Festival to offer stories, parade, music, dancing

Get ready to celebrate the history of Port Aransas at the Second Annual Old Town Festival Saturday, Nov. 24.

The festival, organized by the Port Aransas Preservation and Historical Association (PAPHA), will include a storytelling session, a parade, wine and cheese with music and a street dance.

Residents and visitors are invited to participate.

Old town has been defined by the city council as an area north of Avenue G/Cut-off Road, where the town was centered before it expanded south along State Hwy. 361.

The storytelling session will begin at 2 p.m., with island natives and long-time residents spending a few hours telling tales about people and places in Port Aransas of yesteryear. It will be at the Pollock Center behind Community Presbyterian Church, 113 S. Alister St. Speakers will include Esther Arzola, Ben Brundrett, Sylvia Buttler, Verona Dorris, Barney Farley III, Harrilene Hadden, Peggy Nelson, Marie Stiewig, Vonnie Tanner, Ned Teller, Thelma Teller, Dottie Turnbull, Marguerite Moore, Marcy Thomas and Leslie Willey Jr.

The parade will begin at 4:15 p.m., with lining up to start at 4 p.m., in the parking lot of the church. Bagpipe players will lead a myriad of travelers past buildings with a long Port Aransas history including the church, Bilmore and Sons Hardware, Spanish Village, Gibbs Cottages, the Community Center, the Alister home, the old Catholic church, the Mercer Cemetery, the Studeman home, the Lister home, the Farley home, Gauldings Grocery, the old Post Office and the Tarpon Inn, where it will end.

Everyone is welcome to join in, as long as they make it for the lineup in time. All modes of transportation are encouraged to enter.

After the parade, music from bagpipers and other musicians will fill the air of the Tarpon Inn courtyard until 7 p.m. Luis Villarreal of Triggerfish and Jared Clark will begin playing at 6 p.m.

PAPHA volunteers will serve wine and cheese for a donation. Each donation will include a chance at drawings for prizes. A continuous slideshow of PAPHA archive photos will be shown during the event. PAPHA merchandise will be for sale with proceeds going to the fund drive for the museum.

Information about PAPHA will be available as well, and people may register to be members. In the event of bad weather, the courtyard event will resume inside the buildings at the Tarpon Inn.

The festival will conclude with an old-fashioned street dance in front of Shorty's Place, the oldest building in the flats, at 821 Tarpon St.

Caliche Road will begin playing at 8 p.m. if the weather permits.

"Old town is just a symbol of the 'soul of Port A'. It's what drew us here in the first place. We still believe in the sleepy fishing village that still exists under all the new growth. Growth is good, but so is keeping the 'heart and soul' of the friendly people that made Port Aransas the place it is today," said parade chairman and board member Rick Pratt.

For more information, contact festival chairman Pam Greene at (361) 443-4683, visit the PAPHA Web site, http://www.portausa.com or call the PAPHA number (361) 749-3800.