Quarterly - VillageSoup

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Delmarva
HISTORY LITERATURE ART MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHY ARCHITECTURE NATURE THEATRE POETRY
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Spring 2005 • FREE
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Quarterly
St. Michaels: Steeped In The Chesapeake Tradition
Delaware Tech Librarian Wins Dogfish Poetry Prize
Garden Tour On Virginia’s Eastern Shore
Delmarva Stargazing: Greatest Show In The Universe
Peninsula Hunting Lodges: A Back Bay Tradition
“Nantucket-Style” on the Delaware Coast.
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Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 1
VOLUME 3 NO. 4 SPRING 2005
Contents
✹
4 PUBLISHER’S LETTER and CONTRIBUTORS
6 PHOTOGRAPHY • GEORGE MERRILL • TURKEY POINT LIGHT
8 ART • BEVERLY LYNCH • MORNING GLORY
10 REPORTS
Low impact tourism - By Amy Reardon
Capturing the past in oils - By Grace Wakefield
Delmarva needs its own sovereignty - By Murray Seeger
WESM - Jazz for the world and Delmarva - By Heather Whiteside
16 TRADITION • BACK BAY HUNTING LODGES
The waterfowl of Delmarva’s barrier island bays spawned a tourism
industry in Ocean City and a network of wild retreats. By Charles Petrocci
20 TOWNS • ST. MICHAELS
This town at the heart of the Chesapeake Bay waterman’s culture is
capitalizing on the lure of its maritime heritage.
By Lynn L. Remly
24 TOURS • EASTERN SHORE GARDEN TOUR
This April 23 event opens doors and gates to some of Virginia’s finest
historical homes and gardens - a welcome cure for winter.
By Laura Ritter
28 HUMOR • CHRIS WILDT • THE ADVENTURES OF DELMARVAMAN
30 NATURE • GREATEST SHOW IN THE UNIVERSE
Two different stargazing groups contemplate the wonders
of the skies of Delmarva and how to fight light pollution. By Janel Atlas
34 POETRY • DOGFISH HEAD ANNUAL POETRY CONTEST AWARD
Delaware librarian Emily Lloyd wins the 2004 competition with a collection
of rich, honest and revealing poems. By Amy Reardon
38 GEOGRAPHY • MAP • DELMARVA’S PUBLIC LANDS AND MAJOR ROUTES
40 TOWNS • CAMBRIDGE IN RENAISSANCE
At the mouth of the Choptank River in Maryland’s Dorchester County, this
port town is seeing revival driven by the arts. By Ann E. Dorbin
44 PARKS • KILLENS POND
At the geographical center of Delaware, Killens .
Pond State Park offers
trails, cabins, campsites and a popular water park. By Lynn L. Remly
48 SPIRITUALISM • MEDITATION ON WATER
The meandering ways of Delmarva’s rivers and creeks confirm that
it’s more the journey than the destination that satisfies. By George Merrill
50 LITERATURE • GIRL/WOMAN
A short story. By Deborah Ruth Blair
52 CRAFTS AS ART • THE REVIVAL OF QUILTING
Quilting bees in Craddockville and Johnsontown, and technology linked
with artistic eyes, show that a well-established art form thrives. By Vic Loisel
55 POETRY • A COLLECTION OF SAMPLES
56 AGRICULTURE • BEEKEEPING
The journal of a renaissance man in Kent County, Maryland in the
1940s offers insight into a world of natural fascination. By R.J. Guastavino IV
58 BOOKS • MARAH COLEMAN
Reviews of some of the newest books from Delmarva authors:
this time with a decided focus on opulence.
61 EVENTS • March, April and May on the Delmarva Peninsula
72 STRICTLY DELMARVA • PLACE NAMES AND THEIR ORIGIN
2 • Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005
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Delmarva Quarterly
LEWES, DELAWARE
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Spring 2005 • 3
Despite dramatic change, there’s still reason for optimism
O
ver the course of more than five
decades, Capt. Wade Murphy of
Tilghman Island, Maryland, has
seen a dramatic shift in his business of
dredging oysters aboard a skipjack. When
he started as a boy with other members of
his family, it was the selling of the oysters
that put roofs on houses and meals on tables.
Nowadays Capt. Murphy’s business brings
in more money because of the historical and
tourism aspects of what he does than does the sale of the oysters.
An article about the town of St. Michaels in this edition of
Delmarva Quarterly discusses the shift of the town’s economy – like
Capt. Murphy’s personal economy – from one based on seafood
and packing to one based on tourism surrounding the history and
heritage of Chesapeake Bay. In the article, Capt. Murphy laments
the passing of the waterman’s culture and the decline of the bay
resources that drove that culture.
Most would agree that the waterman’s culture is changing dramatically, but there are still enough positive signs to indicate that the
bay and the people who harvest from it are far from extinct. No
doubt population and development pressures are taking their toll
and no slowing is in sight. However, that also means there are
more people willing to pay $100 to $150 for a bushel of heavy
number ones, which in turn means watermen don’t have to catch as
many as they used to to keep themselves going. The past crabbing
season saw improvement over previous years. This winter, a number of the oyster packinghouses are working harder than they have
in many years due to increased harvests.
Prices are up in that realm as well, with more
people wanting fresh food - the great natural flavor of Chesapeake Bay oysters and
crabs their best advertisement.
For the watermen and farmers of
Delmarva, the huge market of at least eight
million people within a three-hour radius
remains the single most significant strength
for our region. And rarely does a day go by
when there isn’t a headline about continuing efforts to clean up our
waterways and return them to the condition that placed
Chesapeake and Delaware bays among the world’s greatest natural protein producers.
This fall during a boating trip through the upper bay waters, we
stopped in St. Michaels and tied up in a slip in the municipal basin
in the heart of the community. Just a few blocks away, the unparalleled Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum bustled with tourists
interested in the unique history of the region. Nearby restaurants
were serving up some of the season’s best crabs, and aboard a
deadrise in the slip next to ours, a waterman in his 70s proudly
removed the lid from a bulging bushel of scratching and seething
blue crabs. “Those are Miles River crabs,” he told us. “They don’t
come no better.” No doubt there’s change afoot and plenty of danger signs, but there are still opportunities to preserve and enhance
our resilient natural resources and the associated culture as well as
take advantage of our history and heritage. It just can’t be taken
for granted. - Dennis Forney, publisher
COVER PAINTING • THE SECRET GARDEN • NINA SPENCER • ACRYLIC
This Dover, Delaware resident was born in Louisiana and raised by
parents who nurtured and cultivated her creativity and encouraged her
to express herself through colors. “My paintings are a reflection of spirituality, family and community working together,” says Spencer. “They
embody the principles this country was founded on.” Smithsonian
Institution, in 2000, named the artist an Undiscovered Treasure,
In This Issue
George Merrill, Turkey Point Light p. 6 and
Meditation p. 48, is an Episcopal priest and psychotherapist, retired and living in St. Michaels, Maryland. He
is a published author, essayist and photographer
Amy Reardon, DLITE p. 10 and Emily Lloyd, p.
35, is a freelance writer who lives in Gaithersburg,
Maryland.
Grace Wakefield, artist Eileen Weber p. 11, is a
freelance writer in Chincoteague, Virginia, who writes
about artists and gardens.
Heather Whiteside, WESM p. 14, is an artist
ON
TILE
describing her country scenes as “haunting and her colors are brilliant.”
Her work has been shown at the Baltimore Visionary Art Museum and
Philadelphia Musuem of Art. Her work remains on display at the
Delaware Museum of Art in Wilmington; Rehoboth Art League in
Henlopen Acres, Delaware; and the Saxon Swan in Lewes. Wilmington
Trust and Bank of America hold Spencer collections.
and journalist who lives in Princess Anne, Maryland.
Murray Seeger, Statehood p. 12, a resident of
Bethany Beach, is a teacher and journalist who worked
in Europe, Asia and Washington, D.C., before retiring.
Charlie Petrocci, Hunting Lodges p. 17, is a cultural heritage specialist who serves as a maritime
researcher for the Smithsonian Festival. He lives, fishes
and hunts in Chincoteague, Virginia.
Lynn Remly, St. Michaels p. 20, Killens Pond State
Park p. 44, and Delmarva Places p. 72, is a freelance
writer in the Washington metro area, having published
hundreds of articles in magazines and newspapers of
national and local circulation.
Chris Wildt, Humor p. 28, is a freelance cartoonist
and graphic artist living in Lewes, Delaware.
Janel Atlas, Stargazing p. 31, is a commercial
freelance writer in Newark, Delaware.
Ann Dorbin, Cambridge p. 41, is a freelance
writer, photographer and local businesswoman in
Easton, Maryland. Her published works include Saving
the Bay: People Working for the Future of the
Chesapeake (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001) and
Single Women—Alive and Well!
Vic Loisel, Quilting p. 53, is a self-employed advertising businessman and pilot who lives in Hacks Neck,
Virginia.
Marah Coleman, Books p. 58, is a writer and
book dealer in Delaware and Florida.
Delmarva Quarterly is a publication of Cape Gazette Ltd., P.O. Box 213, Lewes, Delaware 19958. We can be reached by telephone at 302645-7700. Our web address is capegazette.com. Cape Gazette Ltd. also publishes Beach Paper and many other fine publications. To subscribe to Delmarva Quarterly, send your name and address and $12 - $18 for two years - to Delmarva Quarterly, P.O. Box 213, Lewes, DE
19958. Submissions, letters and advertising welcome. We pay for all items published. Email: [email protected]
Spring 2005
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Spring 2005 • 5
DELMARVA PHOTOGRAPHY
SPRING 2005
TURKEY POINT LIGHT • GEORGE MERRILL - “Located between the Elk and Northeast rivers, the Turkey Point
Light stands on the loveliest headlands that I have walked on the East Coast south of Todt Hill on Staten Island
(the highest point on the East Coast between Maine and Florida.). Near Turkey Point, one looks with an unobstructed view directly south down the Chesapeake. Like Linus's blanket, I usually carry an old Leica IIIg wherever I go and an equally battered light meter which suffered a seizure the late fall day the photo was snapped.
I took a wild guess at the exposure. The negative was miserable, a bear to print, underexposed with almost
no shadow detail. Using the now extinct silver-rich Agfa Portriga Rapid enlarging paper, with its delicious
creamy white highlights and mocha brown shadows - and with some judicious applications of potassium ferracyanide to lend some zip to the lifeless shadows - the image was salvaged.”
Spring 2005
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Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 7
DELMARVA ART
SPRING 2005
MORNING GLORY • BEVERLY LYNCH - The Newark, Maryland artist is a lifelong resident of Maryland’s
Eastern Shore. Her paintings reflect her rural locale. She can be reached by email at [email protected]. See
additional works on pages 37 and 72.
Spring 2005
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Prices, terms, and availability are subject to change without notice or obligation. This is not an offer in states that
require registration. Photos featured are representative of products to be built at Decatur Farm.
MHBR No. 483
Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 9
DELMARVA REPORTS
LOW IMPACT
TOURISM
Boosting Delmarva’s
economy by promoting,
and preserving,
natural resources
BY AMY REARDON
I
f a visitor to the Delmarva Peninsula dips
her kayak paddle into a glassy creek,
slides between banks of tall marsh grass
and discovers a white egret around the
bend, she might decide to spend an extra
night in her hotel dreaming about what
she’ll find in the morning. She’ll eat at a
local restaurant, buy a couple souvenirs,
and maybe when she goes home, she’ll
write a letter to her senator urging him to
protect Delmarva’s wetlands. Even if it only
happens once, Delmarva Low Impact
Tourism Experiences (DLITE) has done its
job.
DLITE’s director, Dave Wilson, believes
bringing more visitors to Delmarva for
kayaking, cycling, fishing and birding not
only helps the tourism industry, but also
helps protect natural areas from pollution
and over-development.
“Sharing our resources is critical to building a conservation ethic,” Wilson said.
“We need to get people down here enjoying our natural resources, so they see it’s
worth protecting.”
Wilson, who also works for the Maryland
Coastal Bays Program, said his drive for
conservation grew out of a lifetime of enjoying the outdoors and believes the same will
happen for visitors who explore the marshes, swamps, fields, estuaries and creeks of
the Delmarva Peninsula.
“People don’t connect with things they
don’t know anything about,” Wilson said.
“They’ll see what’s here and then care about
it.”
A nonprofit based in Berlin, Md., DLITE
combines the volunteer efforts of tourism
and conservation professionals from across
the peninsula. The 3,000-member organization got its start in 1999 when Ocean
City businessman Buddy Jenkins asked a
group of natural resource managers how
local businesses could promote nature tours
in the resort and thereby encourage
SPRING 2005
overnight stays. The group became an official nonprofit in 2001. With the help of US
Senator Barbara Mikulski (MD), DLITE
received a $150,000 federal grant which
jumpstarted some of its key programs
including the Delmarva Birding Weekend
and the Great Delmarva Bicycling Trail
Map.
The bicycling trail map, released in
December 2004, is one of the organization’s biggest successes yet, according to
Wilson. The map outlines over 2,000 miles
of trails on both the eastern and western
coasts of the peninsula from the C&D Canal
to Cape Charles, Va. The main trail wraps
around the peninsula connecting over 70
public, natural sites including Bombay
Hook, Prime Hook, Blackwater and
Chincoteague wildlife refuges, Assateague
Island, Pocomoke River State Forest, Deal
Island, 15 state parks, and 25 wildlife management areas. Cyclists can choose
between the main route around the peninsula or shorter county trails, which range in
length from 8 to 30 miles. Wilson compiled
the trails, which are fit for mountain and
street bikes, with cyclists’ interests in mind.
“Cyclists really don’t like long, straight
roads,” said Wilson, who has biked extensively in the United States and Central and
South America. “If the wind is in their face
and they’re passing fields of agriculture, the
ride can be tough and boring - row after
row of corn.”
DLITE searched for winding rural roads
through interesting terrain like cypress
swamps, tidal marshes and coastal plain
forests. On a curvy road, a cyclist can focus
on the short stretch in front and the surrounding scenery instead of the thousand
miles she is pedaling, Wilson said. The frequent appearance of public wildlife areas
along the trails also breaks the monotony
and gives cyclists access to bathroom facilities. Those who want to explore Delmarva
beyond the trails, can simply flip over the
27”x39” ADC map to read about points of
cultural interest, birding sites, kayaking
trails, and crabbing, clamming, and fishing
spots.
Wilson estimates DLITE sold approximately 7,000 maps within the first month of
its release, which makes county tourism officials as thrilled about the project as cyclists.
“It’s the kind of project we can really benefit from, but could never have afforded on
our own,” said Lisa Challenger, tourism
director for Worcester County, Maryland.
By contributing $1,000, Worcester
County benefits from the larger $50,000
project. Ten of the 14 Eastern Shore counties partnered with DLITE to fund the project,
which means the $5 maps are for sale in
almost every county tourism office on
Delmarva, as well as DLITE’s Berlin office
and
the
group’s
web
page,
delmarvalite.org.
DLITE has several other trail maps on the
drawing board. Wilson hopes to complete
the E. A. Vaughn Kayaking Trail Map
before the summer. The map will trace a 3mile kayak route in Maryland’s southernmost portion of Chincoteague Bay with oneto two-mile branch routes up several creeks:
Cottman Creek, Beasey Creek, Scarboro
Creek and Pikes Creek. Other kayaking
Spring 2005
DELMARVA REPORTS
maps along the coast will be compiled as
individual counties show interest, according
to Wilson. A Cape to Cape Birding Trail,
which will run from Cape May, N.J., to
Cape Charles, Va., could be complete by
December 2005. The map will follow the
same concept of the biking trail and connect
a network of natural, public lands along
rural roads. The organization frequently
updates the website with news of new trail
maps and events.
Attracting throngs of visitors to
Delmarva’s natural places is not without
drawbacks, however. One visitor picking
an endangered flower doesn’t have a huge
impact, but multiply that act by thousands of
visitors and an entire species could be
wiped out. Enjoying a natural place without
affecting it is difficult, even for well-intentioned visitors, so DLITE provides information on how to enjoy natural areas with the
lowest impact.
“Some of the low impact principles are
common sense things like picking up trash,”
Wilson said. “But there are some things
people never think of.”
For instance, a camper could grab a log
to toss on a campfire and never realize
what he is throwing away.
“Dead logs have incredible life in them,”
Wilson said. “Ring neck snakes and worm
snakes only live in dead logs, which are
loaded with insects. It’s not a good idea to
remove things from nature.”
DLITE’s website outlines general low
impact practices for all outdoor activities
like saving recyclable trash, conserving
water, riding public transportation and traveling in small groups, but each activity
requires a unique set of low impact principles. Bird watchers, for instance, should
never get too close to a nesting bird, Wilson
said. If a frightened Oyster Catcher leaves
its nest for a minute, a Herring Gull could
swoop down and poach the eggs.
“People may think the bird just flew away
for a second, but it will probably come back
to an empty nest,” Wilson said.
DLITE raises awareness about low impact
practices through its website, but also by
partnering with Assateague Island National
Seashore to train service providers at the
beginning of each summer season.
“You have to get in early with good education,” he said. “It’s better than letting our
natural resources get destroyed by subdivision.”
For more information about DLITE,
upcoming nature tours, trail maps and out-
Delmarva Quarterly
SPRING 2005
door activities visit www.delmarvalite.org or
call 1-800-852-0335. DQ
THE PAST IN OIL
A Virginia Eastern Shore
artist is preserving
a vanishing culture
BY GRACE M. WAKEFIELD
T
o roam the byways and back roads of
Virginia’s Eastern Shore is to escape
back a century or more, to a rural life
where the scenery is haunted with isolated
and abandoned homes amidst fields laid
out by modern agricultural machinery. Old
wood-sided houses with gaping windows
and drooping porches stand as reminders
of big family homes that were filled with
children and men and women of long ago.
Each season presents scenes worth painting. In the springtime a modest home near
total collapse is garlanded with wisteria. In
the summer a quaint ‘big house-little house’
Eastern Shore structure stands starkly in a
field of swaying grain. Golden autumn
leaves make vivid backdrops to empty old
churches. And in the winter the winds blow
icily over crooked headstones in the graveyards of the early settlers.
Eileen Weber is an artist who has recent-
ly moved to Virginia’s Eastern Shore. She
has started painting the old abandoned
structures that stand desolately against the
big sky of the Eastern Shore. “There is not a
day that goes by that I don’t see a painting
waiting to be created. It can be a farm field
with a tractor plowing up the land or a
waterman hauling in his nets. It can be the
smooth line of a deadrise on a sunset
evening or an old abandoned home with
lovely bones still standing”.
Eileen is recording in her oil paintings a
vanishing culture. Suddenly an old church
that has marked a bend in a country road
is gone when next one travels a certain
road. Suddenly a pastoral scene with a
clump of old trees is being torn up to make
place for a mall. But with artists like Eileen
around at least the memory is captured for
a little longer.
Artists spend years experimenting with
subject matter, technique and medium
before they focus on the type of painting
that defines them. Eileen has spent years
painting outdoors. She has painted on the
rugged coast of Maine. She has painted in
the beautiful Hudson Valley of New York.
She loves to go sailing with her husband
and on these trips she takes along her oil
paints. Instead of a written journal of places
she has visited she has paintings of these
places. She has paintings from Long Island
Sound boating days and from the winter
months sailing the Caribbean waters with
her husband.
Eileen Weber freezes the past in her oils. Nature is overtaking this old
pickup truck near Locustville.
Spring 2005 • 11
DELMARVA REPORTS
SPRING 2005
A NEW STATE?
Close national elections
once again show the need
for Delmarva sovereignty
BY MURRAY SEEGER
O
This artist is always up for adventure.
Several years ago she went on a weeklong
barge trip in France with a group of eight
painters. Having some boating experience,
Eileen found herself in demand negotiating
the barge through 13 locks. There were four
days of rain on the trip and so sometimes
the artists had to pull up under a bridge to
paint.
When Eileen and her husband moved
into their 1850s house in Locustville and
explored its environs, she saw paintings to
be done everywhere. Just down the road
from their home is the abandoned
Locustville Church. One day Eileen set up
her easel across the road from the church
and started to paint. As she painted she
imagined the folk who had gathered there
on Sundays and for weddings and funerals
and revival meetings. Her painting of the
church evokes a stillness and isolation that is
akin to an Edward Hopper painting. But for
those who grew up with the old church the
painting holds cherished memories.
The Locustville church was built in 1923.
Members would arrive for Sunday services
in response to the ringing of the church bell.
A member of the old church, now in her
80s, told how the bell rope hung down from
the ceiling beside the front door and how
vigorously it was rung and sounded out
across the fields on a Sunday morning. This
same member reminisced about how at age
10 she was dressed in a new dress and was
expected to recite her poem to the congregation on Children’s Day. Stage fright set in.
She froze and announced to the congregation, “I’m not going to say my poem today”.
The embarrassment lingers on at 82.
Another abandoned building that captured Eileen’s attention was a plain old ‘four
square’ sitting alone in a field. The house
had a good strong roof and symmetrical
proportions. It loomed against the swiftly
moving clouds in a way that suggested the
endless change that occurs before our eyes.
As she stood there painting the house the
owner of the place came by and told her
stories about the old house. Today it is used
for storing hay harvested from the surrounding field.
Eileen finds that she is collecting the history of her environs as she paints. Who can
resist stopping to chat with an artist who is
paying respect to an old building or a
beloved landscape that is only there for a
short time?
As a member of the Eastern Shore Art
League, Eileen joins other artists on frequent
outdoor painting events. Always painting
with oils, she quickly catches the essence of
the moment. Her subject may be a pickup
truck in deep summer weeds and roses. She
may choose to paint a quick impression of
a fellow artist painting. Or, she may interpret a glimpse of a meadow with sheep
grazing in the distance. These times of
painting bring happiness to Eileen. She has
found that the Eastern Shore is a place to
experience midlife adventures in painting,
gardening, sailing and all kinds of activities
with her fellow Art League artists. DQ
nce again, millions of Americans
woke up in the days following last
November’s election to discover a
startling fact. They didn’t vote for presidential candidates, they voted for State
Electors who, several weeks later, cast ballots to choose the president and vice-president.
Welcome to the Electoral College, which
has no campus or football team, and very
few cheerleaders.
This college is better known as an
anachronism, a political institution that has
outlived its usefulness. You may remember
that in the election of 2000 many
Americans thought they had elected Al
Gore as their president. After all, he got
the most actual votes. But then, when votes
in the Electoral College were tallied,
George W. Bush was declared president.
The same result occurred in 1876 and
1888.
To the President’s great credit, and to the
credit of most Americans, this abstruse
result, reinforced by a controversial
Supreme Court decision, was accepted.
And George W. Bush took office for four
years.
Now, move ahead to 2004, and look at
the state of Ohio. If Senator John Kerry
had been able to switch fewer than two
percent of the votes cast there, he would
have won the state and achieved a majority of electoral votes, while President Bush
would have won the popular vote. Two
elections this close in succession should
ring alarm bells across the country and
start a serious move toward reform.
As things stand, three Democrats from
Delaware and 10 from Maryland cast their
electoral votes for Kerry while 13
Republicans from Virginia cast votes for
the President. The losing sides in the states
are left out of the process.
Of course, the result could have been
worse. A tie Electoral College vote would
have been tossed to the House of
Representatives where each state delegation would cast a single vote to elect the
Spring 2005
DELMARVA REPORTS
chief executive. Can’t happen? Well, it did
in 1824 and, most famously in 1800 when
Caesar Rodney of Delaware - who? check
out the Delaware quarter - Caesar Rodney
of Delaware cast the vote that elected
Thomas Jefferson over Aaron Burr.
In this situation, no small reforms will suffice like abolishing the Electoral College and
just counting the votes cast in the 50 states
and the District of Columbia. We must think
bigger, along the lines of a high-minded, if
anonymous, committee that assembles quietly and intermittently at various bistros on
Delmarva.
This group would re-draw the whole map
of the USA to take account of the population
changes that have taken place over the
decades. Why must Delaware, South and
North Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming and
Montana be stuck with only three electoral
votes each? If we are lucky, every four
years we get to see the presidential candidate’s sisters or brothers-in-law while the
big names go after California with 55,
Texas with 34 and New York with 31 electoral votes?
Starting on the West Coast, we would
combine Washington, Oregon, Alaska and
SPRING 2005
Hawaii into one state. British Columbia
would be invited to join this group if those
Canadians would stop bashing our
President. California would stand alone
and be encouraged to declare its independence.
The eight states in the Mountain Time
Zone could form two states while the five
that line up southward from North Dakota
would make one, perhaps called “Prairie.”
It would take some persuasion, but
Minnesota and Wisconsin could merge as
would Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas.
Ohio, Michigan and Illinois would insist
on standing alone, which leaves Indiana
isolated. The solution might be more
bridges across the Ohio River to make a
marriage with Kentucky. North Carolina
and Tennessee make a nice wide-but-shallow unit; the five states of the Deep South
would become one. Florida is already too
big - it should stand alone.
In the northeast, Maine, Vermont, New
Hampshire and Massachusetts would be
compatible while Rhode Island and
Connecticut might have to join New Jersey.
Pennsylvania would be left alone, while
New York could try to affiliate, informally,
with California, with which it shares many
characteristics.
While these changes were easy, the committee could reach no consensus on dealing
with our own bailiwick. One proposal was
to merge Delaware with Maryland, the
District of Columbia and West Virginia.
Virginia wants no truck with that grouping
and West (By God!) Virginia wouldn’t consider re-affiliating with Virginia.
The discussions boiled down to, what
about Delmarva? A representative of the
Delmarva Liberation Army suggested the
obvious, make it a state of its own! What
do we care if the presidential candidates
ignore us? Who wants all those noisy,
pushing reporters and camera people trampling around our turf? Let them go to the
big states, and we will watch on television.
A delegate from Sussex County in
Delaware saw the possibility of the new
arrangement forming a solid Republican
state since the new, southern counties would
counter-balance all those Democrats in
New Castle County. The Marylanders said
the rest of the state ignores the Eastern
Shore, so let’s cut loose. And the Virginians
noted that those stuffy mainlanders have
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Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 13
DELMARVA REPORTS
ignored them for 200 years and don’t even
know where Wachapreague and Quinby
are.
The committee digested these ideas and
then took on the ultimate questions of a
capital and name for the new state. The
Virginians said Vamardel would be a nice
way to persuade their two counties to join,
but the Marylanders insisted that Mardelva
was more euphonious. The geographic
area could still be called the Delmarva
Peninsula, which satisfied the Delawareans.
The lower peninsula factions colluded to
nominate Salisbury as the new state capital.
It has an airport!
Naturally, the
Delawareans sat quietly without offering an
immediate counterproposal. They were
stunned to hear these strangers argue that
Dover was only an air force base most
famous for its mortuary, and that
Wilmington, with all those highly-paid
lawyers, was really the capital of Delaware.
After a private caucus, the Delawareans
returned to the table with their proposal.
Perhaps it would be best to have a new
capital built in open land central to the
peninsula, say near Gumboro where northsouth and east-west roads meet.
Yes, those are only two-lane roads, but
that is our style. We don’t over-build! No,
there is not much there at the moment, but
with a few rezoning decisions in
Georgetown we would have developers
fighting to build a whole new town with a
state capital building and big hotel with a
slot machine parlor to pay for the whole
package!
The committee agreed to form an advisory group to take the entire proposition
under consideration. DQ
ALL THAT JAZZ
Listeners from all over the
globe tune in to gospel,
blues and jazz at WESM
BY HEATHER WHITESIDE
A
public radio station licensed to the
University of Maryland Eastern
Shore, WESM 91.3 broadcasts
50,000 watts of gospel, jazz, blues and
world music 24 hours a day. I met with two
popular radio personalities on an icy
Saturday morning at the station which sits
on the college campus. Soft jazz flute
SPRING 2005
piped through the speakers in the
sound studio where the three of us
talked about the music and the history of the station.
“Occasionally we get listeners
that call in from other countries
around the world,” said Yancy
Carrigan, music director and radio
announcer. “They hear us on the
Internet link where our broadcast
can be heard around the globe.”
Carrigan grew up in Salisbury,
Maryland, where he currently lives
with his wife, Gloria. He has been
hosting a jazz radio show at
Angel Resto, left, and Yancy Carrigan
WESM since 1988. It is obvious
that his comfort zone is behind a love broadcasting jazz.
microphone and not in front of a
Jazz was born at the end of the 1800s in
camera. “I’ve been listening to jazz music
since I was a young boy,” he said in a Louisiana. It combined blues, ragtime, and
strong and distinctive voice.
As music marching band music with trumpets and
director, Yancy has a formula for what is tubas. Add a little Creole flavor and togethplayed. “We try to play two vocals an hour, er it created a melange of cultures and
a big band and a Latin,” he said. “Beyond sounds that were heard on the streets and in
that, most of what is played is up to each the bordellos of New Orleans. Louis
announcer. That way, it all stays fresh. It’s Armstrong became one of the best known
the genre of music that we all love and that’s jazz musicians of his era and because of his
way we don’t have a ‘cookie-cutter’ sound. popularity, African-American music of the
With seven radio announcers in all, this 20th century altered the course of music
enables each personality to really come nationwide. “Jazz was a rebellion against
through.” Yancy’s program “Traffic Jam” music the way it was,” says Angel. “A jazz
can be heard weekdays during traffic-jam musician would take a popular song and
twist it around in what is called the art of
hours.
Later it
Angel Resto is the operations manager improvisation,” said Yancy.
and radio host for a program called evolved and branched out into many differ“Jazzology”, which airs three days a week ent types of music. The world wars brought
focusing on mainstream jazz. In addition, jazz to Europe and beyond, influencing
Angel’s love of world music is expressed musicians worldwide.
The library of CDs at WESM amazes visvividly in “Radio Mundo,” which airs on
Sundays from 6 to 7 p.m. An army brat, itors. Gone are the days of vinyl and a loneborn in Panama of Puerto Rican parents, ly DJ in his studio flipping records for the
Angel had a hard time defining “home.” graveyard-shift workers. Three years ago,
It’s something like “wherever I currently WESM installed an automated system so
live,” which is with his wife, Margot, and the announcers pre-record certain shows.
“Our system is just like a regular CD
three-year-old son, Gabriel in Snow Hill,
Maryland. In the early 80s when MTV hit player at home,” Angel explains. “In fact, I
the music scene, Angel was part of the pop- never know what I’m going to play until
culture craze and debuted with his band about five minutes before the show.
“Chet Bolins & the Mature Girls.” As a par- However, I see the future of radio turning to
ody band, they put out their first album in MP3s and walls of hard-drives in the sound
red vinyl and landed high-profile gigs studio. Soon, we won’t be using the CDs
along the east coast. Although Angel was anymore.”
WESM represents a comfortable group
involved in radio at college, he never
thought he’d be an announcer. “I was an of DJ artists who love their jobs and are
avid listener. I was tired of being on the passionate about their music. Yancy is a
road and when I heard about this job, it more traditional and conservative jazz
couldn’t have been more perfect,” he said. man, whereas Angel is the more explorato“Within a month, I had my own radio show. ry one. WESM shows up on the internet at
I can’t believe I get paid to do something I www.WESM913.org. You can listen to the
show in real time, anywhere. DQ
love so much.”
Spring 2005
©2004 Nancy Carver
w w w. s n o w h i l l m d . c o m
Closed Government
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Hours:
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After April 1
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ancy
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Spend A Day This Spring
Open Daily 10-5
beginning April 1
April 9-10 Workshop Weekend
April 17
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May 22
FREE DAY and Open
House at the Historical
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Fashion Day
Archaeology Dig
Arts Day
Furnace Town Living Heritage Museum
PO Box 207, Snow Hill, Maryland 21863
Phone 410-632-2032
www.furnacetown.com
ALICE
3rd Wednesday of each month is:
Books
News
Cards
Sweets
Gifts
incredible books
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Delmarva Quarterly
only $19.95
old fashioned candy
greeting cards
coffee tea sodas
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410-632-4050
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Phone:
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www.TavernOnGreenStreet.com
Spring 2005 • 15
DENNIS FORNEY PHOTOGRAPHS
Shown clockwise from top are Pope’s Island Gun Club, Green Run Hunting Lodge, Pope Bay Oyster Company
- which serves also as a hunting lodge - and Robert Jackson, a longtime associate at Green Run.
Spring 2005
DELMARVA TRADITION
SPRING 2005
BY DAWN’S EARLY LIGHT
The hunting traditions and fertile feeding and resting grounds of Assateague
Island’s back bays and guts spawned a tourism industry in nearby Ocean City
and a heritage of lodges and clubs that continues today.
BY CHARLES PETROCCI
A
long thin line of tail lights shows at
the boat ramp, each vehicle waiting
its turn to drop its load into the cold
water. Chunks of ice get shifted with each
boat’s entrance. Boatloads of hunters, in
various shades of camo and sitting among
piles of decoys, move into the darkness.
Their excited banter mixes above the groan
of outboard engines in the frosty air.
Towards the distant beach, a slight hint of
light peers from the horizon, signaling the
beginning of dawn. Its inevitable coming
will be celebrated by the winged acrobatics
of a dozen species of ducks on these back
bay marshes, located only a few miles south
of Ocean City, Maryland. These men and
their boats continue to re-enact a local tradition that has been a seasonal rite of passage for well over 100 years.
The coastal back bays of Maryland are
an aerial highway for many types of migratory birds, including various species of
waterfowl. Each fall, tens of thousands of
ducks, geese and swans pour down the
eastern seaboard using these coastal bays
as feeding and resting stops. Black ducks,
blue wing teal, snow geese, brant, mergansers, buffleheads, widgeon, gadwall,
mallards, Canada geese, tundra swans,
goldeneye, and others all can be found in
the waters behind Assateague Island from
October through early March. They are
gregarious and their presence has attracted
generations of hunters to the Ocean City
area.
Ocean City’s development as a seaside
resort owes part of its success to local
waterfowl hunting. With its almost endless
flights of waterfowl, hunters came in droves
during the late 19th and well into the early
20th century. Trainloads of sportsmen, who
paid handsomely to experience the fine
gunning, came down seasonally from
Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia and
New York and beyond. Their demands created jobs and supported the fledgling tourist
industry of Ocean City.
“Like most men here in the 1920s, my
father was a duck hunting guide. There
wasn’t a lot of jobs in Ocean City to make
a dollar back then,” said John Lynch, owner
of the Commander Hotel. By the dawn of
the turn of the century, the Ocean City area
had become a tourist destination for thousands of waterfowl hunters.
The beginnings of the resort area were
meager at best. In 1869 local farmer Isaac
Coffin opened the Rhode Island Inn, supposedly named after a ship wreck. In 1872
the Seaside Hotel opened and then Scott’s
Ocean House on Assateague Island, both of
which catered to visiting hunters. And in
1875 the opulent Atlantic Hotel rose up
from among the windswept sand dunes, in
what is now downtown Ocean City.
By 1876 trains entered Ocean City via a
long wood trestle bridge, complete with a
center draw span. Outbound trains carried
oysters, clams and fish while inbound trains
brought “sports” such as waterfowl hunters.
They often came by ferry across the
Chesapeake Bay, boarding a train at
Claiborne or Love Point for the long trip to
the resort town. Once in Ocean City they
would disperse to hotels, boarding houses,
or back bay hunting lodges.
There was a lot of pressure to accommodate not only hunters but guides and also
the growing numbers of sport fishermen
and “fanny dunkers.” Wives of Coast
Guardsmen and commercial fishermen
opened their homes as boarding houses.
Meal services and entertainment developed
and struggled to keep up. And on the heels
of these in-town accommodations came the
development of hunting lodges, located in
and around the coastal bays themselves.
During the late 19th century there were
hundreds of sporting clubs and lodges
founded in the United States. Hunting
waterfowl became almost a national passion and hunt clubs offered fixes for those
afflicted.
Many clubs were the result of old Civil
War veterans gathering for recreation,
comradery, and to help them forget the mis-
Boardwalk paths provide access across Chincoteague Bay marshes to hunt club blinds and outhouses.
Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 17
ery and loss of the recent great war. By the
1930s there were over 3,000 clubs established. And the Ocean City area had its fair
share of them.
ASSATEAGUE AREA HUNT CLUBS
Hunt clubs and lodges were scattered
around Assawoman Bay, Isle of Wight Bay,
and the Saint Martin River. But the bulk of
them were found along the isolated marshes of Sinepuxent Bay and Chincoteague Bay
behind Assateague Island. These hunting
lodges were formed by groups of friends or
in some cases as corporate clubs.
Corporate clubs were very expensive to join
and sometimes had a board of directors.
Many of the hunt lodges around
Assateague were considered social clubs or
partnerships, which were usually individually owned or family owned. Some were used
just for recreation while others were run as
a business and hunters paid a fee to use the
services and facility.
Most of these hunting lodges were of simple wood-frame construction. The interior
layout usually included a living room, which
also served as a dining area, a stove and
kitchen area, and beds located either off to
one side or in separate rooms. Some were
more elaborate with dining rooms, large
kitchens and individual bedrooms. Outside
buildings often included storage, dog pens
and the ubiquitous outhouse, whose use on
a cold winter morning was most likely met
with courage. Gravity-fed wood water tanks
supplied potable water.
Gun clubs became so popular that a
Delaware company once advertized prefab construction plans in Forest and Stream
magazine. Regardless of who owned them
or how they were made, most gun clubs
around Assateague were isolated, rustic
and usually located in and around bay
marshes.
These isolated hunting lodges housed
gunners in Spartan, yet comfortable quarters. Most came with a caretaker, cook and
guides. Boats were provided, meals were
served and local carvers supplied the hundreds of decoys needed for a day on the
water. Thus there was an economic multiplier effect trickling down to local coastal communities in the form of direct labor, services,
gear and supplies.
Hunting lodges often went by an assortment of names, some reflecting geographic
relationships, family association or by corporate connections. Popular lodges found in
and around Ocean City and Assateague
coastal bays included Bob-O-Del, Bunting’s
Gunning Lodge, Green Run Lodge, High
Winds Lodge, Popes Island Gun Club,
Gibbs, Hungerfords, Mills Island, Tizzard’s,
Assacorkin, People and Lynch, Valentines,
Tar Paper Shack, Boston, Eva Barr, Pine
Tree, Fox Hills, Cedar Valley, Middlemoor
Camp, Eggin Beach Gunning Club and the
interestingly named Hen Pecked Lodge.
We may never know the total number of
gun clubs and lodges in and around Ocean
City since there are few records and many
structures were chewed up from the great
storms and hurricanes of the late 19th century and those of 1933 and 1962.
SHANTY BOATS
As Maryland’s coastal bays lodges grew
in popularity, sometimes driven by sporting
publication articles, they began to diversify
to get more guns in the field and cover more
area. Shanty boats came into vogue and
were often used to house hunters, serve as a
cook shack or to access new hunt areas.
These watercraft, looking like a cheese box
on a barge, were simple in construction and
maintenance. “The shanty boat was usually
built like a scow. It wasn’t a box, it had a little bit of curvature. They were flat . . . built
on what we call a monitor . . . a flat bottom
barge,” recalls former Ocean City mayor
Roland “Fish” Powell, who once guided
from shanty boats.
He added: “You heated them with wood
or coal. Later on, I guess they got some oil.”
These boats which were towed, were either
anchored up or set on shore. Essentially
they were miniature gun lodges, having a
dining area, cooking area and tiny bedrooms for the hunters.
These utilitarian watercraft were obviously made for a purpose and not for a pleasure cruise.
So the shadows of the old gunning lodges
are disappearing. The almost endless flights
of waterfowl are fewer, and the silent sound
of wind in the sails of boats that once took
hunters to isolated back bay marshes is now
replaced with the whine of high-powered
outboards. Yet the hunting tradition remains
resilient and as long as the waterfowl return
to their ancient haunts, hopefully, the continuum will remain unbroken. DQ
DENNIS FORNEY PHOTOGRAPH
The shanty boat hunting lodges of yesteryear have long since been converted to isolated summer retreats.
Spring 2005
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Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 19
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF CHESAPEAKE BAY MARITIME MUSEUM
The tall ship Sultana lies at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum dock with St. Michaels harbor behind.
Spring 2005
DELMARVA TOWNS
SPRING 2005
ST. MICHAELS AND THE CHESAPEAKE
“They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters,
these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.” (Psalm 107:23-24)
BY LYNN L. REMLY
T
he history of the United States could
well be written as the history of its
waterways: the mighty Mississippi,
Missouri and Colorado Rivers; the Great
Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway; the
Okefenokee, bayous, and the Evergladesall have played a leading role in forming
the geography, history, and diverse cultures
of the country.
Among the nation’s great waters is the
Chesapeake Bay, cradled by Maryland and
Virginia, a unique phenomenon that gave
rise to the unique culture of the Eastern
Shore. Probably no place offers a better
overview of the Chesapeake’s importance
than St. Michaels, Md., where the events
and attractions focus on a way of life found
nowhere else in the world, a way of life fast
fading into history.
“The interaction between people and the
bay have shaped both,” says Michael
Valliant, director of communications for the
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St.
Michaels. “St. Michaels has changed as the
bay changed, and the bay has altered in
response to human activity. The two are
inseparable.”
Chesapeake history started 35 million
years ago, when a meteorite hit the Earth,
forming a giant crater.
Water flowing
down toward the crater joined slowly rising
sea levels to fill low areas and drown the
ancestor of the Susquehanna River. The Bay
was thus formed, taking its present shape
only about 2,000 years ago.
The result is a great water indeed: the
Chesapeake is the largest inland estuary in
the Western Hemisphere, running 190 miles
from the Susquehanna River to the Virginia
capes. It is only 4 miles wide where the
Bay Bridge crosses beyond Annapolis, but
30 miles across at its broadest point. It supports a wide variety of plant and animal life
through a wide range of environments, from
fresh water at the “peak” to virtually salt
water at its mouth.
Every nook and cranny of the
Chesapeake presented an opportunity, and
a trading post was founded just ten miles
from the current St. Michaels in 1631. In
about 1677, the Christ Episcopal Church of
Delmarva Quarterly
St. Michael the Archangel was established
between Broad Creek and the Miles River,
and the surrounding town began to thrive.
Given its location, it’s hardly surprising
that the site - briefly named Shipping Creek
- first became a shipbuilding center in
1632. “The whole St. Michaels harbor was
always shipbuilding,” according to Tad
duPont, co-owner of the Higgins Yacht Yard,
which fills a site continuously occupied by
shipyards since 1780. “They built the
Baltimore Clippers - the premier ships of the
day that carried troops, food, all kinds of
cargo. “
The British shelled St. Michaels’ shipyards
in the War of 1812, but the decline in shipbuilding was balanced by a growth in
seafood processing and packing. In fact,
“Chesapeake” derives from a Native
American word meaning “Great Shellfish
Bay,” because of the tons of crabs, oysters,
clams, and finfish it produced from the earliest times to feed human and animal
species.
The geology of the bay promoted its
exploitation: apart from the crater, most of
the bay averages just 22 feet deep, which
allows oyster dredging and crab potting.
Harvesting the bay gave rise to the world of
the watermen immortalized by James
Michener in Chesapeake, which he wrote,
incidentally, while living in a rented house
in St. Michaels.
So rich was the harvest gleaned by the
bay’s watermen that 1930s seafood packers, such as St. Michaels’ Coulbourne and
Jewett Company, were shipping a million
Oyster cans - part of
Maritime Museum collection.
the
pounds of crabmeat a year and 12,000
gallons of oysters each week to wholesalers
and retailers in Baltimore and Philadelphia.
The opening of the Chesapeake and
Delaware Canal in 1829 further connected
St. Michaels’ factories to customers in
Wilmington and northern cities.
Shallow draft craft replaced the mighty
clippers, doing business combing the great
water. The last half of the 19th century saw
a second flurry of boatbuilding in St.
Michaels, this time producing the bay’s signature vessels, the log canoe, bugeye, and
skipjack.
“The skipjack was specifically designed to
dredge oysters,” according to Wade
Murphy, captain of the Rebecca T. Ruark,
which was made a National Historic
Landmark in 2004. “In 1885-1886, when
the Rebecca was built, the bay’s 1,000strong skipjack fleet dredged 15 million
bushels of oysters. Those were the days
when oystering was king.” The skipjack’s
two huge sails powered a long, sleek hull;
the three-sail bugeye was a close cousin,
“like different models of car or truck,”
Murphy says.
The profits were visible in the growing
town, laid out in three squares by James
Braddock, an agent for a Liverpool firm of
merchants, who began development in
1778. The houses accommodated growing
prosperity, including The Cottage, home to
shipwright Robert D. Lambdin from 1840 to
1905.
Lambdin and his sons built
schooners, bugeyes, and log canoes for the
thriving water trade. The 17th-century
Amelia Welby House was home to Captain
Philip Wetheral, who operated a shipyard
and blacksmith shop in the late 18th century, and the 1810 Small Frame House sheltered workers in the local shipyards.
Churches, fraternal lodges, taverns, and
shops were all part of a community thriving
on the bay’s bounty.
All good things must come to an end,
however; today, disease has all but eliminated the bay’s oysters. The five skipjacks
remaining are even allowed to operate
under power two days each week, but still,
Murphy notes, last year’s harvest was a
Spring 2005 • 21
annual log canoe races in St. Michaels harrecord low of 15,000 bushels. The recent house.
A working boatyard offers boatbuilding bor. In town, horse-drawn carriages, bedproposal to introduce Asian oysters to the
Bay may just be more trouble, he feels: classes, and an interactive waterman’s cot- and-breakfasts, restaurants, and shops are
“Who knows what diseases the new oysters tage lets visitors wet their hands pulling eel the obvious signs of a new local economy,
pots or baiting a crab pot. “Other muse- all adapted to the future.
might bring in?”
As a result of the town’s efforts, yachtsMost skipjacks work only on power days, ums focus on nature and the environment,”
Murphy says, and he himself has not Valliant says. “We display the interaction men and other tourists double its yeardredged for the past two seasons. A way between the bay and those who live on it.” round population of 1,500 on summer
Confirmed landlubbers can walk the weekends, and last year, 90,000 people
of life is passing: “I really miss it,” he says.
“Under sail, you feel like a part of nature, decks of an actual skipjack and visit the visited St. Michaels. DuPont’s yacht yard
like you’re making a living on the wind. crew quarters, accompanied by a recorded has ceased building boats; instead, he servMost of the crews have it in their blood, but soundscape of talk and command. In the ices the recreational boaters enjoying the
boatyard, experts guide willing hands in area. “The transient business is becoming
there’s no future for them in oystering.”
The crab industry is also dying, as actually building or renovating boats in the our bread and butter. There’s virtually no
spawning-age populations of bay crabs museum’s collection, including the Bay’s last business in servicing workboats today,” he
plummeted 80 percent in the 1990s, princi- bugeye, the Edna E. Lockwood, and the says.
The town itself actively promotes tourism
pally because of agricultural, industrial, skipjack Rosie Parks. To bring the past up
and residential pollution of the bay. Various close and personal, the “Chesapeake by land and water by working to preserve
its many homes and shops
projects are under way to
from the late 1700s and
revive production, such as a
1800s. The St. Mary’s
crab nursery at Piney Point,
Square Museum, actually
Md., but there’s no doubt
built as his home by waterthat the way of life based on
man Jeremiah Sewell in
Maryland’s chief symbol is
1865, gives an orientation
threatened along with the
to the history of St.
blue crab itself.
Michaels.
In fact, duPont notes that
A walking tour starts at
when he and his partner
the bell in St. Mary’s
started their boatyard busiSquare, cast in 1841,
ness 25 years ago, “a conwhich rang at 7 a.m., noon,
siderable portion” of their
and 5 p.m. to measure the
clientele was working boats,
workday for the ship’s carbut no more. “The old timers
penters in the nearby harhave passed away, and the
bor. The remains of a canyounger guys know that oysnon recall the British attack,
tering and crabbing are a
as does the Cannonball
dead end.”
House, which was the only
Nothing can bring back
Hooper Strait Lighthouse at the maritime museum.
house struck by fire on
the past, but a resurgence of
August 10, 1813, when
interest in bay culture may
still help to preserve it: over the past People” program allows visitors to interact locals hung lanterns in trees and masts to
decades, tourism and recreation have slow- with those who made their living on the Bay make the enemy overshoot its targets.
In addition to its vintage architecture, the
ly been replacing fishing and shipping as a - crab-pickers from Coulbourne and Jewett,
for example, or decoy carvers and dip net town promotes events that tie into
source of revenue in St. Michaels.
Chesapeake life, such as the Mid-Atlantic
At the turn of the 20th century, steam- makers.
The exhibit “At Play on the Bay,” which Maritime Arts Festival in spring and the
boats already ferried visitors from the western shore to the boarding houses of the opens in June, summarizes the various ways Antique & Classic Boat Festival in summer.
On the one hand, St. Michaels is the story
Eastern Shore, and in the 1930s, 40s and in which the great water has provided
50s, urban dwellers also escaped to the St. recreation, which seems to be the direction of time marching on, never to return. “The
Michaels area by auto. The completion of St. Michaels must follow. Skipjack Captain waterman’s life is nearly a thing of the
the Bay Bridge in the early 1950s meant the Murphy has adapted by taking guests on past,” Murphy says. “And when it’s gone,
end of the steamboats but the beginning of skipjack tours, for example, demonstrating it’s gone. “
On the other hand, the town is a story of
the dredge and having them work the sails.
an even greater wave of tourism.
Ironically, tourists are drawn to see the “It’s just too expensive to keep the boat up people adapting to changing times on the
way things were, and in 1965, the to Coast Guard standards for a small oyster great water, and looking to new beginChesapeake Bay Maritime Museum harvest, but I love educating people about nings, not an end. As Valliant summarizes,
“The relationship between the bay and the
opened, dedicated to promoting an under- the boats.”
Further, those interested in navigation can people who live on it is ongoing. The recent
standing of the culture and maritime heritage of the bay. Located on the former site tour the bay lighthouses with Captain Mike public dialogue about the critical state of
of the Coulbourne and Jewett Company, the Richards on the Sharps Island, crabbers can the bay may well promote new kinds of
museum comprises ten exhibit buildings, join Captain Marion Kaufman aboard The human activity. One thing is certain: peoincluding the 1879 Hooper Strait light- Jade Lady, and racing fans can watch the ple and the bay are linked forever.” DQ
Spring 2005
Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 23
DIANE GINSBERG PHOTOGRAPHS
The gardens at Fern Point include a wide variety of sculpture, hardscape and mature plantings.
Spring 2005
DELMARVA GARDENS
SPRING 2005
A CURE FOR THOSE WEARY OF WINTER
The Garden Club of the Eastern Shore of Virginia’s annual
garden tour, April 23, is a lesson in history and gardens.
BY LAURA RITTER
I
f you’re weary of winter and thinking of
hyacinths and quince, the Garden Club of
the Eastern Shore invites you to take an
early springtime stroll along the quiet,
southernmost creeks of Delmarva.
The club’s annual Eastern Shore Garden
Tour, part of Virginia’s Historic Garden
Week, takes place April 23.
“It’s a wonderful event,” said local garden club member Diane Ginsberg. “Guests
get to go in and see decorating ideas,
building ideas, and gardening ideas.
“The homes are completely decorated
with flowers, all arranged by local garden
club members, almost exclusively with materials grown here,” Ginsberg said.
The tour is like a lesson in history and in
gardening, she said. Hostesses in each
home will answer questions about the
homes and the flowers.
Six houses, open for the day, include a
home preserved from colonial days, its boxwood gardens among the oldest in the
nation, and an early nineteenth century
house recently rescued from ruin. A third
home, built in 1982, recaptures an earlier
style, using colonial period construction
techniques.
At the center of the tour is the town of
Eastville, which spreads out around its
Historic Courthouse District, known for court
records dating to 1632. With architectural
styles that span four centuries, the town
offers a ramble through local history.
Gardeners, history buffs and anyone out
for a spring adventure as redbud and
scotch broom bloom, will find peaceful vistas punctuated by intriguing detail, starting
with the E. Polk Kellam, Jr. house in
Franktown.
An avowed Eastern Shoreman, Kellam
spent years planning the house, with help
from the late architectural historian Paul
Buchanan. Ginsberg says the home’s floorboards, laid using blind nailing, are rejected pieces from the University of Virginia
Rotunda.
Nearby, on a tip of land nearly sur-
A downstairs foyer of Eyre Hall features distinctive 1815 wallpaper by Dufour.
Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 25
FILE PHOTOGRAPH
Eyre Hall, dating to 1760, marks an estate first established in 1623 and still occupied by the Eyre family.
rounded by Church Creek, is Fern Point,
and named for Bracken ferns that once covered the site. A waterside walk opens onto
the contemplation garden, leading to the
sunset axis garden and a more formal oriental garden. There’s also a primrose path
and driftwood garden, as well as a birdhouse garden and children’s garden. And
while the varied gardens alone are worth
the visit, the home’s eclectic interior offers a
1930s desk styled after an original
designed by Thomas Jefferson as well as an
immense giraffe and papier-mâché fish.
The road to Sylvan Scene is flanked by
crape myrtle, while tulip poplars and mulberry trees embrace the Eastern Shore-style
house, built before 1814. Long and just
one-room deep, the house is designed to
capture summer breezes, with inviting
porches at its front and back doors.
An extensive rose garden and hundredyear-old boxwoods define the formal gardens.
What some consider the jewel of the tour
is Eyre Hall, a grand estate occupied for 12
generations, since 1623, by members of the
Eyre family. The house dates to 1760 with
additions in 1790 and 1805. Gardens dating to the 1800s are protected by a wall
built of bricks said to have been brought
from England as ship’s ballast.
Rounding out the tour are Kendall Grove
Point, along the Mattawoman Creek, and
Old Castle, built along Cherrystone Creek,
with views of the bay beyond.
The Garden Club of the Eastern Shore
hosts Historic Garden Week, with tours of
historic homes and gardens on Saturday,
April 23.
Eastville is located along Route 13, and
all of the homes can be reached from the
town. Detailed maps, including lunch locations, will be available the day of the tour.
The houses and all Eastville, Va., sites are
open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tickets may be purchased at the Eastville
Inn from 5 to 8 p. m. Friday, April 22, or at
any of the homes on the day of the tour. The
cost is $30 for adults for all locations or $10
for a single home. Admission for children
ages 6 to 12 is half price.
For advance ticket sales, contact Traci
Jones, P.O. Box 84, Townsend, VA 23443
or email her at [email protected]. For
group ticket sales, contact Joie Roderick
Tankard, P.O. Box 164 Franktown, VA
23354.
To purchase tickets online, access
www.VAGardenweek.org. E-tickets may be
picked up at any of the home sites.
For more tour information, including photographs of the sites, go to www.esgardentour.com. DQ
DIANE GINSBERG PHOTOGRAPH
The E. Polk Kellam Jr. house in Franktown includes floorboards rejected for use in the University of Virginia rotunda.
Spring 2005
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DIANE GINSBERG PHOTOGRAPHS
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Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 27
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STEVEN LONG PHOTOGRAPH
A vibrant aurora dances over Tuckahoe State Park in Maryland’s Eastern Shore County of Caroline.
Spring 2005
DELMARVA NATURE
SPRING 2005
THE GREATEST SHOW IN THE UNIVERSE
The Delaware Astronomical Society and the new Delmarva Stargazers cultivate
an ancient fascination with the stars and the universe. While contemplating our
role in it all, members are also eyeing a battle with light pollution.
BY JANEL ATLAS
A
fter a year of research and consider- observation nights offer the interested pub- naked eye, he sees thousands of interesting
ation, Rich and Marta Hayden final- lic a chance to get involved with organized objects. But to the untrained eye, the dark
ly bought their first high-powered astronomy. As part of the educational pro- sky is a confusing and disorganized sight.
telescope. Residents of North East, grams offered by the DAS, James Morgan Where does a beginner get started?
Don Surles, president of DMSG, puts it
Maryland, the two are newcomers to ama- arranges astronomy meetings at local
libraries. He welcomes people of all ages bluntly: “You get started in amateur astronteur astronomy.
“We live right on the Chesapeake Bay and abilities to come to learn how to omy by getting out of your recliner and
and have a second-story deck with views of observe with the naked eye, binoculars, or going outside, looking up, and asking yourthe eastern, southern, and western skies,” telescope. Morgan is careful to focus on the self why there is a universe and how you fit
says Marta. Though both work full-time and practical tips which make stargazing a into it. Amateur astronomy is not just
go to school, they go out to watch the sky rewarding hobby. “Sometimes people stargazing; it is learning about our place in
almost every night. When life gets busy, involved in amateur astronomy get too the world, how we came to be, changes to
Marta turns her eyes heavenward. “It’s caught up in talking about science. They the universe that can be observed, improvalmost a spiritual thing for me. I look to the talk about red shift and the Hertzsprung- ing the tools we use to observe, and the
sky for beauty. It has me in awe and it cen- Russell Diagram (which charts the life of a camaraderie of interacting with others who
ters me. When I look up at the sky, it star). Those things are important to scien- have similar interests.”
After you have watched the sky and have
reminds me that, yes, this is what’s impor- tists, but not to amateur astronomers. When
tant. It helps me to remember that the world we get together, I want to be outdoors, actu- some questions, you can probably find the
answers on the internet or at your local
ally observing,” he says.
I live in is this absolutely amazing place.”
When Morgan, a lifelong astronomy library. Check out some basic astronomy
Since the beginning of time, humans have
looked up at the night sky, seeking meaning enthusiast, looks up at the sky, even with the books with constellations and major celestial sights.
and guidance. Constellations
“Each night provides a differserved both as navigational tools
ent opportunity to view the wonand as myth-making objects.
ders of our universe under differToday, scientists gather more and
ent conditions,” said Surles.
more knowledge about the cos“Most amateur astronomers have
mos. And there are still those who
a favorite object for each season
take the time to turn off their telesuch as the Orion Nebula in winvisions and study the heavens.
ter, the clusters of galaxies in
Many amateur astronomers
Virgo in the spring, the area
seek out others who share their
around Sagittarius or the
passion. Two groups on Delmarva
Andromeda Galaxy in summer,
are the Delaware Astronomical
and in the fall we all look forward
Society (DAS) and the more
to the Pleides rising.”
recently
formed
Delmarva
To find out more about what
Stargazers (DMSG). Both organieach season has to offer
zations offer educational proobservers, amateur astronomers
grams for members and the gencan download free starmaps from
eral public. The DAS holds meetwww.skymaps.com. Beginners do
ings and observation nights at the
not need to worry about purchasMount Cuba Observatory in
ing telescopes, which often carry
Greenville, Delaware. The DMSG
hefty price tags. Instead, “be
meets once a month at Tuckahoe
aware that there are people who
State Park in Maryland for observing. The group uses anywhere
In a rare celestial event, the planet Venus cross- meet together to observe, and
from five to ten telescopes to study es the path of the sun in the fall of 2004. This only that they welcome the public to
the moon, stars, planets, comets, occurs once every 112 years or so. The next one come observe with them,” sugand galaxies.
will be in 2012, and then it won’t occur again until gests Morgan. If you have friends
who also stargaze, consider
Starwatching parties and open 2117.
Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 31
STARGAZING RESOURCES
www.skyandtelescope.com
Offers many resources for those interested in astronomy, including starcharts and
recommendations for how and what to
observe. Official site of Sky and Telescope
Magazine.
www.darksky.org
The official site of the International Dark
Sky Association. Information about how to
combat light pollution.
The comet Machholz, which was visible from August 2004 through
February 2005, is a newly discovered comet. Its coma is three times the
size of Jupiter, and this photo shows it as a greenish ball in the upper
right corner.
throwing a star party, especially if there’s a
meteor shower.
Surles readily admits that Delmarva is not
an ideal region for observing the sky:
“Delmarva is plagued by light pollution,
fickle-minded weather due to being a finger
of land between two bays, dew, fog, frost,
and mosquitoes.” The most pervasive challenge amateur astronomers face is light pollution.
Light pollution is defined as any adverse
effect of man-made light including sky glow,
glare, and light trespass. To understand
these different aspects of light pollution, go
outside at night. If you turn in all directions,
you’ll probably see light from a nearby
town or city. You can’t see any individual
lights, but the glow vaults upwards from the
horizon, ultimately obscuring the stars.
Glare occurs when a bright light shines into
a person’s eyes. Light trespass is when
someone else’s light source shines on your
property.
Greg Weaver, a member of the DAS,
spearheaded the effort to decrease light
pollution in New Castle County, Delaware.
The eventual goal of Weaver and other
astronomers is to pass a state-wide law prohibiting lights which illuminate upwards and
above the horizon. Increased public awareness about the hazards of light pollution
may well return Delmarva’s skies to the pristine condition of the past. A new generation
of stargazers will be able to watch the
amazing show in the night sky.
Jerry Truitt, a new member of the DMSG,
smiles remembering the moment 50 years
ago when he got hooked on astronomy. It
was 1 a.m., and he was an eight year old
boy lying on the beach in West Ocean City,
Maryland. He looked up at the sky: “It lit up
like a billion candles, and then I spotted a
small white dot moving across the sky. I
knew it was a satellite, and I was hooked.”
The inexorable fascination Truitt felt as a
child has stayed with him through his adolescence and adulthood. Truitt says he pursues this hobby because he needs “to be
learning all the time.” There’s no one reason
to turn to the sky. Don Surles captures many
reasons when he says, “I study the universe
because I am curious about my place in the
scheme of the universe. Continuous learning
is both stimulating and rewarding. And the
camaraderie of the Stargazers is absolutely
great.” DQ
www.skymaps.com
Free downloadable and printable star
maps for each month.
www.cis.udel.edu/~chester/das/i
ntro.html
Site of the Delaware Astronomical
Society, based at Mount Cuba Observatory.
www.delmarvastargazers.org
Great source of information about local
events and educational programs. Also provides links to other good astronomy pages.
USEFUL EQUIPMENT
• Compass and starmaps
• Notebook for recording your observations
• Flashlight covered with red cellophane,
so you don’t lose your dark-adapted vision
• Comfortable reclining lawn chair, blanket, or sleeping bag.
JANEL ATLAS PHOTOGRAPH
At a meeting sponsored by DAS member James Morgan, Rich and
Marta Hayden learn how to use their new 10-inch telescope.
Spring 2005
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Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 33
Spring 2005
DELMARVA POETRY
SPRING 2005
DOGFISH HEAD’S 2004 POETRY CONTEST WINNER
Emily Lloyd, a librarian at Delaware Tech in Georgetown, became a poet
“because I fell in love with a phrase and wanted to make some of my own.”
BY AMY REARDON
E
mily Lloyd, the 2004 winner of Dogfish Head’s Poetry Contest,
fell in love with words at an early age. She started reading at
3, wrote her first poem at 6 and vandalized her first library
book at 7. She loved the sound of five words, so she ripped the
page, folded it neatly, slipped it into her pocket and took it home.
Now a librarian at Delaware Technical and Community College
in Georgetown, Del., she laughs at the irony.
“It’s terrible, I was just a kid,” she said.
She can’t remember the poem or the author, but she can quote
the line without hesitating:
“Darkly wise and rudely great.”
She admits she didn’t know what the words meant when she was
7 - crouched between the stacks of her hometown library in
Northern Virginia - and still isn’t sure what they mean at 30. But
for Lloyd the meaning doesn’t matter, it’s the way words sound next
to each other that makes her pick up a pen.
“I love the way the words sound - how they sort of crunch - as
opposed to telling a story,” she said. “I became a poet because I
fell in love with a phrase and wanted to make some of my own.”
Lloyd, who currently lives in Milford, Del., has published poems
in a number of magazines: “So to Speak,” “The Cream City
Review,” and “Phoebe,” and appeared in a couple poetry anthologies: “My Lover is a Woman: Contemporary Lesbian Love Poetry”
and “Present Tense: Writing in Art by Young Women.” While a
graduate student in George Mason University’s Creative Writing
The Most Daring of Transplants
A friend of mine woke up in India
in a bathtub full of ice, his kidneys gone;
the first love letter I ever wrote got stolen
and locked in a metal drawer with a stranger’s gun.
The woman I write this autumn watches surgery
all night on television - lungs lifted, the brain
visibly touched. I love you, sweet heart. A few
more sleepless nights and I’ll be able to do
the most daring of transplants. No one can tell me
it wasn’t written in blood, black-blue ink poised
to bloom, instinctive, instantly upon
exposure to the world: the girl would read.
He lived: he’s on dialysis. The boy
who’d brought the gun to school, a stranger, winked
fraternally. You’re up. The school shrink
blinked at me. You wrote this to a girl?
He placed it, with precision, back in the metal
drawer near the emptied gun. His kidneys went
for thousands on the black market. After that,
what can I give her that she’ll know to keep?
Delmarva Quarterly
Program, she won the Virginia Downs Poetry Award for a piece
titled “Work Ethic.”
Her chapbook “The Most Daring of Transplants” is her first poetry collection. Being published by Argonne House Press of
Washington, D.C., was one of the prizes for the second annual
Dogfish Head Poetry Contest, sponsored by the Milton, Del.-based
Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales. The contest is only open to
Delmarva poets and caps off Milton’s weekend of poetry readings
and workshops during the John Milton Memorial Celebration of
Poets & Poetry. Lloyd also received $200, two cases of Dogfish
Head beer and a winter retreat at the Cabin-on-the-Pond in Killens
State Park in Felton, Del. Along with the prizes, the contest has
given her national exposure. One of her poems from the chapbook
was posted on the website versedaily.org, which highlights newly
published poems from magazines and books.
Lloyd said she was surprised and honored to be selected from the
field of 30 Delmarva poets, but her first thought was:
“Oh my God, now my poems are going to be in print and people are going to read them.”
She didn’t panic because her poems are personal, like the title
poem “The Most Daring of Transplants” which layers the school psychologist’s discovery of her first love poem, written to a girl, against
the description of a man who “woke up in India in a bathtub full of
ice, his kidneys gone.” She didn’t panic because some are sexual
like “Pornography,” in which she writes “I confess: I like an airbrushed cock./ His, for example, looks ‘hard as a rock.’” She panicked, because like many artists, she is her worst critic.
“Maybe I should have thought harder about the poems I submitted,” was her second thought.
But of the whole bunch, 15 in all, she could only name one
regret: the poem titled “Just So, for a sister.”
You touch me the way you’d touch a gift given in jest embarrassed, with only the tips of your fingers,
a glance around the room to assure the guests
you didn’t ask for this.
She said the poem describes a specific feeling she had when she
was 17, and her younger sister suspected she was a lesbian. The
poem reads harshly, but Lloyd said she and her sister have a great
relationship now. She regrets submitting the poem because of the
sentiment, but also because she feels it’s one of the weaker ones in
the collection.
Her favorite poem is “Virginity” which describes three 17-yearold friends giving canned food to “drugged and toothless” homeless people. In the final two stanzas, the female narrator passes out
drunk and wakes up to “the feel of a hand under her shirt.” The
poem suggests that a homeless man rapes the narrator, but never
explicitly states it. Lloyd said she is most proud of “Virginity”
because of the structure. She uses a sing-song rhyme scheme - like
Spring 2005 • 35
a children’s poem - to work against the subject matter and emphasize the narrator’s loss of innocence:
hardest poem she’s written.
Anyone can lose her legs.
Slowly, with time to say goodbye
to pavement, grass, gas and brake,
linoleum, sand, the legs
My mother never wanted me
to help the homeless. Said
‘They live in such bad neighborhoods.’
Gabe sprung for day-old bread
Lloyd first wrote the poem in free verse, but under the guidance
of Susan Tichy, a poet and teacher at George Mason University, she
revised it and put it into form. Lloyd credits Tichy for helping her
rediscover why she fell in love with poetry.
“She’s the hardest working teacher on the planet,” Lloyd said.
“She helped me get back to what I liked as a kid.”
Lloyd didn’t finish her graduate work at George Mason - a lifelong medical condition interfered. When she was born, doctors
suggested amputating her right leg because she didn’t have a fibula, but experimental surgeries saved the appendage. At 22, while
she was a student at George Mason, doctors told her she would be
in a wheel chair by 30. She wrote “Losing My Legs,” in response to
that threat, which still looms on the horizon. She said it was the
Most of her poems draw on her experiences, but when she
writes, she looks for “the universal in the autobiographical.” She
wants readers who have absolutely nothing in common with her to
find something meaningful in her poems.
As an artist, she sometimes wonders if poetry is “too luxurious an
activity,” or “too self indulgent.”
“What’s poetry in the face of war?” she asks.
Maybe the answer is in one of her poems:
One feels self-pity until
one learns to read.
(From “Losing My Legs”) DQ
Work Ethics
1.
2.
My father is kicking my mother out on a school night
and I have to be Jackson Pollock tomorrow morning
in seventh grade. All day, I’ve tried to brood
in the mirror in my father’s shirt, to hang
a cigarette from my lip and keep it there
throughout my speech.
She’s having an affair –
a keeper. In a week the man will walk
off to buy us sodas and she’ll stick
an elbow in me, saying Isn’t he cute?
Someone asks if I’m doing it for the thrill
and I wonder how my mother’s affair began –
if the man’s cock wasn’t, after all, soft
most of the time, while they sat on a bench by a lake
all lunch break.
We were siting there today
watching ducks. I didn’t want to fuck
you silly in a phone booth, standing up.
I felt calm: as if you and I were growing
old together, had eaten and would eat
thousands of simple breakfasts, and could wash
the dishes later. I felt calm: as if
there were dishes.
“Our mother is a slut,”
I told my sister then. I was eleven;
I said it for the thrill.
“Do you think mommy kissed that man?” she asked
and I wanted to slap her, but taught her the word fuck,
the signs: peppermints, if we searched her purse,
matchbooks and pseudonyms. “Don’t say that man.
The word is bastard.”
The cigarette is fake: a piece of chalk;
I’ve marked the end with orange to mimic ash.
I’m scared to death of what I’ll have to say
tomorrow, now I’ve decided to tell the story
of someone asking Pollock How do you know
when you’re done with a painting? Jackson, calmly, softly:
How do you know when you’re finished making love?
Falling dresses. My mother’s: my father’s
sobbing, dropping them from a second story
window. I’m not sure I can say make love
in front of friends. I will. I’ll say, Sure Mom,
he’s cute. A falling dress half-floats,
half-thuds. Do you know when you’re finished making love?
It’s a school night, there’s work to be done, the cigarette
falls and rolls across the family room
and nothing burns.
You fall asleep after asking me to wake you
early, so you can drive back home to breakfast,
your husband. That bastard
must have listened to my mother breathe,
felt in the dark for a match and not found one.
The room’s so dark that I’d be terrified
to find something not mine here.
Emily Lloyd’s chapbook “The Most Daring of Transplants: Poems” is
published in a limited edition of 500 by Argonne House Press of
Washington D.C. Contact www.wordwrights. com. Some are also
available at Dogfish Head Brewings and Eats in Rehoboth Beach,
Delaware.
Spring 2005
DELMARVA ART
SPRING 2005
HOME FREE HOME • BEVERLY LYNCH – The love that this Newark, Maryland artist has for her native Eastern
Shore - and her country - is evidenced by this rural scene in her neighborhood.
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Spring 2005 • 37
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WSCL — Classical music at 89.5
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A New
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• News/Talk/Information
• “A new choice on Delmarva’
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Broadcast Live from the Campus of Salisbury University
PROGRAM INFORMATION @ www.wscl.org (410) 543-6895
Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 39
ANN DORBIN/PARAGON LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS
The signs and wares of new shops and galleries in downtown Cambridge are filling windows that for years
were covered with boards and brown craft paper.
Spring 2005
DELMARVA REVITALIZATION
SPRING 2005
A RENAISSANCE FOR CAMBRIDGE
Arts and entertainment are playing a lead role in the revival of a classic Eastern
Shore community that once ranked as the commercial capital of Delmarva
BY ANN E. DORBIN
I
n times past, Cambridge was not only
Dorchester County’s largest city, but also
ranked as the commercial capital of
Delmarva. Characterized by a sprawling
waterfront, deep-water harbor, proximity to
larger regional cities, access to Route 50
along a busy tourist byway, handsome centuries-old architecture, and strong cultural
traditions, the town seems to have a lot
going for it.
Yet, the collapse of the local food-packing
industry in the 1950s began a persistent
economic decline. For decades, the downtown area, with its deserted storefronts and
forgotten vitality, sat idle and increasingly
dilapidated. In March 2002, the two blocks
from Poplar to Muir streets contained at
least fourteen vacant spaces.
Cambridge has had its share of false
starts toward a comeback from its economic woes. Many believe that the current
revival effort-spurred by a coalition of individuals with fresh ideas and an adventurous
spirit, in alliance with local government and
other organizations-will finally allow the
town to pull itself up by its bootstraps and
reclaim its glory days. With new guys on
the block including galleries for artwork,
handcrafted gifts, and photography and
design firms, the rejuvenating efforts have a
decidedly artistic bent.
The Dorchester Arts Center is also getting
into the act. After more than 30 years operating from an unassuming, residential structure, next year the center will begin renovating a 16,000-square-foot building,
located at 311 High Street downtown.
Using funding from Program Open Space,
Dorchester County purchased the Nathan
Building, an old furniture company site, and
will eventually offer an array of classrooms,
galleries, studios, performance spaces, a
gift shop, café, and arts supply store. “Our
hope is that the new Arts Center will be a
major anchor for the new downtown arts
activity,” says Executive Director Rita
Osgood.
Greg Vandevisser, owner of two downtown art-related businesses, shares this out-
Delmarva Quarterly
look. Several years ago, Vandevisser and
his business partner, Steve Von Den Bosch,
purchased the sprawling Arbor Place building at 447 Race Street, once the corporate
headquarters of the now-defunct Philips
Packing Company. With Philips Hardware
Co. etched in stone at the roofline, the
building consists of approximately 16,000
square feet, a grand entry staircase, 16foot ceilings, and huge windows streaming
with natural light. It now houses Gallery
447, a huge art gallery that also offers artist
studio space.
Ideaworks, a graphic design firm also
owned by Vandevisser and Von Den Bosch,
is tucked into a small section of the second
story. “If you look at neighborhood revital-
ization,” says Vandevisser, “bringing the
arts into that mix has shown time after time
to be a success.”
Local citizens have formed various
groups and committees to plan for and
guide this surge of activity. These include:
the Association for the Revitalization of
Cambridge and its three committees working on downtown design, marketing and
economic structure; the West End Citizens
Association; the Heritage Areas Board; the
Arts & Entertainment Board; and the
Maryland Main Street Board.
The energy and enthusiasm in the
Dorchester downtown community has
attracted the attention of the state of
Maryland. In a relatively short period of
Discover our Heritage...
Choptank River
Heritage Center
10215 River Landing Road
West Denton
410-479-4950
www.riverheritage.org
Museum of Rural Life
16 North Second Street
Denton
410-479-2055
...Discover Caroline County, Md.
Caroline Office of Tourism
410-479-0655 • www.tourcaroline.com
Spring 2005 • 41
time, the state has made available money,
marketing and tax benefits, and/or technical assistance by designating Dorchester
County as A Maryland One County, An
Historical Heritage Area, An Arts &
Entertainment District, and A Maryland
Mainstreet Community
Maryland is the first state in the country to
sponsor Arts and Entertainment Districts.
They allow local jurisdictions to apply for
state designations that offer tax incentives to
create arts and entertainment districts.
Consumers seem to be tiring of the homogeneity and impersonality of shopping
malls and chain stores. A renewed value is
being placed on personal attention, name
recognition, and exemplary service-all
trademarks of the old downtown.
Traditional community centers such as
downtown Cambridge offer interesting,
unique, historic shopping environments.
The recently renovated Craig’s Drug Store
at 409 Race Street typifies this trend. Passed
down through generations of owner Craig
Kelly’s family, the store has served
Cambridge since 1867 and is one of the
oldest businesses in Maryland. Today, the
business operates from a renovated building dating back to the 1900s that was once
an opera house. Craig’s Drug Store still
offers services that larger stores can’t provide, such as home and office delivery,
online shopping, medical supplies, and personal customer attention. To make the store
more profitable, Kelly took what had been a
pharmacy-only operation in its previous
location a few blocks away and added a
mix of retail items, including greeting cards,
candy, and toiletries.
Barbara and David Harp, longtime
Baltimoreans who moved to Cambridge
and opened Chesapeake Photos, their studio and gallery at 432 Race Street, said,
“You need a certain vision to see what’s
happening here. We liked what we saw-the
emerging network of merchants, The Hyatt
Hotel, financial and tax incentives to businesses, all seem to point to an exciting time
for Cambridge. We’re in the heart of town.
You can walk out and say hello to shoppers,
talk to the beat cop, or stroll down the street
to chat with other merchants. It’s a really
nice atmosphere.”
Heather Rosato, owner of a children’s
décor shop called The Crib, at 412 Race
Street, agrees. “There is a heart and soul to
this town. It has a long history. This is a
place that means something, and that’s
what this has got to be about.”
Cambridge native, Kim Elzey, owner of
the Alternative Gift Gallery on Poplar
Street, remembers a time when downtown
was filled with activity. He believes that the
vision of the city’s new entrepreneurs is itself
a revitalization of perspective. “They see
what a lot of people have forgotten - how
beautiful this place is. Maybe it’s not going
to be exactly the way it was, but it’s going
to be great again.” DQ
For more information contact the Dorchester
Chamber of Commerce at 528 Poplar Street,
Cambridge, MD 21613, phone 410-228-3575, email :
[email protected].
Michael Rosato gives his wife, Heather, a boost as they set up their
new store, The Crib, on Race St. Newly renovated Craig’s Drug Store is
shown across the street.
Spring 2005
DELMARVA ART
SPRING 2005
ASSATEAGUE COAST GUARD • THELMA JARVIS PETERSON – This Cheriton, Virginia artist is known for her
series of paintings of Virginia Barrier Island Coast Guard stations. See her work at www.thelmapeterson.com.
Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 43
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY KILLENS POND STATE PARK
The Killens Pond State Park campground - complete with cabins - is open year-round to appreciate nature.
Spring 2005
DELMARVA PARKS
SPRING 2005
KILLENS POND STATE PARK: DEAD CENTER IN DELAWARE
This park’s 1,400 acres - including a 66-acre millpond - offers education and
recreation to all comers: hikers, fishermen, swimmers, birders, campers
BY LYNN L. REMLY
L
egend has it that Killens Pond, a 66acre mill pond just 13 miles south of
Dover, owes its name to the 1648 Indian
massacre of a Dutch trading party at the
mouth of the Murderkill River. More likely,
“The name actually refers to the Killen family, who owned the grist mill in the last half
of the 19th century,” according to Gary
Focht, Park Administrator. “But it makes a
good story.”
Though often overshadowed by the state’s
large refuges on the Delaware Bay, Killens
Pond State Park has another good story to
tell, providing recreation and education for
all comers, from hikers and fishermen to
birders, swimmers, and campers - all located dead center in Delaware.
Today, the park’s 1,400 acres include hik-
TRAILS ILLUSTRATED
Hike
ing trails and a 5K cross-country running
course that wind through habitats featuring
native plants and animals. The 3.2-mile
Pondside Trail snakes along the millpond
banks, and the Ice Storm Trail gives hikers a
chance to witness the forest’s recovery from
Bike
the area’s devastating 1994 ice storms. “It
was easier to count the trees that weren’t
down than the ones that were,” Focht
remembers. “But the forest is resilient today, it’s almost back to what it was.”
Loblolly and Virginia pines, hickory,
white oak, and beech join American holly
and red maple in the forest, home to whitetail deer, raccoons, skunks, beaver, and
river otter, along with a wide range of
birdlife. “We’re close to the federal wildlife
areas of Bombay Hook and Prime Hook, so
we get some of the same avian visitors,”
Focht points out. Wild turkeys, osprey,
eagles, bluebirds and songbirds join the
migrating birds of the Atlantic Flyway for an
impressive cast of characters.
The area’s plant and animal life have sus-
Ride...
with our latest map
Delmarva - National Geographic
announces their new Trails Illustrated
recreation map. Perfect for hiking,
biking, and experiencing the
Peninsula. These waterproof,
tear-resistant maps provide
comprehensive coverage to
all eco-tourists.
To obtain your own Delmarva
Peninsula Recreational Map,
contact the Cape Gazette at
(302) 645-7700.
Delmarva Quarterly
Spring 2005 • 45
part of an effort by the state
tained humans for as much as
Division
of
Parks
and
10,000 years, according to
Recreation to protect lands
Cara Blume, the park’s Cultural
along the Murderkill River:
Heritage Program Manager.
since 1965, over 2,000 acres
“The Lenape lived along the
and 3 miles of river corridor
river for shorter and longer
have been preserved at Killens
periods, and we have also
Pond
and
the
nearby
located the home of an
Murderkill
River
Nature
African-American family Preserve. “Any park is a balCharles and Dolley Tilton and
ancing act of recreational
their
nine
children-who
opportunities versus maintainattempted to establish a farm
ing the natural resources base,”
here from 1798 to 1807.” In
Focht summarizes. “We try to
addition, foundation remnants
maintain enough diversity to
and a few millstones survive
make the plant and animal
from the 1727 grist mill, and
species happy - and humans as
an old wire fence recalls the
well.” DQ
time of Dutch farm settlement.
Today, the pond provides
water recreation for boaters of
If you go: Killens Pond State
all persuasions: canoes, rowPark at 5025 Killens Pond Rd.
boats, kayaks, and pedal boats
is near Felton, about 13 miles
can be rented in the summer,
south of Dover. Admission:
and a park naturalist offers
$2.50 for Delaware-registered
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY KILLENS POND STATE PARK
guided kayak tours.
Bass,
cars and $5 for out-of-state
The Killen’s Pond water park serves as a modern ver- vehicles. Water park (open
perch, and crappie provide the
principal catch for fishermen, sion of the 20th century community pool concept.
Memorial Day- Labor Day) is
and for landlubbers, volleyball
an additional $1.50 for adults,
or disk golf-in which players toss Frisbee- looking for the ‘community pool’ of the next $1 for children under 16. The park has 77
like disks into baskets along an 18-hole decades,” Focht explains. “We focused on campsites, including 10 cabins and 17 tent“course” — will work off that fried-fish pic- creating interactive play features for the only sites. For reservations, call 877-987nic lunch.
whole family, like the Floating Lily Pad Fun 2757. Park and campground are open
The new Killens Pond Water Park, includ- Walk.”
year-round.
For information, call
ing three lap lanes and two 27-foot high
While providing a retreat from the has- 302/284-4526 or visit the Web at
water slides, caters to swimmers. “We were sles of everyday life, Killens Pond is also www.destateparks.com).
Spring 2005
GEORGE MERRILL PHOTOGRAPH
Spring 2005
DELMARVA SPIRITUALITY
SPRING 2005
MEDITATION AND WATER
Contemplating the role of rivers and the way they meander reminds us once
again that it’s the journey and not the destination that is most fulfilling.
BY GEORGE MERRILL
“. . . meditation and water are
wedded
forever.”
Herman
Melville, Moby Dick
D
elmarva’s rivers and streams supply
the life blood of the region, here, the
way our veins and arteries sustain
our bodies. They cleanse, feed, and vivify
what they touch while nurturing the landscape of our thirsty souls, like rain on
parched meadows. Without these rivers
and streams our lives wouldn’t be the same:
without them there would be no life here at
all.
The word ‘meander’ derives from an
ancient word meaning river. Rivers meander. Streams and rivers don’t favor the
shortest distance between two points; they
prefer circuitous routes in making their way
to the sea, the way small kids wend this way
and that making their way toward home. If
there was ever a better metaphor for the old
saying that it’s not the destination that
life is all about but the journey, look at a
river: the sight of her tells the story.
In the child’s classic, “The Wind in the
Willows,” the Mole sees a river for the
first time. “Never in his life had he seen
a river before - this sleek, sinuous, fullbodied animal, chasing and chuckling,
gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh...the Mole was
bewitched, entranced, fascinated.” I’ve
felt the same way, as if rivers and creeks
were alive, playing with you. I think it has to
do with the way moving water contain surprises, whether the surprises surface from
beneath the river, or show up around one of
its turns. And life is, after all, filled with surprises.
In modern times, we can’t get there fast
enough. We don’t like surprises, just efficiency, control. So we get there speedily but
see almost nothing on the way. The ageless
saying has been turned around: it’s not the
journey that counts, any more, but only getting there. Still the question remains, just
where is “there.” What counts may not be
what’s “there” but what’s “here,” the “now”
in which the mysteries of life unfold themselves to us, minute by minute.
Delmarva Quarterly
In the creek in front of my house right
now, mergansers and buffleheads make
their way on the water. They scoot back and
forth, for the fun of it it seems, as if locomotion is sufficient joy in itself. Some dive. For
a minute or so they are lost to sight but only
to resurface unexpectedly some feet away,
confounding my predictions as to where
they might surface. A few men are coming
in a boat to shoot the ducks. I for one, prefer to sit and watch the ducks as they meander back and forth, dip and dive, like children at play.
In a discussion I had with a group of people recently, we talked about water and how
water had impacted our lives. The discussants were members of the Academy of Life
Long Learning (ALL), a continuing educational project sponsored by the St. Michaels
Maritime Museum. The group had been
meeting in a course that fall called
“Spirituality and the Environment.” Except
perhaps that we were mostly folk of “riper
years”, we were a mixed group of men and
women from different walks of life and professions, and religiously diverse, having in
common only that we sensed in the natural
world something mystical and life-giving.
We engaged that morning in a kind of meditation on water.
Our discussion proceeded not unlike the
course of a river: it meandered, turned this
way and that. We considered the characteristics of moving water and how a
whirlpool behaves exactly as the planets do
as they revolve around the sun, slow at the
edges, swift at the center. We wondered
about God and then pondered the peculiarities of the creation itself, as in the Book of
Genesis, where there’s an apparent presence of water even before God creates
light. From creation to mathematics, the language of the universe, and from mathematics to one man’s painful childhood memory
of wounded water: the putrid Passaic River
of North Jersey.
Other recollections included the music
surf makes striking a beach and the awe
and terror one person felt being in a
typhoon at sea. One woman observed how
children instinctively play in water, delighting in it whether at the beach or bathing in
the tub. We talked of how the great transforming events of religions often involve
water, whether a safe passage through the
Red Sea or being baptized in the River
Jordan. One person shared how in his
recovery from addiction he was able within
himself to be more available to the wonders
of nature. His favorite spot was Cape
Henlopen, magical in the winter, a place
where the Delaware River finally arrives
home after its long journey to the Atlantic.
The man liked going there on New Year’s
day, a place of endings and beginnings.
At each turn in the discussion, like a
curve in the river, someone would comment and we would see some aspect of
water in a new way, indeed of life itself,
not that it was really new but that, like T.S.
Eliot’s poetic image, we kept returning to
the places we had once been only to see
them for the first time. We were, I thought
later, helping each other to see more deeply
into the mystery of life by meditating on
water and discovering what’s there below
the surface and just around the bend.
As I conclude this essay, it’s begun snowing outside, a crisp, granular snow. The
snow crackles like dry rice as it falls on the
magnolia leaves outside the window of my
study. Birds, feathered and fat, dart here
and there, foraging for food before the
ground gets thoroughly blanketed. And I
am very conscious that what I see in the
snow, or in the clouds, or in the streams or
in the sea, is water’s journey and the transformations it makes, and that we also make,
as we wend this way and that on our way
home. DQ
Spring 2005 • 49
DELMARVA LITERATURE
SPRING 2005
GIRL/WOMAN
A short story
BY DEBORAH RUTH BLAIR
S
he pulled into the last parking spot available before the turn face.
around that bordered the off-road vehicle permit zone and
The teeth. She could see the bright white teeth in contrast to a
swimming area. Stepping out of the wagon, she felt the wind pink sun burnt flesh. The kayak slid up next to her head and she
coming up. Stripping off her flip-flops, she threw her keys under heard the voice of her child. “Hi, Mum!” she said as she laid the
the driver’s seat, and climbed the mound of sand that separated the paddle across the cockpit, “Bring any water?”
parking lot from the beach.
“Yeah! I packed it right under my suit! Didn’t you bring any in
The ground beneath her feet changed from the mix of dirt and the boat?”
sand deposited by the National Park to the pure sand dredged up
“I just drank the last of it. Do you have any in the car?”
by the sea. The intensity of the heat on her soles became too much
“I packed a few sodas but not water. Sorry.”
to bear. She changed her stride to a run down to the wet, comShe stood up from her squat position and began to guide the
pacted mud usually shared with her during the winter months only kayak toward the shore. Her daughter began to move into a stradbe sandpipers. Now it was covered with tottling babes and moth- dle position but the woman stopped her.
ers.
“What?”
The shock of the heat changing to cool sent messages up her legs
“I felt something brush by me. I didn’t see what it was. I’m not
through her heart and on to the brain telling her to stop. stung but it could be jellies. Stay in the boat so you don’t get stung.
Nevertheless, she overrode them. Running into the shallow water I’ll walk along side. I don’t need to paddle today.”
at least ten yards before the sharp shells turned into a soft bottom,
“That’s good. I want to see Brenda before she leaves for UV’s
she used the muck to push off of, like a diving platform. With one Freshman Orientation,” she said stroking the water lightly with the
unhesitating move, she brought her legs and arms together forming paddle as her mother walked along side.
a projectile, launching her small frame into the water. Barely dis“College. I can’t believe that girl is going to college. It seems like
placing water with her splash, a wave crashed over the spot she she just started at the high school like you did this past fall,” she
dove into. She came up beyond the last of the wave, swimming out said stopping to turn and face the girl.
toward the sandbar with easy strokes on top of the water. Her gray,
“Hey, what about those jellies? You’re not immune to the stings.”
wet, swimsuit shown in the sunlight like the skin of the frequent
dolphin visitors to the same
Her strokes were even, as if the woman were doing laps in a
waters. However, this animal
had the end of a thick dark braid pool rather than an ocean filled with creatures and churning
trailing down her back in place waters. Just before the second set of white water, she stopped
of a dorsal fin.
Her strokes were even, as if and stood. Shielding her eyes from the sun, she looked at the
the woman were doing laps in a horizon. Then she saw what it was that she came here for.
pool rather than an ocean filled
with creatures and churning
waters. Just before the second
set of white water, she stopped and stood. Shielding her eyes from
The woman looked down at the boat, smiling. “I know. But I’m
the sun, she looked at the horizon. Then she saw what it was that tougher than you,” she said as she laughed and shoved hard on the
she came here for. She scissored her arms above her head. The kayak pushing it toward the shore.
signal caused a nearby kayaker to swing a paddle overhead. It
The girl grabbed her paddle and dipped it deep enough to hit
must have looked chaotic to any passerby who did not see the mud and stop the boat. “Get in.”
swimmer’s waves in response.
“There’s not enough room. Ouch!” the woman said drawing her
The bright red kayak left the white water and began moving foot up to the knee of the other leg. “See!”
along its edge toward the woman down the beach. She walked the
“Get in. I can see at least twenty floating behind you!”
same boundary toward the bright red flash that moved in her direcThe woman turned and saw the delicate white tissue of jellyfish
tion. Letting out a deep sigh, she relaxed her face into a smile. The floating in the waters all around her. Putting both hands on the rim
wind began to chill her skin as the wet swimsuit touched her where of the kayak’s cockpit she drew herself out of the water and into the
pockets of warm air had been prior to her movement toward the small space her daughter had created by drawing her legs up tight
boat. She dropped into the water until only her head and neck to her chest. The child balanced the boat by holding her paddle
were exposed. Something brushed up against her thigh below the vertical in the mud on one side while rolling toward the other direcwater level as she balanced against the current in a squat. Finally, tion with her hips. When her mother settled in, she drew the padwithout her glasses, she could see the details of her companion’s dle back across the cockpit between them.
Spring 2005
“Now what do we do?” the older woman asked.
“Well, it will probably be okay weight-wise since neither of us is
very heavy, but in order for us not to get tossed when we ride the
waves to the beach we might want to sit with one on top of the other
or we’ll fill the thing with sand.”
“Who’ll paddle?”
“Me, of course. You’ll have to sit a bit forward, with your hips on
my thighs.”
“Me, on top?”
“Yeah, I’m stronger. Your legs will numb faster than mine will.
You weigh a bit more but if your legs get numb, and we are tossed,
you’ll drown. Even if it is only two feet of water.”
“Oh-kay. You sound like you know what you’re talking about.”
She put the paddle back into the water like a flagpole, “Here.
Hold this while I move. Lean your body out toward the other side.”
She did as she was told. Smoothly, slowly, her daughter stood up
and stepped behind the woman’s back. The boat dipped below the
waterline on the paddle side briefly,
taking in enough water for the mother to feel it seep into her suit under
her hips.
“Push yourself up and sit
back down when I tell you,” her
daughter said taking the paddle
from her mother’s hand. It was getting noticeably darker. The breeze
felt cool on their wet suits. The mother grabbed each side of the cockpit
and lifted herself into the air. The
girl slipped her legs under her mother’s hips, rolling her feet out just
below her mother’s knees.
“Now, lean a bit forward if you
can so I can paddle with the wave.”
Her mother obeyed, leaning herself as low and to one side as she
could so her daughter could navigate where the best vantage point
would be for riding the waves
toward the beach. The wind began
to blow stronger and water lapped
into the cockpit as the girl paddled
toward the beach. The woman
avoided looking in the direction of
the beach. She looked down into
the water just to her right. The clear
water was void of the jellyfish she
had seen clustered back near the
white water. She started to point
and speak about the absence of the
threat but stopped herself. She saw
out of the corner of her eye the intense look on her daughter’s face.
She glanced down. The power of her child’s tight grip on the paddle as she rotated it showed the muscles in her hand making the
blue veins roll over her fine bones. She looked back again, only
higher; she saw her daughter’s forearm flex and release dipping the
paddle in and out of the water.
“Hang on.”
The mother looked up directly at the shore as she felt the boat lift
out of the water and tip forward. The nose dipped below the surface. White water lifted up behind the daughter’s back and
drenched them both from behind. When the mother could see
Delmarva Quarterly
again she noticed her wet legs were pinned tightly down by the
ankles of her daughter. The girl had her arm around her mother’s
trunk and the paddle half submerged. She used it to push off the
bottom moving the kayak toward the shore. Slam! The front end
of the boat crashed into the smooth, tightly packed sand at the edge
of the beach. They heard the loud scream of a whistle.
“You guys get that boat off this section of the beach right now!”
The lifeguard pulled the front of the cockpit so the boat would not
slip back in to the surf. They got out of it laughing in relief as the
guard scowled at them. Two boys skimming nearby called out,
“Hey! That was awesome!”
The daughter pulled the boat forward on to the shore saying,
“You take the back up on your shoulder. I’ll take the front.”
The woman quietly followed the lead of her child as they lifted the
kayak up to their shoulders. The water from the cockpit poured onto
them as they navigated the crowded beach. The soles of their feet
grew warmer and warmer. When they found the car, they rolled
the boat onto its roof rack. Out of breath, the woman rested after
she put her flip-flops back on. Her daughter busied herself wrapping a bungee cord around the craft and on to the rack of the car.
As the woman’s heart rate decreased, she remembered the soda
and got one out of the cooler for her child. Sitting in the front seat
she popped the can open for her daughter and handed it over to
the girl as she got in to the seat next to the woman.
“Thanks, Mom. You always take such good care of me.”
The woman reached her hand over to the child’s sandy face as
she drank. With a light touch, she brushed the small grains away
from her child’s forehead as she smiled. DQ
Spring 2005 • 51
VIC LOISEL PHOTOGRAPHS
Charlene Smith, coordinator for the Craddockville Quilters, discusses a design still in its formative stages with
Ruth Ellen Beasley. Once this top panel is complete, their quilting bee takes over to finish the piece.
Spring 2005
DELMARVA CRAFTS
SPRING 2005
JUST HOW POPULAR CAN QUILTING BE?
With the advent of machines and new technology, quilting bees
became as scarce as a live jackelope; but in Craddockville and
Johnsontown the ancient pursuit is alive and well and thriving.
BY VIC LOISEL
T
here was a time when quilting was not
an art - not a craft - but to many, simply a necessity. The lady of the house
hoarded scraps of cloth - maybe from feedbags, maybe from worn-out clothes - then
cut and stitched together small pieces of the
fabric she’d gathered. The resulting large
sewn-together panels became the outsides
of a sandwich, if you will, to an inside
“stuffing” of cotton - or when cotton was
hard to come by, more scrap fabric,
bunched up - even old, worn-out quilts.
After a lot more stitching to keep the “stuffings” in place - and voila! - she had a quilt.
One or two of these on each bed could keep
her family toasty warm, even on a two-dog
winter’s night!
Of course, all this was quite a laborious
task. Soon, groups of ladies began to join
forces to tackle a single quilt - one for all, all
for one, you might say. A community effort
of this sort also provided a welcomed social
outlet, too, the ladies soon discovered. And
you couldn’t escape their creative urges, it
seems, so many assembled the pieces in
delightful original designs. Thus the “quilting bee” was born.
All this began many, many
years ago, long before sewing
machines ever came about.
Aside from the practical side,
designs became more and more
elaborate: by freeing the creator
of the design somewhat from the
tedious task of completing the
quilt, greater creative efforts
were invited.
In more modern times, these
one-of-a-kind, hand-stitched
quilts had become quite a
sought-after
commodity.
Displaying one of these babies
on your bed is akin to having a
Fragonard on your four-poster!
So quilting bees became a
method for ladies of common
interests to get together (socially
as well), and artistically create
Nelda
an item whose salability could
Delmarva Quarterly
gy, and to many of those who seek an outlet for their creativity, quilting is once again
on the rise!
First - the former. I’ve found two ol’ fashioned quilting bees still active in my area.
(I’m sure others exist on the Delmarva
Peninsula that I’m unaware of.) The first is
in a little community know as Johnsontown,
on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. It takes place
every Monday at Johnson’s United
Methodist Church. Twelve or so young
ladies from 30 to 90 gather around quilting
frames to sew ‘em up using ol’ fashioned,
hand-stitched methods - creating charming,
complex-patterned quilts for sale to raise
money for church activities.
Nelda Badger coordinates that group.
contribute to a common goal in their com“Lately, we’ve found ourselves in a backomunity.
With the advent of the sewing machine, rder situation with our quilts. In addition to
however - and even more recently, with the new ones we create for sale at our
quilts and other bed coverings being pro- bazaars - by request, we take on the
duced cheaply and imported from third- restoration of antique quilts. We’ll add on
world countries - quilting bees became to an older quilt so it will fit a modern, larger bed, and sometimes we simply restore a
nearly as scarce as a live jackelope!
But fear not! This writer has discovered family heirloom to its former self. Washing
not only that quilting bees still exist around eventually takes its toll on a quilt, you know.
these parts, but thanks to modern technolo- It’s apparent from our backlog that creative,
hand-done quilting is still in
demand, keeping us busy as a
bee”. (Maybe that’s where the
term, “quilting bee” comes from.)
Another group nearby, The
Craddockville Quilters, as they
call themselves, echos that opinion.
They meet at the
Craddockville United Methodist
Church
most
Tuesdays.
Coordinated by Charlene Smith,
their group also creates lovely,
hand-stitched quilts at a weekly
quilting bee. These captivating
bed covers are sold almost as
quickly as they’re rolled off their
frames, to support their church’s
efforts in its mission.
Then there’s the new method
growing in popularity today and largely responsible for the
increasing interest in quilting as a
Badger of the Johnson’s Church quilters.
Spring 2005 • 53
contemporary art. OK - some argue it’s a
craft. (Quilting has long since passed from
being a necessity.) Modern, high-tech
machines, like Cindy Mapp’s Gammill
Classic, at “The Quilting Room” in Exmore,
Virginia, is a new breed of specialty sewing
machine. This long-armed quilting machine
is designed solely for that purpose, and is
linked through solid-state circuitry and a
laser-guidance system to a huge automatically-controlled quilting frame engineered
to accommodate the largest of today’s
quilts. These marvels make short work of
the quilting process. One one can bring in
personally-created top and backing panels,
and with the “batting” Cindy has on hand
(the modern form of “stuffings” - she has the
backing, too, if one chooses to do only the
top side), you can have it all quilted quick as
a wink! And at reasonable expense to the
creator.
It doesn’t stop there! Quilting has taken
on a whole new role - that of being a truly
acceptable art form. Wall hangings - created through the ancient process of quilting,
have garnered attention by nationally recognized art-enthusiast groups.
Kitty
McCarthy is one of these artists. Her shop,
Weirwood Station, is near Nassawadox,
Virginia. Aside from being a vast storehouse of supplies for quilting and other fabric arts, she has on display a number of her
own quilt-style wall hangings and framed
fabric art. She also produces patterns for
some of these wall hangings, so others
versed in the quilting process can re-create
these delightful designs for display on their
own walls.
To further the argument that quilting is a
recognized art form - a very popular exhibit is currently on display at the Chrysler
Museum of Art in Norfolk, featuring the creations of the group known to quilters all
over: “Gee’s Bend Quilters” of that town in
Alabama. Other exhibits and showings
have been cropping up all over the nation.
A number of these are within an easy drive.
Any quilting store should have a list of
upcoming shows near you.
Shops like Cindy’s and Kitty’s are delighted to pass on any news of scheduled events,
and help you find what you need if they
don’t have it. There’s a camaraderie among
quilters that transcends simple “business as
usual”.
With all this emphasis on individual creativity, doesn’t that leave out the social
aspects the quilting bees of old enjoyed?
Not really since the formation of many
guilds. Clubs like the Eastern Shore Quilter’s
Guild have been organized. Its 20 or so
members meet once a month and may pursue group projects, share ideas and techniques and present educational programs.
As in your grandmother’s quilting bee,
while a project is in progress, newsworthy
local happenings may be opened for discussion. You’ll find these guilds scattered all
over Delmarva.
And of course, there are the “shop-hops”.
These are events dreamed up by quilting
enthusiasts to add more fun and social
involvement to the pursuit. This year, ten
shops throughout Delmarva are participating. Prizes are awarded randomly at each
shop visited. And also at each, a different
portion of the pattern for a grand prize quilt
is offered, so the more shops you visit, the
greater a chance you have of figuring out
the pattern of the grand prize. You can find
out more about this by calling a quilting
shop - there’s certainly one near you.
How popular can quilting be? (Pun
intended.) More and more are into it every
day. Spread the word. DQ
Kitty McCarthy created this wall hanging - on display in her shop.
Spring 2005
DELMARVA POETRY
SPRING 2005
STATISTICS
BY WILLIAM AMELIA
A DAY AT THE BEACH
BY BRIAN C. FELDER
Baseball couldn’t manage without them.
They are the root stock, the sine qua non,
the hard measuring light and
the engine that turns the stiles,
The promoters say build it and they’ll come;
in the movies, maybe, but not here without stats.
Immortality is at work.
Statistics are of the moment, of the end and beyond,
as in the obituaries, our statistical finales, of two famous pitchers
laid out side by side one day in the Times
Paul Johnson, 99, remembered statistically
for giving up number 59 to the Babe
And Tug McGraw departed at 59
leaving a statistical e.r.a. of 3.41
and his war cry, “you gotta believe.”
Both left the game not on a warm
May afternoon when you’re winning,
or on a perfect September night
when the park is loud and full,
But during the year’s mean, dark days
when a chill steals through the stands,
befitting the merciless ways of statistics.
The author writes from his home in
Dagsboro, Delaware
A HOUSE DIVIDED
BY LIZ DOLAN
A folded fiver drops on the grass
from between the leaves of Adrienne Rich’s
Dark Fields of the Republic borrowed
from the Adams Street library in Lewes,
the First Town in the First State.
In Dark Fields, the poet laments
the execution of Ethel Rosenberg in 1953
for selling atomic secrets to the Russians.
She, in her prim hat and blue serge suit,
her bespectacled husband, Julius, in his tight fedora;
they are guilty, of course, but mother and father to someone.
Lying in the grass Honest Abe looks up at me,
worn and wrinkled from the fray;
how many hands has he passed through;
what has he bought and sold?
As his birth mother, Nancy Hanks,
asked. What became of my son Abe?
I ask, too. What became of Ethel’s children?
Did you know them?
Did they learn to read?
The author writes from her home
Did they get on?
in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
Delmarva Quarterly
Perhaps,
were I to live by the water
as my heart has so often desired,
I would go mad
listening to the ocean’s comings and goings,
its ever-movement
a reminder of my own puniness.
But it is just that which appeals
for in it I find the humility I seek,
that final achievement I so want.
I am nothing next to this vast sea
and so reminded
I go back, in proper scale, to the life I live inland,
far from the water’s edge,
far from this best of all teachers.
BY THE DAWN’S EARLY LIGHT
BY BRIAN C. FELDER
Daybreak finds us driving West
towards the Chesapeake,
the Bay Bridge but a rosy office building
looming on the skyline ahead.
The ships —
parked at its feet —
seem more like cars curbed before a place of work,
abandoned on a still-wet, silent morning street.
It is the first day of our vacation
and already we feel free.
The author, originally from the Midwest, now
writes from his home in Milford, Delaware
EXPLAINING RAIN TO A CHILD
By Annette Opalczynski
Tell her about the rain,
say,
sometimes it’s a shower,
a drizzle,
a storm.
Tell her about the thunder,
how it is the sound of poetry,
being stepped on by little girls.
When it storms,
let her watch the wind part the grass
and the dandelions swoon.
In the summer,
the perfume of wet grass
will make her sneeze,
but let her smell it anyway.
Let warm raindrops
fall against her cheek,
like fingers drawing on her face
when it’s time for sleep.
Tell her the rain can be
whatever it wants
The author writes from her
home in New Castle, Delaware
and so can she.
Spring 2005 • 55
DELMARVA AGRICULTURE
SPRING 2005
BEEKEEPING IN KENT COUNTY, MD
-
CIRCA 1940
Excerpts from “Rafael Guastavino: The Making of a Renaissance Man”
By R.J. Guastavino IV
EDITED BY MARY SANER
I
t is said that honeybees live in the cleanest, most pristine places - the Delmarva
Peninsula has plenty of honeybees. In the
1940s, Rafael Guastavino IV, then a young
man, bought a farm near Rock Hall,
Maryland and for 10 years raised bees,
along with wheat, corn, soybeans and
tomatos.
He kept a written account of what began
as a hobby and ended up a profitable business in beekeeping. Following are some
undated excerpts from those entries which
reveal the author’s ever-growing respect for
these amazingly organized and hard working insects.
The author, Rafael Guastavino IV, now
92, is an expert sailor and aviator who
oversees Island Point Farm.
A line of space between paragraphs indicates a new entry.
The first entry was made in February,
1940.
removed the screen covers.
The bees didn’t seem too upset at being
relocated.
The bees have gone to work with a will,
and the hives are gaining considerable
weight. However, there is little prospect of
them making enough honey to take any. The
colonies were small ones when I bought
them. I’m satisfied that they seem healthy.
After donning my veil and gloves, I tighten
my pant legs with bicycle clips and armed
with a bee smoker, smoke having a tendency to tranquilize them, I take the cover off
This winter I decided to try beekeeping.
Having placed an ad in the local paper for
bee colonies (hives), I found a farmer in
Kennedyville who had some bees and was
willing to sell me two colonies. Since bees
are subject to disease, I needed to go carefully into this.
Also, bees have to be moved at night
when they are all in the hive; otherwise,
many are left behind.
I prepared two stands at a spot on my
farm protected from cold winds and well
away from the animals. With help from
Mother and Rand, we set out at dusk in my
truck to get the bees. Arriving at the place, I
got my new bee veil, gloves and other
equipment; however, it took a good deal
longer than expected to prepare the hives
for loading. The openings of the bee boxes
had to be covered with screens as the bees
would smother if shut off from air. Then the
parts of the hives and covers needed to be
nailed together with a spiral type of staple.
I had to drive very slowly on the way to my
farm for fear of jarring the hives apart. We
got home about midnight, unloaded and
Spring 2005
one colony at a time which prevents robbery (having bees from one hive going into
another to steal honey.) I can then watch
them work and learn about their habits and
how to handle them.
With the crops all harvested by
November, my interest is in the bees and in
acquiring an expanded apiary. I find bees
not only interesting but a challenge as well,
and their occasional stings not too bothersome. This is because the stings are almost
always through clothing which usually prevents my getting a full dose of venom.
I’ve decided to buy 20 colonies to be sent
from Georgia next spring. I’ve also ordered
a honey extractor and hives to place the
colonies in on arrival. Hives come as standardized parts which I’ll have to assemble.
The cost of all this will be about $500 or
more. Hive parts include boards that fit
together into a box hive, and moveable
frames which I will line with wire and insert.
On these, the bees raise the cells for the
storage of their honey, as well as their
brood.
I just learned that the 20 colonies of bees
will be delivered in three batches during
April. I’ll have to do something as soon as
possible about a more permanent building
a honey house - to set up equipment for
extracting the honey from the frames, and
for storing it.
I was ready for the first batch of eight
colonies which arrived by railway express.
Each colony was in its cage with a queen
(the large, fertile female who lays all the
eggs from which the bees grow) and was in
good shape, and I’ve had no problem
installing them in their new hives. The second and third batches arrived soon after. To
give the new bees a good start, I fed them a
syrup which I made by heating granulated
sugar in water.
At the end of April, Chestertown went
over to Daylight Savings Time for the first
time since the war. County residents outside
of town, on the whole, are set against what
they call “fast time” on a seasonal basis.
The school authorities, with half the population refusing to change, don’t know which
way to turn. In the end, the schools went on
“half time’” (on the half hour in between)
which predictably satisfies nobody. In
church on Sunday, our pastor announced
another name for it, “We are now on confusion time,” he said. In truth, whenever you
set up a time for anything, you have to ask
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whoever is involved, “Which time are you
on?” But the bees don’t seem to mind. They
go on working furiously, gathering nectar
from spring blossoms to make their honey.
This May, the weather has been increasingly wet so the spring plowing is not yet
finished. Work on the farm is way behind
schedule. Yet, the bees seem to be doing
well, and after the locust (nectar) flow, I
have an opportunity to take off my first
honey. I’ve set up my new extractor in the
milk house of the dairy farm where the hive
frames were put together. There isn’t much
honey from the two colonies that I’ve had
for a year, perhaps several gallons, but it is
extremely light colored and mild flavored the highest quality. I’m very enthusiastic
because however meager the quantity, the
quality is so good.
The bees continue to thrive. There is
enough surplus honey to take some more off
from the old colonies, and soon I realize I’ll
be able to take honey from the new ones as
well. After more than a year of planning,
effort and expense, I have at least some
honey for sale. The first few gallons have
gone to friends, relatives and for our use.
This second batch, though, is not nearly so
light in color as that from the early locust
flow.
In early winter with hive activity at a minimum, the author took a trip to Bay Shore,
Long Island. But upon returning home, discovers that his clustered and lethargic bees
had unexpected visitors. His account continues:
Hive invaded by mice. No doubt looking
for a warm place and food, they ate some
honeycomb and started a nest, but have left
without doing too much damage.
The wet weather we’ve been having has
made for a good spring honey crop, including enough of a locust flow to be of real
help. After the first extraction of the season
in June, I have eleven gallons of light Locust
and three gallons of mixed dark honey.
Since I was able to bottle, label and sell the
locust honey for 75 cents a pound - double
the regular price - I’m very pleased with my
first significant honey crop.
Have another good crop – some hundreds of pounds this time – and I needed
help with the extraction, straining and bottling. The dryer than average summer has
made for a good clover flow, and being
light and of mild flavor, the local demand is
good enough to surprise me. I sold 258
pounds this month. Some of my colonies
swarmed. (Swarming is a type of dividing:
old bees leave an overcrowded hive along
with the queen; the remaining young ones
raise a new queen.) I found a swarm hanging on a nearby tree and coaxed them into
an empty hive. Having secured this swarm
makes up for the earlier loss of a colony
and brings my number up to 27. A continuing problem for me, however, is the effect
of the occasional stings. A beekeeper is
supposed to feel the effect less over a period of time in the same way that injections
tend to inure a person with a pollen allergy.
But, this doesn’t seem to work for me. If anything, the stings seem to bother me more.
The use of a veil, gloves and heavier clothing usually saves me from bad stings, but
during the summer, it is sometimes very hot
work.
This fall I stored some unused honey in
gallon jugs, but during the winter it sugared. So I’ve spent a lot of time in the honey
house with my wood burning stove, heating
the jugs in hot water on the stove to thoroughly liquify the honey. Many of my customers who bought honey in the fall are
now out and want more.
About this time, in the late 1940’s, the
author buys a larger farm in Rock Hall and
decides to concentrate on his corn, soybean
and wheat crop.
I decided to sell the bees, rather reluctantly, but I will have more than enough to
do trying to farm Island Point. Placed an ad
in the paper and found a buyer who took
about half of them. The other half I moved
to the south edge of some woods at Island
Point. In the meantime, I extracted honey
and felt inundated by the crop. If the quality could just equal the quantity, it would be
marvelous, but what the bees were working
on so industriously during the summer was,
I think, somebody’s neglected privet hedge
which had flowered, and also some tulip
poplar trees. As a result, I have in my hands
nearly a ton of dark, strong flavored honey
which is really not saleable at retail in
pound jars. Rather than leave the gallon
jugs to sugar during the winter in the honey
house, I’ve brought them all to the basement
at Island Point.
Have sold most of my dark, strong honey
to a dealer in Wilmington for 8 cents a
pound. This price is, if anything, way below
cost. He, in turn, no doubt will sell it to bakeries which will find good use for it. DQ
Spring 2005 • 57
DELMARVA EVENTS
SPRING 2005
NEW SELECTIONS
A great deal of opulence in
these books that focus on the
Gilded Age of homes and
presidential yachts.
BY MARAH COLEMAN
O
pulence is our dominant theme this
issue - opulence in architecture,
sea craft, literature and art. A
smattering of *folklore and fiction rounds
out the field.
As we might suspect with this theme, the
duPont dynasty plays a leading role,
notably in “Millionaires, Mansions,
and Motor Yachts: An Era of
Opulence” by Ross McTaggart (W.W.
Norton $59.95). The author’s lively text is a
brilliant complement to the more than 200
stunning duotone images (most published
here for the first time.)
No child of privilege himself, the author
acknowledges that despite the book’s “elegant appearance and expensive finish,” he
produced it under financial anguish. His
passion outweighed his common sense, he
claims. But McTaggart’s taste is often more
inerrant than that of the moneyed elite he
documents.
His comments on certain yacht furnishings are a case in point. He deplores the
gilded baroque ensembles displayed in
some of these period photos. On the main
salon of the Savarona: “This was a setting
more imposing than inviting, and it did not
convey what would be an appealing feature: that such a setting floated.”
The aforementioned 185-foot vessel was
commissioned in 1926 by Emily
Cadwalader, a Pennsylvania woman and
granddaughter of the builder of the
Brooklyn Bridge. Savarona was built at the
Pusey and Jones shipyard in Wilmington,
Delaware
More compact and cozy, according to
photos, was the Idalia built in 1899 for
$75,000 including the Tiffany-designed
interiors. Her nautical designer was
William Cox, who learned his trade at
Roach’s Yard in Chester, Pa.
The A.I. duPont yacht Alicia, his first ship
(and named after his first wife), featured
white enameled joiner work with
mahogany accents below deck, producing
an effect of space, cleanliness and light.
Even the engine room with its Seabury
triple-expansion engine was a work of
beauty.
Here you will find rare photos of Jessie
Ball duPont, whose influence manifested
itself in a certain bohemian art deco look to
later nautical interiors, but one that was not
at all flamboyant. Dreamy indeed, with a
Gothic influence, is the Dreamwold estate of
Thomas W. Lawson in Scituate,
Massachusetts.
The book is recommended to collectors of
the Gilded Age.
“SEQUOIA: Presidential Yacht”
by Giles M. Kelly, Captain UNSR (Ret.) is a
more narrowly focused work. A loving tribute to the modest 104-foot vessel (originally
built for the aforementioned Emily
Calwalader) which eight sitting U.S. presidents used for recreation and diplomacy,
the book takes us back to a more innocent
time. Just try to imagine the present head of
state taking a quiet cruise on the Potomac or
the Chesapeake Bay.
Sequoia was acquired by the U.S.
Department of Commerce for $48,000 as
an asset sold by Houston oil executive
William Dunning after the stock market
crash. Nixon used her most often, Kennedy
helped maneuver her in rough seas, and
Spring 2005
Jimmy Carter (himself another Navy veteran) sold her in a gesture of thrift that went
largely unappreciated by the populace.
The presidential yacht was acquired and
restored by the Presidential Yacht Trust in the
1980s, having been designated a National
Historic Landmark. Bob Hope’s 80th birthday was held on board, with new interiors
designed by Carlton Varney. This antique
and historic vessel is again privately owned
and berthed in Washington, DC. The presidential suite once again carries the presidential seal and, although technically available for charter, the entire setting is now
more museum and less sea-going craft.
A handsome production, the book on
Sequoia is recommended for anyone interested in modern presidential history and/or
yachting.
“Homewood House” by Catherine
Rogers Arthur and Cindy Kelly ($35) is a
beautiful and elaborately-produced book
published by Johns Hopkins University Press
in homage to the Palladian mansion of the
same name. A National Historic Landmark,
Homewood was a wedding gift from
Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration
of Independence, to his son Charles Jr. It
originally stood on 130 acres of rolling
meadow and forest and afforded a view of
Baltimore harbor.
Sold by the Carroll family in 1838, the
house and grounds eventually became the
Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins
University. The graceful and elegant house
has undergone a major restoration and is
now open to the public as a museum reflecting the height of early-19th-century style
and taste.
Interiors display lush and vivid color,
including several shades of brilliant green
throughout. Green paint was a statement of
status in the Federal era because it required
the costly ingredient of copper oxide. The
master bedchamber was occasionally used
for intimate suppers, and even the privy was
paneled in chestnut, featuring a domed ceiling.
Dinners were elaborate. John Adams
recorded a meal at the home of Charles
Carroll, Jr‘s father-in-law:
“Turtle and every other thing, Flummery,
jellies, sweet meats of twenty sorts, Trifles,
whipped syllabubs, floating islands and
then a dessert of fruits, almonds, pears,
peaches, wines most excellent.
“I drank Madeira at a great rate and
found no inconvenience in it.”
But even in the more genteel times past,
Delmarva Quarterly
some family members were prone to substance abuse. The master of Homewood
developed an over-reliance on Madeira to
soothe his depression and his behavior
became erratic, leading his wife ultimately
to return home to Philadelphia.
An excellent value for its price,
Homewood House is recommended for the
library of anyone interested in traditional
American architecture and interior design.
The elaborate country home in
Delaware’s Brandywine Valley known as
Winterthur is a favored destination for those
studying the early American aesthetic.
Many such visitors also take in Winterthur’s
gardens; perhaps only the very academically-inclined are familiar with the Winterthur
Library. A joint publication by Winterthur
and Oak Knoll Press will do much to popularize the research library, which had its
nascence from the private library of Henry
Francis duPont.
“Winterthur Library Revealed:
Five Centuries of Design and
Inspiration” ($35) is by Neville
Thompson, Bert Denker and other members
of the Winterthur Library Staff. It was published to accompany an exhibition of the
same name at Winterthur and at the exclusive and erudite Grolier Club in New York.
With essays about the 1952 founding of
the library and all its collections, the book
deals with subjects ranging from printed
patterns of the 16th century to colonialrevival design drawings of the 20th. The five
centuries of books, drawings and ephemera
represent the work of artisans and advertisers and reveal an extraordinary insight into
the development of American decorative
arts.
An important sub-category of Winterthur
Library is the Joseph Downs Collection con-
taining primary research material such as
diaries, business accounts, family papers,
tax records, household inventories and so
on.
Winterthur Library is open to the general
public without appointment Monday
through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For
those who prefer to remain armchair enthusiasts, there can be no better guide than
Winterthur Library Revealed, with its 100
illustrations.
Another publication of Oak Knoll Press
released in January has a local connection.
“Howard Pyle: His Life— His
Work” by Paul Preston Davis ($149.95)
documents the work of the most famous
illustrator of the early 20th century.
This resident of the Brandywine Valley
influenced generations of American artists
through his examples in Harper’s, Scribner’s
and Century magazines and also through
his teaching. Many readers will be familiar
with his work from their appearance in the
Junior Classics.
Published 93 years after Pyle’s death, the
book celebrates his enduring achievements.
Illustrated with over 3,300 images, this
important research tool represents the complete record of all known Howard Pyle illustrations, many of which have not been
reproduced since their original publication.
Co-published with the Delaware Art
Museum, the Howard Pyle book has been
indexed and re-indexed by author Davis,
making a research tool that is easy to use.
This remarkable set of books will be treasured by scholars, librarians and collectors
alike.
The highly prolific Ed Okonowicz of
Elkton, Md. has a certain regional fame for
his
ghost-story-telling
appearances
throughout the peninsula. Self-publishing
under his own imprint, Myst and Lace
Publishers, Ed’s latest offering is
“Baltimore
Ghosts:
History,
Mystery, Legends and Lore” ($11.95
pb)
Based on interviews with park rangers,
cemetery personnel, saloon keepers and
museum curators, Baltimore Ghosts sheds
new light on old tales and unearths a few
new ones. A few of the highlights are unexplained activity at the Edgar Allan Poe
House and Gravesite, grave robbing at
Maryland’s first medical college, the
Gallows Ghost at Fort McHenry and sailor
ghost sightings on the USS Constellation.
The Baltimore Society for Paranormal
Research has provided a rating for each of
the haunted public sites (with tombstones
instead of the conventional stars.) More
Spring 2005 • 59
three, four cat’s-head biscuits with
butter. Then for lunch, he’d eat
dried beef gravy and half a pecan
pie, then that cheesesteak and fries
for a snack, and a big ole slab a
prime rib and gravy for dinner.
Laid up in front of the TV smoking
them cigars and drinkin’ that vodka
all afternoon and night, while poor
Ella slaved over a hot stove.
importantly, a special Teacher’s
Guide is included with activities,
vocabulary and other features use
for the classroom. (Although we
might not relish the idea, the reality
is that youngsters adore gory and
ghoulish reading.)
With that in mind, Ed now offers
student programs for schools and
libraries on “How to Write a
Spooky Story.” See his website at
www.mystandlace.com.
Ella gets her revenge when her
mean husband’s arteries became
Just released by Johns Hopkins
“so clogged with cholesterol you
U. Press are “The Oysterback
couldn’t have pushed a microbe
Tales” ($14.95 pb) of Helen
through them with a stick of dynaChappell, the Baltimore Sun’s
mite.”
Eastern Shore storyteller. Journalist,
Desiree Grinch, proprietor of the
teacher, and freelancer from her
Blue Crab Tavern, is an Elvis-memhome in Bellevue (Talbot County,
orabilia collector who is certain
MD), she captures the unique,
“Elvis was really interested in relifolksy and eccentric way of life in
gion and spiritual values, even if
the mythical town of Oysterback.
he did take all those pills.” The
Author Helen Chappell at her Talbot home.
Civil War re-enactors camped out
down by Widgeon Marsh to celeParson Dreedle of Dreedle’s
minds in the local area.
brate
the
anniversary of the Skirmish of
Funeral Home wants everyone to know that
Game wardens are known as Goose
the butterbeans they offer at their roadside Nazis and the long-suffering Ella Sparks lit- Swann’s Farm report sightings of UFOs,
produce stand are not red because they fer- erally loves her no-good husband to death later determined to be some of Widgeon
Marsh’s smaller mosquitoes.
tilize them with funeral wastes, as some catering to his appetite.
Here’s wishing success with the muse in
have been saying, but because they come
2005
to all Delmarva writers. Keep us postfrom the seed company like that and grow
Every morning, the same thing. Fried him
that way naturally. This should relieve many up six eggs and a half pound of bacon, ed on your best book-length works. DQ
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Spring 2005
DELMARVA EVENTS
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ARDEN
March 1-31: “The Ardens: A Living Experiment.”
Arts crafts, photos and memorabilia tel the story of this
unique Delaware community. Arden Craft Shop
Museum, Millers Road and Cherry Lane. Wed 7:30-9
p.m. Sun 1-3 p.m. or by appointment. 302-478-7257.
March 2 & 30: Folk dancing. No partner necessary.
Arden Gild Hall, 2126 The Highway. 7:30-9:30 p.m.
302-478-7257.
March 5: Richard Julian. Singer/songwriter. Arden
Gild Hall, 2126 The Highway. 8 p.m. 302-478-7257.
March 6 & 20: Contra dance. No partner necessary.
Arden Gild Hall, 2126 The Highway. Lessons 1:30-2
p.m. dance 2-5 p.m. 302-478-7257.
March 9: Square dancing. No partner necessary.
302-478-7257.
March 16: Delaware Colonial Dancing. No partner
necessary. Arden Gild Hall, 2126 The Highway. 7:309:30 p.m. 302-478-7257.
March 23: Israeli dancing. No partner necessary.
302-478-7257.
ARDENTOWN
March 1-27: “Cabaret.” The New Candlelight
Theatre, 2208 Millers Road. Thu-Sat dinner at 6 p.m.,
show at 8 p.m. Sun dinner at 1 p.m., show at 3 p.m.
302-475-2313.
BERLIN
March 26: Spring Celebration. Easter bunny, pig
races, Easter Bonnet parade, games. Food and entertainment throughout the day. Pig races. Main Street 10
a.m.-4 p.m. 410-208-1528.
CAMBRIDGE
March 12:
5th Annual Harriet Tubman Day
Celebration. Event includes dinner and tour of Harriet’s
birthplace. Elks Lodge, Pine Street. 410-228-3106.
March 12: Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge Eagle
Festival. Celebrating eagles and other birds of prey with
live animal programs, live animal displays and exhibits.
It also features children’s programs, native American
programs, bird walks, and more. Blackwater National
Wildlife Refuge. 8 a.m.-4 p.m. 410-228-2677.
CAPE CHARLES
March 5: The Sounds of Joy. A choral concert that will
bring a spirit of joy to the audience. The repertory of this
group of 45 singers and various accompanists includes
Broadway songs, “classic pop”, patriotic/Americana,
folk and inspirational music. If it’s beautiful, nostalgic,
funky or humable, they’ll sing it! Historic Palace Theatre,
10 Strawberry St. 8 p.m. 757-331-2787.
March 13: Steinway Piano Dedication. A solo piano
concert by Lee Jordan-Anders. The program will include
Beethoven’s Les Adieux sonata, Debussy’s Children’s
Corner suite and Schumann’s Carnaval. Historic Palace
Theatre, 10 Strawberry St. 3 p.m. 757-331-2787.
March 26: EasterPlays. Historic Palace Theatre, 10
Strawberry St. 3 p.m. & 6 p.m. 757-331-2787.
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CENTREVILLE (DE)
March 4-26: Pastel Invitational: “Pure Pigment.”
Featuring works of various artists. Reception March 4,
5-8 p.m. Hardcastle Gallery, 5714 Kennett Pike. 302655-5230.
CENTREVILLE (MD)
March 1-22: Exploring Watercolors with award winning artist, Sally Clark. Clark’s four-week class takes students through the basics of watercolor from beginning
level to intermediate level students. Learn basic techniques, brushwork and color theory. Area residents and
members of the art community know Ms. Clark’s work
from a multitude of exhibits - learn her successful techniques and expand on them for your own work. Ages
16+. Queen Anne’s County Arts Council, 206 South
Commerce Street. 9 a.m.-12 p.m. 410-758-2520.
March 1-31: Members’ Best Exhibits. Enjoy the artwork of Arts Council members’ on view and for sale at
the following sites: An Optical Galleria, Carter Hickman
Courthouse, Centreville National Bank, Cottage Cuts,
Mercantile Eastern Shore Bank, Prudential Properties
and QAC Community Partnerships for Children, all in
downtown Centreville. 410-758-2520.
March 3: Art About Town is an evening of public
reception for Members’ Best exhibit artists. Quarterly
reception is held to introduce you to artist members and
participating businesses. Public reception from 4-5 p.m.
at the Courthouse and 5-6:30 p.m. at all other locations.
410-758-2520.
March 5: Art Show and Auction. The Queen Anne’s
County Arts Council’s annual evening of fine foods,
incredible artwork and lively auctioneering. Sculpture,
jewelry, ceramics, watercolors, oils, acrylics, decoys,
fiber arts and much more are a part of this important
fund-raising event. Area restaurants donate their time an
culinary talent for you to enjoy during the preview and
silent auction at 6 p.m. Auctioneer Bill Blake begins the
live auction at 7 p.m. Hunters Oak Golf Club. 410758-2520.
CHESTERTOWN
March 4: Home Tones Series. Join us for an evening
of local musicians sharing their talents and love of music
through the rich sound of acoustic instruments. Pres
Harding of Chestertown will be our master of ceremonies! Come have some drinks and support local
music! Prince Theatre, 210 High St. 8 p.m. 410-8102060.
March 4-26: IMAGES: Works By Students Of
Washington College. Get ready for St Patrick’s Day with
Patty Mowell on the bagpipes. Works by Washington
College students, including traditional black & white
photography, alternative photographic processes, printmaking, and digital imaging will be on view. Reception,
March 4, 6 p.m. Chestertown Arts League.
March 5: Tastes for Horizons. Dishes prepared by
local restaurants and free open bar for the benefit of
Horizons summer Enrichment Program for children of
Kent County of limited means and unlimited potential.
Kent School. 6-8 p.m. 410 778 4100 ext 35.
March 5-31: 56th Annual Juried Show. Reception,
“Meet the Artists”, March 5, 3-5 p.m. Over $2000 in
awards. Gibson Fine Arts Building, Washington
College, Daily noon-3 p.m. 410-778-5789.
March 13: Baseball on the Eastern Shore: Hurtt
Deringer, retired editor of the Kent County News, will
speak on the Eastern Shore’s local town baseball teams,
white and black, of half a century ago, and notable
major leaguers such as Bill (Swish) Nicholson.
Memorabilia display by Mark Newsome. Bethel A.M.E.
Church, 237 College Ave. 410-778-3499.
March 19: Auction & Flea Market. Chestertown Fire
House. Silent Auction 10 a.m. Live Auction 11 a.m.
410-778-1661.
March 20: The Eastern Shore Wind Ensemble. Keith
Wharton, Conductor, will present a program by the
community concert band, based in Chestertown. 4 p.m.
410-810-1834/778-2829.
March 20: SPARX, Flute & Harp Duo. Washington
College, Gibson Center/Tawes Theatre. 4 p.m. 410778-7839.
March 26: Spring Arts & Crafts Show. Crafts, folk art,
decorative clothing, needlework, dolls, jewelry, pottery
& more. Chestertown Fire House. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
410-778-1432.
CHINCOTEAGUE
March 26: Chincoteague Island Annual Spring Craft
Show.
Chincoteague Community Center, 6155
Community Drive. 757-336-0614.
CHURCH HILL
March 6: Hunting Rights by Mary Wood. A Staged
Reading. Church Hill Theatre. 2 p.m. 410-758-1331.
March 7, 9, 13: Auditions for 2005 Summer Plays.
Kiss Me Kate The Marriage Go Round & Fallen Angels.
Church Hill Theatre. 410-758-1331.
March 12: Chesapeake Scenes. Stories of the
Chesapeake in poetry and song. Church Hill Theatre. 8
p.m. 410-758-1331.
DEWEY BEACH
March 27: Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt. Easter
brunch followed by a fun-filled Easter egg hunt with
prizes and give-aways. Rusty Rudder. 10 a.m. 302227-3888.
DOVER
March 1-31: “Stitches of Art and Comfort: Delaware
Quilts 1740-2002.” Delaware State Museums Visitor
Center, 406 Federal St. 302-739-4266.
March 1-31: “Edward Renfield: Delaware Native,
Pennsylvania Impressionist. Biggs Museum of American
Art, 406 Federal St. 302-674-2111.
March 4-5, 11-13, 18-19: “On A Darkling Plain.”
by Norman Beim. In 1964, an actor who has been
blacklisted for twelve years faces a dilemma: should he
accept the lead in a Broadway show and the subsequent
movie - even though they are being directed by the man
who named him to the McCarthy commission - or should
he swallow his contempt for acting in commercials and
do a toilet paper ad. Kent County Theatre Guild,
Patchwork Playhouse. Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m. Sun. 3 p.m.
302-674-3568.
March 5: “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” Schwartz Center
for the Arts, 226 S. State St. 1 p.m. 302-678-5152.
March 12: Delaware Friends of Folk Celtic Session.
W.T. Smithers, 140 State St. 1-5 p.m. 302-698-0775.
March 12: “In Harmony” Music Series: Heart
Sounds. Celtic music. Co-sponsored by the Dover
Public Library and Wesley College. Dover Public
Library, 45 S. State St. 7 p.m. 302-736-7030.
March 15: “My Soul is a Witness” Musical.
Schwartz Center for the Arts, 226 S. State St. 1 p.m.
302-678-5152.
March 19: Delaware Friends of Folk Coffee House.
Wesley Underground, College Center basement, 120 N.
State St. 7:30 p.m. 302-698-0775.
March 20: Dover Symphony Spring Classical
Concert. Schwartz Center for the Arts, 226 S. State St.
3 p.m. 302-678-5152.
March 12: Delaware Friends of Folk Pick-In. W.T.
Smithers, 140 State St. 1-5 p.m. 302-698-0775.
Spring 2005 • 61
DELMARVA EVENTS
EASTON
March 6: TCS presents... “Osama” (Afghanistan,
2003) Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 5:30p.m. 410745-5025
March 10-11: An African American Heritage Event.
In celebration of the Eastern Shore’s rich black history,
the Scott’s United Methodist Church Gospel Choir is
planning an educational program using Harriet Tubman
and Frederick Douglas as focal points. Further details
TBA. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 7 p.m. 410-7455025
March 12: “The Kings of Strings. Jay Geils & Gerry
Beaudoin with Bob Nieske & Aaron Weinstein. Five
forces of string on one stage-a sensational night of
superb sound. Jay Geils, of the J. Geils Band, on guitar,
Gerry Beaudoin, from the group Roomful of Blues, on
guitar, Aaron Weinstein on violin and mandolin and Bob
Nieske on upright bass for a polished, swinging
reminder of America’s great original music heritage jazz. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 8 p.m. 410745-5025.
March 13: Balalaika 2005. The Washington, D.C.
based Balalaika Society, an orchestra dedicated preserving the art of Russian, Ukrainian and Eastern
European traditional folk music, will perform the folk
tunes and festive music in traditional dress complete with
the folk instruments including - the balalaika, domra,
bayan and related folk wind and percussion instruments.
Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 3 p.m. 410-745-5025.
March 16: Character Counts! Mid Shore presents...
“Laws of Life” Essay Contest. Character Counts! is sponsoring this regional contest for middle and high school
students, to be judged by Shore Leadership. Several levels of cash prize awards will be given, topped by an
overall winner who will receive The Albert Kennerly
Character Counts Award - a scholarship of $2,500.
March 17: St Patrick’s Day Parade. Easton Main
Street presents...Activities in downtown Easton. Join in
the fun as Easton Main Street celebrates St. Patrick’s Day.
A variety of activities throughout the day includes: an
Irish tea, music, dance, parade, prizes, kids’ activities
and the all-important Potato Race! Great fun for the family! FREE. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 410-7455025.
March 18: Tilghman’s Fathers and Sons Quartet.
Comprised of fifth generation Tilghman Islanders, the
quartet will perform a selection of Southern Gospel
songs. The performance will also feature local favorites
The Royal Oak Musicians, performing acoustic folk
music, including their original songs of the Chesapeake
Bay waterman. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 7:30
p.m. 410-745-5025.
March 19: O’Mally’s March - St. Patty’s Day
Celebration. A traditional Irish celebration of St.
Patrick’s Day at the Avalon would not be complete without O’Malley’s March. The quintet, which includes classical Celtic musical instruments such as harp, bagpipes
and squeezebox, have become a fixture at the Avalon
selling out show after show. Avalon Theatre, 40 E.
Dover St. 5 & 8 p.m. 410-745-5025.
March 20: John Eaton - Jazz, Blues, and Broadway.
Nationally acclaimed pianist, vocalist and humorist,
John Eaton, presents his celebrated tour of American
popular standards-everything from the blues of W. C.
Handy to the songs of Cole Porter and George Gershwin
and the swinging music of Duke Ellington and Fats
Waller. Immaculate musicianship and signature wit and
commentary guarantee an over-the-top evening of nonstop entertainment. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 3
p.m. 410-745-5025.
March 24: Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. The
Grammy-winning, Louisiana-born, Texas raised multiinstrumentalist has been dishing up his unique blend of
blues, R&B, country, jazz and Cajun music for more than
50 years. Recently, picked by actor Dan Ackroyd to
headline the opening of the new House of Blues in
SPRING 2005
Columbus, Ohio. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 8
p.m. 410-745-5025.
March 26: Austin Cody. Soon to be a household
name, native Marylander, Austin Cody is country music’s
new pop country sensation. Recently, he toured throughout the area and opened for national recording artist
Gretchen Wilson during her August Redneck Woman
concert which stopped in Cambridge, MD. For this show
he’ll perform songs, with band The Crossroad
Connection, from his first 10-song country album
Destination You. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 8 p.m.
410-745-5025.
March 30: Leo Kottke. A virtuoso on the guitar, Kottke
always plays astounded audiences with his wizardry on
the six and 12 string guitars. Revered and praised by
peers, Kottke has been given highest compliment by fellow players when their attempt to emulate his style.
ELKTON
March 1-19: Emanations: Exhibition of ceramic work
from artists of the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, New
York. Opening reception on March 4 from 5-7 p.m. is
free and open to the public and will feature refreshments
and live music by Go for Baroque. Elkton Arts Center,
135 E. Main St. 410-392-5740.
March 19-20 & 25-26: Ultimate Easter Egg Hunt.
Easter egg hunt, prizes, Easter Bunny, hayride & barnyard buddies. 1495 Appleton Rd. 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
410-398-1349.
FAIR HILL
March 5:
Bluebird Box/Sugar Maple Syrup
Demonstration. Learn how to attract bluebirds to your
backyard and see a sugar maple syrup demo. Fair Hill
Nature Center. 1-4 p.m. 410-398-4909.
GEORGETOWN (DE)
March 5: Annual Easter Egg Hunt. Fun for the whole
family! Get your picture with the Easter Bunny and enjoy
games. Bring your own basket for the hunt. Nutter
Marvel Museum. 12-2 p.m. 302-856-1544.
GOLDEN HILL
March 11-12:
60th National Outdoor Show.
Pageants, vendors, food and contests that celebrate
Dorchester’s heritage by spotlighting unique talents and
lifestyles. South Dorchester K-8 School. Fri 5 p.m. Sat
11 a.m. 410-397-8543.
HARTLY
March 19: Annual Spring Hartly Fire Company
Model Train and Toy Show. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. 302-4923755.
KENNEDYVILLE
March 6: The Cadwalader-Conway Duel: Jack
Gardner, professor emeritus of history at Delaware State
University Dover, will discuss the art and outcome of
dueling before the Civil War. There will be a reenactment before the lecture. (Gen. Cadwalader was the victor.) Shrewsbury Parish Hall, Rt. 213. 410-778-3499.
LEWES
March 1-19: Artist Exchange Group exhibition
Peninsula Gallery, Lewes, and Coastal Gallery,
Rehoboth, will jointly host an exhibit by 11 members of
the Artist’s Exchange. The Artist’s Exchange is a group
of diverse professional artists which formed in 2000 in
order to exchange ideas and critique each others work
at regular monthly meetings. They also seek to promote
quality original art in Southern Delaware and this will be
their 4th exhibition. As well as painters of various mediums and styles, included in their number are a textile
artist, a metal artist and a sculptor. Titled “Polarities”,
the exhibit roughly divides the group into two spheres of
artistic interest. The Peninsula Gallery will show work by
members whose style is essentially representational.
Julie Baxendell, conte pencil and acrylic, Laura
Hickman, pastel, Aina Nergaard-Nammack, acrylic,
Steve Rogers, acrylic, and Pat Staby, fibre, will all exhibit work. The Peninsula Gallery, 520 E. Savannah Rd.
Tue - Sat, 10 - 5 pm and Sun, 11 - 3 pm. 302-6450551.
March 1-31: “Quilting on the Line.” Delaware-made
quilts. Zwaanendael Museum, 102 Kings Hwy. 302645-1148.
March 5: Coastal Concerts presents the Biava String
Quartet. Bethel United Methodist Church, Fellowship
Hall, Fourth and Markets Streets. 8 p.m. 302-6451539.
March 19: Holistic Health Fair. Exhbits, workshops
and children’s activities featuring holistic health and wellness providers. Cape Henlopen High School. 9:30
a.m.-4:30 p.m. 302-227-6818.
March 25: Great Delaware Kite Festival. Kite fliers of
all ages compete for medallions and prizes. Food and
kite vendors. Cape Henlopen State Park. 10 a.m.-3
p.m. 302-645-8073.
March 26: Spring Book Sale. Every book lover will
find bargains among the thousands of hardcover and
paperback books for sale in fiction, nonfiction, children’s
favorites, recent bestsellers, cooking, travel, science fiction, mysteries, how-to, and classics, along with many
other offerings. Lewes Public Library. 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
302-645-4633.
MARYDEL
March 13: Bob Paisley and The Southern Grass.
Concert sponsored by the Eastern Shore Bluegrass
Association. Marydel Fire Hall, 110 Firehouse Lane,
Marydel, 1-5 p.m. 302-492-1048.
MILLINGTON
March 25: Maryland Day Open House. Maryland’s
Herb Basket, 399 Hazel Lane. 410-778-0416.
MILLSBORO
March 13: Sussex County Bridal Show. Millsboro
Civic Center, Wilson Highway. 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. 302934-6777.
NEW CASTLE
March 5-31: “The Fabric of Her Life: 19th Century
Clothing and Textiles.” Exhibit explores the role of textiles and clothing in the life of 19th Century women.
New Castle Historical Society Old Library Museum, 40
E. Third St. Fri-Sun. 1-4 p.m. 302-322-2794.
March 19: Open Hearth Cooking Workshop.
Prepare a traditional 19th century Twelfth Night Feast
using period recipes and ingredients. Menu includes
specialties such as Roast Goose with Potato Filling,
Cabbage Pudding with Forcemeat, Twelfth Night Cake
and Orgeat toast. Read House & Gardens, 42 The
Strand. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. 302-322-8411.
March 28-31: 2nd Annual Appliance Appreciation
Week. Honor our modern day appliances with a look
back at housework 200 years ago. Each day will feature a different “chore challenge” for visitors. Read
House & Gardens, 42 The Strand. 302-322-8411.
NEWARK
March 1: Master Players Chamber Series: “Catch the
Stars of the ‘Met” An evening of arias and art songs.
Mitchell Hall, South College Ave. on the University
Green. 8 p.m. 302-831-2577.
March 1-31: “A Century of African-American Art: The
Paul R. Jones Collection.” Mechanical Hall Galleries
and the University Gallery, University of Delaware. 302831-8242.
March 4-6, 11-13, 18-19: “Pink Thunderbird Lone
Star and Laundry & Bourbon.” Comedy by James
McLure. Chapel Street Players, 27 N. Chapel St. Fri.
and Sat. 8 p.m. Sun. 2 p.m. 302-368-2248.
Spring 2005
DELMARVA EVENTS
March 4-26: Delaware Women’s Conference Art
Show. Group juried mixed media show. Reception
March 11, 7-9 p.m. Newark Arts Alliance, The
Grainery Station. 302-266-7266.
March 6: Delaware Dance Festival. State and regional dance companies perform. Mitchell Hall, S. College
Ave. on the University Green. 1 & 5 p.m. 302-2666362.
March 6: Newark Symphony Orchestra: “Northern
Lights.” Featuring works by Shostakovich, Sibelius and
a concerto featuring the winner of Competition for Young
Musicians. Loudis Recital Hall, Amy E. du Pont Music
Building, University of Delaware, Amstel Ave. and
Orchard Road. 302-831-2577.
March 11: “Man of the Year.” Independent film.
Newark Free Library, 750 Library Ave. 7 p.m. 302731-7550.
March 13: The University of Delaware Performing Art
Series presents the Stone Soup and Other Stories.
Contains children’s story favorites from Africa, India,
Eastern Europe and the United States. For pre-K to
grade 3. Optional pre-performance luncheon at the
Blue and Gold Club at noon. For reservations, 8312582. 2 p.m. Mitchell Hall, South College Ave. on the
University Green. 302-831-2204.
March 18: The University of Delaware Performing Art
Series presents the Bonnie Rideout Scottish Trio.
Traditional Scottish dance tune, Highland bagpipe
music, and ancient Gaelic melodies. Mitchell Hall, South
College Ave. on the University Green. 8 p.m. 302-8312204.
March 26: Delaware Classical Showcase presents
winners of the 31st Annual Delaware Contest for Young
Musicians. Newark Free Library, 750 Library Ave. 2
p.m. 302-731-7550.
NORTH EAST
March 4-6 & 11-13: Covered Bridge Theatre.
“Wait Until Dark” Cultural
Center, Seahawk Drive. Fri & Sat, 8 p.m. Sun 3 p.m.
410-287-1023.
March 17: Girls’ Night Out. “Worms in my Tea” and
Special Guest, Becky Freeman. Sandy Cove Conference
Center. 6:30 -9 p.m. 410-287-5433.
March 19: Mapex Drum Festival - It’s all about the
Drums! A one of a kind event that brings together local,
regional and nationally acclaimed percussion artists.
Cultural Center, Seahawk Drive. 1-4 p.m. 410-2871023.
March 19-20: Annual St. Patty’s Day Boat Show.
Come by land or by water and bring the entire family.
Refreshments. Jackson Marine. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. 410287-9400.
OCEAN CITY
March 4-6: St. Patrick’s Indoor Soccer Tournaments.
Great annual event for ages 14 and under. Northside
Park, 125th St. & Bay. 410-250-0125.
March 11-13: Indoor Soccer Tournaments. Great
annual event for ages 18 and under. Northside Park,
125th St. & Bay. 410-250-0125.
March 11-13: Quota International of Ocean City
Antiques & Collectibles Show. Antique estate jewelry,
furniture, glassware, toys, silver, oyster plates, clothing,
linens, sports memorabilia and more. Fri. 5-8 p.m. Sat.
10 a.m-6 p.m. Sun. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Convention Center,
40th St. & Bay. 410-524-9000.
March 12: St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival.
Popular annual parade with marching units, bands,
local celebrities and more, plus a festival featuring food,
music and drink. Sat. Festival, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Parade
begins at noon. 410-289-0791.
March 18-20: Indoor Soccer Tournaments. Event for
ages 16 and under. Northside Park, 125th St. & Bay.
410-250-0125.
March 25-27: Easter Art and Craft Fair. Over 100
exhibitors display fun and unique hand-crafted items
Delmarva Quarterly
SPRING 2005
including wearable art, garden and lawn décor, toys,
caricatures and more. Fri. 1-6 p.m. Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sun. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Convention Center, 40th St. & Bay.
410-524-7020/6440.
March 25-27: Easter Kids Fair. Continuous events,
activities and entertainment including Beanny the Easter
Bunny, Easter egg hunts, coloring tables, puppet shows,
clowns, games, talent contests, giant slide and more.
Fri. 1-6 p.m. Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Convention Center, 40th St. & Bay.
410-5247020/6440.
March 26-27: Easter at the Dunes. Children’s show
on Saturday with Priscilla the Rabbit from 5-6 p.m.
Sunday the Easter Bunny strolls the lobby with candy
from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Dunes Manor Hotel, 2800
Baltimore Ave. 410-289-1100.
REHOBOTH BEACH
March 1-19: Artist Exchange Group exhibition
Peninsula Gallery, Lewes, and Coastal Gallery,
Rehoboth, will jointly host an exhibit by 11 members of
the Artist’s Exchange. The Artist’s Exchange is a group
of diverse professional artists which formed in 2000 in
order to exchange ideas and critique each others work
at regular monthly meetings. They also seek to promote
quality original art in Southern Delaware and this will be
their 4th exhibition. As well as painters of various mediums and styles, included in their number are a textile
artist, a metal artist and a sculptor. Titled “Polarities”,
the exhibit roughly divides the group into two spheres of
artistic interest. Coastal Gallery will present work by
those whose style is abstract, or non-representational, as
well as three dimensional. The featured artists were
given free rein as far as subject matter is concerned.
Connie Costigan, pencil drawing, Michael Krausz,
mixed media, Marti Marino, clay sculpture, Lee Wayne
Mills, mixed media, Peggy Sampogna, mixed media collage, and Tuve Tuvesson, fabricated steel sculpture, all
will exhibit. 302-645-0551.
March 1-31: Work from the Members Sales Gallery.
Corkran and Tubbs Galleries. Rehoboth Art League, 12
Dodds Lane. 302-227-8408.
March 12: Annual Chocolate Festival. Enter your
baked goods or candies and vie for prizes or just come
and sample entries from the area’s most fabulous restaurants, professional chefs and amateur bakeries.
Rehoboth Beach Convention Center. 11:30 a.m.-3:30
p.m. 302-227-2772.
March 26: Merchant’s Attic II and General Public
Garage Sale. The State’s Largest Indoor Garage Sale.
Rehoboth Beach Convention Center. 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
800-441-1329 or 302-227-2233.
March 26: Kite Fun fly with the Easter Bunny. Virginia
Ave. and the Boardwalk. 9 a.m. 302-227-6996.
ROCK HALL
March 3: Gordon Bok. The Mainstay. 410-6399133.
March 19: Rosheen From Quebec. The Mainstay.
410-639-9133.
March 20: Jousting, Maryland’s State Sport: Charles
(Buck) Schyler of Eastern Shore Jousting Association will
explain this ancient equestrian sport and how it came to
be Maryland’s state sport. The Mainstay, Main Street.
410-778-3499.
SALISBURY
March 1-31: Exhibit. An exhibit of original wildlife
paintings by Guy Coheleach. Ward Museum of
Wildfowl Art, 909 S. Schumaker Dr. Welcome Gallery.
410-742-4988.
March 4-31: Regional Carving: Oliver Lawson &
Rich Smoker. A series of exhibits showcasing the talents
of wildfowl artists living on the Delmarva Peninsula.
Lawson and Smoker are wildfowl artists from Somerset
County, Maryland and are talented decorative and
decoy carvers. Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, 909 S.
Schumaker Dr. Welcome Gallery. 410-742-4988.
SMYRNA
March 3-26: Art Show. Reception March 3. Smyrna
Opera House, 107 S. Main St. 302-653-4236.
March 4: “Sones de Mexico.”
Smyrna Opera
House, 107 S. Main St. 302-653-4236.
March 10: “A Taste of the Grape.” Smyrna-Clayton
Historical Society wine tasting and dinner. Smyrna
Opera House, 107 S. Main St. Time TBA. 302-6534236.
SNOW HILL
March 3: Card Party. Fun, games, prizes and refreshments.
Snow Hill Library.10 a.m.-4 p.m. 410-6320515.
ST. MICHAELS
March 2: Lecture: Learning to Play on the Bay in the
New Millenium.
Writer and Chesapeake Bay
Foundation senior naturalist John Page Williams will discuss how waterborne recreation has evolved over the
past several decades, looking at changes in the region’s
way of life that has shifted the context for recreation on
the bay. He sees the comfort and technology of the boat
becoming the center of much recreational activity, rather
than the water. Williams’ familiarity with these activities
derives both from his personal experiences and from stories he has gathered in his travels all around the
Chesapeake watershed for CBF as well as in his role as
a writer for Chesapeake Bay Magazine and other periodicals. Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Van
Lennep Auditorium located in the Museum’s Steamboat
Building. 10:30 a.m. 410-745-2916.
March 9: Lecture: Recreational Fishing in the
Chesapeake: Then and Now. Field and Stream sport
fishing writer George Reiger will provide an overview of
the changes in recreational fishing on the Chesapeake
from early accounts to the present day. Changes in techniques and gear, favored species, and the growth of the
sport will be included. Reiger brings his experience with
sport fishing around America and abroad to provide
perspective on this activity on the Chesapeake.
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Van Lennep
Auditorium located in the Museum’s Steamboat Building.
10:30 a.m. 410-745-2916.
March 12-13 & 19-20: Why not be an Apprentice
for a Day? “Thwarts.” Construction continues with the
fabrication and assembly of the boat’s seats. Prepare
assembly of the centerboard trunk. Program provides
participants with the unique experience of traditional
wooden boat building. Under the direction of experienced shipwrights, participants are welcomed in as
members of the Museum’s Boat Yard staff for a day as
they work on the various stages of building a wooden
lapstrake skiff. Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. 10
a.m.-4 p.m. 410-745-2916.
March 16: Lecture: Log Canoe Racing: Traditions and
Innovations. Chesapeake Bay log canoe skipper John
North will review the history and present trends in racing log canoes, a class developed from traditional oyster tonging boats that still races each summer on the
Chester, Miles, and Tred Avon Rivers. Today’s active racing vessels are a curious mix of the traditional and modern. North’s family owns and maintains three of these
historic boats, and he has over 50 years experience in
racing them. Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Van
Building. 10:30 a.m. 410-745-2916.
March 23: Lecture: Rediscovering the Eastern Shore:
1870s Travelogues. Retired college administrator and
scholar Hal Jopp will examine how the Eastern Shore
was promoted by post-Civil War travel writers. It was in
this era that the rural parts of the Chesapeake region
began to be discovered by tourists. Jopp’s insights into
the 1870s views of the Eastern Shore as a bucolic playground provides a valuable background for tracing
Spring 2005 • 63
DELMARVA EVENTS
change and continuity in the recreational landscape
around the Chesapeake. Chesapeake Bay Maritime
Museum, Van Lennep Auditorium located in the
Museum’s Steamboat Building. 10:30 a.m. 410-7452916.
March 30: Lecture: Rocking the Boat: Community and
Change in a Century of Play on the Bay. Chesapeake
Bay Maritime Museum’s curator of exhibitions, Lindsley
Rice, will talk about the changes that increased recreational use of the Chesapeake has brought to Bay communities during the last 100 years. Recreational access
to the Bay has followed the major historical trends of
segregation and the growth of the middle class, while
local populations have adapted to or resisted changes
wrought by the dramatic change in the Bay’s economic
foundation from commercial fishing and agriculture to
recreation and tourism. Rice has been planning and
preparing the Museum’s forthcoming exhibition, “At Play
on the Bay.” Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Van
Building. 10:30 a.m. 410-745-2916.
STEVENSVILLE
March 5: Kent Island Cruisers March Breakfast. This
years topic will be “Cruise Nights - The Good, The Bad,
& The Ugly?” If you are an old car enthusiast, or a member of a car club, or you attend car shows and would like
to hear how things work (or don’t work) Scrambled
eggs, sausage, pancakes, fruit cup, orange juice and
coffee. Bring the old cars out if weather permits! 103
Big Holly Ct.
WILMINGTON
March 1-12: Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s
Dream.” Baby Grand Theater. Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m.
March 12, 2 & 8 p.m. 302-658-7897.
March 1-13: “The Drawer Boy.” By Michael Healey.
Wed.-Sun. Call for times. Delaware Theatre Company,
200 Water St. 302-594-1100.
March 1-18: Welcome Spring Display. Features
three acres of warm, colorful gardens under glass.
Longwood Gardens. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. 610-388-1000.
March 1-20: Youngmi Song: “Affinity.” Mixedmedia works. Beckler Family Members’ Gallery.
Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, 200 S.
Madison St. 302-656-6466.
March 1-26: “Cross Country Run: Recent Work by
Ken Mabrey.” Delaware Art Museum Downtown
Gallery, 919 N. Market St. 302-571-9590.
March 1-27: Dan Brown: “Murder Mysteries.” Clay
vessels. E. A. Draper Showcase Gallery. Delaware
Center for the Contemporary Arts, 200 S. Madison St.
302-656-6466.
March 1-31: Members’ Juried Exhibition. Carole
Bieber and Marc Ham Gallery. Delaware Center for the
Contemporary Arts, 200 S. Madison St. 302-6566466.
March 1-31: Tiffany Holmes: “Your face is safe with
me.” Animation. Constance and Robert J. Hennessy
Project Space. Delaware Center for the Contemporary
Arts, 200 S. Madison St. 302-656-6466.
March 1-31: “Scratching the Surface: Abstraction
Now.” Group show. DuPont Galleries I and II.
Madison St. 302-656-6466.
March 1-31: Exhibition of sculpture by Charles Parks.
Exhibition will focus on Parks’ female sculptures.
Delaware History Museum, 504 Market St. Mon-Fri
noon-4 p.m. Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 302-656-0637.
March 1-31: “Made In China: Export Porcelain from
the Leo and Doris Hodroff Collection at Winterthur.”
Graves and West Galleries. Winterthur, Route 52. 800448-3883 or 302-888-4600.
March 2: “Hearts and Minds Film Festival.” Theatre
N at Nemours, 11th and Tatnall Sts. 302-576-2100.
March 2-6: “Hearts and Minds Film Festival.” Short
and full-length screenings at various Wilmington loca-
SPRING 2005
tions. Call for times. 302-576-3095.
March 3: Thursday Noontime Concert: Center City
Chorale. David Schelat, conductor. First and Central
Presbyterian Church, 1101 N. Market St. 12:30 p.m.
302-654-5371.
March 4: Classic Movies Series: “Chitty Chitty Bang
Bang.” Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St. Fri 8
p.m. Sun 2 p.m. 800-37-GRAND.
March 4: Art Loop at the Wilmington Library.
Victorian-era music by the Camptown Shakers in conjunction with an art exhibit opening. Wilmington
Library, 10 E. Tenth St., 6:30 p.m. 302-571-7408.
March 4: Music Masters Concert Series: Triocasals!
Works by Brahms, Mozart and Matthew Quayle.
Wilmington Music School, 4101 Washington St. 7:30
p.m. 302-762-1132.
March 4-13: “The King and I.” DuPont Theatre, Hotel
du Pont. Tue-Sat. 8 p.m. Wed, Sat. and Sun. matinees
2 p.m. 302-656-4401or 800-338-0881.
March 4-31: Photographs by Jennifer Ivie and paintings by Matt Bobel. Reception March 4 with Victorianera music by the Camptown Shakers at 6:30 p.m.
Wilmington Library, 10 E. Tenth St. 302-571-7408.
March 5: Opera Delaware Family Opera Theater
presents “The Secret of N.I.M.H.” A captivating tale of
mice and rats composed by Evelyn Swensson. Grand
Opera House, 818 N. Market St. 1 p.m. Family Fun
Day activities begin at 11 a.m. 800-37-GRAND.
March 6: Wilmington Community Orchestra. Family
Pops Concert and Instrument Petting Zoo. Wilmington
Music School, 4101 Washington St. 2 p.m. 302-7621132.
March 6: Doc Severinsen. Trumpeter. Grand Opera
House, 818 N. Market St. 7 p.m. 800-37-GRAND.
March 6 & 17: Festival Concert Series: Serafin
String Quartet. Works by Haydn, Plaza, Hemenger and
Beethoven. First and Central Presbyterian Church, 1101
N. Market St. Sun. 3 p.m. Thurs. 12:30-1 p.m. 302654-5371.
March 10: Thursday Noontime Concert: David
Schelat, organist. First and Central Presbyterian Church,
1101 N. Market St. 12:30-1 p.m. 302-654-5371.
March 10 & 12: Delaware Symphony Great
Performers Series. Featuring percussionist John Kasica.
Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St. Thur.6:30 p.m.
Sat. 8 p.m. 800-37-GRAND.
March 11: Melomanie. Solo performance by harpsichordist Tracy Richardson. Westminster Presbyterian
Church, 1502 W. 13th St. 8 p.m. 302-764-6338.
March 11-12 & 18-20: 1776. Winner of five Tony
awards and the prestigious New York Theatre Critics
Circle Award! American history blazes to vivid life in
this most unconventional off Broadway hits. It’s the summer of 1776, and the nation is ready to declare independence... if only our founding fathers can agree to it!
1776 follows John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Richard
Henry Lee, and Thomas Jefferson as they attempt to convince the members of the second Continental Congress to
vote for Independence from the shackles of the British
monarchy by signing the Declaration of Independence.
This is one production for the entire family and a history
lesson that will stay forever in your hearts and minds.
Delaware Children’s Theatre, 1014 Delaware Ave. 8
p.m. Sunday 3 p.m. 302-655-1014
March 12: Cameron Carpenter on the Dickinson
Theatre Organ. Dickinson High School, 1801 Milltown
Rd. 8 p.m. 302-995-5630.
March 12: McAleer Irish Dancers. Children’s program following the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Wilmington Library, 10 E. Tenth St. Time TBA. 302-5717412.
March 12: A Conversation with Helen Thomas. Join
Helen Thomas, a woman’s activist, wife, mother, and
educator, along with co-workers from the National
Organization of Women in Delaware during the 1970s
and 1980s, for this panel discussion in honor of
Women’s History Month. Historical Society of Delaware
Research Library, 505 Market St. 10:30 a.m. 302-6557161.
March 13: Saint Patrick’s Celebration. Irish food,
games, and storytelling. Hagley Museum, and Library,
Route 141. 12:30-4:30 p.m. 302-658-2400.
March 13: Discovery Day. Celebrate the Patron Saint
of Ireland with activities the entire family can enjoy,
including traditional Irish music and delicious Irish food
in the Terrace Restaurant. Longwood Gardens. 9 a.m.5 p.m. 610-388-1000.
March 13 & 16: Festival Concert Series: Bach
Marathon Concert. First and Central Presbyterian
Church, 1101 N. Market St. 2-6 p.m. 302-654-5371.
March 15: An Evening with Clara Barton. Join us to
celebrate Red Cross Month and the 100th anniversary of
the American Red Cross of the Delmarva Peninsula with
a living history performance of the founder of the
American Red Cross, Clara Barton. Delaware History
Museum, 504 Market St. 7 p.m. 302-655-7161.
March 16: Festival Concert Series: Wooster Chorus
with John Russell, conductor. Performance of the finest
sacred and secular choral works of the past five centuries. First and Central Presbyterian Church, 1101 N.
Market St. 7:30 p.m. 302-654-5371.
March 17-20: Opera Delaware presents Puccini’s
“Gianni Schicchi” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci.” Grand
Opera House, 818 N. Market St. Thurs. 7:30 p.m. Fri
& Sat. 8 p.m. Sun. 2 p.m. 800-37-GRAND.
March 18-26: “Adult Wing Fundraiser 1776.”
Delaware Children’s Theatre, 1014 Delaware Ave.
Special matinee performance on March 20 at 8 p.m.
Sat. and Sun. 2 p.m. 302-655-1014.
March 19: Clay for Kids. Be Creative! Kids learn to
use clay to create their own works of art. Delaware
History Museum, 504 Market St. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. 302656-0637.
March 19-20: Art and Antiques Show by the
Delaware Foundation for the Visual Art. Featuring art in
all media from the most accomplished artists in the
Brandywine Valley. Hagley Museum and Library,
Hagley’s Buck Rd. East entrance, Route 100. 11 a.m.- 4
p.m. 302-658-2400.
March 19-30: Annual Indoor Easter Display at
Longwood. Over a thousand Easter lilies trumpet the
season and fill the Conservatory with their signature fragrance and stately flowers. Blue, pink, and white
hydrangeas border the indoor lawns, while marguerites
and blue daisies weave through spires of delphiniums.
Outdoors, acres of burgeoning gardens feature daffodils, corylopsis, pansies, and flowering cherries, while
millions of hardy little bulbs sparkle in the grass like
amethysts, aquamarines, and lapis lazuli liberally scattered by gem-loving gardeners. Enjoy educational
demonstrations on gardening and bouquet making, discussions on container gardening, and on Easter weekend, a family pot-a-plant activity. Fabulous Fun Days for
Families offer special activities for children and their parents including performances of Peter and the Wolf and
The Sound Mall by the Hudson Vagabond Puppets. On
Easter Sunday, the Amici Singers, an all women’s choir
from Bedfordshire England, will add to Longwood’s
Easter charms. Longwood Gardens. 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
610-388-1000.
March 22: Spanish music program presented by Flint
International. Children’s program. Wilmington Library,
Woodlawn Branch. Time TBA. 302-571-7425.
10 E. Tenth St. Time TBA. 302-571-7412.
Biblioteca del Pueblo. Time TBA. 302-571-7422.
March 25: The National Acrobats of Taiwan, R.O.C.
Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St. 8 p.m. 80037-GRAND.
March 25: Delaware Valley Chorale: “Music for
Good Friday.” Featuring Hummel Te Deum and Kodaly
Spring 2005
DELMARVA EVENTS
Misa Brevis. Christ Our King RC Church, 28th and
Madison Streets. 8 p.m. 302-234-4866.
March 25-26: “Moon Over Buffalo.” By Ken Ludwig.
Wilmington Drama League, 10 W. Lea Blvd. Fri & Sat.
8 p.m. Sun. 2 p.m. 302-764-1172.
March 25-31: Larry Holmes: “Short Stories.”
Paintings. Beckler Family Members’ Gallery. Delaware
302-656-6466.
March 26: “Stars of Doo Wop III.” Featuring Kenny
Vance and the Planotones, The Chantels and The
Happenings featuring Bon Miranda. Grand Opera
March 29: Dickinson Theatre Organ Society Daytime
Concert. Dickinson High School, 1801 Milltown Rd.
10:30 a.m. 302-995-5630.
March 29:
Delaware Symphony Orchestra
Champagne Chamber Series. Featuring works by
Mozart and Janácek. Champagne and confections at
intermission. Gold Ballroom, Hotel du Pont, Rodney
Square. 8 p.m. 800-37-GRAND
March 30: George Winston. Rural folk piano.
Grand Opera Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St.
8 p.m. 800-37-GRAND.
March 30-31: “Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with
Morrie.” Wed.-Sun. Call for times. Delaware Theatre
Company, 200 Water St. 302-594-1100.
March 31: Thursday Noontime Concert: Urban
Celtic. First and Central Presbyterian Church, 1101 N.
Market St. 12:30-1 p.m. 302-654-5371.
WORTON
March 19: Spring Festival - For The Kids. Join the
Easter bunny for egg hunts, egg dying, games, crafts &
more. 12 & under. Worton Park, Kent County Parks &
Recreation. 1-4 p.m. 410-778-1986.
~ APRIL ~
ARDEN
April 1-30: “The Ardens: A Living Experiment.” Arts
crafts, photos and memorabilia tel the story of this
April 3: Contra dance. No partner necessary. Arden
Gild Hall, 2126 The Highway. Lessons 1:30-2 p.m.
dance 2-5 p.m. 302-478-7257.
April 6: Folk dancing. No partner necessary. Arden
Gild Hall, 2126 The Highway. 7:30-9:30 p.m. 302478-7257.
April 13: Square dancing. No partner necessary.
302-478-7257.
April 20: Delaware Colonial Dancing. No partner
necessary. Arden Gild Hall, 2126 The Highway. 7:309:30 p.m. 302-478-7257.
April 27: Israeli dancing. No partner necessary.
302-478-7257.
April 29-30: Ardensingers present “Utopia, Limited.”
This spring production is a rare showing of this colorful
Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, in which tropical islanders
learn about the British way of life. A fully-staged production with orchestra, principals and chorus. Arden
Gild Hall, 2128 The Highway. 8 p.m. 302-239-1313.
ARDENTOWN
April 8-30: “Fantasticks.” The New Candlelight
302-475-2313.
BERLIN
April 1, 8, 15, 22, 29: Farmer’s Market. Local
Delmarva Quarterly
SPRING 2005
farmers sell fresh produce, seafood, herbs and flowers.
Fri. noon- 6 p.m. Main St., Berlin. 410-641-4775.
April 9: Spring Celebration. Annual event features the
Easter bunny, pig races, bonnet parade, games and
food. 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Main St., Berlin. 410-641-4775.
BETTERTON
April 23: Annual Betterton Beach Clean Up. Join
community volunteers to clean the beach for the upcoming summer season. All ages. Lunch provided. 9 a.m.12 p.m. Betterton Beach. 410-778-1986.
CAMBRIDGE
April 16-17: Dorchester Art & Photography Exhibit.
Annual art exhibit of amateur and professional paintings
and photography for exhibit and purchase. Governors
Hall at Sailwinds Park. 9:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. 410-2216388.
April 27-29: Annual Flower Fair. Outdoor spring festival with flowers, seedlings, and hanging baskets for
sale. Oyster fritters, crab cakes, french fries, homemade
ice cream, cakes, candies, crafts, silent auction and
indoor yard sale are all part of the festivities. St. Paul’s
United Methodist Church, Maryland Ave. 11 a.m.-6
p.m. 410-228-1424.
CAPE CHARLES
April 17: Virginia Symphony. A Spring Symphony
with conductor Shizuo Kuwahara and featuring Vahn
Armstrong on the violin. Selections will include
Stravinsky’s Concerto in E-flat, “Dumbarton Oaks”;
Bernstein’s Serenade and Schumann’s Symphony No. 1,
“Spring”. Historic Palace Theatre, 10 Strawberry St. 3
p.m. 757-331-2787.
CENTREVILLE (DE)
April 1-30: Judy Antonelli: Travels in Italy. Scenes
across the Atlantic to the Italian countryside. Reception
April 1, 5-8 p.m. Hardcastle Gallery, 5714 Kennett
Pike. 302-655-5230.
CENTREVILLE (MD)
April 1-30: Members’ Best Exhibits. Enjoy the artwork of Arts Council members’ on view and for sale at
CHESTERTOWN
April 1-18: 56th Annual Juried Show. Over $2,000
in awards. Gibson Fine Arts Building, Washington
College, Daily noon-3 p.m. 410-778-5789.
April 1-30: Oriental Brushwork. Chieko Nicholson
will demonstrate sumi painting techniques and Jack
Fancher will demonstrate calligraphy starting at 6 pm.
Sumi paintings by internationally known, local artist,
Sihn Ja An Whiteley, and her students will be on view.
Reception April 1, 6 p.m. Chestertown Arts League, 312
Cannon Street. 410-778-5789.
April 4 & 11: Landscapes: Water and Land. Linda
Hall PWS, a popular local artist and instructor, will provide a two-day watercolor workshop en plein aire,
weather permitting. Chestertown Arts League, 312
Cannon St. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. 410-778-5479.
April 9: Auction. Annual auction to benefit Kent
School. Features exciting live auctions with trips and
“one-of-a-kind experiences. Kent School. 410-7784100 ext 12.
April 10: The Chestertown Arts League 57th Open
Juried Art Show. The Juried Show receives entries from
four states and D.C. The winning artists receive money
awards for 1st and 2nd place in seven different categories. In addition, there are special awards for The Best
in Show, The Best of the Eastern Shore, The Best
Watercolor and the Best Representation of Wildlife. The
Juror for 2005 will be Sylvia England Naylor, renowned
artist/teacher from Wilmington, DE. Ms. Naylor’s work
is shown regularly at the Station Gallery in Greenville,
DE and in Port Clyde, ME, where she maintains a summer studio. The show will be held at the galleries of
Heron Point of Chestertown, 501 East Campus Ave. 9
a.m.-5 p.m. 410-778-5789.
April 19-30: Clay Monoprints. Works by Mitch Lyons
and students from his workshop. Chestertown Arts
League, 312 Cannon St. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 410-7785789.
April 22: Chesapeake Youth Chorale. Performing
John Rutter’s “Mass of The Children” and a variety of
songs for Spring. Kent County High School. 8 p.m.
410-778-4560.
April 23: Maryland House & Garden Pilgrimage.
Walking tour includes Three Centuries of 17 homes and
gardens in Chestertown’s Historic District. 10 a.m.-5
p.m. 410-778-0416.
April 26: Watercolor and Texture Workshop. This
workshop will focus on varied techniques to achieve rich
tones and creative texture in your watercolors. The
instructor, Judy Morris, has exhibited and conducted
workshops throughout North America and Europe and
has received over 40 national and regional awards as
well as being a member of the most prestigious watercolor societies. She is author of Watercolor Basics: Light.
Student should have some watercolor experience.
Chestertown Arts League, 312 Cannon St. 410-7785789.
April 29: The Francis Poulenc Trio. Washington
College, Tawes/Gibson Theatre, 4 p.m. 410-7787839.
April 30: Emmanuel Church Auction. Auctioneer:
Ralph Russum. Emmanuel Episcopal Church Parish Hall,
Cross & High Sts. Silent Auction: 6-7:15 pm. Live:
7:30pm. 410-778-3477.
CHINCOTEAGUE
April 9: “Art Stroll.” on Chincoteague. Participating
galleries and shops are open from 6-10 p.m. with special events including art and craft demonstrations,
exhibits, readings and book signings, live music, wine
tasting...and the unexpected. Townwide. 757-3365636/0041.
CHURCH HILL
April 1-17: Dial M for Murder. By Frederick Knott.
Directed by Bonnie Hill. Church Hill Theatre, Walnut St.
Fri & Sat 8 p.m. Sun 2 p.m. 410-758-1331.
April 2, 9, 16, 23, 30: Spring Youth Drama
Workshop. Instructor - Sophia Michels. Church Hill
Theatre, Walnut St. 10 a.m.-12 p.m. 410-758-1331.
April 4: Theatre Arts Seminar. “ You Got The Part,
Now What?” Instructor - Mary James. Church Hill
Theatre, Walnut St. . 2-4 p.m. 410-758-1331.
April 23: Sue Matthews in Concert with Dick Durham
on Piano. Church Hill Theatre, Walnut St. 8 p.m. 410758-1331.
CONOWINGO
April 23-24: Rumblway Farm Open House. Visit a
working farm, sample meat products, cheeses & more.
592 McCauley Rd. 1-4 p.m. 410-658-9731.
DEWEY BEACH
April 23: Admiral Dewey Day. A long tradition in
Dewey as Admiral Dewey crosses the Rehoboth Bay
bringing in the summer months. Rusty Rudder deck. 6
p.m. 302-227-3888.
April 29-30: Pop Fest. Bands from across the country come to participate in this two-day event.
Ruddertowne. 302-227-3888.
DOVER
April 1-2: “Casablanca.” Schwartz Center for the
Arts, 226 S. State St. 7 p.m. 302-678-5152.
Spring 2005 • 65
DELMARVA EVENTS
April 1-26: “Edward Redfield: Delaware Native,
Pennsylvania Impressionist. Biggs Museum of American
Art, 406 Federal St. 302-674-2111.
April 1-30: “Stitches of Art and Comfort: Delaware
April 2: 8 Track Sounds of the 70’s. Schwartz Center
for the Arts, 226 S. State St. 8 p.m. 302-678-3583.
April 8: One Woman’s Army “WAC Noir.” Schwartz
Center for the Arts, 226 S. State St. 8 p.m. 302-6783583.
April 9: Delaware Friends of Folk Celtic Session. W.T.
April 10: Lecture: “Everybody Knows Somebody
Who Knows Poetry” Join The Holly Branch of Nat.
League of American Pen Women as they sponsor this
event together with The Delaware Humanities Forum and
Wesley College. The presenter for Delaware Humanities
Speakers Bureau will be, Jean Hull Herman, Editor of
Möbius, The Poetry Magazine. Ms Herman will discuss
the reasoning behind questions such as: Why do we
write poetry? What do we write about? What does
poetry do for us? Jean will also share her poems and
her life as a magazine publisher. Wesley College
Chapel, W. Division St. & N. Bradford St. 2 p.m. 302241-5919
April 12: Taste of the Arts. A Choral presentation featuring the Delaware State University Chorus and members of the Dover Symphony. Schwartz Center for the
Arts, 226 S. State St. 7 p.m. 302-678-3583.
April 16: Delaware Friends of Folk Coffee House.
Featuring Judith Kay. Wesley Underground, College
Center basement, 120 N. State St. 7:30 p.m. 302-6980775.
April 23: Delaware Friends of Folk Pick-In. W.T.
April 29-30: Children’s Theatre of Dover and Kent
County present, “Wagons West, West, West!” Wells
Theater, Wesley College, 120 N. State St. 7 p.m. 302697-1271.
April 29-30: “Theft” by Eric Chappell. Imagine
returning home from a pleasant anniversary celebration
to find that your house has been burgled. In this witty
thriller, the culprit is still in the house and, for a while,
convinces the returning couples that he is a policeman.
Unmasked as a thief, he then reveals that he knows a
number of uncomfortable truths that could disrupt two
seemingly happy marriages and one formerly strong
friendship. Kent County Theatre Guild, Patchwork
Playhouse. 8 p.m. 302-674-3568.
April 30: “In Harmony” Music Series: The Smooth
Sound Dance Band. Instrumental big band music from
the 1930s and 40s. Co-sponsored by the Dover Public
Library and Wesley College. Schwartz Center for the
Arts, 226 S. State St. 7 p.m. 302-736-7030.
EASTON
April 1: Turtle Island String Quartet. From Tchaikovsky
to Miles Davis, or Chopin to Frank Zappa, all songs are
performed in a chamber music jazz fashion. The group,
which includes two violins, one cello and one viola, creates an evening of jazz infused classical music complete
with a shower of pizzicatos, bow slaps and exploding
cello rifts. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 8 p.m. 410745-5025.
April 2: “Easter Joy” with Peter’s Voice. Celebrate the
joy of the Easter season with a family oriented evening
of uplifting music by Christian recording artists. The
evening will feature both published Christian music from
well-known gospel to contemporary artists and original
music. The group hails from Salisbury and the St. Peter’s
Episcopal Church. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 8
p.m. 410-745-5025.
April 3: Stone Lion Puppet Theatre presents... “The
Wind in the Willows”. Mr. Toad, Mr. Badger, and the
rest of Kenneth Grahame’s charming field of characters
burrow into the Avalon for tea and tons of fun! This 45
SPRING 2005
min. production is full of action and song. Mr. Toad is
struck with a new obsession, the automobile. Avalon
Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 2 p.m. 410-745-5025.
April 3: TCS presents... Documentary Night “Standing
in the Shadow of Motown” Running Time: 116 minutes.
Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 5:30 p.m. 410-7455025.
April 4: Talbot Optimist Oratorical Contest. Speech
contest for student 16-years and over with this year’s
topic “My Hero Is”. Regional prizes and savings bonds
will be awarded. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 6
p.m. 410-745-5025.
April 6: Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra (MSO)
Open Rehearsal. An opportunity to watch part of the
final rehearsal from the balcony of the Avalon. Children
must be supervised by an adult. Avalon Theatre, 40 E.
Dover St. 7-8 p.m. 410-745-5025.
April 7: Karla Bonoff. This singer-songwriter defined
a generation with her legendary hits such as “All of My
Life”, “Someone to Lay Down Beside Me”, and “Lose
Again”. Bonoff’s writing was first heard from the voice of
friend and collaborator Linda Ronstadt in 1974. Karla
Bonoff makes her Avalon debut with a recent release of
her Greatest Hits Album All My Life. Avalon Theatre, 40
E. Dover St. 8 p.m. 410-745-5025.
April 8: Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra (MSO)
Spring Concert. What better way, for the MSO to end
their eighth season than with Beethoven’s monumental
Symphony No. 8 headlining the concert! Audiences
won’t soon forget the finale from last season when people jumped to their feet during the closing strains of
Brahm’s Symphony No. 1. This season’s finale promises
no less! Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 8 p.m. 888846-8600.
April 9-10: Vonda Shepard. Best known for her fiveyear re-occurring role on the hit television show Ally
McBeal, Shepard has been described as a “quintuple
threat” as an acclaimed singer-song writer, pianist, producer and actress. Shepard’s style, easy-going personality, sweet and sincere lyrics and music are accentuated
when on the acoustically pleasing Avalon stage. Avalon
April 12: Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The music born
in the mines in South Africa returns to the Avalon. After
appearing more than 15-years-ago on Paul Simon’s
Graceland album, Ladysmith recently released their 11th
album in January 2004 “Wenyukela”. The album honors the historic 10-year anniversary of the end of the
apartheid era. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 8 p.m.
410-745-5025.
April 14: Chicago City Limits - “American Idles”
Imagine walking out onto a blank stage. There is no
script, no set, and no preconceived ideas. Some call this
the actor’s nightmare, others call it Improvisational
Theatre -we’ll call it Chicago City Limits. For this show
pop culture comes under the microscope as the popular
television show “American Idol” is lampooned.
Audiences become part of the fun as the cast turns their
suggestion into hilarious scenes and songs. . Avalon
April 22-24: 12th Annual Charity Antiques Show
and Sale. Over twenty dealers with merchandise that
ranges from 19th Century furniture to sporting art and
garden accessories. For a head start, reserve a spot at
the Cottage Garden Preview Party on Friday night, April
22, where you can be among the first to browse and
buy. On Saturday morning, there will be a breakfast
seminar for “The Beginning Collector”. A local expert
will speak on mixing antiques with furniture from popular retailers to suit today’s youthful collector. Be sure to
buy a raffle ticket for a chance to win a weekend at the
Jared Coffin House in Nantucket, with a round-trip ticket on Cape Air; golf outings at the Hyatt; massages, and
much more.
Finish up the show by attending the complimentary Jane
Austen Tea on Sunday afternoon at three. 410-8220444.
ELKTON
April 1-30: Art Show Opening “Points of Compass”
Show. Food & Entertainment. Cecil County Arts
Council, 135 E. Main St. 410-392-5720.
April 23: Weave, Lunch & Gardens. Basket weaving
class and gourmet lunch, then decorate your new basket
with wildflowers and herbs. Sinking Springs Herb Farm,
843 Elk Forest Rd. 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. 410-3985566.
FAIR HILL
April 15: Frog Frenzy. Enjoy a hike to hear the froggy chorus of spring and end the evening with a bonfire
and refreshments. Fair Hill Nature Center. 6:30-10
p.m. 410-398-4909.
April 17: Wildflower Walk. Observe Spring Native
flowers. Fair Hill Nature Center. 2-4 p.m. 410-3984909.
FENWICK ISLAND
April 16: 16th Annual Ocean to Bay Bike Tour. Take
a leisurely tour of The Quiet Resorts. Riders choose from
three courses. Open to all ages and skill levels. Finale
Party after the ride. 8 a.m.- 3 p.m. 800-962-SURF.
GALENA
April 29-30: Turners Unlimited Spring Open House.
Great gift ideas, car show & barbecue. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
410-648-5443.
April 30: Galena Lions Antique Car Show. Trophies.
Turner’s Unlimited. 9 a.m.-Noon. 410-648-5443.
GEORGETOWN (DE)
April 15-17 & 21-24: “Jekyll and Hyde.” Possum
Point Hall. Thurs-Sat. 8 p.m. Sun. 2 p.m. 302-8563460.
April 24: Southern Delaware Choral Society presents
Spring 2005 Choral Masterworks. Delaware Technical
and Community College Theatre, Route 18. 3 p.m.
302-856-7223.
GREENSBORO
April 22: “If This Place Could Talk: Researching The
History of an Old House” Presenter Michael Dixon
demonstrates how to discover when a house was built,
who lived in it, organizing a research process, finding
available records and how to interpret them. The discussion concludes with suggestions for creating a history
of an old house. North County Library, 101 Cedar Lane.
410-482-2173.
GREENVILLE
April 1: Brandywine Baroque: “Le Pont Neuf”
Featuring Julianne Baird and Laura Heimes, guest soprano. Christ Church, Christiana Hundred, Buck Road. 8
p.m. 302-594-1100.
HARRINGTON
April 16-17:
Spring Delaware Home Show.
Delaware State Fairgrounds, Dover Exhibit Hall. Sat 10
a.m.-6 p.m. Sun 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 302-994-2597.
HOOPERS ISLAND
April 24: Hoopers Island Oyster & Chicken. All you
can eat chicken & fried oyster puffs with homemade
potato salad and coleslaw. Also, beets, green beans,
pickles & rolls. Homemade cakes and pies for sale.
Hoopers Island Volunteer Fire Hall. 410.397.3311
LEWES
April 1-30: “Quilting on the Line.” Delaware-made
April 2: Brandywine Baroque: “Le Pont Neuf.”
Featuring Julianne Baird and Laura Heimes, guest soprano. St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 218 2nd St. 7:30 p.m.
302-594-1100.
Spring 2005
DELMARVA EVENTS
April 30: Coastal Concerts presents the Gryphon Trio.
Chamber music. Bethel United Methodist Church,
Fellowship Hall, Fourth and Markets Streets. 8 p.m.
302-645-1539.
MARYDEL
April 10: Shiloh Ridge. Concert sponsored by the
Eastern Shore Bluegrass Association. Marydel Fire Hall,
110 Firehouse Lane, Marydel, 1-5 p.m. 302-4921048.
MILFORD
April 9: 2005 Delaware Contest for Young Musicians
Winners Recital. Presented by Delaware Classical
Showcase. Delaware Music School, 10 S. Walnut St. 2
p.m. 302-478-7048.
April 23: Bug and Bud Festival. Featuring a Lady Bug
Parade, vintage Volkswagen display, costume parade, a
fitness walk, an art show, crafts and non-profit information booths. Breakfast at Milford senior Center 7 a.m. to
10 p.m. Downtown. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Rain date April
Noon to 4 p.m. 302-424-2053 or 422-1104.
April 29-30: “Rainmaker.” Second Street Players,
Riverfront Theater, 2 S. Walnut St. 8 p.m. 302-4220220.
April 30: Our Town Family Expo. Featuring booths set
up by area businesses. Door prizes, demos and refreshments. Milford High School . 10 a.m. 302-422-3344.
MILTON
April 14-16 & 21-23: “Lend Me a Tenor.” Historic
Milton Theatre. 7 p.m. 302-684-3400.
NEW CASTLE
April 1-2: 2nd Annual Appliance Appreciation Week.
Honor our modern day appliances with a look back at
housework 200 years ago. Each day will feature a different “chore challenge” for visitors. Read House &
Gardens, 42 The Strand. 302-322-8411.
April 1-30: “The Fabric of Her Life: 19th Century
NEWARK
April 1-30: “A Century of African-American Art: The
April 1-30:
Linda Taft Walburn Solo Show:
“Passages: Inside and Out.” Fiber Art. Reception April
1, 7-9 p.m. Newark Arts Alliance, The Grainery
Station. 302-266-7266.
April 2: Newark Symphony Orchestra Chamber
Series. Featuring works by Dvorak and Schubert.
Newark United Methodist Church, 69 E. Main St. 8 p.m.
302-369-3466.
April 15: The University of Delaware Performing Arts
Series presents From Cremona to Beijing: The New Silk
Road. Featuring violinist Xiang Gao, the UD “Ceruti”
violin and guest artists. Mitchell Hall, South College Ave.
on the University Green. 8 p.m. 302-831-2204.
April 16, 20-23, 26-30: Spring Production. Titles
TBA. University of Delaware Professional Theatre
Training Program, Hartshorn Theatre. 7:30 p.m. Wed.
& Sat. 2 & 7:30 p.m. 302-831-2202.
April 17: New Ark Chorale: “Viennese Masters.”
Featuring works by Mozart, Hayden, and Beethoven.
Newark United Methodist Church, 69 E. Main St. 7:30
p.m. 302-368-4946.
April 22-24, 29-30: “Taking Leave.” Comedy by
Nagel Jackson. Chapel Street Players, 27 N. Chapel St.
Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m. Sun. 2 p.m. 302-368-2248.
April 24: The University of Delaware Performing Art
Series presents the “The Frog Prince.” Presented by the
Gingerbread Players and Jack. Optional pre-perform-
Delmarva Quarterly
SPRING 2005
ance luncheon at the Blue and Gold Club at noon. For
reservations, 831-2582. 2 p.m. Mitchell Hall, South
College Ave. on the University Green. 302-831-2204.
NORTH EAST
April 2-3: Dance Matrix - Venturing Beyond. A new
program that delves into the mystery of creativity.
Cultural Center, Seahawk Drive. Sat 8 p.m. Sun 3 p.m.
410-287-1023.
April 9-10: Cecil Dance Theatre Presents: “The Lion
King” Cultural Center, Seahawk Drive. Sat 4 p.m. Sun
2 p.m. 410-287-3546.
April 16: Military Band Concert. Continued tradition
of honoring veterans and those currently serving.
Cultural Center, Seahawk Drive. 2 p.m. 410-2871023.
April 16: Spring Concert. Carolyn Arends. Sandy
Cove Conference Center. 7:15 p.m. 410-287-5433.
April 24: Gospel Explosion. Great singers and great
music blend together for an event that you won’t want to
miss. Cultural Center, Seahawk Drive. 3 p.m. 410287-1023.
April 29-30: Flower and Garden Market. Beautiful
annuals, perennials, hanging baskets and shrubs. St
Mary Anne’s Church, Main St. Fri 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Sat 9
a.m.-4 p.m. 410-287-5522.
OCEAN CITY
April 1-2: Atlantic Bay-Mountain Region 19 Sweet
Adeline Convention. Enjoy great singing and harmony
with this 29th annual show. Events include: Female
Barbershop Harmony Competition, Friday at 5 p.m. and
Saturday at 11:30 a.m. Show of Champions with quartets and choruses from four states Saturday at 8:30 p.m.
Convention Center, 40th St. & Bay. 410-636-5326.
April 1-3: Home, Condo, Garden and Arts and Crafts
Fair. Great ideas on decorating, remodeling, renovations or building all under one roof. Over 200 exhibitors
display products and services for home and garden,
complemented by artists and quality craftsman showcasing their creative gifts and accessories. Fri. noon-7 p.m.
Sat.10 a.m.- 7 p.m. Sun. 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Convention
Center, 40th St. & Bay. 410-524-7020/6440.
April 10: Eastern Shore Alzheimer’s Gala. Formal
dinner-dance with live and silent auctions, special
celebrity guests, door prizes, entertainment and more.
3-8 p.m. Clarion Fountainebleau, 101st St. 410-6417667.
April 12: AARP Health Fair. Free health screenings for
cholesterol, vision, bone density and more, plus PSA
screening available for a small fee. Forty exhibitors on
hand for medical-related questions.
7 a.m.- noon.
Convention Center, 40th St. & Bay 302-436-0128.
April 14: Hooked Rug Exhibit. Traditional handhooked rug exhibit featuring extensive variety of rugs,
wall hangings, pictures, etc. from Oriental to Pictorial
designs. Exhibit held during MD Shores Rug Hooking
School. Admission is donation to support local arts.
Noon- 8 p.m. Dunes Manor Hotel, 2800 Baltimore Ave.
410-289-4110.
April 16: Ocean City Marathon. First annual
marathon benefits programs for abused and neglected
children on the lower shore. Race includes portions of
the scenic Assateague State Park with bay and ocean
views, wildlife and a fast course. Staging area is Sunset
Marina. Activities include a fun run, kids fun run, post
race party, and awards ceremony. West Ocean City
area. 7:30 a.m. 1-800-OC-OCEAN.
April 22-24: Delmarva Birding Weekend. View
migrating & nesting birds, explore by foot or by boat.
Guided and self-guided opportunities at various locations throughout the Eastern Shore. 800-852-0335 or
410-632-3110.
April 22-24: 35th Annual Ward World Wildfowl
Carving Championship. The event will also feature the
first “Antique Decoy Roadshow.” 1,000 of the world’s
top carvers will compete in the largest and most prestigious carving event of its kind attracting top carvers as
far away as Japan, Korea, Sweden, England, South
America and Canada, as well as world-class carvers
from large cities and small towns across America. There
will also be an “Antique Decoy Roadshow,” where anyone can bring in their decoys for appraisal; a “Real
Bird/Carved Bird?” contest where visitors can test their
visual acumen; and a “Cooking for Carvers” demonstration, where a national chef will showcase his signature heart-healthy recipes using chicken and fish. In
addition to viewing more than 1,500 miniature to lifesize entries ranging from red tail hawks, bald eagles,
snowy owls and wood ducks to exotic varieties of tropical birds, visitors can participate in a wide range of
activities. Visitors can also meet some of the top carvers
in the world, including Larry Barth, Tan Brunet, Ernie
Muehlmatt, Pat Godin, Floyd Scholz, Gary Eigenberger,
Bob Comeau, and one of the youngest professional
carvers, 20 year-old Josh Brewer. Roland E. Powell
Convention Center. 410-742-4988 ext. 106.
April 23: O.C.V.F.C. 100th Anniversary Firefighter’s
Ball. The Ocean City Volunteer Fire Department celebrates its 100th anniversary with a gala evening of fine
dining and national speakers followed by dancing with
the popular “Full Effect” and the “Zim Zemarel” Swing
Band and Orchestra. Black tie optional affair. Sat. 5:30
p.m.- 1: 30 a.m. Convention Center, 40th St. & Bay.
800-OC-OCEAN.
April 29-30: Festivals of Music. Music festival for
middle, junior and high school instrumental and choral
organizations. Friday, 8 a.m.- 8 p.m. Saturday
Boardwalk parade 9 a.m. Convention Center, 40th St. &
Bay. 610-327-3050.
April 29-30: MD International Kite Exposition. Kite
competitions, internationally known kite flyers, special
displays and more. 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Beaches between
N. Division St. & 7th St. 410-289-7855.
April 29-30: Mid-Atlantic Golf Show. Show features
wholesale prices on golf equipment, apparel and golfrelated travel. Also featured: courses, putting contests,
long drive competition, seminars and demonstrations.
Fri., 4-8 p.m. Sat.10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sun. 11 a.m.- 4 p.m.
OCEAN PINES
April 10: Mid-Atlantic Symphony Spring Concert.
Eighth season concludes with Beethoven’s Monumental
Symphony #8. 3 p.m. Community Church, Ocean
Pines, Rt. 589. 888-846-8600.
PORT DEPOSIT
April 2: 3rd Annual Chili Cook-off & Music Festival.
Prizes awarded in different categories. 44 S. Main St.
6 p.m. 410-658-2118.
PRINCESS ANNE
April 2-3: 40th Annual Daffodil Show. “Daffodils &
Fairy Tales”. Somerset Ave. Sat 1-5 p.m. Sun, noon-4
p.m. 410-651-9636.
April 30: Fish Hawk Festival Bicycle Tour. Organized
bike tours, marked routes. (7, 25, 50 & 62 miles)
through quiet byways. Prime birding opportunity.
UMES Campus.
REHOBOTH BEACH
April 15-17: Food and Wine Festival. Join downtown Rehoboths finest restaurants in celebration of
unique wine and gourmet dining. Featured wine selections and special wine lovers dinners. 5pm-11pm. 302227-2772.
April 23: Merchant’s Attic III and General Public
Garage Sale. The State’s Largest Indoor Garage Sale.
Rehoboth Beach Convention Center. 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
800-441-1329 or 302-227-2233
ROCK HALL
April 3: Celtic Windstorm From Ireland, Scotland,
Spring 2005 • 67
DELMARVA EVENTS
England. The Mainstay. 410-639-9133.
April 24: Two in the Pocket: Vince Lewis & Steve
Abshire. The Mainstay. 410-639-9133.
SALISBURY
April 1-30: Exhibit. An exhibit of original wildlife
paintings by Guy Coheleach. Ward Museum of
Wildfowl Art, 909 S. Schumaker Dr. Welcome
Galleries. 410-742-4988.
April 1-30: Regional Carving: Oliver Lawson & Rich
Smoker. A series of exhibits showcasing the talents of
wildfowl artists living on the Delmarva Peninsula.
April 16: Zoo Stampede. 5K run/walk. Run or walk
through our beautiful zoo and park. Free t-shirts to the
first 200 entrees. Medals and great door prizes given
after the race on the zoo’s stage. The Salisbury Zoo. 8
a.m. registration. 410-860-6880.
April 16: Earth Day. Celebrate our beautiful planet
during an exciting, action-packed day of earth-friendly
exhibits and demonstrations. Enjoy music, great food,
fun activities and special guests. The Salisbury Zoo. 10
a.m.-4 p.m. 410-548-3188.
April 22-24: Delmarva Birding Weekend. Celebrate
the migration of hundreds of warblers, shorebirds and
waterfowl as well as many nesting birds and raptors.
The weekend combines boat trips, canoe treks and expeditions by foot. While you participate in the activities,
you will be helping birds by promoting bird and habitat
conservation. Salisbury Zoo. 410-632-3617.
SEAFORD
April 3: Seaford Community Concerts performance,
featuring the San Diego-based Westwind Brass.
Seaford Senior High School. 3 p.m. 302-629-8657.
April 10-11: Bicycle Race Weekend. Hundreds of
cyclists from the Mid-Atlantic compete for cash and
prizes. Begins at Western Sussex Boys & Girls Club,
Virginia Avenue, Seaford. 302-629-9690.
April 30: Victorian Tea. An authentic tea will be
served by the members of the Seaford Historical Society
in the restored 19th century Italianate building. Gov.
Ross Mansion. 2 p.m. 302-628-9500.
SMYRNA
April 4: 19th Smyrna-Clayton Heritage Association
Delawareana Auction. Smyrna Opera House, 107 S.
Main St. Time TBA. 302-653-4236.
April 7-30: The Art of Sum-e Painting. Reception
April 7. Smyrna Opera House, 107 S. Main St. 302653-4236.
April 15-17: Bob Ralston at the Piano and Oran.
Smyrna Opera House, 107 S. Main St. 302-653-4236.
SNOW HILL
April 1-30: Exhibit: “Before Emancipation: Slave and
Free on the Eastern Shore”. An exhibit that explores live
for free and enslaved African Americans on Maryland’s
Eastern Shore before the Civil War. Tue.-Sat. 10 a.m.4 p.m. Sun. 1- 4 p.m. Julia A. Purnell Museum, 208 W.
Market St. 410-632-0515.
April 1-30: Exhibit: “Sincerely Yours: The Art of
Correspondence.” An exhibit about letter writing and
the early postal system in Worcester County Tue.-Sat. 10
a.m.- 4 p.m. Sun. 1- 4 p.m. Julia A. Purnell Museum,
208 W. Market St. 410-632-0515.
ST. MICHAELS
April 2-3: Why not be an Apprentice for a Day?
“Rudder, Centerboard, Tiller.” Learn the traditional techniques implemented in the construction of the boat’s rudder, centerboard and tiller. Program provides participants with the unique experience of traditional wooden
boat building. Under the direction of experienced ship-
SPRING 2005
wrights, participants are welcomed in as members of the
Museum’s Boat Yard staff for a day as they work on the
various stages of building a wooden lapstrake skiff.
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
410-745-2916.
April 9-10 & 16-17: Why not be an Apprentice for
a Day? “Spars, Oars.” Help build the mast and spars
for the gaff-rigged sail plan, and learn the art of oarbuilding. Program provides participants with the unique
experience of traditional wooden boat building.
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
410-745-2916.
April 23-24: Why not be an Apprentice for a Day?
“Finish Work.” Participate in the completion of the skiff.
Help with rigging and final fitting while learning painting and varnishing skills. Program provides participants
with the unique experience of traditional wooden boat
building. Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. 10 a.m.4 p.m. 410-745-2916.
April 28-30: 3rd Annual St. Michaels Food & Wine
Festival. Spectacular cooking demonstrations and samplings, cookbook signings, a star-studded dinner series
and international wine tasting in “the Heart and Soul of
the Chesapeake Bay. One of the highlights of this festival will be the food, wine & travel auction being held on
Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. under the pavilion tent.
800-808-7622.
STEVENSVILLE
April 21-24: Bay Bridge Boat Show. Bay Bridge
Marina. Thu 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Fri & Sat. 10-a.m.-7 p.m.
April 30:
“First Annual Stride for Prevention
Walk/Run” Plan to bring your family and have fun at
the first annual Stride for Prevention Walk/Run even
Runners start at 8 am and walkers start at 9 am. Terrapin
park and trail in the Chesapeake Business Center on
Kent Island.
VIENNA
April 23: Nanticoke River Shad Festival. Celebrate
spring and the return of the American Shad to the
Nanticoke River with music, local food, arts, crafts,
exhibits, fun and games for children. Waterfront. 10
a.m.-4 p.m. 410-543-1999.
WILMINGTON
April 1: Annual Indoor Easter Display at Longwood.
Over a thousand Easter lilies trumpet the season and fill
the Conservatory with their signature fragrance and
stately flowers. Blue, pink, and white hydrangeas border
the indoor lawns, while marguerites and blue daisies
weave through spires of delphiniums. Enjoy educational demonstrations on gardening and bouquet making,
discussions on container gardening.
Longwood
Gardens. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. 610-388-1000.
April 1-3, 8-9: “Moon Over Buffalo.” By Ken
Ludwig. Wilmington Drama League, 10 W. Lea Blvd.
Fri & Sat. 8 p.m. Sun. 2 p.m. 302-764-1172.
April 1-17: Members’ Juried Exhibition. Carole
Bieber and Marc Ham Gallery. Delaware Center for the
Contemporary Arts, 200 S. Madison St. 302-6566466.
April 1-17: “Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie.”
Wed.-Sun. Call for times. Delaware Theatre Company,
200 Water St. 302-594-1100.
April 1-30: Larry Holmes: “Short Stories.” Paintings.
Beckler Family Members’ Gallery. Delaware Center for
the Contemporary Arts, 200 S. Madison St. 302-6566466.
April 1-30: Tiffany Holmes: “Your face is safe with
me.” Animation. Constance and Robert J. Hennessy
Project Space. Delaware Center for the Contemporary
Arts, 200 S. Madison St. 302-656-6466.
April 1-30: “Scratching the Surface: Abstraction
Madison St. 302-656-6466.
April 1-30: Susan Benarcik: “A Natural Progeny.”
Installation. E. A. Draper Showcase Gallery. Delaware
302-656-6466.
April 1-30: Exhibition of sculpture by Charles Parks.
noon-4 p.m. Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 302-656-0637.
April 1-30: “Made In China: Export Porcelain from
April 1-30: Paintings by Nicole Rider. Reception
April 1 with Irish music by Hearthside at 6:30 p.m.
April 7: Thursday Noontime Concert: Delaware
Contest for Young Musicians Winners Sampler. First and
Central Presbyterian Church, 1101 N. Market St. 12:301 p.m. 302-654-5371.
April 8: Music Masters Concert Series: WMS Sings!
Featuring the Wilmington Music School Vocal
Department Faculty. Wilmington Music School, 4101
Washington St. 7:30 p.m. 302-762-1132.
April 9: Spring Concert. Featuring a collaboration of
CoroAllegro and Serafin String Quartet. They will perform A Toccata of Galuppi’s by American composer
Dominick Argento. First & Central Presbyterian Church,
Rodney Square. 8 p.m. 302-652-3997.
April 9: Clay for Kids. Be Creative! Kids learn to use
clay to create their own works of art. Delaware History
Museum, 504 Market St. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. 302-6560637.
April 9: Boots Randolph. Saxophonist. Grand Opera
House, 818 N. Market St. Fri 8 p.m. 800-37-GRAND.
April 10: 2005 Delaware Contest for Young Musicians
Winners Recital. Presented by Delaware Classical
Showcase. First & Central Presbyterian Church, Rodney
Square. 3 p.m. 302-478-7048
April 12: Brian Richard: “The Magic of Reading.”
Children’s program. Wilmington Library, Woodlawn
Branch. Time TBA. 302-571-7425.
Children’s program. Wilmington Library, 10 E Tenth St.
Time TBA. 302-571-7412.
Children’s program. Wilmington Library, Biblioteca del
Pueblo. Time TBA. 302-571-7422.
April 14: Thursday Noontime Concert: Serafin String
Quartet. First and Central Presbyterian Church, 1101
N. Market St. 12:30-1 p.m. 302-654-5371.
April 14: Gallery Talk with Charles Parks. Join
Charles Parks as he discusses the art of sculpture.
Delaware History Museum, 504 Market St. 6 p.m. 302655-7161.
April 14 & 16: Delaware Symphony Great
Performers Series: Verdi “
Requiem.” With the University of Delaware Choral
Union. Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St.
Thur.6:30 p.m. Fri & Sat. 8 p.m. 800-37-GRAND.
April 15-17: “Lord of the Dance.” Hotel du Pont. 8
p.m. Sat. 2 & 8 p.m. 302-656-4401 or 800-3380881.
April 17: Festival Concert Series: Serafin String
Quartet. Works by Haydn, Smetana, and Dvorak. First
and Central Presbyterian Church, 1101 N. Market St.
Sun. 3 p.m. Thurs. 12:30-1 p.m. 302-654-5371.
April 17: Carrot Top. Comedy. Grand Opera House,
818 N. Market St. 7 p.m. 800-37-GRAND.
April 21: Thursday Noontime Concert: Opera
Delaware Porgy and Bess Preview. First and Central
Presbyterian Church, 1101 N. Market St. 12:30-1 p.m.
302-654-5371.
April 22-24, 29-30: “Sabrina Fair.” Chrysalis
Players production of the comedy by Samuel Taylor.
Wilmington Drama League, 10 W. Lea Blvd. Fri & Sat.
8 p.m. Sun. 2 p.m. 302-764-1172.
April 23: Public Radio Series: Ira Glass. Host of
Spring 2005
DELMARVA EVENTS
National Public Radio’s “This American Life.” Grand
Opera House, 818 N. Market St. 8 p.m. 800-37GRAND.
April 24: Brandywine Baroque presents The Dumont
Concerts: Karen Flint. Performing works by Byrd,
Phillips, Marchand, Bach and Scarlatti. Concert takes
place at the Flint home. 3 p.m. 302-594-1000.
April 24: Wynton Marsalis. Jazz. Grand Opera
April 24 & 30: “Honk!” A contemporary retelling of
a Hans Christian Anderson classic, “The Ugly Duckling.”
It features a Joseph & The Amazing Color Dreamcoatlike musical score. “Ugly,” whose odd looks incite prejudice from his neighbors is separated from his mother
and is pursued by a hungry cat. Delaware Children’s
Theatre, 1014 Delaware Ave. 2 p.m. 302-655-1014.
April 25: Delawareana & Americana Book Auction.
A special auction of books, pamphlets and magazines,
including high quality historical research materials,
many of which are rare and out of print. Old Town Hall,
512 Market St. 1 p.m. preview, 6 p.m. live auction.
302-655-7161.
April 28: Thursday Noontime Concert: Rob Swanson
Trio. First and Central Presbyterian Church, 1101 N.
Market St. 12:30-1 p.m. 302-654-5371.
April 28-30: Delaware Symphony Great Performers
Series. Featuring pianist André-Michel Schub. Grand
Opera House, 818 N. Market St. Thur.6:30 p.m. Fri &
Sat. 8 p.m. 800-37-GRAND.
April 29-30: Stephen Sondheim’s “Company.” Baby
Grand Theater. 8 p.m. 302-658-7897.
April 30: Richard Hills on the Dickinson Theatre Organ.
Dickinson High School, 1801 Milltown Rd. 8 p.m. 302995-5630.
~ MAY ~
ARDEN
May 1-31: “The Ardens: A Living Experiment.” Arts
crafts, photos and memorabilia tel the story of this
May 5-7: Ardensingers present “Utopia, Limited.”
This spring production is a rare showing of this colorful
Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, in which tropical islanders
learn about the British way of life. A fully-staged production with orchestra, principals and chorus. Arden
Gild Hall, 2128 The Highway. Thurs & Fri 8 p.m. Sat 2
p.m. & 8 p.m. 302-239-1313.
ARDENTOWN
May 1-29: “Fantasticks.” The New Candlelight
302-475-2313.
BERLIN
May 6: Spring Arts Night. Artists showcase their work
and perform for customers in participating shops and
local galleries. Food and drink offered. 6-9 p.m. Main
St. 410-641-4775.
BETHANY BEACH
May 7: Spring Surf-fishing Tournament. Anglers of all
ages compete for over $4,000 in cash and prizes.
Catch the bluefish that beats the Delaware State Record
and win $25,000! S. Fenwick to N. Inlet. Sat. 7am4pm, Sun 7am-noon. 800-962-SURF.
May 14: World Fair Trade Day. Celebrate World Fair
Trade Day. Live Afro-Latino concert, painting demonstrations, fair trade coffee, tea and chocolate samplings.
Taste foods from around the world and support local
artisans. South Bethany Beach. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 302539-6335.
CAMBRIDGE
May 21: Fun Dog Show. “Fun” classes of dogs judged
Delmarva Quarterly
SPRING 2005
in several different categories. Fun for all ages.
Governors Hall at Sailwinds Park. Noon-4 p.m. 410228-3161 or 410-376-3003.
May 21-22: Annual Antique Aircraft Fly-In. Several
hundred unique antique airplanes with food and aviation vendors. Horn Point Road. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. 410228-5530 or 410-228-1899.
May 28: Spocott Windmill Day. Featuring post style
windmill in operation, Colonial Tenant House, Oneroom Victorian schoolhouse, Blacksmith Shop and
Lloyds Country Store Museum. Spocott Windmill, Rt
343. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 410-476-5058.
May 28: Beckwith Church Strawberry Festival.
Featuring children’s activities, strawberries by the box,
BBQ chicken, Berries & Ice Cream, flea market, music
and more. Neck District Fire Hall. 9 a.m. until. 410228-7807.
CAPE CHARLES
May 16: JoAnn Falletta and Friends. JoAnn Falletta,
guitar; Robert Alemany, clarinet; Debra Wendells Cross,
flute; Tidewater Guitar Orchestra. Hailed by the New
York Times as “one of the finest conductors of her generation,” Praised repeatedly for the sensitivity and energy she brings to the podium, her mastery as a guitarist
will captivate you as she performs some of her favorite
selections. Historic Palace Theatre, 10 Strawberry St. 7
p.m. 757-331-2787,
CENTREVILLE (DE)
May 6-28: Alice Dustin and Sarah Yeoman:
Impressions. Hardcastle Gallery, 5714 Kennett Pike.
302-655-5230.
CENTREVILLE (MD)
May 1-31: Members’ Best Exhibits. Enjoy the artwork of Arts Council members’ on view and for sale at
May 12: Art About Town is an evening of public
reception for Members’ Best exhibit artists. Quarterly
reception is held to introduce you to artist members and
participating businesses. Public reception from 4-5 p.m.
at the Courthouse and 5-6:30 p.m. at all other locations.
410-758-2520.
CHARLESTOWN
May 14: Charlestown Craft Show. Lots of vendors
and fun in this riverfront town. 307 Market St. 9 a.m.3 p.m. 410-287-3044.
CHESTERTOWN
May 1-17: Clay Monoprints. Works by Mitch Lyons
and students from his workshop. Chestertown Arts
League, 312 Cannon St. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 410-7785789.
May 28-29:
Chestertown Tea Party Festival.
Downtown Chestertown closes to traffic and is transformed into an era gone by to celebrate the town’s historical contributions to the country’s revolution. Streets
are filled with crafts, music & food. Saturday: Colonial
Parade begins at 10am. Historical reenactment: 2pm.
Saturday & Sunday: boat rides available. Sat, 8 a.m.6 p.m. Sun, Noon-4 p.m. 410-778-0416.
CHINCOTEAGUE
May 7: Bluegrass Concert. “East Virginia” with “The
Menolite Quartet” Chincoteague Community Center,
6155 Community Drive. 7 p.m. 757-336-3030 .
May 14: “Art Stroll.” on Chincoteague. Participating
galleries and shops are open from 6-10 p.m. with special events including art and craft demonstrations,
exhibits, readings and book signings, live music, wine
tasting...and the unexpected. Townwide. 757-336-
5636/0041.
May 28: Community-Wide Garage-Sale & Flea
Market. Chincoteague Community Center, 6155
Community Drive. 757-336-0614.
CRISFIELD
May 29: 13th Annual Soft Shell Spring Fair.
Seafood, sides, beverages, crafts, entertainment, kids’
activities, Watermen’s Hall of Fame. Crisfield City Dock.
Noon-5 p.m. 800-782-3913.
DOVER
May 1: Children’s Theatre of Dover and Kent County
present, “Wagons West, West, West!” Wells Theater,
Wesley College, 120 N. State St. 2 p.m. 302-6971271.
May 1-31: “Contemporary Decorative Arts in the
Caraft Tradition.” Biggs Museum of American Art, 406
Federal St. 302-674-2111.
May 1-31: “Stitches of Art and Comfort: Delaware
May 5: Young Choreographers’ Workshop. City of
Dover Spring/Summer Performing Arts Series. City of
Dover Recreation Center. 7 p.m. 302-674-4689.
May 6-8, 13-14: “Theft.” by Eric Chappell.
Imagine returning home from a pleasant anniversary
celebration to find that your house has been burgled. In
this witty thriller, the culprit is still in the house and, for
a while, convinces the returning couples that he is a
policeman. Unmasked as a thief, he then reveals that he
knows a number of uncomfortable truths that could disrupt two seemingly happy marriages and one formerly
strong friendship.
Kent County Theatre Guild.
Patchwork Playhouse. Fri & Sat 8 p.m. Sun 3 p.m.
302-674-3568.
May 8: Dover Symphony Dover Days Pops Concert.
Schwartz Center for the Arts, 226 S. State St. 3 p.m.
302-678-5152.
May 13-14: Rear Window” Schwartz Center for the
Arts, 226 S. State St. 7 p.m. 302-678-5152.
May 14: Delaware Friends of Folk Celtic Session. W.T.
May 21: Delaware Friends of Folk Coffee House.
Wesley Underground, College Center basement, 120
N. State St. 7:30 p.m. 302-698-0775.
May 21: First Annual Biggs Americana Gala-A Blast
with the Past. Arts ranging from about 1740 to the
present. Those attending the gala may opt to wear costumes based on objects in the Museum’s galleries or
from the past time periods they represent. Biggs
Museum of American Art, 406 Federal St. 6:30 p.m.
302-674-2111.
May 28: Delaware Friends of Folk Pick-In. W.T.
EASTON
May 5: Academy Art Museum Spring Gala. The
Academy Art Museum’s annual Spring Gala will celebrate the art of dance with a lecture by world-renowned
dance luminary Barbara Weisberger. As artistic director
and founder of the Pennsylvania Ballet, Ms. Weisberger
has been in the vanguard of every important movement
of contemporary American ballet and the first child
accepted at Balanchine’s School of American Ballet at
age eight. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 7 p.m.
410-822-8121.
May 8: TCS presents... “Bread and Tulips” (Italy,
2001) Running Time: 114 minutes. Avalon Theatre, 40
E. Dover St. 5:30 p.m. 410-745-5025.
May 13: “A Journey to the Heartland - a CelticAmericana celebration”
Features music the
Appalachian mountains of America to the north country
of Canada with two of America’s finest hammered dulcimer performers Ken Kolodner and Maggie Sansone
and special guests Jim Eagan on fiddle; Paul Oorts on
guitar; Lisa Moscatiello on vocals and Fred Lieder on
Spring 2005 • 69
DELMARVA EVENTS
cello. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 8 p.m. 410745-5025.
May 14: Annual Benefit Concert with Eric Felten Jazz
Band. Community Alliance for the Performing Arts
(CAPA) presents...Singer and trombonist Eric Felten, rare
jazz singer with both serious jazz credentials and serious, trained pipes, will perform with his band performing hits from the recent release “Nowhere Without You.”
May 21: Seldom Scene. Washington, D.C.-based
bluegrass quintet has been delighting audiences for
more than three decades with their sweet melodies and
incredible harmonies. Bluegrass fans know Seldom
Scene as one of the more progressive bands in the genre
today in addition to being an Avalon Theatre favorite.
ELKTON
May 7: Ladies Spa Day with Lunch. Ladies special day
with gourmet lunch and herbal learning. Sinking
Springs Herb Farm, 843 Elk Forest Rd. 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
410-398-5566.
May 14: Artists’ Open Studio Tour. A free countrywide driving tour of Cecil County artists’ studios.
Artwork will be available for sale. Cecil County Arts
Council. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 410-392-5740.
FAIR HILL
May 14: Highland Gathering Scottish Games.
Highland dance piping, drumming, pipe bands, sheep
dog demos, vendors, food. Fair Hill Race Track. 9 a.m.5 p.m. 410-398-6861.
May 21: Springfest. Craft fair, food, plant sale. Fair
Hill Natural Resources Area/Fairgrounds. 9 a.m.-4
p.m. 410-398-4909.
May 28: Fair Hill Races. Annual steeplechase horse
racing event. Only steeplechase race with pari-mutuel
wagering in the U.S.! Fair Hill Racetrack. 10 a.m. 410620-1125.
FAIRMOUNT
May 28: Fairmount Academy’s 30th Annual 1800’s
Festival. 1800’s classroom & spelling bee, entertainment, crafts, seafood, desserts. Fairmount Rd. 11 a.m.5 p.m. 410-651-0351/0781/3945.
FENWICK ISLAND
May 7: Spring Surf-fishing Tournament. Anglers of all
ages compete for over $4,000 in cash and prizes.
Catch the bluefish that beats the Delaware State Record
and win $25,000! S. Fenwick to N. Inlet. Sat. 7am4pm, Sun 7am-noon. 800-962-SURF.
GEORGETOWN (DE)
May 14: Red Men Car Show. 1st State Chevrolet, Rt
113. 302-856-2521.
May 25: Statewide Senior Art Awards Luncheon.
DTCC Owens, Carter Partnership Center, Georgetown.
11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. 302-856-5618.
May 30: Annual Memorial Day Service. Sussex
County Courthouse. 302-856-2035.
LEWES
May 1: 2005 Blessing of the Fleet. The annual blessing to protect boats in the area. Fisherman’s Wharf. 2
p.m. 302-645-6271.
May1-31: “Quilting on the Line.” Delaware-made
May 6-8: Spring Sidewalk Sale. Merchants in the
general area of Second Street’s commercial district will
offer items at reduced prices. 302-645-8073.
May 7: Lewes British Motorcar Show. British cars of
all vintages compete for popular vote and prizes. Food
vendors serve British fare. Ends with Winners Circle
Parade down Second Street. 11 am - 3 pm. 302-6458073 or 877-465-3937.
SPRING 2005
May 7: Lewes Art Loop. The annual event features the
town’s several art galleries and follows on the heels of
the motorcar show. Galleries will be open from 4-7 p.m.
302-645-8073.
May 7-8: Delaware Cup Soccer Tournament. About
500 children expected to participate. Hudson Field, Rt
1. 8 a.m-5 p.m. 302-945-3385.
May 14: “ Fifty Stars”. Patriotic program of song presented by the Lewes Men’s Chorus under the direction of
Bill Earl. 7 p.m. Bethel United Methodist Chuirch, 4th
Street. $4 per person. Singers, orchestra, dancers.
May 21: “Save the Date.” “An Evening with Carol
Channing Starring Richard Skipper.” Presented by the
Henlopen Theater Project. Cape Henlopen High School.
8 p.m. 302-226-4103.
May 27: Opening Party. The restored ship, Overfalls
Lightship, anchored in the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal is
hosting an opening party. 5-8 p.m.
MARYDEL
May 1: The Carroll Country Ramblers.. Concert sponsored by the Eastern Shore Bluegrass Association.
Marydel Fire Hall, 110 Firehouse Lane, Marydel, 1-5
p.m. 302-492-1048.
MILFORD
May 1, 5-7: “Rainmaker.” Second Street Players,
Riverfront Theater, 2 S. Walnut St. Fri & Sat 8 p.m. Sun
3 p.m. 302-422-0220.
MILTON
May 7: “Milton’s Spring Town-Wide Yard Sale.´ A flea
marketer’s favorite! Treasures to be bought & sold all
over Historic Milton. 9 a.m-3 p.m. 302-684-1101.
May 28: “2nd Annual Horseshoe Crab Festival.” A
day of unique fun to raise awareness for Horseshoe
Crab conservation & the Town of Milton. Craft & Food
vendors, educational & environmental displays and
exciting art exhibits. Memorial Park, the Milton Fire
Theater and Primehook Natural Wildlife Refuge. 10
a.m.-4 p.m. 302-684-1896.
NEW CASTLE
May 1-29: “The Fabric of Her Life: 19th Century
NEWARK
May 1, 6-7: “Taking Leave.” Comedy by Nagel
Jackson. Chapel Street Players, 27 N. Chapel St. Fri.
and Sat. 8 p.m. Sun. 2 p.m. 302-368-2248.
May 1-31: “A Century of African-American Art: The
May 2: Master Players Chamber Series: “Woodwind
Spectacular!” An evening of Woodwind Chamber
music. Mitchell Hall, South College Ave. on the
University Green. 8 p.m. 302-831-2577.
May 4-7: Spring Production. Titles TBA. University of
Delaware Professional Theatre Training Program,
Hartshorn Theatre. 7:30 p.m. Wed. & Sat. 2 & 7:30
p.m. 302-831-2202.
May 5-21: UD BA Graduating Student Show. Group
juried mixed media show. Reception May 5, 7-9 p.m.
Newark Arts Alliance, The Grainery Station. 302-2667266.
May 6: Newark Arts Alliance’s Brush With Fame Art
Auction and Gala. Fund raiser including live and silent
auctions, celebrity guests, live music and a buffet.
Location TBA. Time TBA. 302-266-7266.
May 22: Newark Symphony Orchestra: “Of Fate and
Mortality.” Featuring works by Wagner, Mahler and a
concerto featuring the winner of Competition for Young
Musicians. Loudis Recital Hall, Amy E. du Pont Music
Building, Amstel Ave. and Orchard Road. 302-3466.
May 27-31: “Future Famous Fine Artists.” Work by
artists aged 14-18.
Reception May 27, 7-9 p.m.
Newark Arts Alliance, The Grainery Station. 302-2667266.
May 29: New Ark Chorale: “An American Tapestry.”
A celebration of American folk, concert, and patriotic
music. Newark United Methodist Church, 69 E. Main St.
7:30 p.m. 302-368-4946.
NORTH EAST
May 8: Mother’s Day Buffet & Concert. Featuring One
Voice. Sandy Cove Conference Center. 2 p.m. buffet,
3:30 p.m. concert. 410-287-5433 or 800-234-2683.
May 28: Hart’s Amphitheatre Concert. Gospel concert featuring Melanie Bailiff. Hart’s UM Church, 3203
Turkey Point Rd. 6 p.m. 410-287-8612.
May 30: Memorial Day Celebration. Community
invited to hear Lt. Clebe McClary (USMC Retired) give a
patriotic service. Sandy Cove Conference Center. 10
a.m. 410-287-5433 or 800-234-2683.
OCEAN CITY
May 1: MD International Kite Exposition. Kite competitions, internationally known kite flyers, special displays
and more. 9 a.m.-10 p.m.
Beaches between N.
Division St. & 7th St. 410-289-7855.
May 1: Mid-Atlantic Golf Show. Show features wholesale prices on golf equipment, apparel and golf-related
travel. Also featured: courses, putting contests, long
drive competition, seminars and demonstrations. Fri., 48 p.m. Sat.10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sun. 11 a.m.- 4 p.m.
May 5-8: Springfest. Over 180 crafters in two bigtop arts and crafts tents, gourmet and commercial vendors, as well as more than 30 food vendors. Daytime
entertainment is free. Nighttime ticketed entertainment
includes: The Hubcaps, Thu. 8 p.m. Dierks Bently, Fri. 8
p.m. Kool and the Gang, Sat. 8 p.m. Springfest hours:
Thu-Sat.10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sun. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tickets:
Ticketmaster.com, 800-551-7328, or in person at
Convention Center Box Office, Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Inlet Parking Lot, South End of Boardwalk. 800-OCOCEAN.
May 18: International Museum Day. South End of
Boardwalk at Inlet In honor of International Museum
Day, the Life-Saving Station Museum offers free admission the entire day. 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. Ocean City LifeSaving Station Museum. 410-289-4991.
May 19-22: Cruisin’ Ocean City. Car show featuring
over 3,000 hot rods, customs, classics and more. Live
entertainment, commercial vendors and special attractions. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Convention Center, Inlet Parking
Lot & Townwide. 410-798-6304.
May 21: Rock ‘n Roll Concert & Dance. Enjoy your
favorite sounds of the 50s and 60s during Cruisin’! Bill
Pinkney’s Original Drifters, the Crystals, Archie Bell of
the Drells, Gene Vincentt & the Cadillac Cruisers and
more. 8 p.m. Convention Center, 40th St. & Bay. 800551-7328.
May 21-May 31: Salute to the Services. Special discount program honoring those serving community and
country. Many businesses including hotels, restaurants,
attractions, golf courses and shops will offer discounts
during this time period to military, police, EMS and fire
personnel showing their credentials. Townwide. 800OC-OCEAN.
May 24-25: Art League House Tour. Art League of
Ocean City presents its first “House and Art Tour.”
Interesting and beautiful Ocean City homes can be
toured during the two-day event. 410-208-6929.
May 28-29: Spring Arts and Crafts Show. Annual
show features artists and crafters with unique items,
homemade quilts, ceramics, jewelry, country crafts and
more. 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Convention Center, 40th St. &
Bay. 410-213-0735.
Spring 2005
DELMARVA EVENTS
ONLEY
May 14-15: 2nd Annual Quilt Show featuring representative quilts, along with many other outstanding
pieces, done by local quilting groups on the Eastern
Shore. Of special interest many antique and heirloom
quilts proudly displayed by current owners. Woman’s
Club of Accomack County, 25405 Richmond Ave. Sat.
10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sun. 1-4 p.m. 757-787-7849/7705.
PERRYVILLE
May 14: Spring Fling. Crafters, plants, entertainment,
exhibits, food. Perryville Community Park. 9 a.m.-3
p.m. 410-642-6066.
PRINCESS ANNE
May 7: Princess Anne Street Fest. Food, crafts &
entertainment. Downtown. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 410-6510422/1300.
REHOBOTH BEACH
May 6-8: Rehoboth Beach Cabaret Fest. Rehoboth
Beach restaurants will be hosting a weekend of cabaret
performances. 302-227-2233 or 800-441-1329.
May 20-22: 22nd Annual Spring Sidewalk Sale.
Merchants will offer items at reduced prices. Rehoboth
Beach and Dewey Beach area. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. 800441-1329 ext. 12.
RISING SUN
May 7: Rising Sun Youth Fishing Derby. Open to
youth 12 and under. Community Pond. 8-11 a.m. 410658-5353.
ROCK HALL
May 7: Rock Hall Yacht Club Regatta. Opening Day
- Lasers (dinghy racing, blessing of the fleet). 10 a.m.
410-778-7468.
May 21: Eastern Neck Challenge Rock Hall Yacht
Club Regatta. Sailboats larger than 26’ Race from Rock
Hall to Langford Bay. 10 a.m. 410-778-7468.
SALISBURY
May 1: Exhibit. An exhibit of original wildlife paintings by Guy Coheleach. Ward Museum of Wildfowl
Art, 909 S. Schumaker Dr. Welcome Galleries. 410742-4988.
May 1-31: Regional Carving: Oliver Lawson & Rich
Smoker. A series of exhibits showcasing the talents of
wildfowl artists living on the Delmarva Peninsula.
SEAFORD
May 14: Antiques Roadshow Fair. Participants can
have antiques and collectibles evaluated by area
experts. Seaford Moose Lodge. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. 302628-9500.
May 21-22: 12th Annual Seaford Towne and
Country Fair. Features prayer breakfast, “un-reconstructed” Civil War Troops, English Country Dancers,
crafters and demonstrators, food and fun for the whole
family. Governor Ross Plantation
302-629-9690.
SMYRNA
May 1: Itinerant Dance Theatre. Smyrna Opera
House, 107 S. Main St. 302-653-4236.
May 7: Dover Symphony. Smyrna Opera House, 107
S. Main St. 302-653-4236.
May 12: “A Taste of the Grape.” Smyrna-Clayton
Historical Society wine tasting and dinner. Smyrna
Opera House, 107 S. Main St. Time TBA. 302-6534236.
May 14: Robert Reed and Friends in Concert. Smyrna
Opera House, 107 S. Main St. 302-653-4236.
SNOW HILL
May 1-31: Exhibit: “Sincerely Yours: The Art of
Delmarva Quarterly
SPRING 2005
Correspondence.” An exhibit about letter writing and
the early postal system in Worcester County Tue.-Sat. 10
a.m.- 4 p.m. Sun. 1- 4 p.m. Julia A. Purnell Museum,
208 W. Market St. 410-632-0515.
May 7: Lunch at the Mansion. Gourmet lunch and
tour of historic mansion on the Chincoteague Bay hosted
by the Julia A. Purnell Museum. Public Landing, Snow
Hill 410-632-0515.
May 18: International Museum Day. Free admission
to museum this day. 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Julia A. Purnell
Museum, Snow Hill. 410-632-0515.
May 21: Children’s Discovery Day. Introduce children
to fun and learning found at the museum. Includes history-themed crafts and scavenger hunt. Ages 17 and
under free. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Julia A. Purnell Museum,
Snow Hill. 410-632-0515.
ST. MICHAELS
May 21-22: Maritime Model Expo. This 2nd annual
expo by North American Steamboat Modelers
Association’s (NASMA) will include radio-controlled
models operating under their own steam power, as well
as electrically-propelled models. The CBMM Model
Sailing Club will sail a number of radio-controlled fivefoot model skipjacks in races and for fun. Chesapeake
Bay Maritime Museum. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 410-7452916.
STEVENSVILLE
May 1: Bay Bridge Walk and Run. 8 a.m. for the run
and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. for the walk.
May 1-23: KIFA 41st Annual Open Judged Art Show.
Reception for the artists and their families on May 1, 14 p.m. Awards presented at 3:30 p.m. Kent Island
Federation of Art. 410-643-7424.
May 7: Kent Island Cruisers Spring Fling #11 Car
Show. Western Tire & Auto. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. 410-6434582.
May 14: Kent Island Day. Historic Cray House, Post
Office and Train Depot. 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
May 15: KIFA’s Outdoor Affair. Kent Island
Federation of Art. 410-643-7424.
TAYLORS ISLAND
May 21: Taylors Island Flea Market & Bake Sale.
Come browse through our Museum, buy a bargain at
the flea market or pick up a homemade goodie for your
family.
Taylor’s Island School, Taylor’s Island.
410.221.1207
WILMINGTON
May 1: “Rainbow Fish.” Children’s program. Hotel
du Pont. 2 p.m. 302-656-4401 or 800-338-0881.
May 1: “Sabrina Fair.” Chrysalis Players production
of the comedy by Samuel Taylor. Wilmington Drama
League, 10 W. Lea Blvd. 2 p.m. 302-764-1172.
May 1: Tiffany Holmes: “Your face is safe with me.”
Animation. Constance and Robert J. Hennessy Project
Space. Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts,
200 S. Madison St. 302-656-6466.
May 1, 7, 8, 14 & 15: “Honk!” A contemporary
retelling of a Hans Christian Anderson classic, “The Ugly
Duckling.” It features a Joseph & The Amazing Color
Dreamcoat- like musical score. “Ugly,” whose odd looks
incite prejudice from his neighbors is separated from his
mother and is pursued by a hungry cat. Delaware
Children’s Theatre, 1014 Delaware Ave. 2 p.m. 302655-1014.
May 1-8: Larry Holmes: “Short Stories.” Paintings.
Beckler Family Members’ Gallery. Delaware Center for
the Contemporary Arts, 200 S. Madison St. 302-6566466.
May 1-15: “Made In China: Export Porcelain from
May 1-21: Stephen Sondheim’s “Company.” Baby
Grand Theater. 8 p.m. 302-658-7897.
May 1-28: Exhibition of sculpture by Charles Parks.
noon-4 p.m. Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 302-656-0637.
May 1-31: “Scratching the Surface: Abstraction
Madison St. 302-656-6466.
May 1-31: Susan Benarcik: “A Natural Progeny.”
Installation. E. A. Draper Showcase Gallery. Delaware
302-656-6466.
May 5: Thursday Noontime Concert. First and Central
Presbyterian Church, 1101 N. Market St. 12:30-1 p.m.
302-654-5371.
May 6:
Music Masters Series:
Relaché.
Contemporary music ensemble. Wilmington Music
School, 4101 Washington St. 8 p.m. 302-762-1132.
May 6-31: Paintings by Ruth Ansel. Reception May
6 with Cajun music by Planete Folle at 6:30 p.m.
May 7, 12, 14 & 15: Opera Delaware presents
George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.” Grand Opera
House, 818 N. Market St. Thurs. 7:30 p.m. Sat. 8 p.m.
Sun. 2 p.m. 800-37-GRAND.
May 8: Brandywine Baroque presents The Dumont
Concerts:
Patrick Allen.
Performing works by
d’Anglebert, J. S. Bach, Byrd, Couperin, Froberger, and
Sweelinck on organ and harpsichord. Concert takes
place at the Flint home. 3 p.m. 302-594-1000.
May 8: Classic Movies Series: “Mommie Dearest.”
May 10: Delaware Symphony Orchestra Champagne
Chamber Series. Featuring the Dvorák Quintet Op. 51
for Piano and String Quartet. Champagne and confections at intermission. Gold Ballroom, Hotel du Pont,
Rodney Square. 8 p.m. 800-37-GRAND.
May 12: Thursday Noontime Concert: Trio Arundel.
First and Central Presbyterian Church, 1101 N. Market
St. 12:30-1 p.m. 302-654-5371.
May 13: Arlo Guthrie. Folksinger. Grand Opera
House, 818 N. Market St. Fri 8 p.m. 800-37-GRAND.
May 13-14, 20-22, 27-28: “My Fair Lady.” Musical by
Lerner and Loewe. Wilmington Drama League, 10 W.
Lea Blvd. Fri & Sat. 8 p.m. Sun. 2 p.m. 302-764-1172.
May 15: Classic Movie Series: “Rear Window.”
May 17:
Happy Feet.
Children’s program.
Wilmington Library, Woodlawn Branch. Time TBA.
302-571-7425.
May 18:
Happy Feet.
Children’s program.
Wilmington Library, 10 E Tenth St. Time TBA. 302-5717412.
May 20 & 22:
Delaware Symphony Great
Performers Series: Featuring the 1997 Van Cliburn Gold
Medal-winning pianist Jon Nakamatsu. Grand Opera
House, 818 N. Market St. 8 p.m. Fri & Sat. 8 p.m.
800-37-GRAND.
May 20-29: “Oklahoma!” Hotel du Pont. Tue-Sat 8
p.m. Wed, Sat & Sun matinees 2 p.m. 302-656-4401
or 800-338-0881.
May 22: Brandywine Baroque presents The Dumont
Concerts: Davitt Moroney. Performing the Golberg
Variations by J. S. Bach. Concert takes place at the Flint
home. 3 p.m. 302-594-1000.
May 22: Delaware Valley Chorale presents its Gala
Concert Event. Christ Our King RC Church, 28th and
Madison St. 4 p.m. 302-478-1424.
GET YOUR ITEM IN
To have your event included, contact Joni at 302-6457700 or mail your event to Joni, c/o Delmarva
Quarterly, P.O. Box 213, Lewes, DE 19958.
Spring 2005 • 71
STRICTLY DELMARVA
SPRING 2005
PLACE NAMES: PASSING FAME
In Delaware, Maryland and Virginia plenty of evidence of the urge
to leave behind a name as a memory.
BY LYNN L. REMLY
T
he impulse to create a memorial is not
limited to buildings and art works; it’s a
deep-seated impulse to leave a name
behind as a memory, however distant, of
one’s deeds. Unfortunately, the passing of
time erodes the monuments, and only a few
remember once-famous names.
DELAWARE
As often as not, settlers and founders give
their own names to the land they occupy,
and locals retain the names for the sake of
convenience.
Slaughter’s Station in
the West Dover Hundred, established in
1866 for railroad freight, took its name
from a store built by William Slaughter in
1860, who later became the town postmaster.
Polktown near Delaware City, one of
the earliest free black communities, has kept
the name it took from Robert Polk, a merchant who built what is now called the PolkHenry House in 1839 and actually owned
the town. The venue provided the setting for
local author Ella Middleton Tybout’s
Poketown People, a volume of stories written in African-American dialect.
Fenwick Island, the starting point for
the Transpeninsular Line that forms the
southern boundary of Delaware, got its
name from Thomas Fenwick, a wealthy
Virginia landowner who purchased the land
in 1686. It was known as a salt-producing
area until 1825, and after World War I,
Fenwick Island became popular as a resort
and vacation place.
MARYLAND
Maryland is sprinkled with the names of
the once high and mighty, especially relatives and friends of the original grantee,
Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore.
Talbot County, for example, was created
in 1662 and named for Grace Talbot, the
sister of Cecil Calvert.
Dorchester
County was named by English settlers who
came to the area in the early 17th century,
and who named the county for Sir Edward
Sackville, the Earl of Dorset and friend of
the Calvert family.
The custom continued, and Princess
Anne in Somerset County was named for
the 24-year-old daughter of King George II.
Once in a while, the lower orders got
lucky. In the late 1800s a wealthy Baltimore
native, Richard T. Turner, purchased a large
tract of land along the Sassafras River and
named it after his bride, Elizabeth Betterton,
a native of the Eastern Shore. Turner was
responsible for making Betterton into an
active merchant shipping town, which eventually became popular as a resort.
As the English colonies became a nation,
the names of the titled great were abandoned in favor of the new reality. The town
of Federalsburg in southern Caroline
County was first known as Northwest Fork
Bridge or The Bridge because of its location
at a point where cross-country traffic forded
the Marshyhope Creek. However, the
Federalist Party was popular on the
Delmarva Peninsula, and in 1812, the town
hosted a huge Federalist meeting, which led
to the town receiving its new name.
VIRGINIA
Bloxom in Accomack County owes its
name to the family who arrived from
Gloucestershire, England in the 17th century to settle the area, particularly to John
Bloxom, whose 1713 will identifies him as a
carpenter owning seven hundred acres of
land. There is, in fact, a small town in
England named Bloxham, and a certain
James Bloxham, who came to America
about 1784, was hired as an architect to
supervise the workers on the restoration
work at George Washington’s Mount
Vernon.
When Henry R. Bennett, a traveling salesman from Delaware, bought 160 acres
from farmer Benjamin Parks, he had his eye
on the future. Bennett conceived of a
planned community, Parksley, to be centered on the new railroad being built in
1884. There was a place for everything
and everything in its place, including blacks
segregated in their own area, ironically
known today as Whitesville. Benjamin
Parks himself, however, declined to be
planned and soon moved to a new farm on
the seaside. DQ
Newark, Md. artist Beverly Lynch painted this lower shore fishing trawler. She titled it “One Of The Last.”
Spring 2005
Presents
Pre-Approval & HELOC
Enhance your buying power through our pre-approval program
and have peace of mind knowing that your money is in the bank.
ADVANTAGES
• Prior to spending your time, get pre-approved to know what you can spend.
• Written confirmation of your buying power.
• Comfort in knowing your price range before you find the perfect dream home.
• The ability to negotiate in confidence.
• Information regarding loans for which you qualify.
• Quality, professional, courteous service.
Interest Only Home Equity Line of Credit
Establish your line-of-credit on either:
• Your primary residence, up to $500,000.00
• Your second home, up to $350,000.00
• Your investment property, up to $100,000.00
Then draw against your account and
pay interest on the used portion only!
Kelly T. Smith
Mortgage Consultant
Direct: 301-962-4676
Toll Free: 866-687-2766
Cell: 240-447-8391
[email protected]
Apply Online
24 hours a day
7 days a week
at:
www.ncmc.com/kellysmith
2730 West University Blvd., Suite 604,
Wheaton, MD 20902
All loans are subject to credit approval and property appraisal.
FITZ AND FLOYD
Special Purchase
$79.99
$275 Orig. Retail
This fabulous hand painted tureen takes the form of a majestic
white swan draped in tulips of soft pastel orange, yellow and purple
10 3/4” H x 13 1/2” L x 9” W
Holds 38 ounces
25 Baltimore Avenue
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware 19971
302-227-8331 • 800-225-8331
www.woodenindianltd.com
Established
1977
Monday-Saturday 10-5
Sunday 11-5
Readers Choice Downstate:
Best Gifts

Quarterly - VillageSoup

Transcription

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