Category: South Padre Parade

Meet Felicia Calo: Hostess for the 81st TIFT

By Gaige Davila editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com The Texas International Fishing Tournament (TIFT) is on schedule for the first weekend of August, for its 81st year.  This year, the TIFT Board of Directors selected Felicia Calo as hostess, a title bestowed on local anglers to promote TIFT. Calo graduated from Port Isabel High School in 2016, then from …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2020/07/01/meet-felicia-calo-hostess-for-the-81st-tift/

World’s largest mesquite carved turtle unveiled on SPI

By Gaige Davila editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com A hand-carved, seven-foot and ten inch tall by eight-foot-long, six and half-foot wide wooden sea turtle sculpture is now displayed in front of Sea Ranch Restaurant, in what the City of South Padre Island calls a “record breaking tribute” to South Padre Island sea turtles. . The 400-pound, mesquite wood sculpture, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2020/05/21/worlds-largest-mesquite-carved-turtle-unveiled-on-spi/

Rio History: Sea-beans

By Steve Hathcock  Although sea-beans have been washing onto beaches for tens of thousands of years, most beachcombers are unaware of their origins.  Most true sea-beans (numerous varieties of beans with hard outer shells that are long distance drifters) found on Padre Island come from the tropical forests of southern Mexico and Central and South …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2020/05/01/rio-history-sea-beans-2/

Rio History: Fire Making

By Steve Hathcock The ability to make fire by rubbing two sticks together was arguably the single greatest accomplishment made by our forefathers. The principle is simple: one wooden stick, called the drill or saw, was twisted or rubbed against another, known as the hearth. If done properly, enough heat is created to ignite dried …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2020/04/24/rio-history-fire-making/

Creatures Among Us: The Nine-Banded Armadillo

By M. Kathy Raines Special to the PRESS Mirroring traits of the quintessential Texan, the nine-banded armadillo is “a hardy, pioneering creature,” one possessing “deep respect and need for the land, the ability to change and adapt, and a fierce, undying love for freedom,” according to 1995’s Texas legislature. Armadillos’ migration to Texas roughly coincides …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2020/04/20/creatures-among-us-the-nine-banded-armadillo/

Rio History: The Torpedo

By Steve Hathcock A woman called me the other day to tell me about her recent beachcombing trip to the mouth of the Rio Grande River. While exploring in the mudflats that lie directly north of the riverbank, she found shards of glass and several unbroken bottles. “One of the bottles is very odd” she …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2020/04/17/rio-history-the-torpedo/

Creatures Among Us: The Painted Bunting—a Joy to Birders

By M. Kathy Raines Special to the PRESS Painted buntings don’t know about the coronavirus.   Oblivious to our fears and “shelter in place” orders, they, along with other exhausted, migrating birds, are stopping in South Texas in April and early May to rest and feed before flying northward, where they will merrily mate and nest. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2020/04/05/creatures-among-us-the-painted-bunting-a-joy-to-birders/

Paragraphs bookstore’s final chapter celebrated

                        By Gaige Davila editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com After three leap years—or 12 years—Paragraphs on Padre Boulevard bookstore shut its glass-paned doors after a retirement celebration in honor of owners Joni Montover and Griff Mangan, on February 29.  Friends came and went from 10:00 a.m. into the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2020/03/06/paragraphs-bookstores-final-chapter-celebrated/

Creatures Among Us: The Scrawled Cowfish—a Charming Gulf Resident

By M. Kathy Raines Special to the PARADE The sloping forehead of this multi-dimensional fish ends in a tiny, puckered “o” of perpetual awe or surprise. This is silly, of course. All fish wear fixed facial “expressions”, so to speak. Still, given our propensity to personify our fellow creatures, scrawled cowfish look, well, adorable. Even …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2020/03/06/creatures-among-us-the-scrawled-cowfish-a-charming-gulf-resident/

Movie Review: The Last Full Measure

By David Lee Zamora Special to the Parade Based on the true story of William Hart Pitsenbarger’s fellow Vietnam War veterans and family’s thirty-year long fight to get him the Medal of Honor for his brave service during the Vietnam War, “The Last Full Measure” is a heartbreaking, yet great, film, Pitsenbarger was a United …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2020/02/28/movie-review-the-last-full-measure/