This week’s personal item started as a trip to the library and then moved from there. Our town has a library, and it is a very nice one. In fact, they are very helpful folks there. During the winter, when all the Northerners come down here to escape the cold the use of the library expands twenty-fold. I have always wondered how this kind of increase does not cripple library operations. There is an organization called Friends of the Library who does a great job of fundraising with special book sales. Although I must say the staff never allows the overcrowding to reduce their friendliness or courtesy. Here is a picture of the front of the building.

You may wonder about those little boats (green and blue) in front of the building They are cement and are depictions of a watercraft called a Farley boat. These are for the yard and made in honor of the Farley Boat Works. There are a number of them all over town. I think one day I will do a pictorial of just  the Farley yard boats. The Farley Boat Works was a Port Aransas original and manufactured fishing boats from 1915 until the mid-seventies.

The works is now a museum where a limited numbers of boats are in production. The picture above shows how it looks today.

Here is a picture from in 1936 of President Roosevelt and a Farley boat and an unlucky Tarpon. Port Aransas used to be the Tarpon capital of the US. The great Texas drought in the fifties brought the building of dams to preserve water had an effect on freshwater spawning for the Tarpon. Also, runoff from fertilizers altered the coastal waters and overfishing spelled the end of Tarpon fishing in Port Aransas.

I got lost in the story of the Farley Boat works and the Tarpon. I was going to let you know My GRL is in the library and here is a picture of her sitting in the New Books section. (You have to look close to find the little blue cover and yes I pulled her out of the alphabetical by the author arrangement for the picture. I did put her back after ) Thanks to the Port Aransas Library staff for putting up with my foolishness.