Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 14, 1985 Page: 2 of 16
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PAGE2A
THURSDAY, MARCH 14,1985
Editorial
PORT ARANSAS SOUTH JETTY
LETS 5EE-WS *400“ FOR
m CCUKTOf CLUB CUES, $250*
FOR THE CDMWNy PICNIC, AND
0H.VE5,49* PM7T5 AND UB0R_
SKSS««"
Spinoff-——
Cheers to Spring Break
-By Mary Henkel Judson
SO FAR, SO GREAT: SPRING
lyeak.
Oh, what a difference a year and
some big steps by the City Council
have made in Spring Break!
This, the first “big week" of Spring
Break has seen fewer students than
in recent years, but the dollar
amounts being rung up by local
cash registers is holding its own
very well. The students here are
well behaved and having a good
time — they are not put off by the
new beach regulations according to
folks walking the beach and inter-
viewing our young visitors.
We apparently have not attract-
ed the trouble makers that have
cost us in dollars and tempera-
ments in previous years. If that
means fewer students, then so be it.
I can’t see any harm.
It is a pleasure to have come mid-
way through this week without com-
plaints pouring in from residents,
merchants and visitors.
It is also a pleasure, and perhaps
sets some sort of a record, to have
had sunshine - brilliant sunshine
--and warm temperatures for so
many daiys running during Spring
Break. Usually overcast skies, fog
and not-very-bikini-beckoning temp-
eratures span at least part of
Spring Break, never daunting the
spirits (take that any way you like)
of the partying students.
This weekend and next week may
bring an abrupt halt to all this good
cheer. It is then that high school
students will join, then replace, our
collegiate visitors. The high school
students would present no problem
if properly supervised. However,
too many parents send their 15 to
17-year old children to Port Aran-
Bonds -—■■■
continued from page one
area Inland would have the greatest
Of the three sites up for consid- impact on Port Aransas if chosen,
eration in this area, West Harbor The Texas Highway Department
sas for a week of unchaparoned
revelry. That’s when we have prob-
lems.
Let’s just hope that our good
start on educating people about
our new regulations to protect our
beach and our visitors will make a
big difference. The college students
have already set a good example for
their younger cohorts to follow.
And, being realistic, we all have to
realize that when you throw a
party, there is a good chance some-
one is going to spill a drink or some
kind of damage is going to occur
—and your house is not going to
look like it did before the party. By
the same token, Port Aransas won’t
be the same after Spring Break.
But let’s just have a party, not a
hurricane, okay-? So far, so good.
4
has agreed to spend $128 million
for improved highways and bridges
if Harbor Island is chosen, he said.
Election
continued from page one
delicatessen owner.
School Board
With Miget out of the running
there are now four candidates for
t wo at -large positions on the School
Board. In the order that they will
appear on t he ballot t he candidates
are: Mark Creighton, a former School
Board member and a business per-
son: Delana Littleton, business per-
son; .Jim Sherrill, former School
Board member and a corporate
accountant; and incumbent .Jim
Cole, a boat captain and hunting
guide.
Absentee voting for each election
will be conducted from March 18
through April 2. Balloting in per-
son will be Saturday, April (i.
Meet the Candidates
Meet the Candidates Night will be
sponsored by the South Jetty Mon-
day, April 1. The presentation will
be divided among City Council and
School Board candidates. All can-
didates are invited to participate.
Any candidate who will not be able
to participate is asked to contact
Editor Mary Judson this week. In
addition to questions that will be
asked that night, candidates will be
asked to give closing statements of
approximately three minutes.
statements
Water Board candidates have
until 12 noon Tuesday, March 19, to
submit statements regarding their
candidacy. The statements, to be
published free of charge, should be
limited to two typewritten, double-
spaced pages. That offer to City
Council and School Board candi-
dates expired last Tuesday, March
12, at noon.
DONTBE
RIDICULOUS,
JENNIFER.
IWM
0*65 SAN DliGOumoN
ABOUT ALLThSS)ID
HORMONES YOU'VE BEEN
' GIVING ME,COACH.
m I
m/A
Scattershooting-
Giving a dam
----By Jack L. Moore
Travertine Grotto. Tapeats Creek.
Columbine Falls. Conquistador
Aisle. Bright Angel Creek.
Those names come tumbling out
of the past herding memories vivid
with pain and excitement and join-
ing with Lava Falls, Sockdologer
and Dubendorff rapids to evoke a
special sense of anxiety. And ex-
citement.
It was just over two years ago
that I survived a 23-day expedition
over more than 280 miles of the
Colorado River as it snakes through
the Grand Canyon, from Lee's Ferry
to Lake Mead. When I returned
home I was 30 pounds lighter and
considerably wiser than the day I
left on that remarkable trip.
As I recall those first days back
home, folks were leery of mention-
ing that I resembled a starving
scarecrow with an extra layer of
skin hanging around-because they
thought I had some terrible disease.
As a matter of fact, I thought so too.
I left the weight, which I didn’t
need then and still don’t, on the
bottom of a small rubber raft that
was overmatched in daily battles
against the raging white water boil-
ing out from more than 100 rapids
encountered during those frenetic
days of fantastic rafting. Some of it
was worked off. Most of it was
scared away.
And, to be honest, a 10 to 15 min-
ute swim in the 45-degree water (I
was wearing a wet suit) when the
raft capsized in Ruby Rapid had
something to do with it. Along with
some water, I swallowed a special
breed of river bacteria that elimi-
nated appetite totally for four to
five days. I was sick enough to w ant
off the river. That's sick!
When the memories were fresh, I
said there was no way I would do
that again. Since then, of course,
I’ve run the New and Cheat rivers in
West Virginia and a couple in Maine
with names I can’t spell. Then, last
summer, I was part of a group that
rafted the Colorado through Cata-
ract Canyon, and still shudder
thinking about Satan’s Gut, a killer
rapid.
What I meant two years ago was
that I would not again spend 23
clays on the Colorado River, rafting
through the Grand Canyon. And I
won't. Maybe 18 days!
Going back in time to that
October-November, 1982, trip was
triggered today by the National
Park Service which is seeking my
advice about boat trips in Grand
Canyon National Park. Seems that
I’m one of 700 folks being asked to
answer a long list of questions.
For instance, I’m supposed to tell
'em which rapids I like the most and
the ones I dislike. That’s easy, if I got
through without swimming I liked
it fine. And vice versa.
They are also interested in what
increases and decreases the en-
joyment of particular rapids. The
“roller coaster” ride gets top billing
among the enjoyable features while
"dodging deep holes" is about the
least fun I get while running a
rapid. Mainly because my raft usu-
ally thinks driving through a “hole”
is a fun thing!
Mainly, though, the Park Service
was most interested in how I felt
about the fact that the water level
of the Colorado in Grand Canyon is
determined, not by nature, but by
man.
Depending on the demand for
electricity from Las Vegas, NE, and
points yvest, water is released from
Glen Canyon Dam, located only a
few miles north of Grand Canyon.
The water release determines the
river level and largely determines
how exciting and bow enjoyable the
rafting.
I don't think they will pay much
attention to my suggestion.
Blowing holes in dams is not
something the Park Service take.'
kindly to.
Since James Watts resigned, the)
don’t have much sense of humor.
Tidemarks-
Athletes and academics
—-By CM. Henkel Jr.
NOTHING IS PERFECT, PAST,
present nor future. And so with
education HB 72. An editorial we
read a few days ago suggested that
the bill at least be given a chance,
for a year. At the end of that time
appropriate considered changes
can be made. Makes sense. Thus far
the only complaintants with whom
we sympathize are teachers who
claim to be overburdened with
paper work. As said last week, there
is no pity from this quarter for stu-
dents who are barred from
extra-curricular activities because
they can't make their grades. The
sorriest argument for classroom
failing athletes is that only sports
programs keep them in school. For
too many years in the past sound
students have suffered, been held
back, not motivated, because cur-
riculum standards have been based
on the ability of those least able to
progress.
LET’S BE FRANK. IF BELOW
college level athletics are as this
writer once naively believed, for the
purpose of building strong and
healthy bodies, to teach sports-
manship, then extant programs are
a complete and total failure. Face it.
High school athletics are for the
benefit of those boys/girls who are
natural athletes and for the macho
adult fan whose only concern for
the local school is that its kids bring
home the bacon in football, basket-
ball, whatever.
A real, a genuine secondary
school athletic program would
insist that every physically able
student participate year around in
one or another body building exer-
cise. Properly instituted such a
program if successful would be so
popular as to cause students to
continue their athletic activities
through life. This would be a health-
ier nation, but horror of horrors -
this may be intimating that there be
an end to interscholastic activities
and instead intramural programs.
“LOOKING FOR THE DRUG VIL-
lain? Try Uncle Sam." Those words
appeared in a headline over Ed
Hart’s column in the Sunday
Caller-Times. Hart noted that
since the kidnapping of a U. S. drug
agent our performance toward
Mexico has been “inexcusable”.
Writes Hart: “We have bullied the
Mexicans, criticized them in the
most public kind of way, and con-
descended to them,” and “What is
the engine that drives the global
drug traffic? It is America's appe-
tite for drugs. Without us, there
would hardly be any drug traffic."
And he is right in both instances,
but there is more. Ignore for the
nonce that drugs come also into the
United States from the Middle and
Far East, consider only those which
are “imported” from Central and
South America. Drug dealers from
south of the border are motivated
in exactly the same way as the legit-
imate businessman. How’s that?
The dealer looks for the most
accessible market and that is the IJ.
S. a few miles to a thousand miles
from his sources. Europe is three
thousand miles distant. Then he
must consider the market, and isn’t
it the U. S. again? The world’s
wealthiest nation. Add to these bas-
ics the fact that crossing our south-
ern border is so easy that controls
are all but nonexistent.Compare
the difference with crossing bord-
ers in Europe. Yet the drug pushing
"businessman" has another entice-
ment. If he is caught in the U. S.
odds are that he will suffer little
more than a tap on the wrist as a
penalty. Indeed, if he secure the
"right" lawyer its odds on he’d be
back in “business" within a short
time.
True, the dope pusher can’t
advertise his wares in the news-
paper, on billboards or via the elec-
tronic media, but he hEis a system
and as Hart says, ours is the world’s
greatest drug using nation, so the
system must be working.
Side note: In our 50th state,
Hawaii, the dollar value of the drug
trade tops sugar, pineapples, cattle,
It’s Number One.
GENERAL DYNAMICS SEEMS
to have been caught in some shady
dealing, or should it be called shady
billing? No surprise. Don’t think GD
is alone. Remember it was sug-
gested here recently that military
folks are not businessmen. Give
them the hardware they need, it
was said, but let civilian accoun-
tants handle the purse strings. Let
it be understood that I do not favor
giving the military everything that
it wants, but even so I prefer to
accept their judgment over that of
pacifist congressmen about whom I
am more often than not inclined to
share the view of the Late Admiral
Ernest King. King scorned them,
blamed them for neglect that pre-
WWII emasculated the navy and so
cost, us thousands of lives that
might otherwise not have been lost.
One remembers. Nearly 100 years
ago the historian Alfred Thayer
Mahan said that by their very
nature democracies are rarely pre-
pared for war. Of this we have ever
ongoing proof from Washington.
One day this may yet cost us our
lives and our liberty. So, this
columnist supports President Rea-
gan’s Star Wars.
THE LAST WORD: EVERY BOY
and girl on the high school campus
should be a sports participant,
intramural tenhis, golf, sailing,
badminton, etcetera. Athletic de-
partment dollars should be de-
voted to the hundreds rather than
a handful, or the single lad or lass
who eventually makes it big on the
pro circuit....Thankfully, I'm pretty
good at dodging rotten tomatoes.
Southern Publishing, Inc.
749-5131
Co-publishers
Murray and Mary Judson
Advertising Manager Managing Editor Reporter
Murray Judson Mary Judson Maureen Sheeran
P.O. Box 1116 Port Aransas, TX 78373
141 W. Cotter
Second Class Postage is paid at Port Aransas, Texas 78373
Publication Number: 946-020
Proofreading Office Supplies/Classified Composing
Joe Bicknell Brenda Anderson Karen Thompson
The South Jetty is published every Thursday by Southern Publish-
ing, Inc. at 141 W. Cotter Avenue in Port Aransas. Any erroneous
statement regarding corporations, firms or individuals will be
gladly corrected when called to the attention of the editors.
TEXAS PRESS
■ IIassociationIII
■ 1984 ■
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Judson, Mary. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 14, 1985, newspaper, March 14, 1985; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth663005/m1/2/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.