Inside the Moon Famous Mazochs A2 Columbian Peace Vote A6 Texas Rangers A6 Turkey Bowl A18 Issue 658 The Island Free The voiceMoon of The Island since 1996 November 24, 2016 Weekly FREE Around The Island Tortuga Dunes Headed for New Ownership By Dale Rankin You know fall has arrived on The Island when your Saturday morning alarm clock is .12 gauge. The duck season is in full bloom through Sunday so expect the cacophony to carry on along the Laguna Madre until then. The fishing continues to be good all over The Island. Anglers have been catching flounder in the canals flood insurance was not an option due and there are several reports of to FEMA restrictions placed on the Spanish mackerel being caught property due to its location adjacent from the beach fifteen to twenty to the Gulf of Mexico, a deal had miles down Padre Island National been struck with Lloyds of London to Seashore. Large trout have also been provide private insurance. However, caught up and down area beaches. Tortuga Dunes as originally envisioned according to potential buyers at the We can always tell when the fish By Dale Rankin 66-acres of developable property time the original cost of a slab for a are moving because the shores of at a price, according to sources, of After almost a decade of inactivity 2000 square-foot house could have Packery Channel by the bridge fill up under $3 million, according to the due to the cost of flood insurance the run as high as $225,000 with monthly with wade fisherpersons; maybe the listing the property had been on the The dune walkover is ready for moribund Tortuga Dunes beachside flood insurance premiums at around mathematically inclined amongst us markets since spring, 2016 at price development along Zahn Road north use. $5000 per month. could come up with a formula there three times the final purchase price. of Packery Channel appears headed - 2 fisherpersons X 78-degree water = The remainder of the property on the Lampkin said building single- In spite of the obstacles the original for new ownership. 10 SPH (Specks Per Hour). Offshore site must be maintained as wetlands. family homes, as envisioned by investors went ahead with Phase I of fishing has also reportedly been good Developer Jeff Lampkin, the driving Forestar Group which originally the project which included building “We have the property under on the days when the wind lays down force behind the successful beachside developed the property, is unlikely. infrastructure including, electric contract,” Lampkin said last week. enough to go out. mixed-use development Cinnamon When Forestar built and marketed power, water, telephone, and gas and “So far we have not decided what we Shore in Port Aransas, has made an the property in 2008 they told Red Light talkin’ will do with it if we buy it.” offer to buy the 137 acre-tract, with potential buyers that while federal Tortuga cont. on A4 The agenda for the next meeting of the Island Strategic Action December 9-10 Committee, 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 6, at Schlitterbahn, is not Where There's Smoke... out yet but expect a discussion of the La Posada! traffic light currently being installed at The La Posada Lighted Boat Parade the SPID/Aquarius. The original plan and the activity leading up to it are for the light has hit some snags as the only four weeks away. The Old 105-room hotel which was the raison Farmer’s Almanac calls for higher d'être for the light in the beginning than normal temperatures this year has, at least for now, disappeared and the Old Farmer usually knows from the plan. The question at hand about these things. The kickoff is what kind of warning device, if party is Tuesday December 6 at any, should be placed on the JFK Scuttlebutt’s, bring your toys. Causeway as drivers approach the For full schedule and information high point in the bridge, and the blind see the section in this issue. spot behind it, as they approach The Island from the Flour Bluff side. The fear is that on busy days traffic at the light will back up onto the bridge and drivers coming over the top will have nowhere to go when they encounter stopped cars on the downside. If you have an interest in what happens at that intersection the ISAC meeting will be the place to get information and/or make your opinion heard. Port A talkin’ We had a big night at Shorty’s last Saturday as the Moon Monkeys stayed out till way past dark. Our old friend Michael Martin came A large brush fire broke out Monday afternoon on the back of The Island south of Sea Pines. Investigators down from S.A. and we old geezers said it appeared whoever started it arrived by boat because there were no tire tracks to the site. It started who usually set with the sun risked west of the houses and the wind blew it away from the subdivision so no structures were threatened. throwing out backs out by dancing. We’re trying to limber up for the A little Island History Turkey Bowl at the Back Porch Bar at the end of this month. The annual event is a bittersweet time because Thanksgiving: An Alternative Story It Wasn’t Official – But the First it marks the end of the season at the By Dale Rankin plunder and profit. Four-fifths of Thanksgiving in America was venerable outdoor bar and we kind of the cost for the venture was paid for We all grew up hearing the story wander around in circles until next by noble lords, including the Earl of Thanksgiving. You know the Celebrated on the South Texas February when they reopen. of Orford, the Baron of Romney, one, the Pilgrims suffered through a the Duke of Shrewsbury, Sir John It’s almost time for the Winter Texan tough winter with the Plains in 1534 Somers, and Lord Season which means things will heat help of their Native By Dale Rankin Thanksgiving holiday as Richard Bellomont up at The Gaff as the belt sanders American friends and we now know it began a tall, gout-ridden, It wasn’t an official take to the track. There is a rumor then threw a big party to take shape. Days sixty-year old Irish Thanksgiving as there that the Winter Texans only go to to celebrate and bang, of Fasting were called aristocrat who was was no such thing see those belt sanders crash but we we got Thanksgiving. for after the drought of heir to a baronetcy yet. It was November, don’t’ believe that. We think they go Well, that makes for a 1611, and for relief from in Ireland but broke. 1534 and four because it’s free. warm and fuzzy story the plagues of 1604 and Bellomont managed shipwrecked Spanish but that may not be 1622; in 1588 it was the La Posada talkin’ to bring King William wanderers making exactly how it went defeat of the Spanish III of England into the their way across the It’s about time to La Posada down. prairies of what is Armada, and in 1705 everybody so get some toys ready and project and Kidd was the deliverance of Queen Author Richard now South Texas had make sure your blender is working. presented with a letter Anne, then the failure of Zacks in his book little to be thankful There is no heartbreak like a broken of marque, signed the Gunpowder Plot in “The Pirate Hunter for – at least until blender at a La Posada party. We once personally by the 1605. – The True Story of the end of November knew a guy who had to stir his batch CaptainWilliam Kidd King which reserved Captain Kidd” tells rolled around and Lord Belmont These were Protestant of margaritas with a boat oar and after 10% of Kidd’s a slightly different their fortunes began celebrations that that the thing would only paddle his captured loot for the version. Crown, and subsequent historical to change. were foreign and boat in circles. The bad news was he probably unknown to the four never really got where he was going, evidence suggests that the King may A Moorish prediction England 1695 have even fronted some of the money Catholic Spaniards who had found but the good news was that he never Before 1536 there were 95 Church themselves washed upon what is go lost either, he just ended up right The story begins in England in 1695 for the voyage himself. when some of the most powerful holidays, plus 52 Sundays, when now the Alabama shoreline on back where he started. But then At the time, Bellomont had secured people were required to attend church November 4, 1528. The men had set isn’t that the case with just about men in the Empire put financial an appointment as Governor of backing behind the voyage of and forego work and sometimes out from Spain in 1527 to seek their everything in this world. Massachusetts Bay in the New pay for expensive celebrations. In fortune in the New World. On their ship captain William Kidd whose World and was looking to add the Say hello if you see us Around The mission was to put to sea and raid 1536 reforms reduced the number voyage to Florida by way of Santo of Church holidays to 27 and the Island. the ships of England’s enemies for Alt-Thanksgiving cont.