Point Comfort Little League.

Virginia and Roland were honored by their children many times. At their 53rd Anniversary they were given honorary membership in the Matagorda Island Foundation, also benches were designed and given by their children at Magnolia Beach. Roland was a recipient of the Rotary International Paul Harris Award. Since 1996 Roland and Virginia Cain Scholarships for Golf and Engineering have been a blessing to many Calhoun County graduates.

Services for Roland Cain were held February 6, 2012 at Grace Episcopal Church in Port Lavaca with Canon Father Robert Dewolfe and Father Robert Johnston officiating. Burial, under the direction of VFW Post 4403 and the American Legion, followed at Greenlawn Cemetery in Port Lavaca.

Pallbearers were grandsons Dwayne Smalley, Scott Smalley, Chad Whitlock, Matt Cain, Jared Cain, Wheeler Cain, and Clint Cain.

Honorary Pallbearers were granddaughters Kristen Navarro, Marcy Reed, Holly Whitlock, Kelle Wortham and Kamme Jons.

Mr. Cain was devoted for seven years to Anabel Carriles, appreciating her dedicated friendship and all she did for him, showing him grace and understanding. The family also thanks Mary Anne Carriles and Marcy Carriles for always sacrificing their time for his needs.

In lieu of customary remembrances, contributions can be made to VFW Post 4403, Port Lavaca and the Calhoun County Animal Shelter. The family appreciates the extended courtesies show to their father during his extended stay at Trinity Shores.

The Seadrift Public Library held a book sale at the Port Lavaca Library branch from the 31st of January through February 4th, with all proceeds going to the Seadrift location.

Books were donated by local patrons and the material generated included everything from how-to manuals in business and computer programing to works of fiction from the likes of John Irving to Stephen King.

Janie Waghorne was one of the library workers from the Seadrift area present running the till during the sale: “It’s a great way for the Seadrift Library to make money (for future use in Seadrift). We are very thankful to the Port Lavaca branch for letting us use their facility as it is larger and (it’s size) allowed us to sell more books”

Patrons were, of course, there for the last day of the sale, which was the popular ‘Box Day’, during which all the books you could fit in a box cost you just five dollars.

The practice of medicine has evolved so dramatically over the past two centuries; we are sometimes stunned by what our forefathers endured during the time of illness. Not the least of which is the father of our country George Washington.

During the eighteenth century or during and since the American Revolution, medical practice had its own specialties. For instance, child birth was almost exclusively handled by female lay person called a midwife. Many practitioners were not medical school graduates and some had no education at all. In fact, barbers often performed minor surgeries or applied splints to broken bones! Barbers also pulled teeth and did amputations with a tool of their trade, a razor. Others were a medical doctor’s assistant who learned the practice only by experience being directed by the trained physician. Even with medical school credentials (many of which were imported from England), some of their beliefs or theories might have caused more harm to the patient than good.

During Washington’s time, congressional recess was for a very necessary reason. And that reason was not to just go home and perform appearances in which to be reelected. It was because they must return home to care for their farms and family. Making a living was most important and government salary (if any) was not necessarily a burden on the taxpayer. This is because their farm or business must continue and their duty in the congress was virtually a contribution for the betterment of the country and the preservation of the rule of law.

In 1779 after the victorious end of the American Revolution, George Washington traveled by horseback to his home in Mount Vernon. The trip took a toll on this great man for he braved severe cold and rain. Washington’s farm was a substantial amount of land and crops which he controlled and supervised with great fervor. Though suffering from a very sore throat and fever he continued his farming duties until he fell very ill.

With great respect for Washington, the overseer came to his aid promptly. With a lancet or knife-like instrument he opened the president’s vein for the purpose of bleeding. This was quite a common practice in those days to eliminate ‘humors’ or the four fluids of the body contained in the blood. Those were phlegm, choler, black bite and of course, blood. It was believed to be a relief of fevers and is conducive to the general character of healthful recovery.

Experts were consulted and further bleeding was required, they thought. After collecting an estimated ninety six ounces of blood over the next few days, the father of our country George Washington died.

Medicines were often concocted from herbs and botanical plants suggested by ancient Indian remedies. Some are said to work well and others might curtail the experiment with almost instant demise. Subsequently, the original apothecary came into play. This was simply a person who chose plants or elements for the appropriate relief of the individual case. May apple, snakeroot, ginseng and witch-hazel were some of these. Even today, some of these remedies still prevail such as chalk, or calcium for heartburn and calamine for skin rashes.

An amusing story came from a distant relative, Doctor Bruner of Angleton, Texas. During the nineteenth century Dr. Bruner was summoned to a sick bed several miles away. Horseback was his only transportation so he had to endure one of the coldest winters known in those days. His feet were always cold so he rubbed his bare feet with red pepper. The family of the sick person expressed their amazement when Dr. Bruner showed up with his lace up shoes hanging over the saddle and his bare feet in the stirrups.

We continue to discover amazing results from plant remedies. Ironically, many of these were, and still are, found in the mysterious jungles of the Amazon River.

-Bob Jamison is a columnist for several publications. jbobalong@yahoo.com

George Washington’s birthday is February 22. If you happen to be in the neighborhood of Alexandria, VA on February 20, you can celebrate at his 280th birthday party at Mount Vernon Estate.

Valentine’s Day

Not long ago I considered Valentine’s Day to be a ‘Hallmark holiday’, a day invented by card and candy companies (and let’s not forget the flower companies) to make a quick buck and snicker as men everywhere got in trouble if they forgot to get something for their sweetheart.

I recall working in a convenience store in my early twenties on the graveyard shift and how every February 13th men would come rushing in at all hours scouring through our overpriced selection of greeting cards and the single roses that were at least three to four dollars apiece. I found it amusing that the Valentine’s Day industry had a such a great racket going, one that used one of the most powerful forces in the universe to its advantage, the power of an angry woman.

Later I looked up the history of Valentine’s Day and discovered that in reality it was more about three Christian Martyrs with the name of Valentine, who became saints, than about love. It was not until a man by the name of Geoffry Chaucer wrote these lines in his 1382 work Parlement of Foules that the reference took on a more romantic note:

“For this was Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”

This poem was written to commemorate the one year anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia.

By the time 1797 rolled around, a company in England had started printing a book entitled The Young Man’s Valentine Writer, which contained a collection of verses and romantic drawings for young lovers to place in their own homemade Valentines. By the mid 19th century, the Valentine industry made 1.3 million pounds in England, somewhat sped along by lower postal rates which allowed more ‘racy’ subject matter to be sent privately to lovers as well as the first anonymous Valentines to be sent by secret admirers.

Of course now a days it is more then just personalized letters that we send out to our loved ones, we have our children pass them out to their classmates, we buy chocolates, jewelry and other gifts to go along with mass produced cards written by large companies with professional greetings writers expressing our most personal thoughts.

So as we go forward towards this years Valentine’s Day, perhaps we should not be thinking of what we can buy for the ones we love the most, but instead how we can make them feel special whether that be from a handmade letter, like in the days of old, a romantic night by the water, or even something as simple as picking up the milk and dry cleaning without being asked to do so.

Love is an equation that is not measured with the price tag on a card or any expensive piece of jewelry or electronic bauble, but rather a remembrance and a reminding of what made us adore our lover in the first place. My best time with the woman I have had the extreme pleasure of being with for the last five years was always the long walks we used to take back in Chicago. We would walk without destination, feeling in our heart of hearts that in the end it was never the money or the bitter cold we walked through when Summer turned to Fall, but rather just the joy of being together, alone and untouchable in a world full of people.

This is a feeling that no greeting card or box of assorted chocolates dressed in red lace could ever provide, not even the ones with the caramel centers.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your loved ones. May the holiday be filled with romantic times and the purest of loves.