7th Annual POC Crawfish Fest & Cookoff

What an AMAZING day it turned out to be for the 7th Annual POC Crawfish Fest & Cookoff!! The weather was beautiful, a little windy, but it felt so good! With the much larger, beautiful new beach we have, we were able to include the horseshoe contest and Crawfish eating contest in the sand! Many were able to take their beach chairs & canopies to the sand and enjoy the festivities waterside.

This year’s entertainment lineup started with an 8-piece Cajun zydeco band, who traveled all the way from Wichita, Kansas, to join us here in POC. They put on an energetic and invigorating zydecajun show, with a tinge of country that truly made you want to dance. Thank you to Empire Lodge for providing their lodging, where the Mudbugs gave a private performance the night before the festival. Our headliner this year was Bri Bagwell, a fixture on the Texas Country scene. Bri took time to enjoy the Crawfish festivities before she put on an awesome show, along with her pup on stage! Thank you to our own Scott Brown for arranging and making our music and sound production show so fabulous!

Our Cooking competitors increased this year from 32 teams to 40. The competition was fierce and fun! Our winner of the Best Overall Boiled Crawfish was team Heads or Tails, Team La Famille De Ecrevisse took Second Place, and Third place went to Seaux Cajun. For Best Side Dish, the winner was La Famille De Ecrevisse, for the Cheesy Crawfish Etouffee Balls. Second place Side Dish was team Heads or Tails and 3rd place went to Crawfish Lives Matter. There were a variety of side dishes submitted and believe me, this is the category you want to be a judge in!! Another contest that is original and creative is the Bloody Mary contest. There were some Bloody Mary’s entered that could have been an entire meal! Bloody Mary’s are judged on presentation and taste. This year’s winner (AGAIN!) goes to La Famille De Ecrevisse, and this is their 4th time for this team winning this category. Although, there are judge’s for Crawfish, festival goers also have a choice to pick their favorite. The People’s Choice award this year went to Empire Lodge of POC. Best Decorated Booth was won by the Spicy Shack. Along with the cooking contests, we also had a Crawfish Eating Contest, sponsored by POC Rod & Gun. Winners were 1st Place, Taylor Shank, 2nd Place Willie Kandis, and 3rd Place Jade Alford. Another favorite was the Horseshoe Tournament, with Dwayne and Terri Twoomey taking the win. Please go to and like our POC Chamber of Commerce Facebook pages to see all the pics from this awesome day!!!!

An enhearten thank you to all our Judges, Volunteers and Sponsors. As this is the Chamber’s major fundraiser for the year, we are dependent on all of you. Without your help and support, this event would not be possible. It takes many months of dedicated work to make sure it runs smoothly. Again, thank you so much.

Make sure to mark your calendar for next year, April 25th. Always the last Saturday in April! Until then, Laissez les bons temps rouler!!!
-Darla Parker

Best Boiled Crawfish – Heads or Tails

Best Side Dish & Best Bloody Mary – La Famille De Ecrevisse

People’s Choice Award – Empire Lodge of POC

Best Decorated Booth – Spicy Shack

Staying Busy On The Island

Greetings from the island everyone. I hope that all of you are doing well and had a great Mother’s Day with mom, either being able to visit with her in person, or enjoying a heavenly visit. Corky and I went across the bay that early Sunday morning, and Mom had her kids with her in church, including my sister, Darla, who made the trip from California. We all had a nice lunch together and visited, and then the next day we celebrated the birthday of my sister, Sherry. It was a very nice Mother’s Day.

A few weeks ago I braved the onslaught of people and ventured in to attend the POC 7th Annual Crawfish Festival. It was fun seeing all the decorated crawfish boiling team booths and how much work and passion they put into this event. There was a great crowd there with lots of good food and drinks, and of course delicious crawfish. The POC Chamber of Commerce does a wonderful job organizing this event, and it continues to grow every year.

I also went across the bay very early Easter Sunday morning to attend the Sunrise Service on Front Beach. There was a great turnout and the weather was nice, making for a very beautiful sunrise over Matagorda Bay.

My Spring cleaning around the yard is just about done, just a few more odd and ends to gather and haul to the dump. In a very painful way, I was reminded that you should always wear closed toe footwear when cleaning and hauling things outside. While throwing an old section of fencing onto my little trailer to haul off, the fencing caught under my big right toenail, ripping the toenail upwards and separating it from my toe. . . ouch! Thank goodness I keep plenty of peroxide, neosporin and large heavy duty bandaids on hand. Just one of those things that you gotta be careful about.

My tomato plants are finally in the ground and hopefully enjoying all of this rain we have been having lately. I’m looking forward to fried green ones and vine ripened red ones in a few months. Not much better than a homegrown tomato on a BLT.
The chickens and guineas are doing just fine. After their winter layoff, the 15 hens are laying 12-14 eggs every day, and I’m getting three guinea eggs just about every day as well.

My boxer, Corky, is also doing great. He will be 3 years old next month, and he is such great company for me out here, and my cat, Jetty, has learned to tolerate him. Corky loves this lifestyle, running on the beach and chasing the seagulls and playing in the surf. I could not have asked for a better disposition in an island dog out here with me. I truly believe that Barnacle guided me to find Corky, knowing that he would bring me happiness.

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

One outstanding member of the Seadrift community is Tran Trong An. Tran is now 89 years old. I was fascinated when I heard his story!
Tran grew up in Vietnam. His family were fishermen. In 1965 Tran went into the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (otherwise known as ARVN). Tran was trained in the Army as an undercover agent. For ten years Tran did undercover work. In 1975 he was captured by the Viet Cong and was their prisoner for seven years. Not only did Tran suffer under cruel conditions, but his family suffered as well. When Tran was released he found odd jobs. In 1994 Tran, his wife, and three of his children came to America. Seadrift became Tran’s new home. For over twenty years Tran has assisted in setting up for the Catholic Mass in Seadrift. For over ten years he has given rides for people needing assistance to Port Lavaca, Victoria, and even Houston.

Tran wants the younger generation to go to school, study, become good citizens, and help the country where they live. He wants one day for Vietnam to have the same freedom as America.

This is the 3rd in the Seadrift Legacy series.