April 6, 2017 (Thursday)
If you have ever experienced the spring season in the Coastal Bend, you know that this is the time of year when the gentle sea breeze struts its stuff and blows night and day in strong gusts.
There’s a song about this wind, “Corpus Christi Wind,” which was written by Gary Prukop, whose bio on the web says he lives in Rockport. Recorded by him, and several other famous artists, it has been popular since it came out in the 1980s. Part of a verse says, “I long to see the seashore there where I can settle in to a high feeling that I get when I feel that Corpus Christi wind.”
A Calm Night in Corpus Christi (probably in October)
There are many songs that mention Corpus Christi. You can look them up. They come in many shapes and sizes. Mrs. Truly’s class at Calk Elementary in 1964 learned to sing a song promoted by the Chamber of Commerce. It said, “Padre Island, Aransas Pass for fishing, fun and play.. I’d recommend it for a lifetime or just a day… and repeated: “Corpus Christi, that’s my hometown! Corpus Christi! That’s my hometown!” The song, “Corpus Christi Bay” by Robert Earl Keen is quite different. It goes, “I worked the rigs from three to midnight on the Corpus Christi Bay. I’d get off and drink till daylight, sleep the morning away..” To each his own, I guess.
One of the most famous songs about Corpus Christi was written in 1915 by William J. Hartz. A young man travels until he discovers Corpus Christi. He writes to his beloved promised bride that has found the perfect paradise for them. The chorus reads: “Just come to Corpus Christi, Texas, on the bay, Where the golden sunrise greets you ev’ry day, Where roses bloom in December as in May, Come along with the throng you will stay! There is music dancing welcome in the air; sea breeze, sailing, bathers ev’rywhere. Sunshine, flowers, all beyond compare, It’s Elysian, loveland, HOME, SWEET HOME is there.”(from an article by Allison Erlich, archive coordinator for the Caller-Times. Click here to read it).
There should be a song about the windswept Oak trees of Rockport. When Walter Knight was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Rockport, he suggested the logo, “Shaped by His Love,” as a reminder to the church that just as the wind shapes the trees here, so God’s love shapes His people. Dr. Scott Jones, pastor of the church for nine years, has led the church to be shaped by God’s love. The ministries of both these men have been and are “shaped by His love.” Next time you see an Oak that seems to be bent by the wind, ask yourself, “Am I being shaped by God’s love?”