Poké fever strikes Edna

By Jessica Coleman
Staff Writer
    A Poké fever epidemic has swept the nation, and Jackson County is no exception.
    The real world met digital gaming when Pokémon Go entered the scene, using Google and mobile users’ cameras to place Pokémon in real-world locations, getting players out of the house to explore public sites and historical markers, in order to “catch ‘em all.”
    It became available in the U.S. on July 6 and quickly rose to the top of both the App Store and the Google Play Store – so quickly, in fact, that in the first week it had 15 million downloads nationwide. The number of daily active users just keeps climbing. Reminiscent of the Pokémania of the late 90s, induced by a wildly popular trading card game, suddenly everyone seems to be trying to catch these mythical critters. 
    Marcos Ramirez of Edna, a Pokémon fan since the 90s, had been anticipating the game for almost a year. 
    “A friend of mine told me there was a video I had to watch,” he said, “and it was a Pokémon Go trailer, and I knew then, it was going to be revolutionary.”
    He said it was a pleasant surprise when the game came out.
    “We expected it to take longer,” he said. “That isn’t something that is easy to make.” 
    Groups of people of all ages can now be seen roaming Jackson County, in public places of interest.
    Kay Ham of LaWard has been taking her son Jacob and grandsons Dante and Ebin, almost daily since they downloaded the game, and as a result the boys have learned quite a bit about Jackson County. As a teacher, mother, and grandmother, Ham likes the learning aspect of the game.
    “Pokéstops are at all the historical markers and places of interest in the area,” she said. “We have been reading all of them and finding things out we never knew – great for the boys! We stopped here [at the Historic Texana Church at Brackenridge Park] and Ebin said ‘read it, Meme.’ The Civil War battles we learned about in Port Lavaca were new to me and I grew up there. I plan to take the kids around to close towns and find out about the history using Pokéstops.”
    While there have been some reports of varying degrees of authenticity across the nation of people putting themselves in dangerous situations, becoming injured and even killed, or stumbling across unsavory things in the name of “catching them all,” Jackson County hasn’t seen that at all. 
    Edna Police Chief Clinton Wooldridge weighed in, commenting that as long as all property laws and curfew laws are being followed, he thinks the game is a great idea and good, clean fun.
    “You cannot go on private property,” he said. “Curfew at nighttime is for ages 16 and under, 11 on weeknights, midnight on weekends.” 
    As long as everybody behaves in a safe and legal manner, Wooldridge said he wishes everyone a fun time playing.
    “I think it’s a cool game and I’m really glad it is getting people out and about.”