Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 33, No. 04, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 23, 2003 Page: 20 of 20
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PAGE 8B Thursday, January 23, 2003
Classified/Island Life
best available copy
Port Aransas South Jetty
Last four performances
of ‘Wally’s Cafe’ scheduled
Foggy fishin’
Staff photo by Murray Judson
This intrepid fisherman went out to the East Flats, home of the
redfish, speckled trout and black drum, early in the morning of
Jan. 21, hoping to catch his dinner. He braved the fog, shown
here, that looked a lot like mountains in the background. It can
only be hoped he found a good hole that made his catching as
good as the early morning fishing.
Bare beach; an early Amos moment
“Wally’s Cafe,” a comedy being
presented by Port Aransas Commu-
nity Theater (PACT), will close Sun-
day after a 3 p.m. matinee.
The play also will be staged to-
night (Thursday, jan. 25), Friday and
Saturday at 8 p.m.
Performances are in the PACT
building at 212 Beach St.
Any remaining tickets for the per-
formances will be sold at the door,
said Betty Crawford, president of
the PACT board of governors. Tick-
ets are $10 each.
After noon today there will be a
recording on the PACT telephone,
749-6036, which will let people
know bow many tickets are available
for the shows.
Katie Crysup not only has a role
in the play, doing the role of Janet
Chester, but she is also director.
In addition to Crysup, perform-
ers are Steve Yeargain, who plays
Wally Murdock, and Alissa Pena,
who plays Louise Murdock. Jane Bull
is producer.
The play begins in the summer of
1940 and continues through the
summer of 1981. It takes place in
California at a roadside cafe near the
Nevada border.
1 he Murdocks left New Jersey to
make their fortune in the cafe busi-
ness in California. Janet appears on
the scene as a young girl who is hitch-
hiking her way to California and star-
dom in the movies. Though she
makes it to Hollywood, she winds
up hack at Wally’s Cafe because of a
run of had luck.
Sam Bohrick and Ron Clark wrote
“Wally’s Cafe,” which is partially
sponsored by Neptune’s Retreat.
The beach has been wide and
clean of debris this early in 2003.
There also have been few birds us-
ing the beach recently, although this
will change soon as spring ap-
proaches. On my last beach survey
1 counted only 149 birds of 10 spe-
cies in the seven-mile stretch of
Mustang Island Gulf beach that I
have been surveying since 1978. The
most common bird was the ring-
billed gull with 60 counted They
were outnumbered by the 72 people
on the beach that early morning,
most of whom were sucking up
ghost shrimp for bait using the
“Creature Catcher”. (1 wonder if this
assault could have any adverse af-
fect on this common yet important
invertebrate animal that inhabits the
wet sand at the shoreline?)
Apart from a scattering of natu-
ral debris such as sea grasses, man-
grove seeds, gorgonians, and shells,
there has been almost no trash lit-
tering the beach. I bis is such a wel-
come change that I hope will con-
tinue. Because of this and the wide
flat and smooth beach, beach man-
agement vehicles have also been gen-
erally absent; another welcome de-
velopment in my opinion.
(iiven this lack of things to report
and a mild attack of writer’s block,
you get another episode from the
Amos past this week. But first, here
are a couple of mysteries to ponder.
T he speed limit signs keep chang-
ing on the Island Road approaching
town. As happened once before,
there are different speeds posted for
the same stretch of road: heading
north into town one must drive at
50mph to he legal starting just be-
ObhbKV LK
fore Access Road
1, yet coming the
other w'ay you can
do 55 mph on the
same road. Is this
a mistake or is it
intentional?
Also, after return-
ing from afar, I
notice that Der-
rick Barge Ocean
Builder 2 has
gone from the
Commentary by McDermott Yard.
Tony Amos Can anyone tell
me what hap-
pened to it? Although it was a rust-
ing hulk and did not particularly add
to the visual beauty of our town, I
had grown rather fond of this once
mighty piece of maritime engineer-
ing.
<r it it it it it it
The Adventure of Freddy Cook’s
Uncle’s Car:
An Early Amos Moment.
1 might have been 10 years old. I
was certainly not 11, because that
was when 1 went into grammar
school. I was still in junior school
and the green school jacket 1 wore
was nearly my undoing. I lived at
Number 14 Walton Avenue, North
Cheam. Walton Avenue was lined
with nearly identical brick houses,
four dwellings per block. Many still
bore the scars of bomb damage just
after W'WIl when my story takes
place. There were no cars parked
outside any of the houses on Walton
Avenue then: people didn’t have
cars. (Now’ there are hundreds of
them and many of the individual
dwellings in each block have been
split into two flats; an upstairs and
a downstairs). Freddy Cook’s uncle
did have a car, but he lived on an-
other street.
There were two bullies 1 remem-
ber from Cheam Park Farm Junior
School. One we knew simply as
Knot because, other than our best
friends, we referred to each other
by surname only. A big dare went
like this: Knot would he approach-
ing down the school hallway and you
stood your ground and said out load
“Is it? Yes, I believe it is, it’s ... it’s,
no it isn’t! it’s NOT!” A simple play
on his name that sent him into a
rage, and you’d better run away
quickly or risk getting hashed up.
The other bully was Freddy Cook.
I don’t know what made Freddy
Cook so feared, hut he was not a
boy to he fooled around with like
Knot.
One day I was wandering up
Walton Avenue on my way home
from school when 1 found an odd
thing in the gutter. It was a hull
rush. How a large piece of marsh
vegetation came to be on an urban
street, 1 cannot say. As I was exam-
ining my find, a small black car came
down the hill. For some inexplicable
reason I decided to throw the hull
rush at the car as it passed. To my
horror it went right through the
windshield with a crash. The car
came to a screeching halt but by that
time 1 had taken off! 1 was running
up the street at full tilt. 1 rounded
the bend near the top of Walton
Avenue where 1 could no longer see
the car or the two people who were
now in pursuit. At number 15,
which happened to he the house of
New Year’s Day bird count
ends with total of 79 species
By Dr. Joan Holt
Special to the South Jetty
Following the example of Phyllis
Yochem, birding columnist for the
Corpus Christi Caller-Times, I de-
cided to begin the New Year by com-
piling a New Year’s Day bird list.
My husband, Scott, and 1 spent
New' Year’s at our hunting lease
north of George West, so I began
the day with the pre dawn call of a
great horned owl. The first birds at
my feeders were, as always, north-
ern cardinals followed bv black-
crested titmouse and green jays. Sit-
ting on the hack porch sipping cof-
fee I marked off six species of spar-
rows that are spending the winter
here along with American goldfinch
and American robin. Some of the
year-round residents at the feeders
were house finch, golden-frouted
woodpecker and long-billed thrasher.
A long-hilled curlew flew overhead
as did a crested-caracara. Before I
left camp I had recorded 29 species
of birds and three deer.
Driving around the ranch, I found
some of my favorites: Audubon’s
oriole, vermilion flycatcher, eastern
bluebird, verdin, roadrunner and
olive sparrow'. A very big surprise
was finding a bluebonnet blooming
on Jan. 1!
On a small pond in the woods that
was flooded from the Nueces River
last fall I found wood duck, kiskadee,
least grebe and solitary sandpiper.
There were wintering flocks of small
birds feeding in the woods. Golden-
crowned kinglets, black and white
warblers, black-throated green war
hler were in feeding flocks w ith ruby-
crowned kinglets, blue-grey gnat-
catchers, Carolina chickadees and
strangely ladder-backed woodpeck-
ers. They call regularly and the
sound must help to keep the birds
Guided beach walk is Friday
Treasures of the sea can he found
during the monthly beach walk
hosted by Sharon Schafer.
The walk will take place Jan. 24
at 9 a.m. It is free and open to the
Open til 2am Daily
Sharkeys
2600 Hwy 361 • 749-4254
$1.75
! Any single Liquor, Beer or Wine
($&■ $1-75 Jack night
cult. Open Jam at 8:00pm
$2.50 Well, Domestic or House Wine
LUNCH SPECIALS
Wed. - Fri. 11:30am - 3:00pm
Super Bowl Party Chili Cookoff
«» Jai7pLT 7E5P
mtkm I b l i IdL/G & ^
100
j ^icia’s treasure
• A delightful tale of a young girl's
magical, fun-filled journey of
discovery lo the sea shore
1 V* i ■ ■ .!■ n>
I Ml W Cotter 749-5131
my Uncle Frank, I leapt over the
front gate and dived under the privet
hedge that faced the pavement (side-
walk) and gave some privacy to their
front garden. The heavy footsteps
of the two went pounding past my
hiding place as my heart pounded
audibly. To my horror I saw that
one of them was the dreaded Freddy
Cook!
I stayed hidden for what seemed
like an eternity, tensed again when
1 heard them come back, cursing that
they hadn’t caught “the little
blighter”. When all was cjuiet I
knocked on my uncle’s door and was
invited in to have tea and play with
Pete, the budgerigar. 1 was served
Shipham’s Fish Paste sandwiches.
Sounds awful, doesn’t it? But I loved
them!
The next day at school, Freddy
Cook collared me and said, “We
know' who it was because he was
wearing a green jacket.” “It was you,
wasn’t it?” he yelled. I remained
mute and lie let me go. The green
jacket was part of my uniform hut
fortunately there were other boys
who wore these jackets (hut not ev-
erybody by any means). 1 never
owned up to tin1 deed, hut 1 know
he really thought it was 1. 1 had
the misfortune to throw a piece of
grass at the only ear in the neigh-
borhood: Freddy Cook’s Uncle’s
C ar, and Freddy Cook’s l Jncle’s Car
had the most fragile windshield in
the world!
Tuny Amos is a physical oceanog-
rapher at The University of Texas
at Austin Marine Science Institute
in Port Aransas. Contact him via e-
mail at afamos@utmsi.utexas.edu
Real Estate
Seabean lecture is Friday
“Everything you Never-ever
Wanted to Know about Seabeans”
is the topic of The University of
Texas Marine Science Institute
(UTMSI) “Evening Lecture Series”
on Friday.
Dr. Gerald Sullivan is the guest
speaker for the lecture at the UTMSI
Visitor Center. Doors open at 6:30
p.m. and the program begins at 7
p.m. It is free and open to the pub-
lic.
The series, during which scientists
discuss their research activities and
interests around Texas and other
parts of the world, is designed spe-
Real Estate
cifically for the public.
Sullivan, formally a professor at
UT Austin’s Department of Phar-
macy, now resides in Port Aransas.
He remembers collecting his first
seabean in Kauai in 1996 now his
fascination of seabeans continues on
the Port Aransas beaches.
“Experience the fantastic voyage
of the awesome tropical drift seeds
from their origin in South America,
to their final destination a world
away,” Sullivan said.
For more information about the
program or series of lectures, call
749-6805.
Real Estate
Congratulations
Shirley Holland!
Ton Producer In 2002
Over $8.5 Million
In Sales & Listings!
You Can Call
Shirley at our
Harbor Office
749-4000 or
<800) 242-3480
s
•S- 1
together. The flocking behavior
might help birds find food or to in-
sure that predators will he seen.
We left the ranch and headed to
Rockport to have black-eyed peas
with Scott’s parents. On the way I
saw some of the more mundane birds
like house sparrow', red-winged
blackbird and starlings. We found a
field with a few snow geese. By the
time vve reached the ferry it was
dark, but ! was able to see white
pelicans, ring-billed gulls and black-
crowr.cd night herons in the feny
lights. The final birds of the day w ere
turkeys that were roosting on the
power lines behind our house. My
day count was 79 species, which is a
pretty good way to start the New
Year.
public.
Participants will look for shells and
other treasures on the Port Aransas
beach and hear commentary from
Schafer, who has many years of
beach-combing experience.
Any persons interested in partici-
pating in the beach walk should
meet next to the red flag at Horace
Caldwell Pier wearing appropriate
shoes, even rubber boots for wad-
ing, and have with them a bag for
collection of shells or other finds.
During one of Schafer’s recent
walks, she found Florida fighting
conch shells, sundials, olive shells and
a few w helks.
According to Schafer, people who
are interested in shell hunting
should check out other areas such
as San Jose and Matagorda islands
and any of the beaches along the ship
channel.
r~
www.marniepatty.com
Marnie Patty
361-749-6000 office
361-774-0836 cell
mpatty@coldwellbanker.com
COLDUieUL
BANKCRQ
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Judson, Mary. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 33, No. 04, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 23, 2003, newspaper, January 23, 2003; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth662837/m1/20/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.