Tidewater Times June 2022 by Tidewater Times

Tidewater Times

June 2022

www.SaintMichaelsWaterfront.com

ROYAL OAK - The finishing touches are being completed on this stylish farmhouse on Irish Creek. With 20 acres, a new pool, and over 1000’ of shoreline, it is the perfect place to unwind. The main home has five bedrooms (four are en suite) and 5.5 baths, with new siding, roofing, heating/air conditioning and a fabulous kitchen with large island overlooking the sunroom and water. The Great Room features refinished wide plank floors that were harvested on the property, huge beams, and a large fireplace to warm the coldest nights. A one-bedroom guest cottage overlooks the pool. This special property was just listed for $2,950,000

Tom & Debra Crouch

Benson & Mangold Real Estate

211 N. Talbot St., St. Michaels · 410-745-0415 Tom Crouch: 410-310-8916 Debra Crouch: 410-924-0771

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Vol. 71, No. 1

Published Monthly

June 2022

Features:

Publishers' Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 About the Cover Photographer: Jay Fleming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay: Helen Chappell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 A Wicked Trip: Bonna L. Nelson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 When We Read: Michael Valliant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Chamber Music Festival Winners: James Carder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Tidewater Gardening: K. Marc Teffeau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Pride Goeth Before: A.M. Foley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Tidewater Kitchen: Pamela Meredith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 History in Black and White: James Dawson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Changes - Coming Again - A Work Progress: Roger Vaughan . . . . . . . . . . 159

Departments: June Tide Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Easton Map and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Caroline County ~ A Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Queen Anne's County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Dorchester Map and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 St. Michaels Map and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Oxford Map and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Kent County and Chestertown at a Glance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Anne B. Farwell & John D. Farwell, Co-Publishers Editor: Jodie Littleton Proofing: Kippy Requardt Deliveries: Nancy Smith, April Jewel & Brandon Coleman P. O. Box 1141, Easton, Maryland 21601 410-714-9389 www.tidewatertimes.com info@tidewatertimes.com

Tidewater Times is published monthly by Bailey-Farwell, LLC. Advertising rates upon request. Subscription price is $35 per year. Individual copies are $4. Contents of this publication may not be reproduced in part or whole without prior approval of the publisher. Printed by Delmarva Printing, Inc. The publisher does not assume any liability for errors and/or omissions.

Brian McGregor

Voted Best Interior Design Services and Furniture Store on the Shore! The finest in home furnishings, interior design, appliances, floor coverings, custom draperies and re-upholstery. 902 Talbot Street, St. Michaels, MD 410-745-5192 · 410-822-8256 · Mon. - Fri. 8-5, Sat. 10 - 4 higginsandspencer.com · higginsandspencer.hdwfg.com 6

Publishers’ Note:

Celebrating 70 Years! Undeniably, we live in an amazing and generous community, and both John and I feel blessed to be a part of it. ~ Anne Farwell

At the time I am writing this, our 70th anniversary celebration party has yet to happen. There are a few things, though, that I want to say. When we came up with the idea of having a party to celebrate our advertisers, we had no clue it would turn out to be such an overwhelming affair. We contacted the Robert Morris Inn and informed Ian and Elinor that we expected about 50 people - just a nice little cocktail party on a Wednesday night. As soon as the invitations went out, it blossomed to about 140 people and we had to cut off RSVPs. We were filling the Robert Morris Inn to capacity. The response was fantastic and truly heartwarming. We decided to do a silent auction to benefit the Talbot County Sheriff ’s Department, and donations came pouring in. Luxury trip vouchers, custom jewelry - truly bountiful. We can’t thank everyone enough! Next month, I will tell you all about the party and give you a number on how much we were able to raise for Joe Gamble and his group.

Sundance Kitchen, Baths and Exteriors are so happy to be a partner with Tidewater Times. We started our relationship almost three years ago, and Anne and John have been nothing short of spectacular on working with Sundance to help us grow with exposure in their wonderful magazine. Anne is always providing us with exceptional ad layouts, and John is continuously referring potential customers to Sundance KBE. These two go above and beyond the call of duty with the magazine, and we look forward to each issue!! Thank you, Anne and John, for all of your hard work!! It’s much appreciated and we look forward to many more years with you. ~Denise Kirk Sundance Kitchen, Baths & Exteriors

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About the Cover Photographer Jay Fleming the Water ~ a photographic narrative of the Chesapeake Bay seafood industry, is in its fourth printing, and his second, Island Life, was a regional bestseller after its release in November 2021. The cover photograph of the swimming terrapin was taken while Jay was working on Island Life. Jay may be contacted at 410-2798730 or by e-mail at jaypﬂeming@ gmail.com. Please visit his websiteJayFlemingPhotography.com. JayFlemingPhotography.com

Jay discovered his passion for photography upon inheriting a hand-me-down Nikon fi lm camera from his father, Kevin, a former National Geographic photographer. Jay immediately developed an affi nity for looking at life through the lens of his camera, and what ensued was an exciting photographic journey that would eventually lead him to his career as a professional photographer. At the age of 35, Jay has an extensive portfolio that is sure to impress. His fi rst book, Working

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Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay by Helen Chappell For as long as I can remember, and up to this very day, I’ve found great spiritual peace in watching water. The contemplation of that other world, both beautiful and unknown, has always intrigued me. If you want to meditate, lie face down on a dock and peer over the side into the other world below the surface. After a while, you can enter a hypnotic state and have a natural history lesson at the same time. To peer into brackish water, like a

creek or a river, is one meditation. Another is to lie on a grass bank and observe the f lora and fauna of a freshwater stream. Having a stick to poke at passing leaves and prod at crayfish is deeply satisfying, both for a child and for an adult showing a child how to pass some tradition along. A tradition that doesn’t involve video games and cheap plastic crap, I might add curmudgeonly. There’s something to be said for the observation of water for

On the Dock no other reason than just looking. A parent might say you could do something more useful, but what could be a better lesson in patience and observation than gazing into water? It teaches one to watch and observe. When I was a kid, I liked lying f lat on the dock with a piece of string and a looted strip of bacon. The world beneath those pilings on a warm summer day could be fascinating. In spring, you could see the clear bottom, the little holes in the mud, the barnacles attached to the pilings that could cut you into shreds if you got too close to those sharp, dead shells. The green shadows beneath the dock rolled and swelled, and the summer smell of creosote pilings and the slosh of water transported me to another world. I’d drop the string overboard

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On the Dock

Every once in a while, a sunfish would come by and nibble at the bacon, then swim away in disgust. I guess the smoky taste was a turnoff. Crabs would swim by, beautiful swimmers, quick as a magician’s trick. Sometimes, crabs preparing to molt would hang on to the pil-

near a piling and let it drift on the current. Sometimes a school of golden minnows, moving with one mind, would f lash up to check it out, then f lash away as fast as they’d come, disappearing into the murky darkness.

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On the Dock ings until it was time to move into the protection of the grass close to shore to grow a new shell. They were just annoyed by a dangling bit of bacon teased in their direction. They’d half-heartedly wave a claw to dismiss it, the way you’d shoo away a f ly. Sometimes a passing crab would be attracted to the bit of bacon and stop to feed on it. Now, as is well known, crabs are scavengers and will eat anything, no matter how dead or decomposed, so a piece of raw bacon was a snack for them, like a deep-fried Snickers bar or a corn dog for a fairgoer. It was fun to watch them grab the bacon in their claws and bring it to their mouths to feed. What would make some crabs nibble up almost the whole strip, while others would check it out and swim away, I don’t know. The innate cussedness of crabs is something I have heard experts, the watermen, discuss for hours. Every once in a while, I’d get a strike from an eel. For some reason, eels love hanging around the pilings of a pier. Whether it’s the shade or a food source or a place to hide from predators, I don’t know. But I bet you can find out on Wiki. I’m not fond of eels on any level. Europeans consider them a delicacy, as do the Japanese, and

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“THE WEBER HOUSE,” an historic home in the charming and very popular community of Fairbank on Tilghman Island. Built in the late 1800’s this home has been carefully preserved and updated and provides comfortable living areas from the great room to the master suite with sitting room and office. Double porches on the water side offer wonderful views of the water, pier and boat ramp. A large outbuilding provides a spacious workshop area plus a studio apartment w/full bath and kitchenette. Main house has wood floors throughout, 4 BRs, 3 ½ BAs, LR w/ fireplace, great room, separate dining, 2 screened porches and patio area. $1,375,000

WAVERLY ISLAND - Accessed by a private drive, this one-story waterfront on 2.3+ acres overlooks the quiet waters of Playtor’s Cove, a tributary of the Tred Avon River. Living areas have large windows that seamlessly meld the beauty of the outdoor spaces with the interior. Spacious living room with brick, wood burning fireplace opens to the waterside deck overlooking the pool, patio and waterfront. Kitchen updated with granite counters and island. Main house has 3 generous BRs 2 ½ BAs, attached garage. Detached pool house has screened porch with brick fireplace/grill, tile floors, full BA and bonus room. Perfect location for kayaking, paddleboarding or just enjoying the sunsets. $1,200,000

Dock of the Bay

ing the food chain along a little. Ah, nature, red in tooth and claw. Even so, just watching an eel swallow a strip of Oscar Mayer bacon whole, swimming away with your piece of twine, is annoying. The marsh grasses that grow along the shoreline have a whole biology of their own, too. When I was a kid, we used to have marsh hens or, as birders call them, Virginia rails nesting in there. Marsh hens are shy, so catching a glimpse of the female leading her babies along the shallows was a cause for excitement. You had to be very still and not make a sound or she’d herd her offspring into the deep marsh and disappear. Now the only places I hear the distinctive call of the rail is on the long, marshy causeway out to Elliot’s Island. We emerged from the water to live on land, yet water still has an atavistic power to draw us back, at least to the thin edge between solid ground and the f lood. Maybe in a million years or less, we’ll all be living back in the water again.

there’s an eel harvest every spring in the Bay. The ones that don’t get eaten end up chopped, salted, tied to a trotline and used as crab bait. The smell of rotted, salted eel is unbelievably rank, as are bull lips, the other red meat, but we won’t go there today. Early on, I learned the reason you want to cast your line as far away from a dock as you possibly can is that the closer your hook lands to pilings, the more likely you’ll snag an eel on your line. Getting an eel off your line usually means losing your tackle. It’s easier to cut off a hook and sinker and some line than try to get a wriggling, fighting slimy, slimy, slimy snakelike critter off your hook. More stubborn people will behead the creature and work with that disgusting mouth. The problem with that is you end up eyeball deep in blood and slime. Of course, the eel ends up as crab and fish food anyway, so you’re just nudg-

Helen Chappell is the creator of the Sam and Hollis mystery series and the Oysterback stories, as well as The Chesapeake Book of the Dead. Under her pen names, Rebecca Baldwin and Caroline Brooks, she has published a number of historical novels. 22

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A Wicked Trip by Bonna L. Nelson Dressed in Girl Scout (GS)-green knit caps and black hoodies emblazoned with a green witch on the front provided by one of their troop leaders, Mrs. Shannon, the girls were chattering with excitement. The middle school-aged young ladies were waiting in small groups in the parking lot of the Maryland Girl Scout Headquarters north of Woodlawn, Maryland. Two coach buses were on their way to transport the GSs, troop leaders, assistants, mothers and grandmothers to New York City (NYC). Broadway was reopening after the long Covid hiatus, and we were excited to be heading there. My daughter, Holly, and I settled in for a four-hour ride seated together near the front, while granddaughter Bella sat in the back with her friends. It was a surprisingly quiet (considering the age of most of our companions) and comfortable ride. After a bit of conversation, a bit of reading, a bit of snacking and a bit of napping, we arrived. I brought along some reading related to our trip and acquired some Broadway knowledge during my reading time. Broadway productions are those showing in the 41 large the-

aters located around Times Square, NYC, with each theater housing 500 or more seats. Broadway is the thoroughfare that traverses the length of Manhattan. It is the longest street not only in NYC, but in the world. The theaters are mostly clustered near the middle of Broadway and its numbered cross streets in midtown Manhattan, according to Lonely Planet New York, www.britannica. com and Wikipedia. I learned that Broadway and London’s West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. This makes Broadway a ma25

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Lovely brick colonial situated on expansive double lot in the heart of historic Easton. This 4 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom home is brimming with classic charm from the side entry leading into the traditional “warming room”, to the period details found throughout including light fixtures and doorknobs. The kitchen is modern yet retains vintage appeal as it has new stainless steel appliances, durable laminate flooring and refinished original cabinetry with refurbished handles. Custom moldings and millwork found throughout the home add a touch of elegance. Each bedroom has direct access to an updated bathroom. New HVAC added to the second floor. Sunroom with wall of windows provides abundant light. Detached two-car garage and ample parking with circular drive. This stunning home is an absolute must see if you love classic charm with modern amenities. Just blocks from downtown Easton’s shops, restaurants and entertainment. EASTON | $1,295,000 | www.214SouthWashingtonStreet.com 27

A Wicked Trip jor tourist destination, with a total attendance of close to 15 million in the 2018-2019 season and with shows grossing close to $2 billion for the mostly musical theatrical productions. New York theater had its beginnings in the 1750s with productions of Shakespeare and ballad operas until around 1850, when theater moved from downtown NYC to midtown Manhattan accompanied by the arrival of musicals. More theaters were built in the Times Square/ Broadway area in the early 1900s. The internationally known Times Square, the hub of the Broadway Theater District, is one of the world’s

most visited tourist attractions, with an estimated 50 million visitors an-

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A Wicked Trip

Our well-organized troop leader, Mrs. Shannon, and other seasoned GS moms led our group of GSs and adults to Junior’s, on Broadway and 49th Street, near the hotel. Junior’s is bustling but accessible, with just a short wait. It has the appearance of an upscale soda fountain. We were led to two large semi-circular booths next to each other, one for the young girls and one for us older girls. We enjoyed Reuben sandwiches, burgers, milkshakes and cheesecake, and the service was quick and efficient. Afterward, we followed the group to nearby shops, including the souvenir shop “I (heart) N Y,” where the girls shopped for NYC trinkets, keychains, stuffed animals, etc. Back at the hotel, Mrs. Shannon hosted a little party for the young ones in one room and the adults in another, until about midnight. I must admit that this adult crashed and was sound asleep by ten!

nually. It was named for the famous newspaper that is still located there ~ The New York Times. It is also fondly called “The Great White Way,” after its bright lights, as well as “The Crossroads of the World.” Our first stop in NYC was at our hotel, M Social Times Square New York, a busy, modern structure with an amazingly ef f icient check-in system. The 64 passengers on our two buses were dispatched to our rooms in a matter of minutes. The space was fresh, quiet and inviting. We quickly dropped our luggage in the room, refreshed and met our GS troop for dinner and shopping in Times Square. I was impressed that the GSs accommodated us in a perfect location for exploring on foot without needing to take a taxi and within walking distance of the Broadway Theater District.

A Wicked Trip

there and to find a bench in the park. We caught up with the entourage at a famous NYC Italian restaurant, Tony’s Di Napoli. The GSs and adults mixed and mingled at this meal, and Holly and I ended up with our troop’s leaders and moms and GSs from various troops. Many of our girls were eating with girls from other troops and troop leaders. Good for them, I say, independent! We stuffed ourselves with authentic Italian delights, including lasagna and chicken parmesan with crusty Italian bread followed by luscious tiramisu and cannoli. A glass of red wine fortified me for the speed walk, or half run, to the next destination. This is where the most “wicked” part of the trip begins. You have

After indulging in a delicious Italian breakfast from Angelina’s Bakery, we strolled down Broadway past theaters proudly announcing their productions on large billboards. The first we passed was for The Music Man, starring Hugh Jackman at the Winter Garden Theatre. I would love to see that. We were headed to lunch at noon and to the theater at two. But first some of us stopped for a brief respite in Bryant Park, a lovely 9.6-acre public green space, while others continued their shopping spree. I had trouble keeping up with the young ones. I was probably one of the oldest gals on the trip but was grateful to be

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A Wicked Trip probably guessed by now that we were headed to see the wonderful musical Wicked (The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz) at the Gershwin Theatre, named in honor of one of America’s greatest composers, George Gershwin, and his brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin. The Gershwin, on West 50th between Broadway and 8th, opened in 1972 with 1,900 seats. Fully masked, we showed our tickets, required ID and CDC Covid vaccination cards and rushed breathlessly to our plush seats located in the front side mezzanine, ready for the show to begin. Our view of the stage and scenery was amazing.

A Wicked Trip

Witch, cha rac ters f rom Baum’s treasured book. The show is based on the bestselling 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, a prequel based on Baum’s setting, story and characters. It has been described as a political, social and ethical commentary on the nature of good and evil. Maguire wanted to imagine how the two witches evolved, and so he created their childhoods and friendships to explain their personas in the land of Oz. Some of Baum’s original characters ~ including the Wizard, Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man ~ appear, but there are also new characters. Spoiler alert: Maguire devised a happier and romantic ending for the Wicked Witch. With music and lyrics by Stephen Swartz and book by Winnie Holzman, the musical premiered

The or ig i ns of t he Broadway musical version of Wicked get a bit complicated, as it is based on numerous books and a mov ie. I will try my best to unwrap its origins. Wicked is a fabulous prequel and a retelling of the popular 1900 novel The Wonderf ul Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and the 1939 Metro Goldwyn Mayer film based on Baum’s novel, The Wizard of Oz. The musical Wicked is set in Oz leading up to the arrival of Dorothy and Toto from Kansas. The longrunning, award-winning Broadway production follows the friendship between two young girls, Elphaba ~ smart, fiery, misunderstood and green skinned ~ and Glinda ~ beautiful, ambitious and popular. They grow up to be the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda, the Good

A Wicked Trip

and there was music from a few musicians and singers in the crowd. Life reflected in theater, or theater reflected in life? A few of my favorite quotes from Wicked by Stephen Schwartz include:

in May 2003. The universal themes of good and evil, lies and truths, betrayal and loyalty, power and corrupt governments are explored in the relationship between Elphaba (name created from the phonetic sounds of L. Frank Baum, el-fa-ba) and Glinda. It is a romance, comedy and drama all rolled into one that explores the notion that things are not always as they seem on the surface. Emerald green dominates in the scenery, costumes and the Wicked Witch’s coloring. Visually appealing sets and creative costumes combined with outstanding acting and singing keep audiences applauding and returning for repeat performances. The themes of good versus evil, lies versus truths and government corruption in the musical carried over onto the streets of Times Square that day. Folks were gathered with posters and signs announcing their support for Ukraine and denouncing the invasion of that country by Russia. Ukrainian flags of blue and yellow were waving in the breeze,

Some things I cannot change, but ’til I try I’ll never know. Everyone deserves a chance to ﬂy. It’s just life, so keep dancing through. Well-known theater and movie actors Idina Menzel, starring as E lph ab a (for w h ic h she won a Tony Award), Kristin Chenoweth, originating the role of Glinda (for which she was nominated for a Tony) and Joel Grey, playing the Wizard of Oz, headlined the early productions. The show won two other Tony Awards. The production accrued 64 Tony nominations in 8 years and is one of Broadway’s highest-grossing musicals! In a first for the production, a Black actress,

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HIGH PM AM

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A Wicked Trip

Times), prior to the Covid outbreak. The Grimmerie is the name of Elphaba’s book of spells. The gift book reveals how the musical evolved and includes character descriptions, photographs of characters and scenery, the words to the songs and the story on which Wicked is based. The GSs were supposed to have interactive workshops with teaching artists to discuss the themes and issues in the musical and learn music and choreography with cast members before the performance. The workshop and per formance would lead to earning a GS badge. Unfortunately, due to another Covid uptick, those experiences had to be cancelled. Instead, the GS leaders held workshops at troop meetings and discussed aspects of the musical and theater. They watched and discussed video clips of tragedies, comedies and dramas, including work s of Sha ke spe a re. A st age manager of a local theater shared her experiences and explained her role in productions. They also had an acting workshop and performed

Washington, DC, native Brittney Johnson, recent ly assumed t he role of the sparkly Glinda, the first actress of color to do so. We were pleased to watch the f irst black Glinda perform.

For Christmas, Holly and I surprised Bella with a souvenir gift book, Wicked: The Grimmerie, A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Hit Broadway Musical, and the NYC tr ip and show. She was beyond excited, having wanted to return to N YC to see a Broadway play after a trip to see the Rockettes in December 2019 (see the story in the November 2020 issue of Tidewater

A Wicked Trip

very impressed with how well the GS leaders organized and managed the whole exciting journey: attending the production, the buses and drivers, the hotel, the restaurants and shopping. We were extremely impressed with the GSs, leaders and families ~ all pleasant, polite, friendly and inclusive, all a joy to be with. If you c a n’t ma ke t he t r ip to Broadway but yearn to see the musical and get “wicked,” the movie version of Wicked is now being cast.

in skits. Badges were earned in a creatively different way. A f ter our ver y quiet bus r ide home that night, with exhausted GSs and adults alike, I asked Bella about the Broadway adventure. She was thrilled with the theater experience. She loved the songs, the costumes, the scenery and the dancing. She connected with the themes of good and evil and friendship. She especially liked “hanging” w ith the girls on the trip and staying up until midnight, something out of the ordinary for the 12-year-old. Holly and I were impressed with the production for all the same reasons that Bella was. And we were

Bonna L. Nelson is a Bay-area writer, columnist, photographer and world traveler. She resides in Easton with her husband, John.

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Easton Map and History The County Seat of Talbot Count y. Established around early religious settlements and a court of law, Histor ic Dow ntow n Easton is today a centerpiece of fine specialt y shops, business and cultural activ ities, unique restaurants, and architectural fascination. Treel i ne d s t r e e t s a r e graced with various per iod str uctures and remarkable home s , c a r e f u l l y preser ved or re stored. Because of its histor ic a l significance, historic Easton has earned distinction as the “C olon ia l C apitol of the Eastern Shore” and was honored as number eight in the book “The 100 Best Small Towns in America.” With a population of over 16,500, Easton offers the best of many worlds including access to large metropolitan areas like Baltimore, Annapolis, Washington, and Wilmington. For a walking tour and more history visit https:// tidewatertimes.com/travel-tourism/easton-maryland/. © John Norton

When We Read by Michael Valliant You pick up a magazine on the Eastern Shore and flip through it, hoping to learn something. Maybe you want to figure out where to eat, or you love the area and are curious about living here. Maybe you grab the new Tidewater Times every month as soon as it comes out and you think of the writers as friends. Any which way, when you sit down to read, you want to take something with you, something you can use, something you remember. This is what we do when we read. If you’re like me, your expectations change depending on what you pick up. When I sit down on the back deck with Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine, I want to be transported in both time and place in order to share the universal experience of a small-town summer with an everytown cast of characters. And I become this:

Tidewater Times

June 2022

And when you’re all to yourself that way, you’re really proud of yourself for a little while; you get to thinking things through, alone. Gardening is the handiest excuse for being a philosopher. Nobody guesses, nobody accuses, nobody knows, but there you are, Plato in the peonies, Socrates force-growing his own hemlock. A man toting a sack of blood manure across his lawn is kin to Atlas letting the world spin easy on his shoulder.”

"Lilacs on a bush are better than orchids. And dandelions and devil grass are better! Why? Because they bend you over and turn you away from all the people in the town for a little while and sweat you and get you down where you remember you got a nose again. 51

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When We Read When I read fiction, I want to go to a world I don’t live in to learn more about the world I do live in. I want to experience people, places, events and emotions that are born out of someone’s creativity, to inspire my own as well as to connect with someone I have never met and probably won’t. If I meet someone who loves the same novel I do, we’ve begun a real friendship based on a fantastic (as in fantasy) experience. Reading fiction can be as important and integral to our lives as learning science or math, in terms of how we live our lives and how we relate to others.

When We Read

again and can go back into the fray. I’ve got 20-plus years of experience as a parent. And I still don’t have a clue what I am doing. Mostly I show up and keep showing up. And there are things about being a parent that teach me something about the need to let go, that go far beyond talking about children or teenagers ~ that stretch out to anyone or anything we care deeply about. Poet Maggie Smith interviewed Mary Laura Philpott about Philpott’s book of essays, Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives. Smith writes: “Bomb Shelter asks ~ and attempts to answer ~ questions we all ask ourselves: How do we cope with the unexpected? How do we feel secure when so much is unknown? How do we find the hope and courage to keep building our lives when the ground seems to be

As people, we can be a disappointing lot. There are times when I have no desire to be around almost any people in the world. People are what get in the way of being able to love humanity. And then I can read something like this from George Saunders: “Reading is a form of prayer, a guided meditation that briefly makes us believe we’re someone else, disrupting the delusion that we’re permanent and at the center of the universe. Suddenly (we’re saved!) other people are real again, and we’re fond of them.” When I read, I reboot, refocus, re-center and I find I like people

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When We Read

And, to put things in perspective, she writes: “If I can scrape up some evidence of a thing made beautifully or a gesture made kindly, then I can believe, for a few seconds, that this world is careful and kind. And if I can believe that, I can believe it is safe to let people I love walk around out there. It’s my own attempt at foresparkling (as opposed to foreshadowing), seeking out hints of good, even planting them myself, so I can believe there’s more good to come.” When I read essays like Philpott’s, I want to foresparkle, to look for the hints of good to come. And I find another human being, another parent, trying to make sense of car-

shifting beneath us?” And I pick up Bomb Shelter and Philpott writes about her son having his first seizure and visits to neurologists and diagnoses and being scared as a parent, and as a father of a daughter with epilepsy, I know those feelings and my heart breaks for her son and her family. And, at the same time, I am comforted by the solidarity of a writer sharing what it is like as a parent to go through something I know too well. Philpott writes about the need to look for simple joys, gratitude and hope, and the need to applaud these things when we find them.

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When We Read ing for and walking through things we don’t fully understand or know how to deal with. Over the past six years, I have spent a lot of time reading Scripture. When you study the Bible, you quickly learn it is really a library full of many kinds of writing, containing stories and speeches, history and poetry, that reach back over thousands of years. It’s not really a book in the sense that we think of books. The Bible is written for our learning, for our growth, and for us to wrestle with. It asks us questions, the first of which, in Genesis, is “Where are you?” Trappist monk Thomas Keat-

ing continues, “‘Where are you?’” God’s question to us never changes. In some cases, life has been so tragic that we are not free to decide where we are. But the power of divine grace, especially as it is experienced in contemplative prayer, opens us to the unconscious and introduces us to a world of unlimited possibilities that are unknown to us now.” When I read the Bible, I ask my-

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When We Read

where else completely. As you hold this issue of Tidewater Times in your hands now, or you read it online, you hold stories, reflections, memories and questions of the various writers. You have photographs and art and advertisements that can fill your mind in so many ways. When we read, we go places. Where do you want to go?

self where I am, and where I am in relation to God. I can’t imagine my life without reading. It’s one of the things that brings me joy, wonder, questions, laughter, tears, connection, compassion and creativity. When we pick up and read a book, or a newspaper, or a magazine, we are both where we are sitting or standing, and we are some-

Michael Valliant is the Assistant for Adult Education and Newcomers Ministry at Christ Church Easton. He has worked for non-profit organizations throughout Talbot County, including the Oxford Community Center, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and Academy Art Museum.

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Gold Prize Winner Trio Colores

to Perform at the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival by James Carder

Trio Colores, winner of both the $10,000 Lerman Gold Prize and the $500 Audience Choice Award at the April 2022 Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition for Young Professionals, will return to perform on Friday, June 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Easton’s Ebenezer Theater as part

of the 2022 Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival. This youthful, energetic all-percussion ensemble ~ comprising Fabian Ziegler, Luca Staffelbach and Matthias Kessler ~ has programmed two contemporary works by Thierry De Mey and Christos Hatzis and arrangements

Trio Colores 65

Chamber Music

cent competition. They state their performance goal as a trio is “to captivate audiences with the fresh, nuanced sound possibilities of percussion instruments and, above all else, with the trio’s virtuosic energy and sheer joy of performing.” They also hope their music “challenges traditional performance boundaries and provides an ambitious, uniquely designed and thoroughly entertaining concert program.” The Swiss-born Ziegler and Staffelbach and the Austrian-born Kessler all gravitated to percussion instruments as children. Each received a bachelor of arts in music from the prestigious Zurich University of the Arts. Ziegler

of Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin and Milhaud’s Scaramouche for this year’s festival. These award-winning musicians regularly perform as soloists and as members of symphonic orchestras. Since 2017, they have joined forces as the virtuosic Trio Colores and have delighted audiences with innovative percussive chamber music. Their trio repertoire consists of both modern percussion masterpieces and arrangements of classical works, such as Staffelbach’s arrangement of Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre for marimbas and vibraphone that wowed jurists and audience members alike at the re-

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Chamber Music

performed by the Trio Colores. In summing up the trio’s enthusiasm for percussion, he stated, “We percussionists, in particular, have the privilege that our instruments are represented in an unbelievably large number of cultural areas in a variety of forms. A diversity that invites you to constantly penetrate and explore other musical genres and forms of music. This is the main drive of my musical work and will always lead me to new paths in my future.” Program selections are subject to change. For more details on the 2022 Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival and to purchase tickets, visit chesapeakemusic.org.

continued his studies there to receive a master of arts in music (performance soloist). Staffelbach also continued to study percussion performance there, pursuing a master of arts in music pedagogy (instrumental music pedagogy ~ classical). Kessler was awarded a two-year scholarship in 2019 at the famous Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and was named in January of this year as the principal timpanist of the Hamburg Symphony. Staffelbach is especially engaged in the creative process of composing and arranging for percussion, and many of his arrangements are

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Caroline County – A Perspective Caroline County is the very definition of a rural community. For more than 300 years, the county’s economy has been based on “market” agriculture. Caroline County was created in 1773 from Dorchester and Queen Anne’s counties. The county was named for Lady Caroline Eden, the wife of Maryland’s last colonial governor, Robert Eden (1741-1784). Denton, the county seat, was situated on a point between two ferry boat landings. Much of the business district in Denton was wiped out by the fire of 1863. Following the Civil War, Denton’s location about fifty miles up the Choptank River from the Chesapeake Bay enabled it to become an important shipping point for agricultural products. Denton became a regular port-ofcall for Baltimore-based steamer lines in the latter half of the 19th century. Preston was the site of three Underground Railroad stations during the 1840s and 1850s. One of those stations was operated by Harriet Tubman’s parents, Benjamin and Harriet Ross. When Tubman’s parents were exposed by a traitor, she smuggled them to safety in Wilmington, Delaware. Linchester Mill, just east of Preston, can be traced back to 1681, and possibly as early as 1670. The mill is the last of 26 water-powered mills to operate in Caroline County and is currently being restored. The long-term goals include rebuilding the millpond, rehabilitating the mill equipment, restoring the miller’s dwelling, and opening the historic mill on a scheduled basis. Federalsburg is located on Marshyhope Creek in the southern-most part of Caroline County. Agriculture is still a major portion of the industry in the area; however, Federalsburg is rapidly being discovered and there is a noticeable influx of people, expansion and development. Ridgely has found a niche as the “Strawberry Capital of the World.” The present streetscape, lined with stately Victorian homes, reflects the transient prosperity during the countywide canning boom (1895-1919). Hanover Foods, formerly an enterprise of Saulsbury Bros. Inc., for more than 100 years, is the last of more than 250 food processors that once operated in the Caroline County region. Points of interest in Caroline County include the Museum of Rural Life in Denton, Adkins Arboretum near Ridgely, and the Mason-Dixon Crown Stone in Marydel. To contact the Caroline County Office of Tourism, call 410-479-0655 or visit their website at www.tourcaroline.com. 71

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Queen Anne’s County The history of Queen Anne’s County dates back to the earliest Colonial settlements in Maryland. Small hamlets began appearing in the northern portion of the county in the 1600s. Early communities grew up around transportation routes, the rivers and streams, and then roads and eventually railroads. Small towns were centers of economic and social activity and evolved over the years from thriving centers of tobacco trade to communities boosted by the railroad boom. Queenstown was the original county seat when Queen Anne’s County was created in 1706, but that designation was passed on to Centreville in 1782. It’s location was important during the 18th century, because it is near a creek that, during that time, could be navigated by tradesmen. A hub for shipping and receiving, Queenstown was attacked by English troops during the War of 1812. Construction of the Federal-style courthouse in Centreville began in 1791 and is the oldest courthouse in continuous use in the state of Maryland. Today, Centreville is the largest town in Queen Anne’s County. With its relaxed lifestyle and tree-lined streets, it is a classic example of small town America. The Stevensville Historic District, also known as Historic Stevensville, is a national historic district in downtown Stevensville, Queen Anne’s County. It contains roughly 100 historic structures, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located primarily along East Main Street, a portion of Love Point Road, and a former section of Cockey Lane. The Chesapeake Heritage and Visitor Center in Chester at Kent Narrows provides and overview of the Chesapeake region’s heritage, resources and culture. The Chesapeake Heritage and Visitor Center serves as Queen Anne’s County’s official welcome center. Queen Anne’s County is also home to the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center (formerly Horsehead Wetland Center), located in Grasonville. The CBEC is a 500-acre preserve just 15 minutes from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Over 200 species of birds have been recorded in the area. Embraced by miles of scenic Chesapeake Bay waterways and graced with acres of pastoral rural landscape, Queen Anne’s County offers a relaxing environment for visitors and locals alike. For more information about Queen Anne’s County, visit www.qac.org. 75

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Dorchester Map and History

Dorchester County is known as the Heart of the Chesapeake. It is rich in Chesapeake Bay history, folklore and tradition. With 1,700 miles of shoreline (more than any other Maryland county), marshlands, working boats, quaint waterfront towns and villages among fertile farm fields – much still exists of what is the authentic Eastern Shore landscape and traditional way of life along the Chesapeake. For more information about Dorchester County visit https://tidewatertimes.com/travel-tourism/dorchester/. 79

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TIDEWATER GARDENING

by K. Marc Teffeau, Ph.D.

Phloxing to Your Garden With so many types of perennial f lowers available for home gardeners, deciding what to plant can sometimes become a challenge. One advantage of perennials is that they come back each year. You do not have to replant them each spring, as with annual f lowers. Another advantage of perennials is

that they multiply…sometimes too much! Right now, I am having to divide and clean up a crowded and overgrown daylily bed. Of course, the over-reproduction of daylilies is a nice problem to have because you can give away the extras to friends and family! Well, the National Garden Bu-

Tidewater Gardening

brought into garden cultivation. Over the years, plant breeders have created many different varieties. To help differentiate the varieties of phlox, the NGB indicates that “perennial phlox can be loosely grouped into two types: spring bloomers and summer bloomers.” Depending on their growth habits, phlox can be either spring-f low-

reau (NGB) ~ ngb.org ~ has designated perennial phlox as one of its “Plants of the Year” for 2022. In addition to the daylilies, I have an overabundant bed of purple phlox that needs to be divided. According to the NGB, phlox (Phlox sp.) is truly an “All American” plant because it is a native wildf lower in the U.S. from Florida to Canada and all the way to Alaska. Different species can be found in woodlands, prairies and meadows. Phlox is a genus with a multitude of species, heights, bloom times and garden applications. The NGB notes that phlox were among the earliest native American wildflowers to be

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For an excellent description of phlox types, planting and care, check out the NGB “Plant of the Year” website at ngb.org/year-ofthe-phlox. While digging in the f lower bed, don’t forget that you can always do additional plantings of annuals and other perennials ~ beside phlox ~ at this time. Garden centers have many beautiful annuals to choose

ering low-growing and creeping kinds (AKA “spring bloomers”) or tall “summer bloomers.” Creeping phlox, Phlox subulate, is also known as moss pinks. These varieties grow well as groundcovers and can be used en masse to cover large areas. Phlox paniculata (tall garden phlox and related types), a clumpforming perennial, blooms in midsummer and is among the tallest of the species. Tall garden phlox produces perfectly formed large, rounded flower panicles atop each stem. One characteristic of summer bloomers is a propensity to rebloom after the first flush of flowers, particularly when trimmed back.

problem with your iris, it may be wise to try them in a new location. June is also a good time to prune woody ornamentals. Pruning now involves cutting back the rampant growth that trees and shrubs made during the spring season. You can head back and thin over-vigorous shrubs to the desired size. Cuts on trees and shrubs made at this time will heal quickly. Do not cover the pruning wounds with pruning paint, as this is no longer a recommended practice. While you’re at it, be sure to remove the old seed heads of lilacs and rhododendrons by hand. Do this now to increase growth and stimulate the development of f lower buds for next year. You want

from, including geraniums, impatiens, marigolds, petunias, vinca and salvia. Perennials that provide interest in June include daylilies, astilbe, rudbeckia, yarrow, foxglove and heuchera. I like to recommend fertilizing annuals, perennials and f lowering shrubs and trees with a slow-release plant food that contains nitrogen, sulfate of potash, iron and other micronutrients for overall plant growth and development. June is the time to divide and replant German iris. Cut back the leaves and divide the clumps into single plants with one or two sections of healthy rhizome. Discard any plants infected with disease or iris borer. If disease has been a

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gradually introduce them to more direct sunlight. Feed houseplants with a quality indoor plant food, either in liquid form or as one of the CRFs (controlled release fertilizers) available at garden center and retail stores. Pinch and shape them as they grow to produce nice, symmetrical full plants to bring back into the house next fall. Be sure to keep the insects under control so you don’t bring them into the house in fall along with your houseplants. This is also a great time to move root-bound houseplants to a larger pot if needed. Use a potting mix specifically formulated for houseplants when you do the repotting.

the plant’s energy to go into maintaining the plant, not producing seeds. As I have reminded in the past, pruning on spring-f lowering shrubs should be done now. If you prune in late August, you will prune out next year’s f lowering wood and buds. June is not the time to stop planting. Shrubs and trees that provide color this month include late blooming azaleas, hydrangeas, rhododendrons, spireas, butterf ly bush, mock orange and golden rain tree. Planting woody plant material in June will require a little extra attention, especially when we get into dry spells, but the effort is well worth it. Don’t forget your houseplants! You can move them to the deck or patio and enjoy them outdoors for the summer. To prevent the leaves from being burned, it is best to 86

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Tidewater Gardening

will decompose rapidly during the warm summer months. To speed up the decomposition, shred the organic material as finely as possible and add a thin layer of soil, some lime and some high nitrogen fertilizer and keep the pile moist. Turn it every couple of weeks to help the process. You can find numerous types of composting bins and a ton of information about proper composting online. During June, you may notice odd growths on your trees. When I was the extension agent for Talbot County, I received a lot of calls about and samples of odd structures that homeowners found in their trees. These lumpy protru-

In addition to moving your houseplants outdoors, look for plants that can add color to the patio and deck. Hibiscus, jasmine, oleander and mandevilla are just a few of the f lowering tropical plants that provide summertime color. Weed control in June is very important in the vegetable garden and landscape. If you haven’t already mulched your plants, it’s not too late. First, clear the bed of existing weeds. If you use a hoe, be sure not to cultivate too deeply around shallow-rooted plants. This is a good place to use a swan scuff le or rocker hoe, as this tool does not penetrate the soil deeply. Azaleas and boxwood are two shrubs especially vulnerable to careless cultivation. Do not mulch too deeply. Two inches is adequate. Over mulching is one of the main causes of dead landscaping plants. With all the organic matter now being produced, don’t forget about the compost pile. Grass clippings, weeds and any other organic refuse 88

The gall formation process is not completely understood, but it seems that the egg or the stinging process applies an enzyme that the plant cells react to. The size and shape of the gall is characteristic of the insect species which produces it. Galls vary in appearance from small, pimplelike projections on leaves to relatively large, inf lated swellings, such as the familiar golf ball-sized “apples” sometimes seen on oak trees. Several types of insects are responsible for galls. For example, small wasps cause most oak galls. Aphids produce spruce galls. The dogwood club-gall is formed by a tiny f ly. And a mite causes maple bladder-gall, which frequently af-

sions are galls which form on the branches, twigs and leaves of certain trees and shrubs. Most result from the activity of tiny insects and mites that “sting” the branch, twig or leaf surface. The sting of this insect is actually the depositing of eggs in the plant leaf tissue. The galls that form safely house the developing insects or mites as they feed on the host plants.

Tidewater Gardening

especially on the oak galls, as timing the spray is almost impossible. Fertilize infected plants to encourage new growth. Sometimes galls are caused by bacteria or fungi. Common examples include cedarapple gall on red cedar, crown gall on roses and Exobasidium leaf gall on azaleas. These are best controlled by removing and destroying them. Happy Gardening!

fects certain species of maples. Controlling galls can be difficult. Where practical, prune out and destroy them. I haven’t seen galls actually kill a plant, but they may make it so unattractive that it loses its landscape value. Spraying is usually not recommended,

Marc Teffeau retired as Director of Research and Regulatory Affairs at the American Nursery and Landscape Association in Washington, D.C. He now lives in Georgia with his wife, Linda.

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Pride Goeth Before by A.M. Foley

In the Battle of Chesapeake Bay, Admiral Sir Thomas Graves squandered every advantage his British f leet enjoyed, thus arguably losing the War for Independence to the Americans. Credit for this battle’s victory belongs to the French. At the time, America’s navy was little more than two frigates supplemented by a few ships of individual colonies. (Benedict Arnold, converted to a British brigadier general, led a raid that destroyed Virginia’s navy.) While Admirals Graves and Francois Marquis de Grasse scrambled on September 5, 1781 to form battle lines outside Capes

Charles and Henry, the American and French armies were on the move on land: Generals George Washington and Jean Baptiste Rochambeau marched from New York to Virginia. Their hope was to locate and encircle General Charles Cornwallis when the French f leet arrived to prevent his reinforcement. When they reached Chester, Pennsylvania, a courier brought word that de Grasse had reached the Chesapeake. Cornwallis’s army ~ especially Banastre Tarleton’s cavalry and zealots under Benedict Arnold ~ had brutalized civilians and captive troops from South Carolina

St. Michaels Map and History

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Pride Goeth Before

French indeed entered Chesapeake Bay at the end of August with 28 ships-of-the-line, plus frigates, gunboats and 3,000 troops. They trapped two Royal Navy frigates inside the Capes and left them unable to convey precise intelligence of the enemy f leet to British headquarters in New York, where Graves knew only that some French had headed north from the West Indies. He set sail down the coast with a favoring wind, expecting perhaps a dozen French warships. Shortly after sunup on September 5, Graves reached the mouth of the Bay and spied the astonishing

to Virginia. Outnumbered Patriots under General Nathaniel Greene and the Marquis de Lafayette dogged the perpetrators across the South until the British, with Loyalists and Hessian mercenaries, stopped to dig in at the little port of Yorktown, Virginia. The pursuers encamped at Williamsburg, on the same peninsula, awaiting reinforcements to help trap their quarry. In addition to allies marching southward, they anticipated de Grasse’s French f leet from the West Indies. Past experience left cause for doubt, but the

number of enemy masts. The vanguard of his line entered the Capes, mistakenly headed toward the mid-shallows. To avoid running aground, they had to awkwardly maneuver about. At the same time, in his favor, Graves caught de Grasse unaware, with many French officers ashore overseeing off loading men and materials. Captains scrambled to reassemble crews and set sail for open water. With the latter portion of Graves’s line in battle order and the wind at his back, he could have taken advantage of French disorganization. But instead of attacking de Grasse’s ships straggling from the Bay, he introduced more confusion by raising contradictory signal

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Pride Goeth Before f lags. Already outgunned, many of Graves’s 19 ships-of-the-line never joined the battle. British officers maneuvered through morning and afternoon to get on the same page of battle formation “by the book.” Seamen toiled, prepping cannons and spreading sand to prevent bare feet slipping on soon-to-be-bloody decks. Battle erupted at four in the afternoon and lasted little more than two hours. Graves absorbed the majority of damage before the f leets drifted apart. Graves ordered emergency repairs and considered his odds; the French slipped back into the Bay. Deciding he could not

Lord Charles Cornwallis ~ “The man who lost the Revolutionary War.”

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Pride Goeth Before offer Cornwallis “effectual succour,” Graves headed back north, dispatching word to his astounded commander in chief, General Sir Henry Clinton: the French were “absolute masters” of the Bay. Regardless, Cornwallis’s army of 10,000 still outnumbered troops initially arrayed against him by two to one. The pugnacious general could have escaped Yorktown but settled in after a storm foiled one halfhearted foray. Clinton had promised much, and standard procedure prescribed awaiting anticipated reinforcement before taking action. Meanwhile, Washington covered

700 miles in under four weeks, including four agonizing days’ march after hearing faint sounds of sea battle, before learning the outcome. According to one witness, when Washington finally reached Williamsburg, Lafayette followed the French fashion and “caught the general…and absolutely kissed him from ear to ear.” Washington next went downriver to meet de Grasse, taking his aide Tench Tilghman as interpreter, while Lafayette recovered from a bout of ague. He learned that de Grasse had limited permission for American operations. Orders required he sail before November. If one month’s siege proved ineffective, a costly assault on Yorktown would become

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necessary. French engineers, expert at siege operations, directed entrenchments and artillery installation. To consolidate troops, Cornwallis abandoned two forward redoubts his troops had prepared. Allies quickly occupied them and on October 9 began pounding the British with artillery, some newly arrived in French ships from Newport. As British diarist Lieutenant James recorded, “horrendous” thundering of “almost unendurable” 16-inch mortars rained on their position. Cornwallis wrote Clinton that he was “in daily expectation of the appearance of the British fleet.” Clinton had sent word south that reinforcements had “already

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Oxford Map and History

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Oxford is one of the oldest towns in Maryland. Although already settled for perhaps 20 years, Oxford Oxford Bellevue Ferry marks the year 1683 177 166 as its official founding, 155 nd a tr . S St 144 for in that year Oxford The 133 was first named by n a 188 199 hm Tilg the Maryland General k e e Assembly as a seaport Cr 122 St. n and was laid out as a son Wil 11 East town. In 1694, OxSt. lair St. t nc 10 e Si rk St. Ma ford and a new town Oxford 9 t. Park hS called Anne Arundel son Hig 8 Richard . St (now Annapolis) were n Divisio St. selected the only ports of entry for the entire Town ni . o Rd n eek Cr Be ve. A Maryland province. n 3 isio t. Until the American S Div W. 2 Revolution, Oxford 1 . t S ne enjoyed prominence roli 7 Ca 333 Oxford Road To Easton as an international Pleasant Oxford St. Community shipping center surCenter Hbr. es ob R 4 Ct. rounded by wealthy E. Pier St. Pier St. tobacco plantations. Oxford Today, Oxford is a © John Norton 6 5 charming tree-lined and waterbound village with a population of just over 700 and is still important in boat building and yachting. It has a protected harbor for watermen who harvest oysters, crabs, clams and fish, and for sailors from all over the Bay. For a walking tour and more history visit https://tidewatertimes. com/travel-tourism/oxford-maryland/.

Pride Goeth Before embarked,” not mentioning that they lingered in port as repairs to Graves’s ships dragged on. Alas, Clinton was distracted, entertaining His Royal Highness Prince William Henry, who landed in New York on September 24. The future King William IV was greeted with a 21-gun salute and then entertained with parades, sumptuous dinners and concerts. A Loyalist newspaper reported: “It is impossible to express the satisfaction felt (by persons of all ranks) from the ease, affability, and condescension shown by this most pleasing, manly youth, when he appears abroad amongst the happy

and approved loyal subjects of the good and gracious king, our best and firmest friend, the majesty of England, his royal highness’ sincerely beloved father…. ” Back in Virginia, besieged troops couldn’t forage for rations and the artillery barrage continued. Lieutenant James’s diary reported “men lying nearly everywhere who were mortally wounded.” Despairing of relief, Cornwallis recognized his hopeless position, sending a redcoated drummer boy atop a parapet to beat the signal requesting “parley.” Silence fell and a British officer joined the boy, waving a white handkerchief, to be blindfolded and taken inside American lines to negotiate. Differences arose over ceremo-

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nial “honors of war,” symbolic of having fought the good fight, traditionally including rights to march out, f lags f lying, to a national tune. These honors had been denied Americans under General Benjamin Lincoln after they gallantly stood the British off for six weeks at Charleston. When Cornwallis’s time came September 19, he absented himself, claiming illness, unwilling to surrender to “Mister” Washington and “the boy,” Lafayette. Brigadier General Charles

O’Hara attempted surrendering Cornwallis’s sword to Rochambeau, but the Frenchman smilingly indicated Washington, mounted tall in the saddle in his buff and blue uniform. Washington directed O’Hara to General Lincoln. French and Americans lined either side of the road to Williamsburg as British troops marched out, their band playing a martial tune but f lags furled as ordered. The redcoats’ eyes were turned to the French. The British “appeared

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Pride Goeth Before much in liquor,” having drunk their commissary dry rather than surrender the stock. Lafayette caught their attention, having the Allies’ band strike up “Yankee Doodle.” Admiral de Grasse, stricken with asthma, missed the ceremony he had made possible. When Clinton’s reinforcements arrived weeks later, there was no need to engage them. Clinton had boarded ship the day the drummer sounded “parley," and had cleared New York harbor as the band played “Yankee Doodle.” The official treaty ending the war was two years off, but learning of Cornwallis’s loss, British Prime Minister Lord North is quoted as

saying, “Oh, God. It’s all over.” *** Banastre Tarleton (“Bloody Ban, The Butcher”) asked to be excused from the ceremony, fearing reprisal from colonial militia. Safely back in Britain, he served as a Member of Parliament from Liverpool, the port from which his family fortune was made in trans-Atlantic slavetrading. Benedict Arnold left Virginia for New York before the surrender. The previous year, when proof of betrayal was discovered in British hands, a courier had taken the documents to George Washington, who was scheduled to dine with the Arnolds. Aides found the general in Arnold’s study, tears in his

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eyes, holding a diagram suggesting how best to attack West Point, plus secret war counsel minutes. When Cornwallis surrendered, Arnold sailed to London to urge King George to continue the war. Since Arnold had served both sides as a general, British officers viewed him with suspicion, despite his resourceful and energetic service to them. Denied a military future, he led a contentious life of trade, land speculation and privateering before dying in London of dropsy at the age of 60. Marquis de Lafayette lost the father he never knew, killed by cannon fire in the Seven Years’ War. Orphaned at fourteen, he inherited one of France’s great fortunes

A two-faced Benedict Arnold effigy is set ablaze every year in New London, Connecticut. when his mother died. At nineteen, he defied royal orders, sailing for America in a ship he purchased and renamed La Victoire.

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Pride Goeth Before He idolized George Washington as a surrogate father and developed into a valuable member of his officer corps. A former slaveholder, Lafayette internalized the concept that “all men are created equal” and are endowed with Godgiven rights to “life, liberty, and

pursuit of happiness.” Evolved into an abolitionist, he pressed George Washington and James Madison to emancipate those they enslaved. The Virginians expressed sympathy with the theory but felt America wasn’t yet ready. He named his first son Georges Washington Lafayette. Forty-some years ago, A.M. Foley swapped the Washington, D.C., business scene for a writing life on Elliott Island, Maryland. Tidewater Times has kindly published portions of one upcoming work, Chesapeake Bay Island Hopping, along with other regional musings. Foley’s published works are described at www.HollandIslandBook.com.

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Berry Desserts Summer has arrived, which means berries are plentiful! There’s no better way to celebrate than by making one of these delicious fresh berry recipes. Berries provide many nutrients, are low in calories and are extremely nutritious, not to mention being low on the glycemic index. In addition to being high in

antioxidants, they are high in vitamin C, fiber, minerals and manganese. With summer in full swing and so many guests to host, you’ll be racking your brain for quick food inspirations. Berries are a lowmaintenance food, making for less stressful hosting. Just give them a

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Tidewater Kitchen light rinse, place them in a lovely bowl and serve! They’re also versatile. They can be sprinkled into salads, yogurt, ice creams, crisps, cobblers, shortcakes and wherever else you want to take them. Baking

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fruit intensifies its natural sweetness and softens its texture. Likewise, macerating berries by mashing them with sugar enriches their natural juices. In the days when home cooks were frugal, these desserts were an easy way to use up stale leftovers while providing a bit of variety in terms of texture and flavor. While regional differences exist, most American cookbooks agree on the following formulations. A crisp is fruit topped with a “rubbed” mixture of butter, sugar and flour, then baked. The topping often includes nuts or oats. A cobbler is fruit topped with a crust that can be made from cookie dough, pie pastry or biscuit topping and baked. Shortcakes are often grouped with crisps, cobblers and such, although this dessert is made with fruit that has not been baked. Rather, it is macerated and then layered between split biscuits with whipped cream. Remember: a handful of berries a day keeps the doctor away! BUTTERMILK ICE CREAM WITH FRESH BERRIES Makes 6 servings In this fun twist on berries, the fruit is soaked in fresh orange juice with zest and served with a tangy homemade ice cream. If you like, serve sweet caramelized toasted sliced almonds on top.

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2 large eggs 2 cups crème fraîche 1 cup buttermilk, well shaken 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest Mixed Berries 3 cups fresh blackberries mixed with hulled, quartered strawberries 1/4 cup fresh orange juice 1/4 cup organic brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest Garnish: fresh mint sprigs Mix all ice cream ingredients in a bowl and pour into ice cream maker. Process according to manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer

Ice Cream 2/3 cup sugar

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Tidewater Kitchen ice cream to container; cover and freeze until firm, at least 6 hours. Keep frozen. For strawberries and blackberries ~ toss berries in orange juice, sugar and orange zest in medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour to blend the flavors. Scoop ice cream into 6 dessert glasses or bowls. Top with berry mixture. Garnish each serving with a whole berry and a sprig of fresh mint.

Berries 4 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained well 2/3 cup organic brown sugar 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 tablespoon lemon zest

BLUEBERRIES with SOUTHERN LEMON ZEST BISCUITS Makes 6 servings

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Tidewater Kitchen Biscuits 3/4 cup whole organic milk 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest 2 cups all-purpose flour (or gluten free if you wish) 1/4 cup organic sugar (or less if you’d like) 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 4 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter (or vegan butter) 1 tablespoon raw sugar Lightly sweetened fresh whipped cream For berries: Combine all ingredients in large saucepan. Stir over medium heat until berries are slightly softened and syrup coats spoon, about 10 minutes. Transfer to medium glass bowl. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before serving. For biscuits: Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F. Line large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix milk and lemon zest in small bowl. Whisk the dry ingredients together in large bowl. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the milk and lemon zest mixture and stir with fork just until blended (dough will be sticky). Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface. Knead gently just until dough comes to-

gether, 4 to 5 turns (do not overwork dough or shortcakes will be tough). Pat dough out to 3/4-inchthick round. Using 3-inch-diameter cookie cutter dipped in flour, cut out dough rounds. Gently gather dough scraps and pat out to 3/4inch thickness. Cut out additional rounds for 6 rounds total. Transfer dough rounds to prepared baking sheet, leaving space between. Sprinkle dough rounds with raw sugar. Bake biscuits until golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 10–12 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool slightly. Using serrated knife, carefully cut biscuits in half horizontally. Place bottom halves on 6 plates. Spoon blueberries and syrup over, dividing equally. Cover with biscuit tops. Serve with a fresh dollop of whipped cream alongside each.

BLUEBERRY JAM SANDWICH COOKIES Makes about 24

Jam 2 cups fresh blueberries (12 ounces)

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Tidewater Kitchen 2 tablespoons powdered fruit pectin (found in baking aisle at most supermarkets) 1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter 1/2 cup organic sugar Cookies 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted organic butter, room temperature (or vegan butter) 1 cup organic sugar 3 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 large farm-raised egg yolks 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (or gluten-free flour) Raw sugar for sprinkling

For jam: Combine blueberries, fruit pectin and butter in large nonstick skillet. Stir constantly over medium-high heat until mixture boils. Add sugar and return to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil until mixture is reduced to 1 1/3 cups, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Transfer mixture to small bowl; cover and chill until jam is cold, at least 6 hours (jam will thicken slightly while chilling). Keep chilled. For cookies: Using electric mixer, beat butter, 1 cup sugar, lemon zest and salt in large bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add yolks and beat until blended. Add flour in 2 additions, beating just until

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blended after each addition. Gather dough together; divide in half. Place 1 dough half on sheet of waxed or parchment paper. Form dough into 1 1/2-inch-wide round log; smooth with dampened fingers. Wrap log in paper. Repeat with second dough half. Chill dough until firm, at least 4 hours. Keep chilled. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F. Line 2 large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut dough logs into scant 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Arrange on prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Sprinkle half of dough rounds generously with raw sugar (leave remaining plain). Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time,

until edges are light golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to rack and cool completely. Store in airtight container at room temperature. Just before serving, spread 1 generous teaspoon jam over bottom (flat side) of each plain (not sugared) cookie. Top each with sugared cookie, sugared side up, and serve. RASPBERRY, BLUEBERRY & KIWI TART Crust 7 tablespoons organic unsalted butter, melted (or vegan butter) 1/3 cup organic brown sugar 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup all-purpose flour (or glutenfree flour)

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Pinch of salt Filling 1/2 cup organic sugar 2 large farm-fresh eggs Pinch of salt 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (or glutenfree) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted organic butter, diced (or vegan butter) 2 small containers fresh raspberries, 2 small containers blueberries, 3 kiwi, peeled and sliced For crust: Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Using rubber spatula or fork, mix melted butter, sugar and vanilla in medium bowl. Add flour and salt and stir until incorporated. Transfer dough to 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Using fingertips, press dough evenly onto sides and bottom of pan. Bake crust until golden, about 18 minutes (crust will puff slightly

while baking). Transfer crust to rack and cool in pan. Maintain oven temperature. For filling: Whisk sugar, eggs and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add flour and vanilla; whisk until smooth. Cook butter in heavy small saucepan over medium heat until deep nutty brown or light brown color (do not burn), stirring often, about 6 minutes. Immediately pour butter into glass measuring cup. Gradually whisk butter into sugar-egg mixture; whisk until well blended. Arrange raspberries, pointed side up and close together, in concentric circles; fill in with blueberries and kiwi in bottom of cooled crust. Carefully pour butter mixture evenly over berries. Place tart on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until filling is puffed and golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool tart completely in pan on rack. Cover and store at room temperature. Remove tart pan sides. Place tart on platter. Cut into wedges and serve. SUMMER BERRY TIRAMISU with A LEMON MANGO CURD Berries 3 cups fresh blueberries (17 ounces) 1 cup fresh raspberries (4 1/2 to 5 ounces) 1 cup fresh blackberries (5 to 6 ounces) 1 cup powdered sugar

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1/2 cup water 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 1 cup thinly sliced fresh strawberries Syrup and Ladyfinger Layer 1/3 cup water 1/3 cup organic sugar Zest of 1 lemon 1 7-ounce package crisp ladyfingers (do not use soft ladyfingers) Mascarpone Topping 2 1/2 8-ounce containers mascarpone cheese 1/2 cup chilled heavy whipping cream Lemon Mango Curd For berries: Combine blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, powdered sugar and 1/2 cup water in large saucepan. Bring to simmer, stirring until sugar dissolves. Re-

duce heat to medium and simmer until berries are soft but still intact, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Transfer mixture to large bowl; stir in lemon juice. Cool to room temperature. Stir strawberries into berry mixture. Chill until cold, about 4 hours. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and keep chilled. For syrup and ladyfinger layer: Combine 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup sugar and lemon zest in small saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Pour syrup into bowl. Cool to room temperature. Using pastry brush, brush ladyfingers on both sides with syrup. Arrange in single layer in 13x9x2inch glass baking dish, cutting to fit and covering bottom of dish completely. Pour chilled berry mixture over ladyfingers Combine mascarpone and cream in large bowl. Using electric mixer, beat until smooth and slightly thickened (do not over-beat or mixture may curdle). Add Lemon Mango Curd; beat just until blended. Drop mascarpone topping by large spoonfuls over berry mixture. Spread evenly, covering berries completely. Cover and chill at least 8 hours. Keep chilled. Spoon tiramisù into bowls and serve. Lemon Mango Curd 1 large, ripe mango, peeled, flesh cut away from pit

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Tidewater Kitchen 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice and zest of 1 lemon 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 3/4 cup organic sugar, divided 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise 3 large egg yolks 1 large egg 1 stick chilled organic unsalted butter, cut into pieces (or vegan butter) Process mango in a food processor until smooth. Transfer to a medium saucepan and whisk in lemon juice, zest, salt and ½ cup sugar. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean and add pod. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar.

Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks, egg and remaining ¼ cup sugar in a medium bowl until no longer grainy and slightly lightened in color,

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Tidewater Kitchen about 2 minutes. Whisking constantly, very gradually stream about half of hot mango mixture into eggs, then gradually whisk mixture back into saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until curd thickens and whisk leaves a visible trail, 5–7 minutes (do not let it boil). Remove from heat and add butter a few pieces at a time, whisking until incorporated before adding more. Strain curd through a fine-mesh sieve into a large glass or nonreactive bowl and cover, pressing plastic wrap directly onto surface. Chill until cold, at least 2 hours. Keep chilled. MIXED BERRY PIE with ALMOND STREUSEL Crust 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or gluten-free flour) 2 teaspoons organic sugar 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1 stick chilled organic unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes (or vegan butter) 2 tablespoons or more ice water

1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 stick chilled unsalted organic butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes (or vegan butter) 1 tablespoon organic whole milk (or non-dairy milk) 1 cup sliced almonds For filling 3 cups fresh blueberries (17 ounces) 2 cups fresh raspberries (9 to 10 ounces) 1 cup fresh blackberries (5 to 6 ounces) 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons organic sugar 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 3 tablespoons cornstarch For crust: Whisk flour, sugar and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse

Streusel Topping 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (or gluten-free flour) 1/2 cup organic sugar 2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest 128

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Tidewater Kitchen meal. Add 2 tablespoons ice water and stir with fork until mixture is evenly moistened, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if mixture is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap dough in plastic and chill at least 1 hour. Keep chilled. Soften dough slightly at room temperature before rolling out streusel topping. Blend flour, sugar, crystallized ginger, orange zest and salt in processor. Add butter. Using on/off turns, blend until coarse crumbs form. Blend in milk (mixture will resemble moist coarse crumbs). Transfer mixture to medium bowl. Stir in almonds. Cover and chill. Position rack in center of oven

and preheat to 400°F. Place rimmed baking sheet in bottom of oven to catch any possible spills from pie. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Turn pie crust edge under, forming high-standing rim extending 1/4 inch above sides of pie dish; crimp edge decoratively. Freeze crust while making filling. Gently toss blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, 1/2 cup sugar and lemon juice in large bowl. Let stand 10 minutes. Mix cornstarch and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in small bowl. Add to berry mixture and toss gently to coat. Transfer berry mixture to crust, mounding slightly in center. Bake 30 minutes. Remove pie from oven and reduce oven temperature to 375°F. Sprinkle streusel topping evenly over berry pie filling. Return pie to oven and bake until crust is golden brown and berry juices are bubbling thickly, about 40 minutes. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely. A longtime resident of Oxford, Pamela Meredith, formerly Denver’s NBC Channel 9 Children’s Chef, has taught both adult and children’s cooking classes on the south shore of Massachusetts. For more of Pam’s recipes, visit the Story Archive tab at tidewatertimes.com.

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Kent County and Chestertown at a Glance Kent County is a treasury of early American history. Its principal towns and back roads abound with beautiful old homes and historic landmarks. The area was first explored by Captain John Smith in 1608. Kent County was founded in 1642 and named for the shire in England that was the home of many of Kent’s earliest colonists. When the first legislature assembled in 1649, Kent County was one of two counties in the colony, thus making it the oldest on the Eastern Shore. It extended from Kent Island to the present boundary. The first settlement, New Yarmouth, thrived for a time and, until the founding of Chestertown, was the area’s economic, social and religious center. Chestertown, the county seat, was founded in 1706 and served as a port of entry during colonial times. A town rich in history, its attractions include a blend of past and present. Its brick sidewalks and attractive antiques stores, restaurants and inns beckon all to wander through the historic district and enjoy homes and places with architecture ranging from the Georgian mansions of wealthy colonial merchants to the elaborate style of the Victorian era. Second largest district of restored 18th-century homes in Maryland, Chestertown is also home to Washington College, the nation’s tenth oldest liberal arts college, founded in 1782. Washington College was also the only college that was given permission by George Washington for the use of his name, as well as given a personal donation of money. The beauty of the Eastern Shore and its waterways, the opportunity for boating and recreation, the tranquility of a rural setting and the ambiance of living history offer both visitors and residents a variety of pleasing experiences. A wealth of events and local entertainment make a visit to Chestertown special at any time of the year. For more information about events and attractions in Kent County, contact the Kent County Visitor Center at 410-778-0416, visit www. kentcounty.com or e-mail tourism@kentcounty.com. For information about the Historical Society of Kent County, call 410-778-3499 or visit www.kentcountyhistory.org/geddes.php. For information specific to Chestertown visit www.chestertown.com. 133

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History in Black and White by James Dawson Talbot County is still full of surprises, and often in unexpected places. My ancestors, the Caulk family, had been in Talbot since 1705 and, being farmers, had owned slaves. In fact, some of the papers still in the old Caulk family desk are actual bills of sales for slaves. This is what you might expect, but the surprise was that just recently, I discovered that in among those slave documents were two remarkable letters written by a 20-year-old Black woman, Maidie Thomas, while she was attending Hampton Institute, a private school

for Blacks in Virginia, in 1912. What is so remarkable is not just that they were written by a young Black woman who was attending college (something few Whites did then) but also the genuine affection shown in these letters to her White friends, the Caulks. Maid ie Virg inia Thomas, t he daughter of James and Etta Thomas of Trappe, was born on Dec. 7, 1892. These letters were written to my great-grandmother, Mar y Susan Elizabeth Caulk, or Mollie, as she wa s k now n to her f r iend s. The

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Maidie Virginia Thomas

Caulks lived on Isle of Rays Farm (now Roslyn) on Island Creek Neck, about three miles from Trappe. Unfortunately, Mollie’s letters to Maidie have not survived. Too much time has passed to know just how this relationship started, but it was more than just casual. It is probable that James Thomas worked for the Caulks and that he and his family lived in one of the tenant houses on the farm. It is also interesting that photographs of James Thomas and his other daughter, Elsie, were found in the Caulk family photo album. Note that Maidie’s letters are not addressed formally to Mrs. Caulk, but with the more familiar Miss Mollie or Mrs. Mollie, and also that

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Black and White Maidie is on a fi rst-name basis with Mollie’s children, Owen, Elizabeth (Bess) and Sallie. The Thomases and the Caulks seem to have had a special relationship that spanned several generations. In any event, they were certainly very unusual letters for a Black woman to have written to a White family on the Eastern Shore in the early 1900s. The Hampton Institute was established primarily for Black, mixed race a nd ind igenous st udent s , although anyone could attend. Now called Hampton University, it is certainly one of the most remarkable schools in the Chesapeake Bay area. Wikipedia says that Hampton University is a private, historically Black research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association after the American Civil War to provide education to freedmen. Maidie was awarded a scholarship to Hampton, and her letters are very descriptive of student life at Hampton Institute, so here is her story in her own words: Hampton Institute Hampton Virginia Feb. 18, 1912 Dear Miss Mollie, I take great pleasure in writing to 140

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Black and White you. I hope you will not think hard of me by not writing sooner. I am a busy child at Hampton. I can always find something to do here. I am getting along alright so far in both my work and studies. I often think of you all and wish I was home. I have been away so long that my home will seem strange to me. I like it here, but I want to come home. It is very cold down here, but I think to day is a little warmer. I work in the laundry and it is so warm there that it feels like summer we don’t have to step our feet out side for nothing only to go to school. I wish you could see me now. I got weighed last week and have gained 18 pounds. We have had some interesting entertainments here. The Indians gave a fine citizenship program. And last month we

had farmers conference. I wish you could have heard those old farmers talking about agriculture. Mr. Owen ought to have been here because he is a great tomato grower. Anyone can come white or colored. We had one man from Conn. This school is a popular school. Carnagie [sic], one of the wealthiest men of New York presents $10,000 to this school each year. Each student has a scholarship of $100 paid each year if they are worthy of it. I got mine last month and wrote a letter in thanks. I wish you could have read it. We have holiday Thursday. There has been several interesting basket ball games played here this winter. I am going to get a dress and make for our commencement. I have been thinking that I would take up training down the Dixie hospital and be a trained nurse. I am not old enough yet to

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Black and White go. I only wish Elsie could come here next year. Tell Mr. Owen to go and plant his patch. I will be home some time enough to give him two weeks work. I am going out to our farm soon (Shell Banks), when it get warmer. I am going to take quiet hour So I will finish this to-night. I have started to write again. The girls have a society called the king’s daughters, and they have lovely meetings. To-night all the teachers from Whittier School, whom are Hampton graduates, came over and spoke some fine pieces. The Whittier school is a public school under Hampton Institute. It is mainly for the training of Hampton teachers. I

have been down there several times. I guess Elsie is a little lonely taking so many long drives by her self. She is pretty well satisfied by this time. I would love to see Miss Bessie. I have never heard from Maggie since I came here. I wonder what caused her to stray away from Mama. I wrote to her once but she never answered it. Does Florence still live with you also? How is Martha? I suppose she is a large girl by this time. Take care of your self and Miss Sallie and write when you have time. I am always glad to hear from home. Rremember me to all. Sincerely yours Maidie

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Notes: Mollie had a big heart. It is quite probable that she may have helped Maidie w ith some of her expenses in addition to giving her gifts like a handkerchief. As if raising seven children of her own wasn’t enough, Mollie had adopted Martha, an orphan girl, after meeting her in Easton. It was said that Martha had some Native American blood in her. Hampton Institute Hampton Virginia June 17, 1912 My dear Mrs. Mollie, It affords me great pleasure in writing to you, as it has been so long since I heard from you. I should have written to you before, but you know

how it is with me, and when I do get off from work I am tired and too lazy to write. Papa told me you wrote to me when you was in Baltimore and sent me a handkerchief. I didn’t get it, but I thank you just the same. I don’t know why it did not come here, as I never lose any thing in the mail. I hope this will find you all well and enjoying good health. I have been perfectly well ever since I came here, except I had a slight cold once. This place sure does agree with me. I don’t think I want to come home to stay any ways soon. I like here so well. I think but not sure I am coming home on my vacation the twentieth of August, If my teachers can spare me. I will be some kind of glad to get back to my old home at Trappe

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Elsie Thomas once more for awhile. it seem[s] as if I have been away so long from my people a score of years. I often think of you all and wish you could come to Hampton to visit. I know you would enjoy going around looking at the wonderful work done here by the students at Hampton. I don’t mean in the summer because school has closed and there are no students. To-day has been a very busy one with us all. The school has now opened again for summer normal teachers for a month. It is opened every year. Any teacher can come here and learn new ideas of teach-

ing. There are teachers here of all descriptions. Last Sunday, a week ago I spent my happiest day here at Hampton. I have heard a great deal about the president of the United States. That day I had the pleasure of seeing him face to face. It was a rare curiosity to me because I have never seen any before. There has been and is now six large war ships lying in the Hampton Roads near by, and we can see them real good. One day we heard a great firing. When we asked what was it for and about we were told they were greeting the president, Taft, while he was aboard the ships, Dr. Frissell, our principal, went to see him and invited him to come over. “You know President Taft is a trustee of this institution and he was very much pleased to come visit this school. On Sunday he came here from the ships in a beautiful launch. He was escorted to the mansion house by Dr. Frissell his two guards and others. He was served breakfast at nine-thirty by one of our colored st udents. The choir entertained him by singing while he ate. His waitress tells me that man went on to eat some more corn bread. He is almost large enough to do so. After breakfast he went to church and talked to us of many interesting things. After church, he went back to the ship and a large crowd followed him. It was a very pleasant visit and we were very interested

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Black and White in him. I have had a chance to come in contact with so many prominent people here. Mr. Carnegie has been here not long ago also. You know he is one of the wealthiest men in New York and presents to this school $10,000 annually. He also spoke to us. Dr. Booker T. Washington the principal of the Tuskegee institute came here on our anniversary day. Tuskegee Institute is one of the best schools known for colored students also Hampton. I want you to come here before I leave. The carpenters of the 1913 class are building a Y.M.C.A. building and it is a pretty one too. All the work done at the school is done by

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Black and White the students here. The Indians are very smart. Most all the Indian boys are taking a trade of some kind. One thing Dr. Frissel says to us very often, when he speaks to us in Chapel is that here at Hampton the white, Black and red have all learned to live to-gether in peace. You know there are all white teachers here. Some of them are very good to me and I have learned to love them. I am going to try and learn to do Fancy work this summer, while I have [the] chance. I will not be here this time next summer. If nothing happens to me and I keep well I want to go to Maine and work the summer months. The students have a chance

to go north under the school if they want to. The teachers get them service places and the person where they work pays their fare both ways. I think I can make more money and will not have to work so hard. I have been credited to more than $100.00 but I have my board to pay. I hope by the time that school closes I will have enough balanced to pay my whole year’s board next year, together with what I make my work day and eight o’clock work. Every girl has a portion of work to do at eight o’clock. But we get paid for all we do. I did want to be a waitress this summer but it was so hot I couldn’t make it. This is the hottest place I ever was in. I don’t think I ever want to go any farther south because the sun shines

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Black and White so hot on me. This is a beautiful place and I feel so happy. How is Miss Bessie? I should like to see her. I will not know what to do with myself when I come home. I know I will be lonely. I have been kept busy ever since I arrived. I have learned so much that I did not know by taking a work year. You bet I will be glad when it is over. I want you to make up your mind to come here to visit. We are going on a launching party soon to Jamestown not far from here. There are only three hundred students here now, and we have most every thing we want to eat. I have told you all I think I have in store and I am very sleepy too. It is now about eight thirty o’clock and I have got to

Maidie’s father, James Thomas

make taps too. The bell will ring at nine for bed. How is little Sarah I know she is a large girl by this time. Remember me to them also the family. I am a great big girl, weigh 130 pounds. I will be glad if I can get off to come home in August. I am tired out. I need rest. I want you to write me a long letter as I did you and tell me all the news. How many chickens, ducks and turkeys you have. I hope you are all well and happy like me. How is Mr. Owen? The bell is ringing and I must stop. Write to me soon. Good by with best wishes Sincerely yours, love to all Maidie Notes: Fancy work was decorative sewing like embroidery and crocheting. William H. Taft was our heaviest president and outweighed Maidie by at least 200 pounds. Carnegie was the millionaire Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest men in the country, and Booker T. Washington was the famous Black educator who founded Tuskegee University along with George Washington Carver and Lewis Adams in 1881. His autobiography, Up From Slavery, is still in print. Little Sarah was a cousin. No clue who Florence or Maggie were. Maidie lived a long and full life, which included a family. After she graduated from Hampton Institute with a bachelor’s degree, she re-

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turned home to teach at the Black school on Money Make Road just outside Trappe that had been started by the former slave and Black activist Nathan Hopkins. She became a seamstress on the side to help with expenses. Then she became a governess and nanny for the Peterson family in Wye Heights near Wye Mills, a position she held for nearly 20 years, even following them to New York City. After that, in the 1940s, she opened the O.K. Garage and Storage Center in Harlem for some years, and when that closed due to changing conditions in the city, she opened a daycare center. After that, she became a governess and nanny to the Buegeleisen family in Larchmont, New York.

She also worked in the Civil Rights Movement with the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell and was a member of his church. Rev. Powell was also a U.S. Congressman from New York. n 1965, Maidie retired and returned to Trappe. She was active in Scott’s Church and in many civic activities. She also enjoyed swimming, sewing and letter writing and was known for her generosity. She continued driving and swimming until she was 79. Maidie Virginia Thomas died on Jan. 11, 1992, just 35 days after her 99th birthday. She is buried in Paradise Cemetery near Trappe next to her sister, Elsie, with whom she shares a tombstone. The Caulk family were Talbot

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Black and White County farmers who had profited from slave labor and had southern leanings. Mollie was born in 1846. Family lore has it that when she stayed in Ba lt imore dur ing t he Civil War, she defiantly pounded out southern classics on the piano from her music book like “I Wish I Was In Dixie’s Land,” “The Southern Right’s March,” “Maryland, My Maryland” (written by a Baltimorean in Louisiana) and “Stonewall Quick-Step,” making sure that Union soldiers passing by on the street heard her through the open window. Yet, 50 years later, she had plenty of room in her heart for her Black friends. After graduating from the Johns

Hopkins School of Nursing in Baltimore, Elizabeth “Bessie” Caulk had a career in nursing and then moved back to the farm to help Owen and Sallie care for their ailing mother when Mollie’s health failed. Elizabeth’s letters about farming in the 1930s were the subject of an article I did for the April 2021 Tidewater Times. Mollie Caulk died in 1926 after continuing the family farm when her husband, John, died in 1913. Sallie and Bessie eventually sold their farm after Owen’s death and moved to Trappe. Although neither married, they raised several children, including my mother after my grandmother died. Martha, the little orphan girl that

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Black and White Mollie raised, grew up and married Bennett Frampton, who was bridge tender on the old Choptank River bridge that opened in 1935. They had two boys. Hampton Institute is now Hampton University. Wikipedia states that “Hampton University offers 90 programs, including 50 bachelor’s degree programs, 25 master’s degree programs and nine doctoral programs. The university has a satellite campus in Virginia Beach and also has online offerings. Hampton University is home to 16 research centers, the largest free-standing facility of its kind in the world.” The Thomas family became part of

Trappe. Maidie’s only son, William McKee Thomas, started Thomas’ Salvage Yard in 1942, which was continued by his son, Joseph Henry Lee, Maidie’s grandson, until his death in 2021. The business is still run by the family 80 years later, so it is certainly the oldest business still operating in Trappe. The Thomases defi nitely inherited Maidie’s entrepreneurial skills. Maidie’s granddaughter Naomi still has the notebook Maidie kept of her expenses while at Hampton Institute. Many thanks to Naomi Thomas for her help. James Dawson is the owner of Unicorn Bookshop in Trappe.

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Changes:

Coming Again A work in progress by Roger Vaughan

Chapter 8: The Tasman Two and a half days out of Sydney, skipper Jan Sargent and navigator Peter Damaris, who had been watching the weather faxes, let the crew of All American know that the Low they had been tracking was just hours away. Everything had been working well so far. The charts issued by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, based on data from sea buoys, had helped them negotiate the tricky current that runs south to north off Sydney. Like a mini Gulf Stream, the current is laced with many a strong eddy. The piping northwesterly had come in on schedule, giving them a 25-knot push in the right direction. On a beam reach, they’d been averaging 18 knots, with gusts frequently pushing them over 25. There had been some debate over setting the spinnaker, but with the wind angle barely more than 90 degrees, Sargent was adamant about leaving the sail in the bag. “Maybe it would give us another knot or two,” he told his crew, “until we either crashed and burned or

we blew it out. To win, it helps to finish.” The leg from Sydney to Auckland around the top of New Zealand isn’t that long, around 1,400 miles as a boat sails (1,200 miles measured in straight lines), but it is one of those tricky passages you wouldn’t want to do for pleasure with your family. For a race boat, it takes about five days. One sails out of Sydney into the Tasman Sea until off Cape Reinga, at the north end of New Zealand, where the Pacific Ocean is waiting. Sailors often refer to the Tasman as a bad part of the world. Boats have been lost there. “New Zealand is so small it doesn’t affect the weather like Australia does,” Grady had told Andy a few days before the start. “Little New Zealand is parked in the weather motorway. The wind just whizzes over the top.” Luckily for Andy, Grady had sailed Sydney/ Auckland a number of times. “You can’t cross the Tasman without going through at least one big front,” Grady had told him. “The highs come across the Great Australian

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For Andy, once into the rhythm of it, the pleasure, the satisfaction, Bight into the Tasman, giving you was immense. It was like steerthat nice nor’wester. The Lows ing a high-performance dinghy, a come from the Southern Ocean, Melges or a 470, only frighteningly and they’re strong, bringing with more impressive when All Amerithem a 40- to 50-degree wind shift can planed down a wave and all 60 that’s also in the 25–30 knot range. feet of it was so in tune with wind You can end up sailing through a and water that it felt suspended in succession of ridges. Big fun.” time and space ~ steady as a rock, Andy was driving and loving it. locked into a slender groove ~ with It was night. The number three jib the speedo climbing to 23, 25, 27! was slightly high cut, meaning it With helm, boat and sails seeming wasn’t constantly filling with wa- frozen for as much as five or eight ter and pulling the nose down. De- seconds (a forever moment), pushspite its lack of buoyancy forward, ing through that tenuous envelope All American was behaving quite of performance the designer enviwell. The spray was constant, but sioned in his dreams. the bow was stayAs all-consuming For Andy, once into the ing clean most of the as it was for the time. The helmsman rhythm of it, the pleasure, the helmsman, because was partly respon- satisfaction, was immense. the satisfaction sible for that, drivinvolved was coning the boat off a few degrees in ducive, thoughts of Becky came the gusts, and accelerating to boot. rushing in as fast as the water was Andy had a friendly star he kept streaking past. Physical stuff first lined up on the forestay as a safe to accompany the rush of Andy course. He worked the boat up in driving this race boat in full fly, the lighter spots to come closer to swaddled in foul weather gear, with the heading for Cape Reinga. Head every muscle working to stay uptrimmer Dave Zimmer with Larry right on the slippery, pitching platKolegeri, the former New York Jet form, with water running down his linebacker, on the handles were neck and spray blocking his vision. minding the main, working with His hands were trying to stay light Andy, easing in the gusts to de- on the wheel for best communicacrease helm pressure and trimming tion with the powerful beast. Two back constantly. EMT Joe Dugan fingers! And there came the vision and Dick Hooper, who had replaced of Becky beside him, naked, the two the dismissed Roger Davis, were of them entwined, laughing, crying doing the same with the jib. out. But it was a trick, his mind let160

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a friend of Grady’s who was a climate change activist, she’d become ting her in like that, because the last captivated by that subject. Bill meetings with her had been a little McKibben’s frightening book, The tense. End of Nature, had just come out, Would he tell her about the deal and it had become the environmenwith his father, about the small tal activists’ bible, even in Sydney. container worth a million or more McKibben had written about the in emeralds and opals that was (documented!) rapid increase of now buried in All American’s keel? carbon dioxide in the atmosphere That’s what Grady wanted to know. and had gone deeply into the sober“Will you tell Becky?” he’d asked. ing specifics of the crippling damGrady said experience had taught age warming of the planet would him that if a person is told a secret, cause, how there were already omithey will always tell one person. nous signs of regression. In 1988, He wanted to know, would that one for the first time in history, Amerperson be Becky? He went on to say ica had eaten more food than it he rather hoped it would be. Be- grew. In the last 10 years, acid rain cause maybe Andy had become 10 to 40 could make it end Not telling her would have been times more toxic. there, create such a impossible because she would There were a couple dire potential con- know something was amiss. hundred pages of sequence that Becky similarly disturbing would break the rule and her lips information. would actually be sealed. Andy Becky had attended a few clisaid he’d let Grady know. Before he mate meetings in Sydney that at boarded the boat for the Auckland first glance had seemed to Andy leg, Andy had taken his father aside like a bunch of alarmists wringand said yes, he had told Becky. ing their hands over another vague Not telling her would have been threat that was far in the future. As impossible because she would Jan Sargent had put it, “Yeah, we’re know something was amiss. Her all gonna die someday, so what.” antennae were sensitive. But he McKibben’s point was that unless hadn’t imagined how difficult tell- some very radical stance was taken ing her would be. Photography had immediately, the “end of nature” kept her busy in Sydney. The ad- could or would happen sooner than vertising department back home at one might imagine. Few had the Moss Optics was delighted with the time, or the fortitude, to even conmaterial she’d been sending them. template such immense, terminal And thanks to a woman she’d met, disruption. Denial ruled, as usual, 162

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knew it had to be something like that,” she’d said, giving Andy a and life lurched on. Except Becky, hug, enjoying his joke. Andy didn’t the lawyer, had taken it on as a per- laugh, and he didn’t hug back. It sonal case. Her research file was took a minute, but Becky slowly growing at a rapid rate. Andy was sat up in bed, looking curiously at finding it difficult to get her atten- Andy like she might be observing tion on occasion. Evenings when a new client she was meant to dethere was no race-related social fend. event, she would be buried in re“You’re not kidding,” she said. search, often stopping to read key “I’m not kidding.” passages to him from texts she had Becky had fallen back on the bed found. He began to get interested. with her eyes closed while Andy His wrists had caught her at- had told her everything, from tention. They had taken a chaf- Grady’s rendition of why this casuing from being hauled up onto his al smuggling operation had worked tiptoes at the fitness gym while for such a long time, to the details being “tested.” When Becky had of how Martin, the same guy who inquired, Andy had had helped string Andy didn’t laugh, and he made up a tale of him up, had expertly didn’t hug back. how he’d wrapped drilled into the lead lines around both Becky slowly sat up in bed keel, sealed the canwrists to help haul ister in with Gorilla a heavy sail onto the dock. She’d Glue and silently slipped away into bought it, he’d thought. But a cou- the night on his electric-powered ple days later, they were lying in RIB. “If you love me, if you want bed enjoying a sexual afterglow me to stay healthy, this informawhen she had said quietly, while tion must stay between us,” Andy stroking his wrist, “Why don’t you said in conclusion. tell me what really happened.” There had been a pause so long Andy didn’t say anything. Nei- that Andy had dozed off. ther did Becky. When the silence “How could you?” Becky said it started to get just a touch awk- quietly, but it stirred him. ward, Andy said, “Okay…a couple “How could I not?” he mumbled. rough dudes grabbed me and be“They could put you away for a fore I knew it they had hauled me long time. I guess you’ve thought up onto my tiptoes and threatened about that. And what it would do to do damage if I didn’t tell them to Moss Optics. My god, Sam! It about Grady’s drug deal.” would kill him.” Becky enjoyed a good laugh. “I “Here’s the thing,” Andy said. 164

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“Not for you guys,” Andy said, laughing. The boys joined in, spic“I don’t know about it. Someone ing their laughter with obscenities. sneaked onto the boat and buried Pete Damaris stuck his head out the canister in the keel. And of the hatch. “If you’re through having course, I’m not taking any money. water fights, we have to get serious There’s nothing to trace. I have about this new front. It’s about on thought about it.” us, and it’s boisterous. Southwest Becky went quiet. Andy remem- at 25–30. A 90-degree shift. Tell bered her getting up and walking me what you've been steering?” to the bathroom, always a pleas“Oh-six-five, average.” ing sight, and closing the door. He “Good.” also remembered thinking, what Jan Sargent came up behind Pehave I done? A minute later, she ter. “Jibe, change jibs after if we had opened the door and stuck her have to.” head out. “I hate that Grady used “If the low is that close,” Andy you,” she’d said, “but my lips are said, “why don’t we jibe now besealed.” fore we’re in the mess of two systems colliding, with “WAVE!!” It was “WAVE!!” It was Stu Samu- confused wind and Stu Samuels. Andy els. Andy had sensed it a seas? We’ll be off touch too late. SLAM! had sensed it a touch course for a few mintoo late. SLAM! the utes, but it might be bow plunged into the middle of it, a lot easier to be on the proper jibe scooping up a Niagara of water that when the front hits.” rolled down the weather deck like “The sooner we jibe, the better a little tsunami and tried its best angle we’ll have on the new tack,” to tear Andy and the sailors in the Peter added. cockpit away from their safety har“Do it,” Jan said. “Want help?” nesses. It took a while for everyone “We’re good.” to recover and take stock of their “Okay below.” personal discomfort, as the best “Ready to jibe, guys,” Andy said foul weather gear was no match as he began steering down. It was for such a hosing. Everyone was going to be tricky. The nor’wester soaked to the skin. The cockpit was had been blowing for several days, full, taking its time to drain. Larry building the seas to nearly 20 feet. Kolegeri was the first to find his Andy put the boat on a comfortable voice. “Becky. Right, boss?” broad reach and kept looking off Andy: “Becky.” the port quarter for a smooth patch “Worth it?” It was Stu. in which to jibe. He noted that the 166

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sure for Dugan and Hooper to clear the jam. He allowed the boat to boat speed was under 15 knots. head down a few perilous degrees, There it was, the f lat spot he’d been hoping the waves would give him looking for. the break he needed. When he felt “Now!” he yelled, and turned the the stern rising up under him, he wheel, going for slow but steady, said goodbye to any break, thank knowing control was everything you very much. The wave from beto keep this wild-ass thorough- hind lifted the stern and f lung the bred from trying to take charge. boat forward. Andy hung on as he The boat speed helped, reducing watched the bow dive like an arthe apparent wind speed to 10 or row dropped from the sky into the 15 knots, but boat speed was drop- back of the next wave and keep goping. Oncoming seas from astern ing, playing submarine, with green looked menacing. Zimmer handled water rushing up past the forward the main beautifully, trimming as hatch until it was at the base of much as he could as the force came the mast, stopping the yacht dead off it for a couple seconds, then eas- at a steep angle that revealed the ing big time on the entire rudder. The new tack. Even with At some point in the nightmare, boat hung there for gloves and turns on Andy was sure he had heard the longest second Joe Dugan yell, “Clear!” the winch drum, the ever measured until heat of the wet line it simply fell over on running through his hands was its side. At some point in the nightuncomfortable. Trim and get speed mare, Andy was sure he had heard up, and they’d be good. Joe Dugan yell, “Clear!” “JAM!” Dugan yelled. “Got a The spreaders pierced the water jam.” before the mast slowly began to Andy had already started to stand upright again. Good old Ducome up a few degrees to avoid ac- gan and Hooper had scrambled to cidentally jibing back, an event that the new leeward side as soon as it could cause serious damage. But was available and had begun trimthe jib was now backwinded by the ming the now released jib on the jammed weather sheet, which was proper side. It was just what was bent taut around the mast, awk- needed, as the jib pulled the boat wardly filling the jib and pulling away from the sea and provided the bow down. Andy fought it but some momentum. Andy felt the thought if he could block the jib, if rudder, immersed again, take hold. he put the main between it and the Zimmer let the main remain eased wind, it might release enough pres- as things returned to normal, as 168

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moments under sail to remember as the sun rose over the bow, backwater cascaded off the deck back to lighting the wild-looking pathway where it belonged. of breaking seas in front of them Jan Sargent’s face appeared in and brightening their wake: prothe cockpit hatch. He looked like nounced streaks of white foam in a he’d been keel hauled. “That’s a tight “V” that looked like someone radical way to clear a jammed jib should be waterskiing behind them. sheet,” Sargent said. No one talked. Even Sargent was “Thanks,” Andy said. “I’ll write impressed. it up for the sailors’ handbook.” The following morning, the sunForty minutes later, the Low rise showed them the light on Cape came through, snarling and gnash- Reinga, with famous Ninety-Mile ing its teeth with great cracks of Beach to the right. “You know that lightning and echoing, rolling beach is really 55 miles,” Teddy Bothunder so loud it was alarming. swick said. “More Kiwi bullshit.” It was raining hard and blowing They’d changed to the larg25, as predicted. The seas were est spinnaker, and the speed was a tangled mess as down as they had the southwest wind They were on a reach for outraced the Low arm-wrestled with Cape Reinga. Stu Samuels into the more modwas driving. the northerly. Everate southwest sea eryone had had a breeze along New chance to go below and re-dress Zealand’s west coast. Indications in dry clothes before putting their were that even lighter winds could wet foulies back on, a marked im- be expected. They had lost track provement. Speed remained over of their rival, Ram Bunctious, in 20 knots, and the sou’wester was what was turning out to be a twomaking it comfortable to steer a boat race. Damaris said he thought course of 80 degrees. They were on it had gone farther to the north. A a reach for Cape Reinga. Stu Samu- few hours later, his suspicions were els was driving. proved right as the Kiwis were As dawn broke and the sou’wester spotted. Ram looked to be a few had abated somewhat, produc- miles ahead, and at least two miles ing a more reliable seaway, Sar- north of Cape Reinga. gent called for one of the smaller, “We are where we are,” Sargent tougher spinnakers. Soon they were said. “We’ll go for the beach.” flying, rarely under 25 knots, and “I like it,” Andy said, recalling under control as they planed down what Grady had told him about the wave after wave. It was one of those little sea breeze that could often 170

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land, the largest and tallest, just eight miles from the coast, was a be found off Cape Reinga. The sun worry. Andy shared what Grady was a promising sign. If Koonce on had told him: sailing through the Ram Bunctious was sensing the passage between Hen Island and same thing, it was too late. He was the Whangarei Heads, a long, high too far offshore to come in. He’d cliff on the coast, was usually the made his choice. Too late to change fastest. The wind could accelerate his mind. The water was deep between the two. within a half mile of the beach. “All good,” Sargent said, “but of In the light wind that had come course, whatever we do, Koonce northwest, All American had jibed will do the opposite. He’s got nothspinnaker and slid around Cape ing to lose. There’s no one close beReinga and North Cape to the east. hind him, so we’d better be right.” They watched Ram sail into a hole They went over it a dozen more outside and end up a mile behind times in the several hours before them. they had to pick a course to go inAnother jibe, and All American side or outside Hen Island. The turned south into wind lightened up The wind was blowing a the typical northa bit but remained east sea breeze on steady 10 knots. The big reach- relatively steady the east coast that ing chute was doing its job. northeast. would take them the There was little 250 miles to the finish in Auck- new information. The smart course land. With Ram visible but well be- kept reading inside. All three hind them, there was a certain qui- agreed. “If this costs me another et comfort on board All American. goddamn case of rum, I am gonna The wind was blowing a steady 10 be pissed,” Sargent said as he cast knots. The big reaching chute was his vote for inside. doing its job. The off watch was “Aren’t you one up on him?” topside, taking the sun. Andy asked. Below, Damaris, Sargent and “Yeah, and being two up would Andy were not sharing that com- be just fine.” fort as they looked ahead and It was one of those days. Hen struggled with their final strategic Island decided to block the wind decision. Halfway to Auckland, the instead of accelerate it. All AmeriHen and Chicken Islands lined up can’s speed dropped slowly from east to west, and they were smack eight to five knots as Hen Island in their path. The Chickens were drew abeam. Sargent sat at the small, insignificant, but Hen Is- nav table, disbelieving. The mood 172

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er side, crewmen moved aft and to leeward to maintain the angle of on the boat was grim. “Complain- heel that seemed fast. Joe Dugan, ing isn’t going to fix it!” Sargent the lightest crewman, went forbarked when he heard Caskie Ko- ward brief ly to attach the halyard legeri bitching. “So shut. The hell. and start the head of the sail into UP!” That had put a lip seal on the the pre-feeder. He then attached group. But it was hard not to grouse the sheets. With the binoculars, when Ram came out from behind Sargent watched similar goings on Hen Island with its chute full and aboard Ram Bunctious. He cracked a decent head of steam up. In just a smile. This should be good. a couple wrenching hours, Koonce “Listen up,” Sargent said. “Pete and company had held the stronger expects a shift down the road a breeze outside, sailed an extra mile piece, and a headwind into the in the process and caught up. Once finish. Tacking duel. Number one free of Hen’s block, All American is ready. Crouse and Eric on the picked up the breeze and matched hoist, Zimmer trim with Larry. Ram’s speed. Dugan on the takedown, Caskie Damaris was at and Hoop gathering. Separated by about a his nav table, lookGet it right. Smooth. ing ahead again. mile, the two boats raced Keep speed up. Now neck and neck The rest of the crew we wait.” was on deck, taking Separated by turns constantly trimming the big about a mile, the two boats raced chute and the main, tweaking the neck and neck under spinnaker for vang and moving weight around to more than two hours. There was squeeze every fraction of a knot out nothing in it for either of them as of the boat. they exchanged boat-length leads. “We’re going to have a beat into As one, they felt the shift. Both Auckland,” Damaris told Sargent. crews trimmed and carefully sailed “Our reaction to the late afternoon into the new wind that was clockshift will be key.” ing to come dead ahead. As one, “Number one?” Sargent asked. jibs were hoisted and trimmed. “Yes.” Spinnakers came down. Crew work Four crewmen moved the big was f lawless on both boats. Both number one jib in its turtle from had been on port tack. They both below to the deck ever so slowly so came off to the right of course, as not to disturb the boat’s attitude staying on port, a move that put All in the water. As the sail was moved American inshore and to leeward forward into position on the weath- of Ram with a sudden, if small, 174

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Maybe three or four boat lengths. It was 30 minutes before Andy lead. At the wheel, Andy liked be- would relieve Stu at the helm. He ing inside, thinking they might went below for one of his patented pick up a nice lift along the beach. Alpha naps. He was soon transRam tacked away. Following All ported back six years, when he’d American made no sense for them. been on Mitch’s boat off Newport, “Should we cover?” Andy won- Rhode Island, trimming the jib dered. and calling a close cross coming up Damaris: “Not enough advan- with Koonce, who had the right of tage.” way. He was an overweight, out-ofSargent: “Hate not staying in the shape wiseass at the time, thinksame water with them.” ing he’d make it hot for his hateful Andy: “The beach looks good. father by causing a near-collision, And here we are.” saying they had room to cross, Sargent: “Stay with it, then. no problem, until it was an emerMake the best of it. Agree?” gency helm down RIGHT NOW Damaris and Andy agreed. or watch his father’s boat drive An hour later, full speed into the they tacked. In an- Ram was dead astern. They cockpit of Koonce’s other hour, Ram were close. Maybe three or boat and maybe kill four boat lengths. came into view, havsomebody. “TACK ing tacked back. Stu NOW!!!” Andy had was steering. yelled, finally, and the great Mitch“We’ll cross them, it looks,” Stu ell Thomas, oh-so-cool Mitch who said. was admired by everyone, totally Sargent: “The right’s paying off. freaked out. Mitchell, screaming Stay with it.” curses, had in fact put the helm Stu tacked the boat when Ram down hard and disaster had been was dead astern. They were close. avoided. But Mitchell Thomas had

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moderate wind. “Hard to tell,” Damaris said, lost the race, which had been the “but my guess is he’s laying it.” whole idea. Then Andy had gotAndy: “He can’t cross us. We’ve ten drunk at the awards dinner got him.” that had followed, opened his big Sargent: “He’ll dip if he’s laying mouth and here he was. He opened it. If he’s not, he could dip anyway, his eyes. Here he was on this crazy then tack back at us on starboard.” Round the World race boat and “Be ready to do the best tack out there was Koonce, once again, we’ve ever done,” Andy said quiwith both boats on the wind play- etly. “Tell ’em, Joe.” ing opposite sides of the raceFrom his position trimming the course, with a winner-take-all jib, Dugan calmly called “starcross coming up. Once again. Sea board,” just loud enough for Ram Hog Day. Only this time, it would to hear it. be Andy at the wheel because Damaris and Sargent were Mitch, his pretend father, was in watching Koonce like hawks. jail for murdering his mother. And “Hunt him a little,” Sargent said, this time, he’d be on meaning to steer off Shoot at just the starboard tack with and make him conright moment the right of way. sider tacking. and we should nail him. Ram Bunctious Andy steered and All American down four degrees. were coming together again on op- Koonce held course. posite tacks. Ram from seaward, Sargent: “He’s definitely laying on port. American from the land the finish.” side, on starboard. Andy came back up. Ram sud“Looks like he’s gotten a bit of a denly turned down to dip. lift,” Damaris said, studying Ram “Now,” Andy and Sargent said with binoculars. “Close. Gonna be together. Andy tacked the boat at close. He may be laying the finish just the right speed, fast enough line.” to get quickly onto the new tack, “If we can, I’d like to go at him, smooth enough to keep momenmake him tack, then tack as he tum, which was critical. Ram had a tacks,” Andy said from the wheel. head of speed. All American would “That would finish him off.” slow in the tack. But light as it was, “He’ll dip to take your stern.” the boat would accelerate quickly. “Got it.” Andy held the boat off the wind a The boats got closer, both mov- few degrees. The trimmers were ing at around eight knots in the with him, waiting to fine-tune un178

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Ram looked to have a slight edge. Getting close. Closer. Stu suddenly til the speed came back up. f lung his hand out to the left, his Koonce drove off, going fast, pointing finger saying, “do it!” putting two boat lengths between As one, both boats came head Ram and American. It was a great to wind, their momentum carryreaction to American’s sudden tack ing them over the line. There was because when he came back on a gun and a whistle separated by course to the finish, the two boats less than two seconds. The crews of were dead even. And Ram’s wind both boats exploded in cheers that was clear. were drowned out by the cacophFor 30 minutes, the two boats ony of horns, whistles and yelling raced like they were stuck together. from the spectator boats. Spectator boats had been gathering “Who won it!?” The hail to the for the past hour. Now there were race committee came from Ram. hundreds of them as American and “All American,” came the answer Ram approached Rangitoto Island across the water. and the finish. For the most part, Andy was wrung out, unbethey were behaving. lieving. He looked Any bad wakes they As one, both boats came head across the wacreated had an equal to wind, their momentum ter at Koonce and effect on the race carrying them over the line. shrugged. Koonce boats. looked back, then “Want some good news?” Dam- extended his fist in Andy’s direcaris asked. “The left side of the tion. His thumb came up. finish is favored. Shoot at just the right moment, and we should nail vaughan.roger@gmail.com him.” “Stu,” Andy said, “how about taking the bow and giving me a signal? Wait until we are close.” Stu gave Andy a thumbs-up and moved quietly to the mid deck. With 50 yards to go, Stu moved forward and lay face down on the deck, his eyes even with the forward edge of the bow. The line was short, relatively easy to judge. He saw his counterpart on Ram, 100 feet away, doing the same thing. 180

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Tidewater Times June 2022

Articles inside

Changes - Coming Again - A Work Progress: Roger Vaughan

Tidewater Kitchen: Pamela Meredith

History in Black and White: James Dawson

Kent County and Chestertown at a Glance

St. Michaels Map and History

Oxford Map and History

Pride Goeth Before: A.M. Foley

Tidewater Gardening: K. Marc Teff eau

Queen Anne's County

Caroline County ~ A Perspective

When We Read: Michael Valliant

Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay: Helen Chappell

June Tide Table

A Wicked Trip: Bonna L. Nelson

Publishers' Note

Easton Map and History

Chamber Music Festival Winners: James Carder

About the Cover Photographer: Jay Fleming