Nov. 1- Dec. 1    Register for Adopt A Christmas Angel 983-2708, Wanda
Sun., Nov. 17    Community Thanksgiving Service 6:00 pm    First Baptist Church, Port O’Connor
Sat., Nov. 30    Golf Cart Scavenger Hunt 8:30 – 4:00   portoconnorchamber.com
Thurs., Dec. 5    Port O’Connor Service Club 10:00 am    Port O’Connor Community Center
Fri., Dec. 6    Christmas Senior Citizens Luncheon 10:30 am        Port O’Connor Community Center
Sat., Dec. 7    Toy Run Arrives late afternoon    The Inn at Clarks
Sat., Dec. 7    Lighted Boat Parade at dusk        Down the ICW in Port O’Connor
Fri., Dec. 13    POC Chamber Christmas Party 6:00 pm    Port O’Connor Community Center
Dec. 18 & 19    Lighted House Judging Sign up with Chamber, Port O’Connor

Letters to Rose authors (left to right) Robin Philbrick, Becky Ebner Hoag, and Rose Williams

The Friends of the Port O Connor Library are sponsoring a Book Signing and Program honoring San Antonio Holocaust survivor Rose Sherman Williams. Rose will recount her experiences and share the memories of the six years she was imprisoned by the Nazis during WWII. and introduce her new book Letters to Rose during a program at the Port O Connor Library on October 22, 2019 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Rose Sherman Williams was just 12 years old when Nazi Germany invaded her hometown of Radom, Poland in 1939 capturing everyone in her family. In 1942, she was separated from her family and sent to Auschwitz, and ultimately to Bergen-Belsen. This remarkable woman continues to share her story in hopes that it inspires courage and resilience and touches the lives of those who hear it. She endured physical beatings, starvation, and transfers from one labor camp to another. In 1944, having been deported to the notorious Auschwitz extermination camp, she had a bizarre encounter with the Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele, himself. A death march ultimately led her to one of the most despicable camps of all: Bergen-Belsen. But miraculously, she survived to be liberated. Rose was liberated by British soldiers in 1945, and eventually made her way to the United States.

Today, at age 92, she shares her memories as often as she can with the last generation who will know a Holocaust survivor and continues to make presentations whenever and wherever she can. She has found that those who hear her story, are both moved and inspired by her resilience and ability to remain positive in spite of past experiences. Her resourcefulness, faith, and love for mankind fills here audience with hope and inspiration. Letters of admiration and gratitude from young people are included throughout the book and demonstrate how Rose has impacted coming generations.

The public is invited to the program beginning at 5:30 p.m. on October 22, 2019 at the Port O Connor Library. Meet and Greet with refreshments from 5:30 – 6:30 p,m. Program 6:30-7:30 p,m. Book signing and photo ops 7:30 – 8:00 p.m.

Letters to Rose is co-authored by Rebecca Ebner Hoag and Robin Philbrick.

Rebecca Ebner Hoag, a veteran high school English teacher, has been involved with teaching about the Holocaust, both in the classroom and at San Antonio’s Holocaust Memorial Museum. After a 12-year friendship with Rose and co-authoring a book called Our Voices/Our Lives: Twenty Holocaust Survivors Remember for the museum, she volunteered to help Rose with her own book, providing historical context for Rose’s personal experiences.

Robin Philbrick, is a retired San Antonio English teacher. When teaching her students about the Holocaust, her lessons were enriched by her own experience as a military spouse living in a divided Berlin. She included photos and artifacts from places such as Dachau and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, Hitler’s Eagles Nest, and the Wannsee residence where the Final Solution was created. However, the key element in her lesson plan every year was a presentation by Rose Sherman Williams, whose incredible story created a lasting bond that led to Letters to Rose.

Seadrift Film: from left to right are: Diane Wilson, Jerry Weaver, The Nguyen, Tim Tsai, Beth Aplin Martin at the Vietnamese Community Center in Seadrift.

Beth Aplin Martin was just 14 years old in 1979 when her father, Billy Joe Aplin was killed in Seadrift. Martin was one of many featured in a new documentary about the circumstances leading up to the killing and its aftermath. The film was screened in two showings on Sunday, September 29th in Seadrift and one on Monday, September 30th at the Leo Welder Center in Victoria. The scope of the film, called Seadrift, however, is much broader and deeper than the tragic incident.

Billy Joe Aplin, his brothers and uncles were commercial fisherman when the influx of Vietnamese refugees began in the late 1970’s. The film features recollections and perspectives of both the refugees and Seadrift residents. Captured in this film are not only the emotions and frustrations raging during the cultural clash but notably, their evolution over time and with age. As Martin stated in the post-screening discussion, “I wish my father would have lived long enough to regret his mistakes (as we have).”

The discussions were as enthralling as the film itself and included the film’s director Tim Tsai (pronounced “sigh”) and several others featured in the film: Diane Wilson, former Seadrift commercial fisherman, Jerry Weaver, Seadrift resident, and The’ (pronounced “thay”) Nguyen (pronounced “win”), owner of Dockside Bait Shop in Seadrift. At the Victoria screening, Victoria physician Dr Peter Nguyen, The’ Nguyen’s brother-in-law, also joined the discussion.

Tsai spoke of how he read about of the incident in the book Asian Texans (by Irwin Tang), his seven-year quest to tell this tragic story and the decades it took to get to a harmonious point. The local and regional interest in the film was evident as the audience participated in the discussion. One man said he drove from Houston to attend the screening. A woman shared her experience, like that of Martin’s, having grown up in a commercial fishing family in Palacios during the time of the Vietnamese influx. Others, like Bobby Garner, were Seadrift natives whose family still tie them to Seadrift. Garner was accompanied by his adult two daughters who spent their childhood summers in Seadrift with their grandparents. Dr Nguyen detailed the emotions and confusion of having been a youth in Seadrift at the time of the upheaval then with the KKK threatening to move in, his family fled to Louisiana.

Martin waxed eloquently about the painful path of discovery and forgiveness she’s tread over the last four decades and her subsequent activism in anti-white supremacy. She expressed her gratitude to film maker Tim Tsai, calling the film a gift. “It’s our story, not just mine.” Martin said. “If we can find forgiveness, if we can heal from this, then (my dad) would not have died in vain.” Panelists also remarked on how the film is urgently needed as the nation again faces fears and tensions over the current influx of refugees at the Southern border.

The film is a cinematic collage revealing the process of commercial crabbing intertwined in the developing story. It mixes historical footage and news accounts with current day recollections and captures the breath taking beauty of San Antonio Bay. The film was premiered on January 26, 2019 and has already won numerous awards. It will continue to be screened both nationally and internationally. Tsai said it will be aired on PBS in 2020 and copies made available for purchase. To find more information about the film www.seadriftfilm.com or follow it on Facebook SeadriftFilm.

High Tides and First Strong Norther

Greetings from the island everyone. I hope that all of you are doing well and staying healthy as flu season quickly approaches. I plan on stopping in during my next mainland trip to get my yearly flu shot. I honestly don’t know if these shots fight off the flu entirely, as I know there are different strains, but I’ll continue to take them each year as a preventive, especially since I’m spending time with mom in the nursing home every week.

Well, as I sit here inside the kitchen on the morning of the 11th, I can see and hear the first true norther of the Fall season blowing outside. I can also certainly feel the temps starting to drop as a much needed drizzly rain falls from the windy sky. The winds are forecast to be 25-35 mph, and not drop below 20 mph until tomorrow, and right now I can hear my big island chimes, made partly from island seashells, singing a beautiful tune outside. I love those things.

As with any hard blowing norther out here, the tide always rises several feet during the first few hours, before it starts to recede and gets lower. And with the unusually extreme high tides we have been having, this norther really pushed it up very high. For the past several weeks the tides have stayed high, at times covering my pier, which normally only happens during a storm. I had read that the coast has been experiencing King Tides, occurring when the sun, moon and earth all align together at the same time. Just Mother Nature reminding us that she is in charge.

This begins the time of the year that fewer people are coming out to the island ( Yay! ), mainly because of weather, deer hunting and holidays. The cooler island winter months have always been some of my favorite times, especially for beach combing. Some of the more unusual seashells and beach finds tend to wash ashore during these months, and no one else is around to scavenge and find them. Of course the weather is much nastier, and with a hard blowing norther, the sand from the dunes is blowing across the beach and feels like bb’s hitting you, but it’s still all good. . . and there is no other place I’d rather be.

My mom, Leona, will be 80 years young on Oct 19, and we are looking forward to celebrating her birthday in Seadrift with lots of food and a birthday cake. I am so blessed and thankful to still have my mom and dad with me, and I cherish every moment that I can spend with them. Happy Birthday, Mom!! I love you.

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

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 November 1 until December 1, 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 by December 18. 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 December 1. 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.