Enjoying the Fall Island Weather

Greetings from the island everyone. I certainly hope that all of you are doing well and preparing for a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. My California sister, Darla, is driving down, so Corky and I will make the trek across the bay and spend a few days with the family next week in Seadrift. Hoping for lots of leftovers to bring back to the island!

Fall is now in full swing on the barrier island, as indicated by the time change a few weeks ago, and the cool breezy northers making their journeys across west Matagorda Bay. I’m still trying to adjust to this time change, as always, and finding myself literally going to bed with the chickens, and getting up with them at first sunlight, or 3:30 am sometimes!

I always hear people talking about having to change the time on all of their clocks in the house, not an issue for me at all. . . I own ONE clock in the downstairs kitchen, and the battery went out in it about two years ago, roughly the same time that an approaching storm caused me to lift up my fridge, with the help of Leo and Dakota, and set in on top of an 18” tall 70 qt Yeti cooler, to keep the fridge safe from the surge. Doing this blocked my view of the clock anyway. And for some reason that fridge is STILL sitting on top of that Yeti! So I have a $400 fridge riser and unusable cooler. . I might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer.

These late Fall and Winter northers always cause the tide to drop in the bays, making it difficult or impossible for me to navigate out of the narrow lagoon entryway and into the Matagorda Bay shoreline. Heck, often times my boat is sitting on dry ground next to my dock after these northers, so I’m not going anywhere anyway. But these low tide times are the perfect opportunity for me to put on my white Seadrift Ropers and gather a few oysters. Love me a batch of fresh fried oysters!

The low winter tides also have a tendency to wash in and expose seashell treasures on the beach. Many times the first gut in the surf is completely without water, leaving visible seashells, sand dollars and other finds that would normally be hidden from view. And the sandbars separating these guts are under only a few inches of water, making beach combing a real treat. It’s very peaceful slowly driving in the golf cart or walking on the beach and finding treasures of the sea, you never know what goodies or unusual things might find their way onto the beach.

Well, that’s it from the island for now, everyone please take care, have a wonderful day and give thanks for what you have on Thanksgiving.

POC Bunco Christmas Party
December 7, 2021
7:00 PM
$5.00 to play!!
POC Community Center
All Ladies Welcome!!!!
Potluck Meal- Bring a dish to share!!
Christmas gift exchange for those who wish to participate- $10 limit

It is time once again for the Adopt a Christmas Angel program in Port O’Connor, to provide Christmas gifts for our less fortunate children. This is how the program works: From now until November10, you can pick up paperwork at POC Hardware. This consists of a numbered envelope containing the “vital statistics” for your chosen child – age, gender, grade, clothing sizes, shoe size, and coat size. Shoe and coat sizes will only be available if your child needs these items. You do not need to purchase any toys. The Toy Run, another annual Christmas program, provides these.

The Adopt A Christmas Angel committee recommends a spending limit of $100 per child. If you would like to participate but feel that you cannot afford this amount by yourself, enlist a friend or two to split the cost, and share the fun of shopping and wrapping, along with the glow of knowing you have helped a child have a nice Christmas. After you have shopped for your Angel, wrap the gifts, place them in a bag, and put your Angel’s number on the bag (not on the gifts). Please take your gifts to POC Hardware Store December 13 or 14. The store will keep the gifts until time for their delivery/pick-up. The employees at the hardware store are most gracious in helping to complete this project each year, and they have an alarm system which keeps everything safe.

If you want to participate but are unable to do the shopping, you may let Wanda or Judith at the POC Hardware know. Santa’s elves will be glad to help. Help these children to have a Merry Christmas and it’s very likely that your Christmas will be even merrier!

If You Need To Put A Child On This Year’s Angel List:

Angels will be accepted until November 30. Do not wait until the last minute! This is a large program and it takes numerous people to get it up and going. You should contact Wanda Redding at the POC Hardware (983-2708) during the store’s business hours. Strict confidentiality will be maintained. Even the kind souls who adopt these angels do not know the identity of the child. The parent or guardian only may put a child on the list and make arrangements. The child must live in Port O’Connor and be between the ages of one year and sixth grade. School-aged children must attend Port O’Connor School. Do not put relatives’ children on the list unless they live with you.

You will need to furnish the child’s age, grade and clothing sizes. You may also include any special interest that your child may have. Please use this program if you need, but do not abuse it. If you have used the program in the past, and if you can, maybe this year you can adopt an angel.

How Sweet It Is!

“I just love being in my kitchen!”, Lou Guice

Cookies, cakes, pies, and just good food! That’s what Lou Guice loves to do in her kitchen. And to top that off, she gives a lot of it away.. that’s what she loves to do.

I sampled some of her “southern cornbread” with a good, strong cup of coffee in her kitchen and enjoyed her southern hospitality while writing this story.

I was amazed at how many people benefit from her exquisite culinary arts: Seadrift City Employees, the Seadrift school teachers, employees at the Dick’s grocery store, kids at Halloween, and the list goes on!

Lou is originally from Mississippi. Her parents were sharecroppers who ended up buying their own land to farm. Lou’s brother and his family farm the land today.

Lou and her husband Gene had three children: Carrie, Rod, and Becky. Gene worked construction for years. He also worked at AT&T doing preventative maintenance. Lou worked as their cafeteria manager. She did that for nineteen years. Gene worked for them fifteen years.

In 1990 they moved to Seadrift. Gene went to work for Kingfisher until he retired. Lou cleaned houses, did home health care, and cut grass for people. Gene passed November 7, 2015. Lou misses him terribly.

For funerals or if someone is sick, Lou loves to donate a cake, pie, or a food dish.

How Sweet It Is!

The concept of ownership is strange when you really think about it.

Besides what is in our own hearts and minds, an internal gathering of possessions that only really have ‘value’ to the original owner, ownership is a transient concept for most matters.

Most of us do not reside where we grew up, most of us no longer have the material wares of our childhood that meant so much at one time, then were discarded as outdated and of no use, and now fondly thought of as a resting place for nostalgia.

Buddhists have an interesting take on the subject, saying that the only thing we own is our thoughts and also our actions and intentions, anything else can be lost or if lost can be found. An intriguing concept, and admittedly one that gives me comfort when I am selling what remains of my personal possessions currently for the second time in my life.

The first time was when I left Port Lavaca to go back to Illinois in 2012, which is now (amazingly to me) almost ten years ago. That, at least in terms of emotion was a much sadder affair, one that was the closing of one era of my life altogether, including losing people that were very important to me and still are today.

I won’t dwell here on the reasons behind either instance of having to sell off what I had accumulated in life because that was not my point in writing this column, not my muse if you will. It is how experience and reflection caused me to realize the true things that seemed to have value and what could tarnish in your eyes depending on what angle you looked from.

Doing it now, I realized recently is a much ‘colder’ task, somewhat because of that Buddhist angle on possessions, but also because that last time I did this I learned I eventually forgot about all the things I had lost in 2012; they were just things in the end.

Maybe if they had some monetary value, I felt a slight sting to the checkbook but the only time I really ever wanted a item back was if there was sentimental value attached to it, which was the whole change that I see as I sort what is to be sold first and what can sell fast, whatever can lighten the load of my ‘stock’ quickly.

There are some things that I hold back on selling for the purpose that I never used them or still was planing to use them in the future or they were things that I desired, things that made the mundane cycle of life at times seem a little more comfortable.

They say growth, new experiences, and even happiness itself lies not in the comfortable moments but in the uncomfortable, the scary, the unknown.

Having to sell things by need rather than by desire does the same; it shakes you a bit, makes you see things in new ways, and perhaps even is washing away the old to bring in the new…because from experience, we find both dark and light inside the circumstances that shift our life into new positions.