Celebrate in Calhoun County March 3 at the Calhoun County Museum

Across the great state of Texas, citizens will gather to celebrate Texas Independence Day on March 2, 2015 remembering the men and women who achieved the Independence of Texas. Calhoun County Historical Commission will celebrate Texas Independence Day on March 3, 2015 at the Calhoun County Museum located at 301 South Ann Street. The Independence Declaration Reading will take place at High Noon and will be followed by a brown bag luncheon.

The determination and bravery of the men and endurance and support of the women and children will forever be perpetuated in the lives of Texans today. The public is invited to attend. For information, contact the Calhoun County Museum.

Seadrift School Spelling Bee Winners
Krislyn Key, Jacob Nguyen, Alex Mallory,
and alternate speller Destiny Garza.

Seadrift School held its annual campus spelling bee Friday, January 30, 2015 with twenty 28 students participating.

The Elementary Division winners were  Destiny Garza, 5th grade;  Jacob Nguyen, 4th grade; and Alex Mallory 2nd grade.

The winners of the Middle School Division were Krislyn Key, 8th grade; Casey Wooldridge 7th grade; and Morgan Sanders, 7th grade.

These 6 division winners advanced to the final rounds.

The final winners who will represent our school at the District Spelling Bee on February 19 are:  Krislyn Key, Jacob Nguyen, and Alex Mallory.  Destiny Garza will be the alternate speller.

All of the spellers did an outstanding job representing their classes.

Elementary Division Winners
Destiny Garza, Jacob Nguyen, and Alex Mallory

Middle School Division Winners
Krislyn Key, Casey Wooldridge, and Morgan Sanders

With March coming up right around the corner, Port O’Connor will be coming alive again. It’s been a cold and very quite winter. I think things will definitely begin picking up with the warming of the weather.

If you know of someone graduating in 2015, please remind them, there are really quite a few scholarship available from organizations in our community. The Scholarship application should be available for pick up at Calhoun High School at Ms. Meyers office at the end of this month and are to be returned completed by March 27, 2015. The Chamber gives one $500.00 Scholarship each year.

The Chamber is currently working on projects for 2015. These volunteers are striving to make upcoming events bigger and better than ever before. If you are interested in joining the community with their projects, please contact us.

The 2015 membership applications will be in the mail in a couple weeks. If you prefer to pay dues online, go to portoconnorchamber.org and click on Join Chamber, fill out the application and pay with Paypal or mail application with check.

The Chamber’s new and updated website is now up and running. Business members, please check your listing to make sure it is as you want it to be. Please do not hesitate to contact us to correct something if needed. We are here to help you.

It’s only a little over two months until the Annual Crawfish Cookoff & Festival. There is still need for more volunteers and if you want to be a vendor, the info is on our website and also there is a Facebook page. Mark your calendar—May 2,2015–10 a.m.-7 p.m.

New & Renewed Members:

(I apologize I had missed a couple of these in the past.)

Mr. & Mrs. Joe Cohen
Mr. & Mrs. Ricki Mc Kinney
Mr, & Mrs. Donald Goldman
Barnes Appraisal Service
All Season’s Guide Service
Jack’s Boat & Car Wash
Mid Coast Bay Charters
Port O’Connor Service Club
Lois W. Kolkhorst for State Rep.

If your looking for something to be grateful for this month, this is the column for you. I swore I wasn’t going to do it this year, swore I would not write one of ‘these’ articles this Winter. They seemed like an easy way out of writing something fresh and also seemed a bit like whining as well.

Human instinct however drives me to type these words, as the air outside my window is a balmy five degrees. Five. Degrees.

And that is without the wind chill.

Great mounds of snow are strewn about all over from the historic storm we had here in the Chicago area earlier this month, obscuring paths and making it look like Godzilla and King Kong had a food fight with vanilla cake frosting.

Besides, I discovered an interesting fact, one that gave depth to the love and hate affair I have with Midwestern Winter weather. I was alive and experienced for four out of the top five blizzards in Chicago history.

The first I cannot recall and it should be of no great surprise because I was just slightly over a year old when Old Man Winter decided we needed just over twenty inches of snow on the 13th and 14th of January in 1979.

The second I recall a bit better is one January 1999, which rang in the last New year of the 20th century with more then twenty-one and a half inches of snow. I recall how bad it was getting to work for weeks afterward but not much else which is not surprising either as I had turned twenty-one not long before this storm occurred. If I have learned anything it is that most people, especially guys, don’t start to really think about stuff until they at least reach their thirties.

The third one, occurring on the first of February 2011, was much more memorable because I had an interesting view from work, which I wrote about for a blog chain a year or so after it happened:

“As the storm progressed the streets got worse no matter how many times the snow plows plowed the main street my store was located along, and eventually cars disappeared from the scene all together with the few brave (Or foolish) souls who had to venture out getting stuck out on the roads.

At the height of the storm I was sitting on two milk crates watching the sky glow purple with the rare phenomenon of thunder snow while observing anyone foolish enough to try to enter the shop’s lot, which had yet to be plowed even once (Probably due to them being stuck themselves elsewhere), getting stuck in the drifts that had accumulated on our entrance way.”

However, getting home that night was more dangerous then anything:

“When the cab arrived I opened the door, shutting it behind me and literally leaped into what was at least a three-foot drift just beyond the doorway, fighting the bitter wind that was whistling around my head as I made my way to the cab which was idling on the main street as it could not enter the lot nor come down the side street next to the store, which was also impassable.

I felt like I was one of those old Apollo astronauts you would see on the videos of the moon landings as every step seemed to be awkward, with the difference that instead of being weightless, I had to struggle against the weight of the accumulated powder that was now almost to my knees as I approached the street.

With a final leap from the untouched snow to the cab, I swung open the door and told the cab driver where to go, thanking him for being so prompt and also for working on a night like this. Beyond that, neither of us made any of the usual idle conversation as the driver had his full concentration on the road ahead, as did I.

Everywhere around us cars were either stuck or stalled out, and the cab driver would swing the cab cautiously to the farthest lane when we were passing a stuck motorist who was spinning his wheels in the snow to try to escape, lest he free himself and ram the cab. This seemed to be something that had already happened to others as in the three-mile journey, which took us about thirty minutes, we saw lots of cars that were entangled with other vehicles or trapped in snow.

When we finally got to the closest major roadway, about one street from my destination I instructed the cabbie to turn onto the main road as I did not want him to try to brave the side street my apartment was on and get himself stuck.

After assurances from me that this was fine, I paid the man fifty dollars for what usually was a twenty-dollar fare, the only time on my limited budget that I ever gave such a large tip, but the driver’s good driving skills and willingness to work in the middle of the blizzard made me very generous.

Exiting the cab I was once again faced with a terrible wind that seemed like something out a movie about the Alaskan tundra, the wind being augmented by the fact that I lived near an agricultural high school which had some open land which the winds and snow just blew across unimpeded.”

Here we are again, February and once again nature saw fit to let me witness nearly twenty inches of snow again bring one of America’s largest cities to a virtual standstill. The storm’s name was Linus, which seemed apt considering it seemed fond of ‘blankets,’ much like it’s Peanuts name sake. However this Linus liked blankets of snow and it made sure we knew it.

Now here is where you guys get to have some fun. Now that your done reading this go outside (most likely in a jacket that would be unsuitable here by late November) and bask in the warm sun of a Texas Winter.

I will wait, I will just sit here freezing and jealous, waiting for Spring.