Whatever you do, don't squash them.

A lovebug landed on a stack of folded towels this week, and I swatted it without thinking. Now there's a mark on a towel I liked, and I've spent the days since learning what you're supposed to do instead. That's the Toolbox this week, and the short version is that you lift them off; you don't crush them.

The rest of the week is easier. Five free hours of pirates at Elmo Willard Library on Saturday. The Symphony opens its season that night. And Lamar's engineering college turns 75 this year, which started with one man teaching every course.

IN THIS ISSUE: Do not squash them · Pirates, free, all day · One instructor, a mile from the well

Reece Williams closed out his summer with a win

The gist: Beaumont's Reece Williams won the Boys 15-18 division at the Vortech Contracting H-Town Showdown in Missouri City on August 29 and 30, holding off a late charge from the field over 36 holes at Quail Valley. It was his first career win on the Southern Texas PGA's Srixon Prestige Tour, and it closed out the tour's summer season.

Why it matters: The rest of that weekend's winners came from Houston and The Woodlands. He drove over from here and took the division.

OUT & ABOUT

Everything worth knowing this week, sorted by day.

TUESDAY

Cattail Marsh Van Tour 2:30pm · Cattail Marsh, 4233 Babe Zaharias · Register on Eventbrite first Thirty minutes, air conditioned, somebody else drives. Runs again Thursday at 9:30am.

First Financial Bank Grand Opening 4 to 6pm · 865 South 8th Street · Free New branch, food and refreshments, no obligation to open anything.

BISD Community Action Series No. 2 5 to 7pm · Location shared when you register · Free Ask the superintendent your question in person.

Taco Tuesday Karaoke Specials at 6pm, karaoke 8pm to midnight · The Logon Cafe · Free, all ages Tacos first. Courage second.

WEDNESDAY

Open Mic Night Sign-up 7:30pm, music 8 to 11pm · The Logon Cafe · Free Sign up, or just go watch somebody brave.

THURSDAY

Better Days 7:30 to 11:30pm · The Logon Cafe · $5 Rainy Kimbrough and Erik Ellington, acoustic.

FRIDAY

ABRA Cadabra: The Music and Magic of ABBA Doors 6:30pm, show 7:30pm · Jefferson Theatre, 345 Fannin · Ticketed An ABBA tribute in the prettiest room downtown.

SATURDAY

Beaumont Farmers Market 8 to 11am · Beaumont Athletic Complex, 6525 College · Free Under the pavilion, rain or shine.

Yoga at Cattail Marsh 9:30 to 10:30am · Wetlands Education Center · Free, register online Free yoga, and the view is the whole point.

Pirate's Day Party 10am to 3pm · Elmo Willard Library · Free Five hours, free, pirates. You are welcome.

Nature Explorers: Critters and Plants of the Lone Star State 10am to 1pm · Tyrrell Park Nature and Visitor Center · Free Come and go, hands-on stations, Texas critters.

Trill City Car Show 11am to 6pm · Pleasure Island, Port Arthur Cars, trucks, slingshots, and food trucks.

Library 100th Party · 2 to 4pm · Theodore Johns Library, 4255 Fannett Road · Free Party like it’s 1926 and celebrate 100 years of the Beaumont Public Library System. All ages.

A Night Out on the Town 5 to 7:30pm · Bon Vivant Wine before the Symphony, and ten percent of your tab goes back if you show your ticket.

Bored Teachers: Is It Friday Yet? Doors 6:30pm, show 7:30pm · Jefferson Theatre · Ticketed Teacher jokes, PG-13, bring the whole department.

Go 4 The Bell Gala 7pm · Beaumont Civic Center, 701 Main · Table or sponsorship, Chris Cagle, live auction, pediatric cancer fundraiser.

Jerry Diaz and Hanna's Reef 7pm · Neches River Wheelhouse, Port Neches Beach music, on an actual river.

The American Voice 7:30pm · Julie Rogers Theatre, 765 Pearl · Ticketed The Symphony opens its season.

MzzButtaBabii Live Doors 7pm, music 8pm · For The Record, 999 Calder · $10 cash All ages and BYOB. Bring cash.

SUNDAY

Mike Eli of Eli Young Band, Acoustic 1pm · The Venue at Belle Oaks, 15075 Country Club · Ticketed Acoustic, daytime, with Braedon Barnhill.

STILL HANGING AROUND

The Color Orange and A Touch of Orange Museum hours · Stark Museum of Art, Orange · Free: two Orange exhibits, one free afternoon.

PLAN AHEAD

Buy it, register, or save the date now.

Craft and Share Workshop: Mosaic Art Tuesday, Sept 22, 10 to 11:30am · McFaddin-Ward Visitor Center · Free, 21 and up. No registration, but seating is limited, so go early.

National Dog Week Adoption Event Sept 22 to 26, 10am to 4pm · Beaumont Animal Care · $20. Twenty dollars covers spay or neuter, microchip, and shots.

Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder Saturday, Sept 26, 7pm · Lutcher Theater, Orange · $33 to $93. Bluegrass, and the good seats will not last.

Parker McCollum Saturday, Sept 26, 7:30pm · Doggett Ford Park · Ticketed. Buy parking in advance for $15. It is $20 the day of.

Before there was a college of engineering here, one man taught the courses.

When South Park Junior College opened in 1923, O.B. Archer taught the engineering courses and ran the physics department at the same time. By 1939, a third of the men enrolled at the school were taking engineering. The demand was already here. The school built to meet it was not.

Spindletop is why. Capt. Anthony Lucas hit oil on January 10, 1901, and within a generation refineries spread along the Neches, chemical plants followed, and the region needed people who could design and run it all. Texas lawmakers created Lamar State College of Technology in 1951 to do exactly that. At the dedication, the Secretary of the Interior said the country needed schools that could supply the "skilled technologists upon which industrial advance so greatly depends."

That was 75 years ago this year.

The detail worth sitting with is the address. The Lucas Engineering Building, dedicated in 1951 and named for the man who drilled the gusher, sits about a mile from the field that started it all. Students walk into a building named for Spindletop, a mile from Spindletop, to learn the work Spindletop created.

The rest is the long version. Every bachelor's program earned accreditation between 1958 and 1961 and has held it since. Master's degrees came in 1962 and 1968, the first doctorate in 1970. Lloyd B. Cherry became dean in 1967, consulted for plants all over the region, and has his name on Cherry Engineering. The Science and Technology Building opened in 2017 and includes a makerspace.

PayScale now ranks Lamar the top engineering program in Texas for 20-year return on investment. Three graduates sit on the National Academy of Engineering.

Most of us drive past all of this on the way to somewhere else. Next time you pass a plant on the way to Port Arthur, remember that the people keeping it running mostly learned how about ten minutes from your house.

HONORED

The LIT Foundation held its 25th annual Salute to the Real American Heroes at the Beaumont Civic Center on September 10, recognizing the late Deputy Constable Heather Avery, the late paramedic John Edgar, and Beaumont Fire Captain Joseph "Chance" Abercrombie. Every dollar from the night goes to LIT scholarships in criminal justice, emergency management, EMT, and the regional fire and police academies, which is another way of saying it pays for the next people who show up when you call.

SPOTTED

Crockett Street filled up Saturday morning for a walk and block party benefiting the Janiyah's Love Sickle Cell Foundation, named for a Beaumont girl who died of sickle cell anemia in 2015 at seven years old. Port Arthur read a proclamation there naming September 12 Janiyah's Love Sickle Cell Foundation Awareness Day.

Click here to view

Click here to view

Click here to view

Practical things that make life around here a little easier.

Whatever you do, do not squash the lovebugs

Lift them off; do not crush them. Squash one on a wall, a towel, or a car seat and it leaves a mark that stays.

Lovebug splatter is slightly acidic, and if left to bake on your hood for a couple of days, it can etch the clear coat. Soak them, do not scrub them. Lay a wet towel over the hood for five minutes and they'll let go. A dry rag takes the paint with it.

Wash the front end within a day or two of a bad drive. That is the whole window.

Check your radiator too. They pack into the fins, and most people find out from the temperature gauge.

A whole camp swears by wiping baby oil on the hood first so they rinse right off. Try that one at your own risk.

The worst is behind us. Hang on to this one. They're back in the spring.

The good stuff is out there; it's just scattered across a dozen places nobody has time to check. Gathering it up is the whole job.

Pick one thing in here and go do it. Then tell somebody about it.

See you around town.

Jenny Lee · Locally written. Community trusted.