Mon., April 6    Calhoun County Republican Club 5:45 pm    Grace Episcopal Parish Hall, Port Lavaca
Mon., April 6    Intercoastal 4-H Club 6:30 pm    R&R RV Park in Port O’Connor
Tues., April 7    Seadrift City Council 7:00 pm    Seadrift City Hall
Tues., April 7     Bunco 7:00 pm    POC Community Center
Sat., April 11    Easter Egg Hunt 2:00 pm    First Baptist Church, Port O’Connor
Sun., April 12    EASTER Still hoping to have Sunrise Service at POC Beach.
Sat., April 25    Community Gathering 5:00 pm    Seadrift Bayfront

At this year’s Sweetheart Banquet, sponsored by Port O’Connor’s First Baptist Church, Tom and Pat Ekstrom were the recipients of the Church’s Annual Citizen of the Year Award.

This year’s recipients are well known in Port O’Connor to almost everyone in town. They have helped, and continue to help, so many people in this community. They have served at so many fund raisers, are involved in most organizations here and are very active in the church.

You might have met them at a Senior Citizens luncheon, a Service Club garage/bake sale, or one of many other events at which help is needed. Tom will take you fishing at the drop of a hat. Pat will drive you almost anywhere you need to go.
If you don’t know them yet, look them up. You will never meet a finer couple. They are two of the reasons Port O’Connor is such a great place to live. First Baptist Church is honored to have them as members and to name them the 2020 Citizens of the Year.
Two other special couples were recognized at the banquet: George and Barbara Yarborough as being the longest married couple, and Tom and Virginia Wilson as being the couple who have been married the shortest time.

Read more about the Sweetheart Banquet in “Happenings at First Baptist Church”.

Center: Barbara & George Yarborough married 66 years
Bottom: Virginia & Tom Wilson married 4 years
-Photos by Erica Salinas

Wow! What can we say! The Tuesday Senior lunch and Bingo group would like to thank Stacy Brobston, the Dollar General Store, and the entire community for our wonderful Valentine bags! Stacy and other Dollar General employees put out a beautifully decorated box for customers to place items in for our group. And wow! did everyone fill it up (several times over). Stacy then put beautiful bags together (about 50 of them) full of all kinds of goodies purchased by the wonderful people of Port O’Connor and herself.

She and Sylvia Rodriguez gave them to all in attendance at the Tuesday lunch and for shut-ins who have been unable to attend. They also awarded lots of door prizes. And there were bags and bags of gifts left over to be used for Bingo prizes.
How generous, caring and special the people in Port O’Connor are! Stacy does a great job for the Dollar General Store and the people in Port O’Connor. She and the Dollar General Store also gifted beautiful tote bags to the Tuesday Senior Lunch group at Christmas time. We are truly blessed.

-Pat Ekstrom for the Senior Lunch group

Thank you to Candice Stryker and Jana Gregory and all the Port O’Connor Elementary School Art Students for the beautiful Valentines given to many Port O’Connor senior citizens and others.

Fresh Island Eggs and Gardening

Greetings from the island everyone. I hope that all of you are doing well, and had a lovely Valentines Day with your sweetheart and ate a few chocolates. Corky and I stayed on the island and celebrated birthday #58 for me the day prior to V-Day, and we took a nice golf cart ride on the beach. I had a supper of fresh fried San Antonio Bay oysters that night, and enjoyed all of the Happy BD wishes on Facebook, thank you everyone. At this stage in life, I’m just wishing for the next four years to pass quickly so I can start drawing social security! I hope it still exists by that time.

For the most part, we have experienced a very mild winter thus far, and with the last few northers having a slight westward wind in them, my dad says this is an indication that winter is soon drawing to an end. That’s ok by me because Spring is my favorite time of the year. When I retired and moved to the island full time, 14 years ago next month, I made sure to do it during the Spring months so I could enjoy getting settled in during pleasant weather.

Spring time brings Island gardening time, so last week I started all of my tomato seeds. I began enough seeds for 18 plants total, and 7 different varieties, with two of those being new varieties I wanted to try, Mountain Pride and Atomic Grape. I’m hoping that two of my yearly large varieties, Big Zac and Steakhouse, do well so that I can share some fried green tomatoes with friends. To me, there is nothing much better than fresh grown garden tomatoes ripened on the vine. And of course I’m always hopeful to grow one of those mega sized bragging tomatoes, but since that 2.74 pound one about five years ago, I haven’t come close to one that size. Not yet anyway.

Well my chickens have finally ended their molting and are laying a few eggs now. It’s nice being able to enjoy fresh yard eggs for breakfast whenever I like. For the past few months I have had to buy eggs, thankfully they were fresh yard eggs (thank you, Jennifer), but now I am once again able to just walk out to the back yard and gather my own. And just last week my one female Indian Runner duck started laying eggs as well. They are beautiful large eggs with a light greenish tint to them. I was hoping that she would sit on them to hatch, but it appears that she has no desire to do that. The guineas should start laying pretty soon as well.

It makes me so happy to see that the POC School has implemented a student gardening program, where they grow and then sell their own produce. A great big kudos to whomever had the foresight and determination to begin such a program, and to the kids themselves for the desire and work ethic to make it succeed. Thank you POC School!

Well that’s it from the island for now. Everyone take care and have a most wonderful day.

The fight for Texas Independence began at Gonzales on October 1, 1835 and continued until April 21, 1836.
As the siege of the Alamo (March 6, 1836) and the massacre at Goliad (March 27, played out, fifty-eight delegates to a constitutional convention convened on March 1, 1836, at Washington-on-the-Brazos. The next day, March 2, those assembled declared Texas independence, including three Tejanos, Antonio Navarro, Lorenzo de Zavala, and José Francisco Ruiz. They also prepared a constitution for the new Republic of Texas.

The document, adopted on March 17, created a federal form of government, composed of three branches of government, and guaranteed protection of slavery. They then chose leaders for an interim government until elections could be held. David G. Burnett was named interim president and Lorenzo de Zavala became vice president. The convention also took steps to address the emergency, naming Sam Houston as commander-in-chief with authority to raise a Texas army.

The defeat at San Jacinto of Santa Anna and his army on April 21, brought an immediate end to hostilities, independence for Texas, and the birth of the Republic of Texas.

Read the whole story at The Handbook of Texas Online.