Way back in the day (early mid'80's), Port A made SPI look like romper room as far as hell raising goes.
Port A had about a mile of beach lit up at night, that had an orange-ish glow. At times it looked and felt like a Mad Max atmosphere. Especially with the orange lighting and camp fires everywhere. Trucks were using their wenches to pull up the wood pilings guarding the dunes, and then going 4wheeling on them. We went to a dance at Schroeder Dance Hall, and left directly afterward for Port A. We got there about 3 AM, and you could not even drive onto the beach due to gridlock. We parked on the access road and walked in. As we passed officers of the local police and sheriff's dept. we asked if they were "going in". Their response was "hell no, we'll pick up the pieces in the morning..". Absolute mayhem raged until the sun was full over the horizon.
The '88 or so riot was the last straw for spring break and Port A in that form. Every holiday weekend was crazy back then.
I did not return to Port A from '90 till 2007, bringing the little one and wife for a family weekend. When I inquired with some local PD on the beach, I asked where the lighting went. The few local PD officers did not even know it had existed. When I told them of the scene back then, they had a serious "WTF?!?!" look on their face. The town REALLY tried to erase that part of it's history.
[This message has been edited by Old Sarge (edited 5/18/2014 9:41p).]
