Treasure Chest Thursday: Corpus Christi Ornaments

We have WAY more Christmas tree ornaments now than we will ever need, given that we don't put up a large tree any more, and also inherited a number of ornaments from my parents.  So I thought I would write about the stories behind a few of the more interesting ones.

The ones I'm writing about today are ones we still put on the tree - meaning the offspring won't be getting them anytime soon - because they remind us of our life in Corpus Christi, Texas - even though I'm not sure I actually got any of these ornaments *in* Corpus Christi.

I bought this stained glass ornament because it reminds me of the Wagon, a 22-foot Catalina sailboat that was my husband's first:  

The sails on this balsa-wood sailboat ornament actually pivot a little bit, which makes me think of tacking while sailing.

This next one is an ornamental key to the City of Corpus Christi, Texas.  I received it from Mayor Luther Jones after taking countless photos of him presenting one of these keys to others, during my time working for the City's Information Services (aka public information) Offiice, October 1981 through March 1983.

I know I liked the idea of a holiday "tree" decorated with shells.  One year I sent a Christmas card with just that image, with a sea star at the top.  Having lived almost all of the first 27 years of my life on or near the Texas Gulf Coast, holiday images full of snow were never relevant to me.

The shells that make up the body and wings of this angel ornament were common enough along Texas Gulf Coast beaches (incongruous arks look like these), and cowries could also be found there, but the head of this angel is actually a gold ring cowrie, not found in Texas.

Of course I had to get a palm tree ornament - this one was rather unique.

The lightning whelk is the Texas state shell.  While it's hard to tell exactly what this glass shell ornament is supposed to be, it has the conic shape of a whelk.

I really liked these cross-sections of shells.  The one on top was an earring; I lost its mate.  I can't remember where I got the second one.

Finally, oyster reefs were at one time common between Nueces and Corpus Christi bays, stretching from Rincon Point on the north end of North Beach to Indian Point on the Portland side, roughly where the highway causeway between the two areas is today.  It was even used as a road in early years.  Mark remembers going out there with his father and friends in the early 1970s to harvest oysters.  They were all gone by the 1980s, although efforts are now being made in the area to farm them.  Mark never found a pearl in his oysters, though.

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