The Galveston County Daily News

The fact that April 15-17 was Beach Party Weekend did nothing to spoil a glorious spring weekend in Galveston. That is, it didn’t spoil the weekend unless you refused to go out or open your business.

Galvestonians shouldn’t hide from this event any longer.

For example, here’s how we spent this past weekend:

Friday night, my wife and I had dinner with family in League City. We drove back to the island around 8:30 p.m. The traffic was a bit heavier than normal, a little faster, but no problem.

About 1:15 a.m. Saturday morning, police sirens and flashing lights woke us from a sound sleep. Looking out our front window, we saw two cops scale the fence outside our house and pursue a man running through the neighborhood.

They caught him and took him away. We never found out if the pursuit had anything to do with Beach Party Weekend.

Early Saturday morning, I ran and then later rode my bike beside Teri as she ran. During her run (roughly 8 a.m.) we turned onto Seawall Boulevard. The water was beautiful. There was virtually no traffic. The day was gorgeous.

In the middle of the day, I drove west on the island and played golf at the Galveston Country Club. I sailed down Stewart Road with no problems or delays getting from my house to the golf course and back.

Starting about 4 p.m. Saturday, my wife and I went for a long bike ride. We left Cedar Lawn, rode to Seawall and 53rd Street, turned east and rode the whole length of Seawall to First Street on the East End.

There were lots of people. Later estimates put the number at 75,000. At what should have been the peak of the weekend, we honestly didn’t see anything really lewd or even exciting.

We did see lots and lots of kids, most but not all African American, and scores of fancy, tricked-out automobiles. We saw several young women dressed in ways their parents probably wouldn’t approve — one bare behind and several breasts.

However, Teri and I also rode a float in one of our Mardi Gras parades this year. I saw more bare female flesh that night.

On Saturday, the cops did a good job of maintaining order and keeping traffic moving.

Downtown Galveston, when we reached it at about 5 p.m., was a ghost town.

On Sunday, we went to church without a problem, though the congregation was tiny. Afterwards, we rode our bikes to Academy. Then, we peddled over to Landry’s and had lunch. Landry’s was nearly empty, but the food and service were great — and quick.

Nobody hassled us anywhere. Traffic flowed smoothly. The young people we spoke to were polite.

Beach Party Weekend is smaller than it once was. It’s no longer the big, disorderly event it once was. It’s declined slowly over about the last five years and likely will continue to decline.

However, it still is bad for most tourist-related and retail businesses, mainly because people in Galveston hunker down in their homes. We can improve on that.

It’s time to begin re-establishing normalcy on that weekend.

Of course, the police should continue working to manage traffic, to impose order and enforce the law. But do we really need all the traffic barricades? Can’t a few more businesses remain open?

And it seems to me that Galvestonians — many of them — should live their lives more normally, enjoy themselves, and give our guests a smile and a hello.

I think we owe that to ourselves. Our beautiful hometown is too great a prize to surrender. We should enjoy it, and we should share it, and we can’t do that locked up in our homes.