Tidewater Times March 2023

WILLESLEY FARM

Just 2 miles outside St. Michaels near the end of Church Neck Road: Beautiful 4,400 sq. ft. home constructed 2015 and a conditioned 30’ x 75’ “car barn,” sited on 19.5+/- acres of fenced pasture and woodlands. $1,485,000

OAK POINT

Constructed by skilled Amish craftsmen, this exceptional 4,500 sq. ft. home provides commanding views across Broad Creek from a premier point w/1,030’+/of shoreline. Charming guest house. Pool. Dock w/8’+/- MLW! $3,950,000

WATERFRONT COTTAGE

Just 5 miles beyond St. Michaels: Stylishly updated cottage on 3.8 acres +/- overlooking Harris Creek. Waterside primary suite with deck, hardwood floors, screened porch, tiled baths, 3-car garage. $1,200,000

BLACK WALNUT COTTAGE

Spectacular sunrise AND sunset views from every room. Beautifully-renovated 3-BR cottage on Tilghman Island. Gourmet kitchen overlooks the family room w/gas fireplace, large primary suite w/screened porch. $749,500

TRADITIONAL MADE MODERN

About the Cover Photographer

Nanny Trippe

Nanny Trippe has had a love for photography since a young age. What began as recordings of pets and nature developed into a love of composition. “When the elements of light, texture, line and shadow come into balance ~ that’s what excites my eye,” says Trippe.

These elements are visualized in our cover photo Skipjack Boom. The photo is one of a series depicting the parts, or composition if you will, of a skipjack docked in Dogwood Harbor on Tilghman Island. The other two photos are Skipjack Mast and Bowsprit. The three images are installed in a private collection and the room was featured in an interior design magazine.

As a many-generation native of Talbot County, Trippe has always maintained a love of trees ~ a passion shared with her grandfather and father. After studying at St. Timothy’s School in Baltimore and learning the techniques of printing in a darkroom, Trippe went on to Denison University and then studied in London, England, where she was able to focus even more on her photographic skills.

Nanny Trippe currently owns and operates The Trippe Gallery at 23 N. Harrison Street in Easton, a lively gallery exhibiting the works of over 40 award-winning artists from

around the globe in mediums of oil and watercolor painting, graphite drawings, sculpture, multimedia, woodcuts and Trippe’s fine art photography.

In addition to exhibiting fi ne art, Trippe will curate and hang art for your personal space, home or office. “I love helping collectors pull a room together and feature the pieces of art in their collection, as well as new ones.”

For more information, please visit the website thetrippegallery.com or call 410-310-8727.

We Will Miss You, Dear Friend!

Harold Eugene Roth Jr., 91, a long-time writer for Tidewater Times , passed away on January 2, 2023 after a long battle with cancer. He was born on April 13, 1931 in Northampton, PA, and raised in Whitehall, PA. After he graduated from Whitehall High School in 1949, Hal joined the United States Air Force and proudly served in Japan during the Korean War. After returning home, he attended and graduated from Muhlenberg College with a degree in social studies and biology. He then moved to Glen Burnie, MD, to raise his family and teach U.S. history. He continued his education and earned his Master’s in Education from the University of Maryland. He then served as the coordinator of instruction for Anne Arundel County and was vice principal of Chesapeake High School.

Hal’s true loves were writing, photography, wildlife viewing and adventure. He authored several books including You Can’t Never Get to Puckum and The Monster’s Handsome Face: Patty Cannon Fiction and Fact . He loved the Eastern Shore of Maryland and could often be found taking pictures of birds, deer, wild ponies

and sunsets. Hal also loved to travel out west and documented his adventures with his camera.

Hal was preceded in death by his parents, Harold E. Roth Sr. and Goldie (Behr) Roth. He is survived by his son, Scott (Bonnie) Roth; his daughters, Robin Hays (Wes Norton) and Lynn Tarango; and two grandchildren, Bryan Hays (Heather Phillips) and Laura Tarango.

Memorial contributions may be made to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge at Friends of Blackwater, Inc., P.O. Box 1231, Cambridge, MD 21613.

Winter by Helen Chappell

After the holidays and before spring, the winter around these parts can slide from sunny and warm to cold and wet within hours. The shorter days and the inevitable gray, foggy world can cover a lot of us like a dirty blanket.

It’s called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and it hits a lot of us. It can be severely crippling and last until spring, or it can slide up and down like a roller coaster. But you know it’s there. It won’t let you forget. But it can’t destroy your happiness or a love of nature.

There are happy spots where you can get outside. You may need to bundle up, but you can still get out and explore what’s going on when the world seems to be asleep.

As the water gets colder and the weather stormier, a lot of sea ducks come in off the open Chesapeake and seek refuge in shallow coves and estuaries that offer some shelter. I used to see them in January and February at the Bellevue Ferry slip.

The sight of a band of sea ducks of all breeds rafted up together is

one of the most beautiful sights of winter. Pintails, mergansers, buffleheads and canvasbacks mingle with mallards and black ducks, drifting along in a raft. The sea ducks are pretty to look at, but take it from me, they’re not so great eating. They live on aquatic plants and small animals and taste gamey beyond gamey, even when done in a meat smoker, which can even make brant edible.

Better to look at them than gun for them, I think. You eat what you kill, and sea ducks are fishy in a way even fish isn’t fishy.

But it’s so peaceful to just sit and watch them. The divers go down to feed with their tails in the air and seem to stay down for very long periods of time.

They preen their feathers; they call to each other in haunting cries that echo over the cold dark water. They sleep with their heads turned over their backs. No one seems to fight with anyone else, and mating season won’t start until it’s a little warmer. Then they’ll do their courtship dance with their necks and heads like Thai dancers. But not now. Now is just drifting along

HIGH ELEVATION!! DEEP WATER!!

3 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms, Living Room with Fireplace, Dining Room, Kitchen, Full Basement, Waterfront Studio,Pier with boat lift and 5” MLW Mooring. Gorgeous Cummings Creek Views. Move-In Ready! Call Dawn Lednum 410-829-3603

Wittman, MD | $815,000

Winter Also, no good deed goes unpunished. We had to take her back to my house, get her out of her wet clothes and feed her hot chocolate lest hypothermia set in.

on the cold sunless days, sheltering, sleeping, visiting. If waterfowl communicate, and they probably do, it would be great to know what information is exchanged in that raft.

Geese raft up, too, but I’ve never seen them mingle with ducks. Geese used to raft up on the other side of the dock. It ices over easily there, and it often looks as if they might be frozen into the ice. But they’re just sleeping on top of it, as a friend of mine found out when she tried to wade out to free what she thought was a goose frozen into an ice sheet. It wasn’t, and it caused such a racket that everyone on both sides of the dock took off for the sanctuary of Tar Creek with a great beating of wings and cries of warning. The goose had been asleep on top of the ice. My friend almost fell through the thin skim before inching her way back to the beach.

The goose knew what it was doing. How else would the breed survive?

Recently, I’ve been enjoying photographs from birders who (ahem) flock to Blackwater to shoot not just waterfowl but the Refuge’s large population of resident eagles. There are some beautiful photos there. The Facebook page is Blackwater NWR Photography if you want to spend some time admiring owls, waterfowl, acceptors , fox squirrels, raccoons and wetlands. We are fortunate to have this treasure so near us. Every once in a while, I just get in the car and drive down there and maybe out to Elliott’s Island just to enjoy the magic hold wetlands have on my heart and soul. I suppose it’s in my blood.

By the time you read this, the ospreys will be rebuilding their nests and the eagles will be laying eggs. Crocuses will be sprouting and the days getting longer.

Winter

Spring will be springing, and the sea ducks and non-resident geese will have flown north to breed and nest.

And so begins the next season. ***

Regular readers of Tidewater Times will remember Hal Roth as a contributor to the magazine until his retirement.

Hal died at a ripe old age in January. His enthusiasm for the nature and history of his adopted Eastern Shore contributed to the literary culture of our region. I discovered his books when I found Conversations in a Country Store

Historic WADES POINT INN ON THE BAY

at the old News Center. While he was teaching in Anne Arundel County, he bought a weekend place near Vienna. A nice house, a barn and a pond located on several wooded acres made it a perfect getaway. He started doing what a lot of guys around here used to do: hang around the local country store. He was so intrigued with the man-talk of those who gathered there every evening that he began to record snippets of conversation that, to my mind and my raising at Lewis’ Store near Hudson, were just so true. Humor, wit, observation, gossip, folklore, all of it perfectly captured. And that was how we became friends. He wrote several other books, too. And a lot of what he captured would have been lost if he hadn’t recorded it.

Retired with enough time and interest, he did a lot of research on the history of the Shore and its characters and produced a lot of good material.

He will be missed, but the work he did will serve as his perpetual monument.

410-745-2500

wadesinn@wadespoint.com

www.wadespoint.com

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.

HISTORIC ST. MICHAELS The John H.W. Wales house, a short distance from the water and the center of town, is a classic two-story, three bay frame home built c. 1913. In addition to a living room, dining room and eat-in kitchen, the main level was expanded to include a full bath and lovely den overlooking the private patio and backyard. Upper level has 2 BRs, full bath plus an office. The gardens surrounding this home are spectacular, featuring many perennials and a private patio. $650,000

More Great Lakes Adventures

Ojibwa, Superior, Painted Rocks and Badger

by Bonna L. Nelson

Looking out the car window, I watched rippling Lake Michigan on my left and undulating Lake Huron on my right. We were driving over the majestic five-mile-long Mackinac Bridge, its soaring towers rising 552 feet above the water. Multiple suspension cables hung gracefully from those towers.

Having recently ferried under the bridge, we now rode over the longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere. Beneath us, connecting the two Great Lakes, were the churning Straits of Mackinac, home to at least 90 shipwrecks. They were testimony to narrow shipping lanes and frequent fog and ice. (An estimated total of 6,000 vessels have been lost in the five Great Lakes.)

Our next destination on this fall adventure to the Great Lakes was the town of St. Ignace, frequently called the gateway to Michigan’s Upper

Peninsula (UP). One of Michigan’s oldest cities, St. Ignace was founded in 1671 by French Jesuit priest, missionary and explorer Jacques Marquette. The priest established a mission there named for St. Ignatius, the Jesuit founder. The namesake town lies on the straits and Lake Huron opposite Mackinaw City.

(See the January and February 2023 issues of Tidewater Times for the two previous Great Lakes adventure stories, including one about Mackinaw City.)

The Museum of Ojibwa Culture and Marquette Mission Park, where Marquette is buried, is a National Historic Landmark. The site interprets the rich archaeology and history of the 17th-century Huron and Ottawa Indian villages once located there. Archaeologists have found evidence of Native American presence in the area dating back 4,000 years.

Great Lakes

Celebrate Spring at Lizzy Dee

The museum is housed in a former church. Our knowledgeable guide, a Native Ojibwa (Chippewa) American, showed us some exhibits, paintings, musical instruments, regalia and jewelry that reflected local Ojibwa culture and traditions.

We watched a video in a theater housed in a unique Native American longhouse replica and learned more about local Native American culture and history, in particular migrations and encounters with European explorers. We learned about Native Americans’ beliefs in duty and dedication to family. Another exhibit showed photographs and stories about the many Native Americans who participated in World Wars I and II.

After purchasing some delicate handcrafted Ojibwa bracelets and pendants for gifts, we expressed our appreciation to our guide and asked for recommendations for a lunch stop in St. Ignace. We wanted to try

Great Lakes Michigan and Wisconsin. A variety of pasties are available, including a new beef, cabbage and beer version. We finished off our pasty meal with a piece of UP Michigan fudge, creamy chocolate walnut, delicious and more reasonably priced than at the crowded tourist spots on the Lower Peninsula.

a pasty, pronounced “pass-tee,” a famous Michigan meal.

I had read about them. I had heard about them. Finally, I had the chance to devour a Michigan pasty, a pocket of comfort food deliciousness. My pasty was like a chicken pot pie in a sandwich. The pasty is a filling meal folded into a pastry shell. Mine included tender white chicken, potato, onion and pepper chunks inside a crunchy pastry, somewhat like a Mexican empanada.

Ubiquitous in the UP, the portable meals were first popularized in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The pasties were brought to the Michigan UP by Cornish miners who took the portable meals into the UP iron ore mines for a perfect lunch. Most commonly, the hand-held pie is filled with beef and various root vegetables and spices rather than chicken. I was happy to find a shop that made the chicken version.

The popular UP sandwich is available at eateries throughout upper

The next leg of our journey took us through the Michigan UP’s Hiawatha National Forest. We headed west and then north to the town of Munising, which graces the shores of Lake Superior. First, we drove west along the edge of Lake Michigan, a sea green color that day. We passed sand bluffs and scrub pines on the lake side, but when we turned north, acres of wilderness, of both pines and deciduous trees, ran along both sides of the highway.

We lost the rain that had trailed us all morning, but not the Hiawatha National Forest, which continued to surround us. The forest of almost 900,000 acres is located within the central and eastern portions of the UP, and its borders touch three Great Lakes: Huron, Michigan and Superior. Hiawatha’s rolling hills were forested with northern hardwoods, white pine and hemlock. Flatland areas were covered by red pine, jack pine and aspen. Additionally, dramatic shorelines and large open and tree-covered wetlands make Hiawatha a beautiful, peaceful destination for a drive or for walking, hiking and camping.

Oxford ACTIVE | $5,250,000 | 4190 Evergreen Road

Easton PENDING | $365,000 | 28527 Oakmont Drive

Oxford SOLD | $2,850,000 | 5826 Oxford Road

Great Lakes

Nestled in the heart of the Hiawatha National Forest and located on the southern shore of Lake Superior, the charming small town of Munising, our next Michigan adventure host, is a year-round destination. Dubbed the “Gateway to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore,” which we would visit soon, the little town of 2,500 bustles with scenic attractions, hotels/motels, restaurants, shops and activities that include all things on the water and snow or in the forest and hills.

Munising is also famous for its majestic waterfalls, ranging from small unnamed falls to large flows that cascade from sandstone cliff faces along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Nearby waterfalls range in size from 5- to 50-foot vertical drops that provide heavenly and

unique natural vistas. Many are accessible year-round via short walks into the Hiawatha and Pictured Rocks areas.

We hiked to a few waterfalls after settling in at the Beach Inn, situated on Lake Superior. The Munising area is home to 14 waterfalls, all tranquil, gorgeous places. Some are nestled among trees, while others flow over tall cliffs. Some are visible from the road, and some require short or long hikes or boat rides for viewing.

One of our favorites was Miners Falls. The fast-flowing Miners River drops nearly 50 feet over a sandstone outcrop in the woods, creating the most powerful waterfall in the Pictured Rocks area. We hiked through the forest over tree roots and rocks to reach the viewing platforms near the top and at the bottom of the falls. The hike was both refreshing and exhilarating, and the falls breathtaking.

Simply Sensational!

Immaculate corner end unit featuring 2 bedrooms and 2 baths overlooking the Choptank River and 18th Fairway. Located in the Willow Oak building adjacent to the Chesapeake Bay Resort, this 1620 sf unit boasts, wood floors, 9+’ & tray ceilings, large balcony and southern exposure with great light and water views. $439,900

Kathy Christensen

c+ 1 410 924 4814 o+ 1 410 280 5600

KChristensen@ttsir.com

17 Goldsborough Street

Easton, MD 21601

Great Lakes a short distance from a parking lot to the Miners Castle Overlook for the best land view via wooden platforms of the Pictured Rocks. The wind made it difficult to stand, but it was worth the effort to see sandstone cliffs of ochre, tan and brown, with layers of white and green, towering 200 feet above bluish green Lake Superior.

The Pictured Rocks Interpretative Center, located in a historic building in downtown Munising, offered exhibits, videos, maps, brochures and information about the area. We learned that the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is composed of shoreline, beaches, cliffs, lakes, dunes, islands, waterfalls, streams, rivers and forests along 40 miles of Lake Superior shoreline. Its 73,000 acres of federal, state and private lands protect the watershed and shoreline and offer the park to the public for recreation and discovery. Winter and summer sports ~ camping, hunting, fishing, hiking, walking (100-plus miles of trails), boating, kayaking, cross country skiing, etc. ~ are available.

Though it was rainy and cold, with winds blowing at 40 mph, we walked

The name “Pictured Rocks” comes from the streaks of mineral stains that decorate the face of the 500-million-year-old glacier-formed Cambrian sandstone cliffs like paintings. Water that oozes from cracks in the sandstone cliffs contains iron, manganese, copper and other minerals and leaves behind colorful “pictures.”

The soaring cliffs were naturally sculpted by glaciers, water and weather into shallow caves, arches and formations that resemble castle turrets and human profiles, among other shapes. We found the views of nature’s gifts glorious and admired more of the colorful cliffs and lake as we strolled along the beach to the historical Coast Guard Lifeboat Rescue Station at another Lakeshore access area at Sand Point.

Great Lakes rescue stations along the shore.

Michigan has 115 lighthouses, more than any other state. Munising and the Pictured Rocks area have seven beautiful and historical lighthouses nestled along the shores of the lake. We stopped to admire a few of them during our travels.

Back at the Beach Inn, our hopes of seeing an Aurora Borealis phenomenon, this time over Lake Superior, were diminished by clouds and rain. But I was consoled by our balcony views of the world’s largest freshwater lake (measured by surface area).

The greatest of the Great Lakes, Lake Superior is 350 miles long, 160 miles across and over 1,300 feet at its deepest point. It contains 10% of all the earth’s fresh surface water. It acts like an inland sea, creating powerful weather and exerting a great influence on surrounding land and climate.

The lake has over 400 islands and an average visibility of 27 feet, with up to 100 feet visibility in some locations. About 350 shipwrecks and waves of more than 40 feet have been recorded in Lake Superior. As businesses flourished, the lake’s commercial activity increased. To prevent shipwrecks, the U.S. Coast Guard built lighthouses and lifeboat

As for dining, we enjoyed meals at several colorfully named restaurants in the Munising area, such as the Buckhorn Resort Restaurant on Lake Hoovey and the Dogpatch Restaurant. I tried the popular UP whitefish filets at both eateries. The broiled fish, fresh from Lake Superior, was mild, tender and slightly sweet. I quenched my thirst with “Vernors, the Original Ginger Pop Soda,” a Michigan favorite.

As for shopping, we popped into Pictured Rocks Trading Co. so that I could peruse the Lake Superior Agates. I collect rocks and favor agates. It was the end of the season for the shop and there wasn’t a huge selection, but I did find a nice red and orange Lake Superior agate, a banded gemstone pigmented by iron in the rocks. I also selected a stone new to me, an Omarolluk, or Omar. It is dark gray with a light gray, dimesized round depression near one end. The shop curator shared that Omars washed down from Canada into Lake Superior and were found in glacial till. The circle was a popped air bubble. The rocks were fascinating additions to my collection.

On our last day in the area, we

Great Lakes Company in Milwaukee, WI. I ate a fresh salad with warm goat cheese accompanied by a Traverse City, MI, hard cider, Left Foot Charly Henry’s Pippin Hard Cider. What a name for a little bottle of tasty hard cider! Pippin is an old word for apple. It went down easy.

wandered 45 miles west to Marquette, named after the founder of St. Ignace. The largest town on the Michigan UP is known for its shops, restaurants, galleries and, like Munising, outdoor activities for all seasons. Marquette is also a port city with a rich history of iron mining, with iron ore docks along the shore. Nearby is where those Cornish miners worked and lunched on pasties.

We stopped for lunch at the appropriately named Iron Bay Restaurant & Drinkery. John enjoyed an Iron Ore Burger with a Wisconsin brew, Hamm’s Premium by Miller Brewing

Saying goodbye to the Michigan Upper Peninsula, we headed south to Wisconsin. I read from “A Guide to the Cheese State,” picked up at a Wisconsin Welcome Center in Marinette, WI, that “Wisconsin is one of those places that does one thing better than anyone else anywhere. We’ve been making cheese for over 175 years, which may be the one reason

that we have won so many awards for it. It’s what happens when a whole state dreams in cheese!”

We continued to drive south along the western side of Lake Michigan, on the Wisconsin shoreline, to the Pine River Dairy in Manitowoc, WI. The dairy manufactures butter and offers hand-dipped ice cream and 250 varieties of cheese. Pine River validated the guide’s claim. We watched butter being made on the premises. We munched on samples of delightful cheese and finished our tour with their homemade chocolate almond ice cream.

After just a short drive, we reached our last Great Lakes adventure, the S.S. Badger Lake Michigan Carferry Service. We drove onto the Badger, our choice for a leisurely four-hour cruise across the lake from Wisconsin to Michigan, a pleasant shortcut via the water instead of the highway.

It was one of the sunniest, warm-

Great Lakes for

est days of our fall trip, and we soaked up the sun while relaxing in lounge chairs, mesmerized by the smooth, calm lake and watching the departure town of Manitowoc fade in the distance. We strolled the deck several times, explored the interior spaces, toured the small Badger Museum, lunched in the dining room, read, snoozed and peoplewatched. Other passengers played bingo, watched movies or television, shopped or slept in the cabins available for an additional fee.

The S.S. Badger is a moving National Historic Landmark. Now celebrating its 70th year, the ferry is the last coal-fired passenger steamship in operation in the U.S. The 410-foot vessel can accommodate 600 passengers and 180 vehicles, including automobiles, RVs, motorcycles, motor coaches and commercial trucks during the season.

For John and me, the Badger experience was remarkable, relaxing and romantic and a wonderful way to reminisce about and conclude our Great Lakes adventures. We spent the night in Ludington, MI, after disembarking from the Badger, then drove to Detroit the next day for a short flight to Baltimore.

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

TIDE TABLE OXFORD, MD MARCH 2023

SHARP’S IS. LIGHT: 46 minutes before Oxford

TILGHMAN: Dogwood Harbor same as Oxford

EASTON POINT: 5 minutes after Oxford

CAMBRIDGE: 10 minutes after Oxford

CLAIBORNE: 25 minutes after Oxford

ST. MICHAELS MILES R.: 47 min. after Oxford

WYE LANDING: 1 hr. after Oxford

ANNAPOLIS: 1 hr., 29 min. after Oxford

KENT NARROWS: 1 hr., 29 min. after Oxford

CENTREVILLE LANDING: 2 hrs. after Oxford

CHESTERTOWN: 3 hrs., 44 min. after Oxford

3 month tides at www.tidewatertimes.com

Darryl Hill: Further, But Not Final, Firsts

by Michael Valliant

When your life has been a series of firsts, blazing trails, doing things that haven’t been done, how do you keep it up? What do you do when you’ve been the first African American to play Division I college football south of the Mason-Dixon Line; you’ve helped start-up minority businesses all over Washington, DC; and you’ve been an American running big businesses in Russia? Darryl Hill continues to do things that haven’t been done before.

Darryl came back from his business ventures in Russia and China

as the first American to enter the forestry business in Russia and the first American to establish a business venture in the Buryatia region of Siberia. He was the first African American to own a major business in Russia and then in a paperboard packaging partnership, became one of the earliest American small businesses to form a partnership with a major Chinese enterprise.

Coming back to the United States, there was something from his days of running W.H. Bone, the restaurant in Washington, D.C., that called

Darryl back into the restaurant business. He moved to Atlanta and encouraged by then mayor Shirley Franklin, opened Wilde Wood, at the same time that Sean “P Diddy” Combs was running his restaurant “Justin’s” there. The two businesses competed, cooperated, and kept an eye on each other. He sold Wilde Wood and moved back to DC.

Darryl remembers watching “60 Minutes” with Ed Bradley interviewing Tommy Boggs, who was one of the top lobbyists in the country. Bradley and Boggs talked about how a lobbyist’s job is to give people access to decision makers.

“Ed Bradley said to Boggs, ‘If access is power, are you the most powerful man in Washington?’ And Boggs said, ‘No, I am not the most powerful man in Washington on that basis. The most powerful man

would be right there ~ Tommy Jacomo, the general manager (and later executive director) of The Palm. He has access to everyone I bring here and everyone else that comes here.’”

All the photos and footage of Boggs and the high-powered influencers he was talking to was from The Palm restaurant in Washington. Darryl and his friend Jim Vance, legendary DC news anchor, decided they would try to create a Blackowned version of The Palm. They started and ran “The Savoy” essentially across the street for a few years before selling it.

The seeds for Darryl’s next business adventure came when he was still in Atlanta. The University of Maryland was playing Georgia Tech in football. Maryland’s football coach at the time, Ralph Friedgen

Darryl Hill

Hill with Maynard Jackson, former mayor of Atlanta, and Rev. Al Sharpton at Wilde Wood.

Hill with Wallace D. Loh president of the University of Maryland, College Park.

7538 Seventeenth Drive, Easton, MD

One of the largest homes in Easton Club, this immaculate 4 bedroom, 3-1/2 bath home is sited on a beautifully landscaped 1/2 acre+ lot. The first-floor rooms are open and airy, with views of the gardens and sliding glass doors to the deck. The primary suite boasts a large bedroom w/seating area, plus an oversized bath. Three bedrooms and two full baths are on the second floor, plus a family room/studio/playroom that could become a second primary suite.

Call for Details

Joan Wetmore

c: 410-924-2432 o: 410-673-3344

joanwetmore@msn.com

17 Goldborough Street Easton, MD 21601

Sotheby’s International Realty® is a licensed trademark to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each office is independently owned and operated. TTR Sotheby’s International Realty fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act.

Darryl Hill

ber going to meet Pam Shriver and her husband George Lazenby, who played James Bond for a movie, but no one remembers him between Sean Connery and Roger Moore. I turned out to be one of their best fundraisers.”

Even that might be an understatement. While at Maryland, Darryl put together the largest naming rights partnership in the history of college athletics for the school’s football field. He arranged $100 million from three different banks to upgrade the stadium. And then he spearheaded $50 million of financing to expand the stadium.

Hill now chairs the nonprofit Kids Play USA Foundation, in Laurel, whose goal is to eliminate financial barriers in youth sports.

asked Darryl if he would come speak to the team.

Knowing Darryl’s name and history with the university, his reputation and business acumen, Debbie Yow, the school’s athletic director, asked him to come work for Maryland as their director of major gifts.

“I was used to starting businesses, I hadn’t worked somewhere where I had to keep track of my hours, so I was reluctant at first,” Darryl said. “But I had a ball ~ I flew around the country meeting and talking to Maryland donors. I still remem-

It is no accident that Maryland’s football training facility is named in part after Darryl. His legacy as an historic and Hall of Fame college player, a chief fundraiser, and now a popular spokesperson and ombudsman make him a welcome and present figure for Maryland athletics.

Being involved in college athletics opened Darryl’s eyes to a darker side of youth sports.

“When I got involved in sports as a kid, anyone who wanted to play football or baseball could do so fairly easily,” Darryl said. “Now with travel teams, the money it costs to play travel baseball, underprivileged kids are pinched out. There are fewer and fewer African American players in baseball. Many Black kids can’t afford to play youth sports. I had a woman walk into my office one day, she was a single mom, a waitress,

127 N. Washington Street, Easton, MD 21601 Cell: 410-310-8606 Office: 410-822-2001

www.TraciJordan.com

TLJordan520@gmail.com

New Listing in Martingham

Enjoy St. Michaels And Surrounding Areas Of The Chesapeake Bay In This Widgeon Place Condo!

Delight in the beauty and serenity of Martingham with the convenience of being right outside St. Michaels. Spacious 2 bedroom / 2.5 bath condo offers an inviting open floor-plan, patio off the sunroom, upstairs balcony off the primary bedroom and an oversized one car garage. A wood burning fireplace in the great room, relax while sipping a cocktail in the evening after a day of playing tourist. Experience the local restaurants and attend the many festivals year-round. $365,000 .

Whether Buying or Selling, I’ve been helping people with their Real Estate needs on the Shore since 1989. Let me help you make your DREAMS a REALITY!

Traci Jordan Associate Broker, GRI

Darryl Hill

currently the CEO and Chairman. Their goal is to remove the financial barriers to participation in youth sports.

The idea for Darryl’s next and current venture came while watching a Maryland football game. Mike Miller, then president of the Maryland State Senate, mentioned to Darryl that they had just passed legislation making medical marijuana legal in Maryland. He suggested Darryl look into it.

who had a 12-year-old son. She said every trip their team took was $150 she didn’t have.”

To make in-roads into this problem, Darryl started the Kids Play USA Foundation, for which he is

Darryl’s company, EarthStar teamed up with Tilray, one of the largest medical marijuana companies, to form TilStar and they received a dispensary license.

In 2016, The Washington Post contacted Darryl and pointed out that his business was one of only

Hill with Mike Miller, then president of the Maryland State Senate.

Darryl Hill

three minority-owned businesses out of 150 that received a license. And that none of the grower or cultivation licenses or processor licenses were given to minority-owned businesses. This is another racial barrier that Darryl is looking to run through.

On the Eastern Shore, Darryl owns Sunburst Pharm in Cambridge. They opened in 2019 and Darryl was intentional in selecting a location in Dorchester County. Unemployment numbers and African American unemployment numbers paint a rough picture. Darryl is hoping to stimulate job opportunities and the local economy.

“Medical marijuana is the fastest growing industry of the last ten years by a long shot. I have seen with my customers, the issues they have, from chronic pain to sleep issues and so much more, this has given them options. A woman in her 60s was in our shop, she didn’t know who I was, and she was talking about her debilitating pain from Crohn’s Disease, how she had been

300 S. Harrison Street Easton, MD

Gorgeous Dutch Colonial with beautiful gardens, large brick patio, perfect for entertaining in a fenced back yard. From the entrance foyer find a formal living room, dining room, country kitchen and den or office on the first floor. The second floor with three bedrooms, two full baths and a sleeping porch. This home boasts hardwood floors throughout both levels with the exception of marble in the kitchen and half bath. Third floor is a full floored attic and below is a large basement encapsulated to keep it dry with both interior and exterior access. This home is a lovely walk of two or three blocks to Downtown Easton and all it’s amenities. $750,000

Darryl Hill

prescribed opioids and how they made her quality of life so bad. She was in tears talking about the difference the combination of medical marijuana she was prescribed here had given her her life back.”

Darryl has a history of creating job opportunities in ways that haven’t existed before. His work in and around Washington, DC, facilitating and helping to fund minorityowned businesses was a blueprint. With a newer industry like medical marijuana, he hopes to see an industry that has been a bane to African Americans potentially be an opportunity to flourish.

How is it that Darryl has found himself in so many situations as the first to do something?

“The irony of it is, this is not something I sat down and said, this is what I want to be when I grow up ~ this is what I want to do,” he said. “Did I sit down and have it in my mind to do things like be the first African American to play football in the south? Or to help start minorityowned businesses in Washington? Or go to Russia? Certainly not. But things have happened too many times to be some sort of coincidence.”

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.

Easton Map and History

The County Seat of Talbot County. Established around early religious settlements and a court of law, Historic Downtown Easton is today a centerpiece of fine specialty shops, business and cultural activities, unique restaurants, and architectural fascination. Treelined streets are graced with various period structures and remarkable homes, carefully preserved or restored. Because of its historical significance, historic Easton has earned distinction as the “Colonial Capitol 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/.

Kibby & Steve Dalton

Owners of Easton Fit4Life

www.EastonFit4Life.com

“We are a consortium of Personal Trainers each equipped with our own training styles and fortes of experience and knowledge. Our passion and intention is in helping each of our Clients to achieve their very best personal health & fitness outcomes.”

Individual Personal Training

24/7 Access to Cardio Equipment

Personal Training - Solo, or Small Group

Our Trainers

Kibby Dalton · Brittany Harrison · Sierra Correa · Kelsey Basel

Sandi Whitehurst · Rena Silbert · Lyn Sutton · Laura Yablonski

Coach BJ Miller · Greg Yablonski · Greg Terry · Anthony Duckery

Craig Dunn and John Labelle

Very private environment ~ no crowds and no waiting on equipment

We work with all ages and body types

8859 Mistletoe Dr., Easton 443-786-2320

Oyster Dredger For A Day In 1883

by Louis C. Wainwright, transcribed and edited by James Dawson

Editor’s note: Thirty years ago, I bought an old notebook containing nearly 200 handwritten pages of Eastern Shore stories titled “Down Tangier Way” from an out-of-state antiquarian book dealer. Although it was anonymously penned by a “John Doe” in about 1941, papers that came with it stated that the author was Louis C. Wainwright, a Baptist preacher who was born in Princess Ann, Maryland, in 1864. The notebook languished in my storeroom, not completely forgot-

ten but barely remembered, until recently, when I finally decided to take a close look at it. To my delight, I found it was filled with fascinating and clever stories based on Wainwright’s recollections while living on Deal Island in the 1880s. These wonderful tales offer an unparalleled glimpse of life on a Chesapeake Bay island 140 years ago.

At first I had only planned to copy out a few of the stories, but the more I got into the project, the

more I realized that I would have to transcribe the entire manuscript of over 47,000 words. This took me several months, but it was worth it, and I hope to share more of the chapters with you in future issues of Tidewater Times. ***

My first extended acquaintance with the Eastern Shore of Maryland was in 1883, when I took, or chose my dwelling on Deal’s Island (locally called “The I’lent”) in preference to the mainland where my work was. My room looked out over that part of Chesapeake Bay known as Tangier sound. The beach was but a narrow strip of sand, some twenty or thirty feet wide.

It was only an island beach on Tangier Sound, but experience, views and visions made it a delight. Of course there were oysters and ducks, local customs, captains, and a variety of vessels ~ sloops, schooners, sharpies, canoes, bugeyes, skiffs, bateaus and yawls, even dories. The title “Cap’n” (captain) was very general, since almost all the men “follered the water.” Down Tangier way the “cunner,” as the canoe is called in that region, is well known and is much used in the oyster industry.

It was a joy to pace the shore during storms, or at very low tide to wade with “gum” boots and

gather oysters, which over against my boarding place lay very near shore; but with the oyster business conducted on a larger scale near our shore, and the dipping canoes

Oyster Dredger

harnessed to dredges as a horse to a plow, with every one shaking a hand at you as much as to say, “Why not join us?” One could not easily be content to be always a “land lubber,” so I determined to join the fleet, and land lubber that I was, conceived the idea of being an oysterman, a dredger, for a day.

I wished to know what dredging was and to enjoy the thrill of a new experience. One of the neighbors accommodated me, and next morning I joined his crew and went down with him to his “cunner.” It was a clear, crisp day in the fall with sufficient wind for “wry sheets.”

Once Senator Gorman said, in a tidewater campaign, that when he first entered the political arena he did not know whether oysters grew on trees. Of course it was rhetorical self-deprecation. Perhaps it may be in place, as I describe myself as A Dredger for a Day, to mention briefly the method of taking oysters.

There are three ways to secure them, namely by nippering, tonging, and dredging; they do not voluntarily leave their beds, but must be dragged out. In principle, the three processes of detaching oysters from their beds is one, i.e. some mode of raking- the oysters are raked from the bottom of the sound, the river or the bay or in whatever water they lodge or make their bed.

Tongs, nippers and dredges are

For all of your insurance needs, choose an agent you can trust.

Oyster Dredger

the implements used. All three processes are in vogue on the I’lent. On still days when the water was clear a veteran from the Mexican War who lived near the thoroughfare might often have been seen standing on his skiff and searching the bottom for those very notable oysters, that being long undisturbed, grew very large. To secure them nippers were used. Tongs are generally used in the rivers though oyster pirates often dredge the river beds [which is illegal].

Both tongs and nippers are long handled strong rakes with their handles so fastened together with a bolt, that the tonger may stand in his boat and grapple the oysters with the teeth of his tongs. The bay is too deep and the oyster beds are too solid for light tongs.

The dredge is triangular in shape, one side of which has stout, heavy

teeth that look not unlike the teeth of a field mower. To it is attached a chain bag. This heavy instrument is cast teeth downward into the bay and is dragged by the power of the wind-blown canoe. It is attached by a long rope to a windlass on the deck.

The dredgers know where the oyster beds lie and in the early morning they sail to locate them, and when they are found the captain calls, “Heave!” at which word the dredge is cast overboard to drag the bottom until the captain thinks the bag of the dredge is filled, when he gives orders: “Wind!” Immediately the men seize the handle of the windlass and wind, until the dredge is brought to the edge of the deck. When the dredge is hauled aboard, and emptied on the deck. This done the captain calls “Heave!” and again the dredge is cast overboard. Such is the order of the day’s work.

While the dredge is being refilled,

Oyster Dredger

the warmth of circulation. The men wore mittens drenched and cold, and ice in places was forming.

In honor of his company the captain brought a can of peaches and one of the men fried some bacon and corn cakes. It was good. Hunger knows little scorn, and fresh air and exercise promote hunger.

In addition I ate oysters. How many can one eat? It depends. After five or six hours aboard a canoe in a frosty air, one does not like to make a statement in the matter.

But if being a novice he opens them slowly and eats as he shucks, it does seem that one oyster is digested before another is ready for ingestion.

That day all seemed propitious and we early found the dredging grounds. Already several large canoes were at work.

the deck hands with heavy gloves and a hammer fall to work and cull the oysters, separating the “mud boxes,” old shells and the very small oysters from the marketable oysters. The good oysters are shoveled into the “hold,” and the refuse is thrown overboard.

Dredging is cold, hard work. That day when I was so engaged, though, I did little but observe and talk with the Captain and the men. The Captain stood, tiller in hand, and stamped his feet to promote

Dredging is a stern, intense labor, and is in no wise an easy sport. The dredgers work for a livelihood, and not for pleasure; and anything that occurs to delay them is likely to arouse their anger.

Often the boats, as they sail to and fro, run afoul of one another,

sometimes accidentally and sometimes meanly, to disable a competitor.

In either case a verbal storm is sure, or something worse, and little allowance is made for accidents.

That morning our boat swung lithely into position and bore us to the end of the oyster bed, when we turned to dredge to and fro passing other canoes either way as we sailed.

A merry two hours were passed in this manner and our dredge had made a goodly catch. Our captain knew the character and extent of the beds in that part of the sound and perhaps was making somewhat better hauls than most of the others whom were also plying beds, which may have irritated the other

captains. At any rate as we turned to make the back run we saw another larger canoe bearing down on us, evidently to run afoul of us. Collision was unavoidable.

The large craft ran her bowsprit right across our jib and became entangled with our ropes. Then a tempest was let loose, as both crews rushed forward to disentangle the jibs. Their language was not quite polished and Emersonian. Our men exercised large self-control if not complete decorum.

Their tempers fell short of a Vesuvian eruption, though they were very hot, but the crew of the boat that rammed us, though themselves at fault, were furious, and the forked lightning of their profanity that

Oyster Dredger

cleft the morning air was amazing to hear. They raved and spat out volcanic lava till it seemed that the water round about must boil. The torrent of abuse that flowed from their profane lips was as a cloudburst of gutter filth.

To me it was repulsive and foul, but our men maintained decency, and were not perturbed beyond just anger, for they had many a time encountered such a profane deluge.

Loose at last, we tacked and resumed dredging until hunger rang its dinner bell.

The day was cold, the oysters were fine, they gave me a shucking knife and the right of way. I shucked and ate and tossed the shells overboard so that there was no visible shell pile left to embarrass me.

The shucking was slow, digestion seemed swift, and though in time I quit, it was not that I had a sense of satiety. Perhaps I was ashamed to

continue eating any longer.

The day proffered a real treat and a novel experience. Now when they serve me a half dozen fried oysters I eye them knowingly and recall that once I was a dredger for a day.

Afterword by J.D.

The canoe on which Wainwright sailed was a bigger version of the famous log canoe we know today. These smaller ones did not have enough sail power to pull an oyster dredge, so it was used mainly for tonging. The larger canoes made then could be up to 40 feet long, 8 feet wide and have two or three masts and so had plenty of power for dredging. The log canoe was so named because of its construction: several logs were hewn to shape and pinned together to make the hull.

The 1880s were the peak years for the production of these and other boats like bugeyes, sloops and twomasted schooners, which could also be used for oyster dredging until

Oyster Dredger

they were gradually replaced by the skipjack. The skipjack was smaller, but cheaper to build and maintain, and so became the quintessential oyster boat and is now the state boat of Maryland.

Deal Island touts itself as the home of the skipjack because so many were built there. However, the skipjack wasn’t developed until the 1890s, too late to be on Wainwright’s 1883 list.

Since oyster dredging is still done by sail-powered boats, not much has changed since then except that nowadays skipjacks have the advantage of using motor-powered push boats lashed on the stern to get

to and from the oyster beds faster, and the winch used to operate the dredge is powered and no longer has to be hand cranked, as it was in Wainwright’s day.

Imagine being able to walk around the shoreline at low tide and pick oysters by hand! The

Oyster Dredger be nippered, tonged and dredged, thereby saving some for us.

1880s were the peak years for oyster harvests, and the next 1884–1885 season saw 15 MILLION bushels caught. However, these huge harvests could not be sustained, and soon the numbers plummeted until the state imposed more restrictions on when and where oysters could

The Thorofare mentioned is a large bay that nearly bisects Deal Island.

The reason it was so cold onboard is that oyster season was and is in the months with an “r” in them, which are generally the coldest months of the year.

A mud box was the mud-filled shell of a dead oyster.

Land lubber was a term of ridicule for a land dweller who was clumsy on boats.

Senator Arthur Gorman was a U.S. Senator from Maryland.

James Dawson is the owner of Unicorn Bookshop in Trappe.

EXPLORERS

Discover Caroline County, MD – a region brimming with outdoor adventures!

Caroline’s 8,000+ acres of wildlife sanctuaries, nature preserves and parks provide trails and waterways perfect for exploring year-round. Be open for adventures! Go to VisitCaroline.org.

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 .

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/.

TIDEWATER GARDENING

by K. Marc Teffeau, Ph.D.

March - Don't Get Too Anxious

March 20 is the official “opening” of spring. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, this date marks the arrival of the Vernal Equinox, when we start to have more daylight than night. As we all have experienced, March can be a fickle month, one that can’t seem to make up its mind. One day will be in the

60s, but two days later temperatures are in the 20s and a major snowstorm is on the horizon.

I don’t know if the weather forecasters would agree with me. I can remember as a child getting the worst snowstorms in March, when those moisture-laden winds from the south showed up over the Del-

marva Peninsula along with a cold front from the west. On the nice March days, however, we can slip outside for a few hours to do a few early spring gardening chores.

Gardening activity increases in March, but don’t be in a hurry. Don’t prune any spring-flowering shrubs, such as azaleas, spireas, lilacs and forsythia. You will be pruning out the flower buds. For crape myrtles, only remove the old flower heads. Do not cut back to the same spot each year, as this creates a weak joint and can cause the branches to split and fall in summer with the additional weight of heavy flower heads. Remove

sprouts at the base of the tree. Now, before the leaves appear on deciduous trees and shrubs, is a good time to inspect for winter damage. Prune out any dead or damaged branches or stems. Also remove any bagworm

Tidewater Gardening

ornaments” on your cedars and other narrow-leafed evergreens to reduce this pest’s population later in the year. Each of the bags contains 500 to 1,000 eggs that will hatch out later in spring.

The leaves of spring-flowering bulbs like tulips, narcissus and hyacinths may be poking up through the ground, especially on the south and west sides of the house and in areas of the landscape where they have a little more protection and exposure to warmer temperatures. Don’t worry about these new soft, succulent leaves. You don’t need to try to protect them from freezing temperatures.

plant pansies. They are an excellent cool-weather spring crop. Pansies provide early color before most bedding plants can be set out. Pansies and their ancestors, violas, have a history that dates back at least as far as the 4th century B.C. Long cultivated in Europe, pansies were bred in England in the 1800s.

Pansies come in a wide variety of colors, including red, purple, blue, lavender, bronze, pink, apricot, orange, white, yellow, black and mahogany. The flowers may be of a single color, called “clear,” or two or three colors with a “face.” Some pansies have a noticeable fragrance ~ the yellow and blue flowers seem to be the most aromatic, often giving off the strongest scent in early morning and at dusk.

The pansy plant itself is com -

Experience has shown that these newly emerging leaves are winter hardy. There is little to worry about when you see them emerging in late winter and early spring. Since the flower buds are still within the bulb in the ground, the bulbs will flower normally, though probably slightly ahead of schedule.

March is an excellent time to

pact, not more than 9 inches tall and wide, and exhibits many stems with attractive oval- or heartshaped leaves. Grown as annuals, in our area, pansies thrive in cool weather and will tolerate a light frost and cold night temperatures. Newer varieties are bred to withstand some heat stress.

When buying pansy transplants, choose stocky plants with dark green foliage, few blooms and many buds. Pansies grow best in well-drained soil that receives morning sun. Before planting, water the plants in their containers. This makes it a lot easier to remove the plant without damaging the roots. Loosen the soil in the bed and plant the pansies 6 to 10 inches apart. Be sure to water them in. If you want to give them a little kick start, water them in with a liquid fertilizer solution such as Miracle Gro or Rapid Grow at half the rec -

ommended rate for fertilization of annual flowers.

In the vegetable garden, peas, radishes, onions, spinach, turnip greens and collards all grow well in cool soils ~ which means they can be planted toward the end of March. Other cool-season crops include broccoli, cauliflower, kale

Tidewater Gardening

and cabbage. Potatoes and salad vegetables such as lettuce and carrots round out the cool-season planting. Warmer March days can spur overeager gardeners into rushing the vegetable planting season. Planting too early in cold, wet soil can cause disease problems in both seeds and transplants, however. It also causes slower germination of seeds.

Seeds must have the proper temperature and moisture conditions to germinate. Some will sprout at soil temperatures of less than 50 degrees, but most require temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees. Planting seeds outdoors must be carefully timed to provide these temperatures.

Green and lima beans, cantaloupes, watermelons and pumpkins like warmer soil. This is also true of warm-season crops like peppers and tomatoes. It’s usually best to wait until after May 1 to plant these seeds and transplants

in the Mid-Shore area to allow time for the soil to warm up.

Moisture is another important factor in seed germination. For the best results, plant small seeds like petunia, onion and carrot in vermiculite, perlite or petalite mix. Make a furrow an inch wide and about an inch deep and fill this with vermiculite. Scatter the seed on the surface and then lightly cover it with sand or fine soil and water thoroughly.

When the soil is dry enough to tilled, it should first be thoroughly worked with a rototiller, plow or spade. Compost from the compost heap, manure or other organic matter is then worked into the soil. Lime and fertilizer should be added at this stage as indicated by a soil test. After the soil is thoroughly worked, the surface should be raked level.

Gardeners should be careful not to plant seeds too deeply and should follow the directions on the seed packet. After the seeds have sprouted, thinning will promote higher yields. Thinning is especially important for radishes, carrots and lettuce.

As we know, March weather can be unpredictable. A sudden cold snap can damage newly planted seedlings, perennials or other plants. If very cold weather is forecast, be prepared to cover the early transplants. You can use a cover cloth like Remay® or a similar

PE #32293 · MHBR #5448 · MHIC #94387 · EPA NAT #122843-1 · MD ESCC #42952

Tidewater Gardening fabric. Inexpensive cloches (transparent coverings) can be made from gallon milk jugs with the bottoms cut out. Place them over the cold crop transplants. You can also purchase different types of cloches through garden supply catalogs or online.

In the perennial garden, now is the time to check for frost heaving. This is likely to occur in gardens that weren’t mulched last fall, but it may even happen in mulched sites. Freezing weather can cause ice to form in soil under the plants in winter and can literally push them out of the ground. This exposes the crown of the plants and roots to harsh temperatures and drying winds. If you discover any frost-heaved plants, gently “tramp” them back in the ground. To do this, carefully place

your foot alongside each plant and firmly step down, pushing it back into the ground and packing soil around its roots.

Next, look under mulched perennials to see if their crowns are showing new green growth. If they are, it’s time to loosen the mulch. Don’t remove it yet, however. Delay until the chance of extended below-freezing weather has passed.

When you do remove the mulch, be sure to cut back the old flower stems and remove dead leaves. Dispose of them rather than leaving them lying in the garden.

Don’t rush to remove mulch from strawberries. Leave it over your plants to protect them from late cold spells. When plants start to grow, the mulch must be removed to allow leaves to develop in the light. If leaves develop under the mulch, they will become etiolated (blanched) and yellow from lack of chlorophyll and may burn and die when exposed to the sun.

FULL SERVICE TREE COMPANY

Tidewater Gardening

Early spring is an excellent time to fertilize perennials. Use a balanced fertilizer like 5-10-5 that is higher in phosphorous than nitrogen. You want good flower production and not an overabundance of foliage. Scatter a handful or more of this fertilizer around each plant and water it in. Make sure that any fertilizer in the center of the plants or on newly exposed foliage is washed off to reduce burn.

If you have a fireplace or woodstove, the wood ashes are an excellent fertilizer for perennials, providing them with a quick-release source of potash. Apply them like you would the fertilizer. In addi-

tion, the caustic nature of wood ashes tends to discourage leafmunching slugs.

If you want to spice up the annual flower bed, many annual flowers are very frost hardy when the plants are small. You can sow the seeds of alyssum, California poppy, candytuft, larkspur, pansy, viola, phlox, pinks, Shirley poppy, snapdragons, stock and sweet pea as soon as the soil has thawed

Happy Gardening!!

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.

St. Michaels Map and History

On the broad Miles River, with its picturesque tree-lined streets and beautiful harbor, St. Michaels has been a haven for boats plying the Chesapeake and its inlets since the earliest days. Here, some of the handsomest models of the Bay craft, such as canoes, bugeyes, pungys and some famous Baltimore Clippers, were designed and built. The Church, named “St. Michael’s,” was the first building erected (about 1677) and around it clustered the town that took its name.

For a walking tour and more history of the St. Michaels area visit https://tidewatertimes.com/travel-tourism/st-michaels-maryland/.

Wilmington Collection

For more than a decade, Lancaster Legacy has been creating quality hardwood furniture in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. As a family-owned business, we take special pride in every piece we build, and we continuously strive to bring our customers the nest handcra ed furniture available.

Parole, Maryland by

A.M. Foley

The Annapolis suburb of Parole is notable today for an abundance of shopping opportunities. When Robert Sneden stayed there in 1864, Camp Parole was a dangerous facility where the Union army held its own soldiers as parolees, inmates released from Confederate prisons. While awaiting processing, Sneden spent his backpay shopping at a sutler’s wagon for self-described “luxuries” ~ mostly food.

Private Sneden, a diarist and mapmaker from New York, had the misfortune in November 1863 of being captured by Virginia’s “Gray Ghost,” John Singleton Mosby. He and his Rangers captured Sneden and eleven others, asleep on the eve of the Mine Run campaign. Sneden was questioned by Mosby himself, whom he described as “an undersized, thin-visaged looking fellow, with a sickly-looking yellow mustache…”

A small band such as Mosby’s Rangers could easily manage a handful of prisoners, but major battles created thousands, a dilemma neither side of the Civil War ever resolved. The day after the April 1861 surrender of Fort Sumter, that entire garrison was permitted to sail northward. Presumably, in the future, exchanges of captives would be mutually beneficial. Unfortunately, it took a year for Union and Confederate negotiators to agree on specific terms. As a practical matter, field commanders exchanged or paroled burdensome numbers on their own authority. Meanwhile,

John Singleton Mosby.

Slot Docks Ready for Spring!

• Kayak Docks

• Re-Decking

• Pressure Wash & Seal

• Boat Lifts, PWC Lifts

• Gangways

• Solar Dock Lighting

• Floating Piers

• Rowing Docks

• Kayak Racks

• Ladders

• Dock Boxes

• Piling Caps

Oxford Map and History

Oxford is one of the oldest towns in Maryland. Although already settled for perhaps 20 years, Oxford marks the year 1683 as its official founding, for in that year Oxford was first named by the Maryland General Assembly as a seaport and was laid out as a town. In 1694, Oxford and a new town called Anne Arundel (now Annapolis) were selected the only ports of entry for the entire Maryland province. Until the American Revolution, Oxford enjoyed prominence as an international shipping center surrounded by wealthy tobacco plantations.

Today, Oxford is a 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/.

Union generals tried to avoid negotiating, taking their cue from Abraham Lincoln. The president held that negotiating conferred legitimacy on an opponent.

In accordance with the president’s logic, crewmen of the captured Confederate brig Jeff Davis were legally deemed to be pirates rather than combatants. When they were condemned as such to be hanged, President Jefferson Davis threatened to hang an equal number of captives. Lincoln relented but for over a year continued to resist political pressure to parlay prisoner rescue.

Captives languished in danger -

ous, unsanitary imprisonment in both North and South until a formal agreement, the Dix-Hill Cartel, was reached at Fort Monroe, based on one from the War of 1812. Dix-Hill operated for one year before Lincoln suspended it, partially as a result of the Union introducing recruitment of “Colored” troops, a possibility unmentioned in Dix-Hill. More important to some, such as General U. S. Grant, was relatively unlimited manpower available in the more populous North. Grant resisted exchanges until January 1865. Then foreseeing victory, he finally agreed to a Southern proposal to release all in confinement.

While Dix-Hill had initially op -

410-226-0010

erated, the two sides exchanged captives on an agreed-upon scale, which purported to establish the relative value of prisoners. One colonel equaled fifteen privates. Officers of equal rank were exchanged man for man. Obviously,

some number of captives remained after swapping individuals on this basis. Those still in hand were paroled: released upon pledging not to take up arms or perform military duties until formally exchanged.

Winter Hours: Dinner Thurs. through Sat. 5 to 8:30 p.m. Happy Hour small plates and bar Fri. and Sat. 3:30 to 5 p.m., Lunch Sat. 12 to 2.30 p.m., Sun. Brunch 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and Breakfast 8 to 10 a.m. Thurs. through Sat.

Parole

On the James River in August 1862, one month into Dix-Hill, the first formal exchange occurred: 3,021 Union for 3,000 Confederates. Among those swapped was a lieutenant from Wisconsin for an unknown cavalry lieutenant named Mosby, who had been captured while he slept. Passing Fortress Monroe enroute to exchange, Mosby gained intelligence on Union troop movements that proved valuable to General Robert E. Lee.

Additional unintended consequences of Dix-Hill soon became apparent. For example, while released but banned from military service, a parolee might be fur -

loughed or simply disappear on “French leave” before officially exchanged. Thus a disillusioned volunteer or canny draftee could easily calculate that his ticket home might be punched sooner through capture than through combat. To discourage this attitude, Lincoln’s War Department refined their procedures, issuing a general order banning parolees from furloughs. Instead of heading home, pending formal exchange, parolees in the east were to report to a camp in Annapolis to await exchange. Before long, the Union suspended Dix-Hill entirely.

It was Sneden’s misfortune to be captured by Mosby’s Rangers four months after suspension of Dix-

Tidewater Residential Designs since 1989

Hill. Facing indefinite captivity, he and his companions had to ride bareback through Virginia hills on captured mules, to a rail line at Gordonsville. After overnighting in a barn, they boarded a train for the sixty-mile trip to Richmond. (One prisoner defiantly annoyed the guard, chalking the Union slogan “On to Richmond” by the freight car door.)

Newly imprisoned in a converted tobacco factory, Sneden notes in his diary that inmates pressed him: “What news? Will there be exchange?” One month later: “Nearly all of us prisoners have ‘exchange’ on the brain. Groups of twenty or more sit on the floor and discuss the probabilities….”

As Christmas neared: “The prisoners were getting selfish, cruel, and demoralized by their privations, every one for himself. All cohesion as army comrades was broken up, thieving from one another common.” On New Year’s Eve, Sneden wrote, “…a general despondency prevails among us. Many are talking of the good old times we used to have at home about this time, or in camp. Storytelling among us occupies the dark lonely hours from 6 to 10 p.m. A sickening feeling comes over us as we realize that we are prisoners with no immediate prospects of being released by exchange.”

On February 22, the men were told, “Be ready to leave by the [rail]

Parole

cars for the south at any hour…we were all going to Georgia to be exchanged. Some believed this, but most of us did not…Songs and shouting were heard all over the building, and a new life seemed to take possession of us.”

Five days later, in Augusta, Georgia: “At 10 o’clock we were visited by Bradford, the Rebel provost marshal with several well dressed citizens who seemed very gentlemanly and sympathized

with us in our misery and hard luck to be prisoners of war. They told us that efforts were being made by the Confederacy to have us soon exchanged, but that our government would not consent, as the Rebels would not exchange Negro soldiers captured.”

Sneden’s group alighted February 29, 1864, four days behind the first to arrive at Andersonville, a new stockade erected to stop prisoner escapes into the heart of Richmond. Three days behind Sneden: “A detachment of about

Oxford Business Association March 2023 Calendar

3/1,8,15,22 & 29 - Sketching Your Life with Sheryl Southwickrecord life as you see it. Oxford Community Center, 10 a.m. to noon. More info and registration at www.oxfordcc.org.

3/4 - Cars and Coffee - Come out and enjoy cars, coffee, and camaraderie. Sponsored by Prestige Auto Vault and Doc’s Sunset Grille. Oxford Community Center. Free; 8:30 -10:30. www.oxfordcc.org ; 410-226-5409.

3/4 - Cooking Demo at the Robert Morris Inn – Chesapeake Oysters, 10 a.m. More info. and registration at: www.robertmorrisinn.com .

3/4 - Improv Night at OCC - Featuring Improv Easton – 6:30 p.m.; $10, cash bar. More info and tickets at www.oxfordcc.org.

3/10 - Cakebread Pairing Dinner at Robert Morris Inn – 6:30 p.m More info. and reservations at: www.robertmorrisinn.com

3/12 - Pancake Breakfast – Oxford Volunteer Fire Department, 8 to 11 a.m.

3/15 - Bus Trip to Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center – Smithsonian aviation museum; www.oxfordcc. org for info. and reservations.

3/17 - St. Patrick’s Day Dinner – Oxford Community Center; www.oxfordcc.org for more info. and reservations.

3/20 - Maryland Food Bank - Oxford Community Center parking lot, noon to 2 p.m.

3/23 - Speaker Series – James Webb Space Telescope - Dr. Darshan Kakkad, from the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore; 5:30 p.m. Free, Oxford Community Center; www.oxfordcc. org for more info.

3/24 - New Zealand Wine Dinner at Robert Morris Inn – 6 p.m. Info. and reservations at: www. robertmorrisinn.com.

3/25 - Cabin Fever Concert – Mike Waskey – 7 p.m. Oxford Community Center, $15; www.oxfordcc.org for more info.

3/30 - Women’s History Month Speaker – Muralist Bridget Cimino on her art, career, inspirational women, and her historic women’s mural in Cambridge. Free, 5:30 p.m. Oxford Community Center; www.oxfordcc.org for more info. and tickets.

3/31 - Dinner and a Movie - Big Movie - A 1996 American comedy-drama film co-directed by Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci. On the Jersey Shore in the 1950s, two Italian immigrant brothers from Calabria own and operate a restaurant called “Paradise”. Lasagna dinner by Pope’s Tavern. Dinner- 6 p.m., $15; Movie – 7 p.m., Free. Oxford Community Center www.oxfordcc.org for more info. and tickets.

3/31 - Sandaway Suites and Beach opens for the 2023 season. Plan a peaceful retreat along the Tred Avon this summer!

Check restaurant and shop websites or facebook for current days/hours.

500 prisoners arrived by train this afternoon…The day passed as usual, many of us gossiping with the newcomers to learn any news, more especially about ‘Exchange.’” Within a week, he noted, “Although we like the outdoor situation better than being confined in buildings in Richmond, the cold winds and heavy rains offset it.”

Captives Sneden called “hyenas” increasingly exacerbated imposed miseries such as exposure,

near-starvation and threats of capital punishment: “Among the prisoners are all sorts and grades of men, from the Bowery toughs (the worst class of all) to mechanics, clerks, lawyers, doctors, gamblers, and thieves, who do not hesitate to strangle or club to death any weak, sickly prisoner who resists or makes an outcry while being forcibly robbed of what little the Rebels have not previously taken from him.”

In self-defense, prisoners organized a police force called “Regulators” to patrol day and night armed with clubs. When Regulators began to abuse their power, a new force was appointed. Meanwhile: “The daily routine in camp is monotonous enough….some sleeping, others clustered around smoky fires talking ‘exchange,’ some playing cards or checkers.”

Sneden made friends among naval captives, who somehow coped better and maintained order among themselves. “Sailors among us are a good lot of fellows…The marines have a lot of tough men among

them. They are a quarrelsome set, but they fight the sailors only. This is always the case, whether they are ashore or afloat.” Several cabin boys arrived, aged eighteen and younger, but the commandant had them removed. “All the young sailors have been taken out of the stockade by Wirz. They were so delicate and young that they could not live here among us more than two weeks.”

Some prisoners gained privileges from Rebel officers by pledging to serve them without attempting to escape. Early on, Sneden had disparaged such prisoners, but a year in captivity weakened him. When a camp doctor mistook him for a fellow Mason and gave him a secret signal, he accepted an offer to work at the “hospital” outside the stockade.

Sherman’s advance through Georgia forced relocation from Andersonville to new stockades. In the process of shifting, the hospital’s meager medical supplies became lost. Sneden became separated from the doctor, whom he finally located in Charleston. With no more work to assign, the doctor agreed to put Sneden “under the cartel,” which was again operative.

Within sight of Fort Sumter, Sneden joined a pitiful band of survivors boarding the Steamer New York under a flag of truce, “the name on her paddleboxes enough to raise our spirits.” Sneden sailed northward from South Carolina, past Fortress Monroe and on up the Chesapeake to Camp Parole.

By the war’s end, an estimated 25,000 Rebels and 30,000 Yanks had died in prisons. Sneden survived thirteen months of captivity and reached home in New York the day after Christmas 1864.

Forty-some years ago, A.M. Foley swapped the Washington, D.C. business scene for a writing life on Elliott Island, Maryland. Tidewater Times kindly publishes Foley’s musings on regional history and life in general. Published works are described at www.HollandIslandBook.com .

Pass the Biscuits

“The biscuits are ready” can bring more folks to the table than a dinner bell. Everyone knows these freshly baked treats are best with a pat of butter while they are still fresh from the oven.

There’s a lot to be said for nofuss back-pocket recipes you can whip up anytime. They can be es -

pecially helpful when we are still rubbing the sleep out of our eyes.

Southern Buttermilk Drop Biscuits are exactly that kind of dish. The recipe is one I’ve been making for years and was given to me by a dear North Carolina friend. They are a staple go-to recipe.

Most biscuits are pantry friendly

Tidewater Kitchen

and require only a few ingredients. Some of the recipes are simple enough that after a few batches, you, like me, will have them memorized.

They are divine served hot with soup, chili or chowder. They make great mini sandwiches, too. Split the biscuits and fill them with tomato and ham for little teatime sandwiches or what the Italians call panini. They are also a treat for breakfast on an Eastern Shore porch. Hot coffee, fresh juice, biscuits hot out of the oven, the aroma of eggs bacon and buttered grits... could there be a better place short of Heaven to start the day?

Southern Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

These easy four-ingredient (without sugar, it’s only three) drop biscuits can be prepared in 5 minutes. When you realize what a time-saver self-rising flour can be, you will add a bag to your shopping cart next week! With sugar, these biscuits make a delicious individual strawberry shortcake.

2 c. self-rising flour

2 t. sugar (optional)

1/2 c. cold butter, cut in cubes

2/3 c. cold buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Combine self-rising flour and sugar in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Cut in cold butter with a pastry blender. Add buttermilk, and give the dough a light mix with a fork.

Drop by large spoonfuls onto a baking sheet. Bake for 12–15 minutes or until golden brown.

Note: If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, allow 1 cup whole milk to sour with 1 tablespoon of vinegar for 5 minutes or keep buttermilk powder in your pantry

Easy Cheddar Biscuits

1-1/2 c. flour

1 T. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1 T. sugar

1 c. (4 oz.) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/3 c. shortening

1/2 c. whole milk

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Pulse first 4 ingredients in a food processor 4 or 5 times, or until dry ingredients are thoroughly combined.

Tidewater Kitchen

Add shredded cheese and shortening and pulse 4 or 5 times, until mixture is crumbly.

With the processor running, gradually add milk and process until dough forms a ball and leaves the sides of the bowl. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball. Pat or roll dough to ½-inch thickness. Cut with a 2-inch round cutter and place on baking sheets. Bake biscuits in 2 batches for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Rosemary Biscuits

1 (3 oz.) package cream cheese

1-1/2 c. biscuit baking mix

1/2 c. milk

2 t. chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut cream cheese into baking mix until crumbly with a pastry blender. Add

milk and rosemary, stirring until just moistened.

Knead dough gently 4 or 5 times on a lightly floured surface. Roll out to ¾-inch thickness and cut diagonally into 1-inch diamonds. Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Yield: 2 dozen biscuits.

Note: Dried rosemary may be substituted for fresh.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

These biscuits make a nice variation to the popular ham biscuits.

3/4 c. cooked sweet potatoes, lightly mashed

2/3 c. whole milk

1/4 c. butter, melted

1-1/4 c. flour

1 T. sugar

4 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Com -

bine sweet potatoes, milk and butter in a large mixing bowl. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into potato mixture, then mix to form a soft dough.

Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Roll out to ½-inch thickness and cut with a 2-inch biscuit cutter. Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Yield: 3 dozen biscuits.

Sweet Lynn’s Cheese Biscuits

1 c. butter, softened

1/2 lb. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

2 c. flour

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. dry mustard

1/4 t. cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Cream butter, then add cheese. Mix well and set aside.

Sift together flour, salt, mustard and pepper. Add to the butter mixture. Roll dough to ¼-inch thickness on floured wax paper. Cut with a miniature cookie cutter. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 8–10 minutes. Yield: 3–4 dozen biscuits.

Sour Cream Cheese Biscuits

2 c. sifted self-rising flour

1 c. butter, melted

1 c. sour cream

1 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 450°F. Combine flour, butter and sour cream and mix well. Gently fold in cheese. Spoon into prepared miniature muffin tins. Bake for 10–15 min-

utes. Yield: 2 dozen biscuits

Note: Self-rising flour includes leavening agents. You do not need to use additional leavening agents (such as baking powder or baking soda) when using self-rising flour. To use all-purpose flour in place of self-rising flour: Mix 2 c. all-purpose flour, 1 T. baking powder and 1/2 t. fine salt.

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. She currently resides in Easton.

For more of Pam’s recipes, visit the Story Archive tab at tidewatertimes.com.

When Life Hands You Lemons

a multi-part series by Dan Hoyt

The Long Wait is Finally Over Time for My Transplant

The day had finally arrived, August 27, 2021. I was going to leave our home one more time for up to 30 days, but I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I remember trying to mentally prepare for my return to the University of Iowa Hospital, but as the time to leave grew closer, I started to feel the anxiety set in. I remember taking Nellie out to go to the bathroom, realizing it would be the last time for a while I’d see her running and playing in the yard. I was about to return to complete isolation in the transplant unit. For the next 30 days, I wouldn’t be able to feel the heat of the sun on my face, see my family, friends or new grandbaby or be with Dawn whenever I wanted. The emotions all came crashing down in those last few minutes before we left for Iowa City. We don’t realize how much those little things mean to us until we can’t have them. We take so much for granted each day, but man, is it tough when you don’t have access to those simple things. When we arrived at the hospital, I didn’t want to leave the van. I started thinking about the bad memories from my last few stays

and just didn’t want to go in. I remember tearing up and feeling the anxiety, but knowing I had little choice, I sucked it up and checked in at the transplant unit. Things started to get better almost immediately upon my arrival. The staff and nurses all recognized me and welcomed me back with open arms. When we got to my room, I looked at the board (a cabinet door showing my nurse, my doctors and any other important things). It had a big “Welcome Back, Dan” with a smiley face. To my surprise, we learned that my favorite nurse, Ellie, would be my nurse. She was supposed to be gone by now. She had become a physician’s assistant and was supposed to be start-

ing her new job at the University of Wisconsin. Like before, things seemed to start going in the right direction. Seeing her again made me feel so much more at ease.

Ellie hung up a day-to-day plan for my treatment so I’d know what I was in store for. Transplant day is considered Day 0, so my first day of treatment, which started with two different kinds of chemo, was considered Day -6. Within the first hour of checking in, my first chemo drug (Fludarabine) was started. When that was done, they hung up the next bag (Busulfan), and when that was done, my first day was complete. During my chemo, I

Lemons - Part IV

nal chemo treatment, they started the immunosuppressant ATG (Anti-Thymocyte Globulin) and things starting to get real. The downward spiral began.

had numerous nurses stop in to say hello. The feeling was mutual for most of my nurses. I loved them, and they really liked me, too. I think it helped that Dawn brought candy with her, large bags of chocolate, suckers and other fun things to share anytime someone came in my room. She even made a small bowl for the staff at the entrance and the cleaning crews. I told anyone that came to our room it was all part of the Dan Hoyt Experience. They probably thought I was crazy, but I had a lot of fun with it, and I think they did, too.

Bring on the Rabbit Blood

Days -6 through -3 chemo went well. I had few to no side effects besides having some difficulty sleeping, all was good. I still had my appetite, had no mouth sores or pain and I was happy with how things were going. But after my fi-

The idea behind this treatment is to suppress the immune system to reduce the chance of the body rejecting a stem cell transplant with graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). If my immune system (white blood cells) weren’t suppressed, they would see my new stem cells as foreign cells and then fight and kill (reject) them. ATG prevents the white blood cells from doing this. This treatment is also used for other types of transplants, such as renal (kidney) transplants, to help reduce the chance of rejection.

The way ATG is created is quite interesting. They inject human white blood cells into a rabbit, then pull the antibodies out of the rabbit and inject them into me, the patient. But for all the good that will come with this treatment, there are side effects. When the treatment started, I had body aches and chills right away. By hour three, I was developing a fever but was managing okay. My nurse told me I was tolerating it well. She said a lot of patients have a severe reaction and throw up right away. Luckily, my reaction was manageable and my fever and chills went away with pain meds. As prep before the therapy, they gave me Benadryl and additional steroids. This helped me

Dan and Dawn with nurse Ellie.

rest and got me through that first treatment.

I had a three days of this ATG treatment (Days -3 through -1), and it wiped me out. It’s a six-hour slow drip treatment, and it got worse as the hours passed. The nights were rough: high fevers, body aches and nausea. I got very little sleep. They treated me with antibiotics, antinausea meds and more Tylenol, but then came dehydration, low blood pressures and eventually low oxygen levels for the first time in my life. I lost my appetite, started losing my taste and was just worn down. But it was worth all the aches and pains it caused because

it helped with my treatment as the next phase was about to begin: transplant day.

Transplant Day

September 2, 2021. Transplant day had finally arrived. Days before, my donor, a 35-year-old man from Poland with my same blood type, completed his PBSC (peripheral blood stem cell donation). They shipped those cells to the University, and they were somewhere in the hospital waiting to find their way into my bloodstream. There are two main types of stem cell transplants: autologous, where the patient uses their own stem cells, and allogeneic. The type of transplant I was about to receive was allogeneic. There are

Melissa Grimes-Guy Photography

Lemons - Part IV

closest match was my oldest brother, Mike. He matched four of six markers, not enough to be a donor. It was crazy to learn that I had 19 other unrelated people throughout the world that matched on all 6 HLA markers, but none of them were my siblings.

When we learned I had acute myeloid leukemia, we knew very little about it. Later, we learned it is widely considered the deadliest of the blood cancers. Without immediate treatment, my life expectancy was measured in days or weeks, months if I was lucky. Fortunately, I was in the hospital in just a few days, started my chemotherapy right away and reached remission long enough to get me to this day.

three different methods of receiving this type of transplant: from a healthy HLA-matched (human leukocyte antigen) donor (sibling or an unrelated donor), through a unit of umbilical cord blood or from a parent, child or half-matched sibling. Mine came from an unrelated donor who matched on the worldwide registry (bethematch.org). My siblings all participated in the search to see if they could be my donor, but none was a close enough match. I found out later that there is a 1 and 4 chance that a brother or sister could be an HLA match.

Since I have three brothers and one sister, my chances were pretty good, right? Not in my case. The

The team at the University normally does the stem cell transplants in the morning, giving the

team time to deal with any unfortunate side effects, but I really wanted Dawn to be there with me so she could be part of the experience. We’ve been together since high school, and we have done everything with each other for more than 38 years. I didn’t want her to miss one of the most important days of my life. I put in a special request to Dr. Silverman to allow Dawn to come in before visiting hours so she could take part in the lifesaving experience. The hospital had been very strict with visiting hours in the middle of a pandemic, and the stem cell transplant unit had an even stricter policy. Although Dr. Silverman didn’t approve my initial request for Dawn

to come before the normal visiting hours of 3–7 p.m., she did approve my treatment for later in the afternoon when Dawn was present. We were so thankful for that. It made it that much more special to have Dawn there for the transplant. My new donor stem cells arrived in my room just after 3 p.m. in a small Playmate cooler. It was my nurse Ellie’s final day and her last hour of her shift, and I was her last patient. I was so thankful that she took that closing hour of her time at the University to complete my transplant. To say I was excited is an understatement, but the whole process was quite uneventful when all was done. My stem cells were in a standard blood bag, like the bags

of red blood cells or platelets I had received transfusions from in the past. Although there was something quite different about these bags. If you looked very closely, you could actually see the stem cells swimming in the bag. Once the bag was hooked up to my PICC line, you could see the swimmers in my IV line when Ellie held a light behind it. The whole process only took about an hour, but to me it was a calm, relaxing, spiritual moment. Dawn and I didn’t talk much. I sat in my recliner, she sat on the couch next to me and we held hands. The miracle of science, of God and our love, got us to that moment in time, and it is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

Dawn brought a re-birthday cake to celebrate with the doctors and nurses. The nurses brought in a signed certificate memorializing my transplant re-birthday. It was a special day to say the least, but it was getting late, and Dawn had to leave. For the rest of the evening, I sat quietly in reflection on what had just happened and the miracle I had just witnessed and taken part in.

GVHD Treatments and All That Came with Them

Prior to receiving my transplant, I really wasn’t sure of the process or equipment used for the special day. The doctors and nurses are so busy getting the patient ready for the transplant that they don’t

really talk about the actual procedure. While on my daily walks around the unit, I would see these large machines and their shells with TRU-D on them. I figured they were the machines used to deliver stem cells into the system, and I was quite amazed by them. It wasn’t until a few days before my treatment that I learned they were just giant UV robots, like Roombas they send into rooms before a patient’s arrival to do deep UV cleaning. I was quite embarrassed when I shared what I thought with my nurses. They got a good laugh out of it. Looking back, it was quite funny.

The days that followed my transplant started off with extreme tiredness and a decreased appetite. Then came tummy issues and my first mouth sores. I got to it quickly by starting the mouth rinse and tooth brushing routine (five times a day), and at first the sores were kept to a minimum. The nurses and doctors told me the 10 days following the transplant can be the roughest.

Since my body was trying to rebuild my lymphatic system, I guess I should have expected that.

Days +1, 3, 6 and 11 were what my nurses were talking about. I had Methotrexate infusions to help with the prevention of GVHD. I was told patients usually tolerate the first few infusions, but it was rare for patients to get the day +11 treatment because of the severe side effects. When I heard this, I set that day +11 infusion as a goal. I’m not like most people; I’m an overachiever, and I was going to do everything in my power to get that final infusion. The first few went without a hitch. Aside from extreme tiredness, I did well. I was still holding back most of the

mouth and throat sores. Day +6 was a bit tougher, but I powered through that as well. I was big into walking the hallways, staying moving as much as possible to try and help the healing process. I woke up the next day with swollen cheeks and the first sign of a sore on my tongue. My WBC count had dropped to .4 and platelets to 66, so I was more susceptible to infection and mouth sores the lower those numbers would get. Brush and saltwater rinse, brush and saltwater rinse repeatedly was my defense, and for the most part it was working.

Day +10 post-transplant came and went, and I remember telling a group of nurses on the weekend

Lemons - Part IV

I was set to get my day +11 infusion. They looked at each other and wished me good luck. I personally took that as another challenge and was ready for the final infusion.

The morning arrived. I slept well but developed some throat pain that got worse as the day went on. The nurses brought me a combo of Maalox and Lidocaine to help soothe and numb the sores. That worked great and had me ready for my infusion. I spoke with Dr. Silverman that morning, and she was very happy with my progress and said I should be able to tolerate the infusion. She did warn me it would cause more sores but would help with the prevention of GVHD. I figured I could handle a few days of pain and suffering to help with the complications that come with GVHD. A lot of things happened on that day. I got the infusion and all went well, but my numbers also reached their lowest. My WBC hit .1, a goal we had, and platelets were at 10. I’d need a platelet infusion the following day. The morning that followed began to show me I wasn’t as tough as I thought I was. The days that followed were a lot more than I ever expected.

The next week was a roller coaster ride. I would go from good to bad to worse as my blood numbers dropped. The goal had always been of WBC of .1, but with that came

the increased mouth and throat sores, tummy issues and just feeling awful. At one point, the throat pain was so bad I could no longer swallow. After a few days of this, I felt like I’d forgotten how to swallow. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. I would try to sip my water, and I’d choke on it. It was horrible and scary. Trying to swallow felt like swallowing razor blades. The pain was unreal. Thank goodness for my lifesaving PICC line. They were able to give me all the fluids I needed since I couldn’t get them by mouth.

The pain was so bad I had to have all my meds changed to IV form. I was also put on a pain pump, which helped immensely, but with that came other issues. I remember at one point I had so many pain meds in me I fell asleep talking with the doctor. The final straw came when I fell asleep talking with my number one, Dawn. She told me later it scared her to no end when I was slurring my speech and didn’t answer. It was the only time during my time in the hospital that she called the nurses’ station to have them check on me because of my lack of response. After that occurrence, I told them to take me off the pump. I’d deal with the pain just so I could be fully mentally aware and to make sure Dawn knew I was okay.

The next few days were rough; I did a lot more praying. One of my gifts from my daughter was one of

Lemons - Part IV

my dearly departed mom’s hankies. I tied that on a holding cross our dear friend Cathy Clarke Williams gave me, and I used it during prayer and meditation. It helped me through the additional stress. I took it on my walks, kept it with me in my chair and took it to bed with me. It’s made from olive wood and came from Bethlehem. It helped me concentrate and forget about my pain while I rubbed it with my thumb. I lost a lot of color, as I had during my first stint in the hospital. When the numbers went low, so did the color of my skin. A pale grayish color is kind of scary to look at, but as before, I knew as soon

Been waiting on a bike and can’t find one?

We have new bikes in stock NOW. Get them while supplies last. They’ll be gone by spring!

as my numbers increased so would my skin color. Along with the low numbers came increased meds via IV. I developed extreme itching from the pain meds, so they added additional meds to counteract that. They added another brain to my IV cart. It was at it largest, with two brains and a total of six channels. I was quite impressive as I walked down the hallway showing off my new look.

Engraftment Day Time to Go Home

Eventually my numbers started to climb. My WBC went from .1 to .3 to .6, and after a few days it continued to double, reaching 1.1. This was the goal we were shooting for. I had reached engraftment, the day

we transplanters strive to reach. Our number-one goal. Engraftment is when the stem cells received on transplant day start to grow and make healthy blood cells. It’s an important milestone in transplant recovery and a day for celebration.

Before I knew it, 26 days had passed. Since the start of my journey, I had spent a total of 70 days in the hospital. From chemotherapy to infection treatment to transplant, 152 days had elapsed since my first day in the hospital. But I was finally able to go home. A few of my favorite nurses stopped by and said goodbye. Tara, Courtney and Scott were special to me, and I was thankful for their companionship during my stays. I was

Lemons - Part IV

down in weight a total of 40 pounds and was very tired, but I was on my way home to be with my bride of 38 years, my one and only, and soon, more importantly, my caregiver. I was totally reliant on Dawn

when I got home. I had enough strength to get out of bed, use the bathroom and get to my chair, but I could do little else. Every other day I would shower, but just getting downstairs and taking a shower wore me out for the rest of the day. She had to cook every meal. Since my immune system was so new and my WBC still so very low, all meals had to be made from scratch so we would know what was in them. No takeout, no unknown food sources. We had friends and family who wanted to take turns bringing us meals, but we had to decline. So many reached out wanting to help, but since I had to go to appointments twice a week at first, the best thing was gift cards we could use for fuel. Our drive was 73 miles each way, twice a week, so fuel costs were getting prohibitive, and we were so thankful for the help. My short-term disability ran out, so I was moved to long-term disability, which paid 50% of my normal salary. We are so thankful we started Dave Ramsey’s plan a few years prior to my diagnosis. We were able to pay the bills and stay out of debt during my time away from work. A lot of people who suffer this diagnosis and treatment can’t handle the financial burden that comes with it. Most lose their income, can’t pay their bills and become bankrupt. The hospital offered services to help, but we were fortunate not to have to use them. They assigned

Tara

Courtney Scott

KITCHEN BATH DESIGN CENTER &

AT BOUNTIFUL

Full-service kitchen and bath design and installation backed by an award-winning design team.

me a social worker to help, but there was no need.

We were also thankful to my employer, Change Healthcare, for keeping my position open. They had to set a limit, but thankfully, they said they could keep it open for a year. We were blessed to have such a wonderful place that truly cared for my wellbeing and welcomed me back with open arms. I’m thankful for my boss, Jagadish Golla, and my old boss, Ugo Mattera, for sticking with me, fighting for my retainment

and letting me come back slowly. I still have a long way to go with my recovery. When all this started, the transplant team warned us the hardest part would be the slow long-term recovery. Not knowing anything about AML, stem cell transplants or anything related prior to this journey left us with a lot of questions. Almost a year and a half later, I’m still recovering. Restrictions have been lifted slowly, but I still get tired very easily and I’m still susceptible to simple viruses, colds and the flu. We didn’t know it before all this started, but with my new stem cells, my immune system needed to relearn everything. To say my immune system was compromised is an understatement. I was like a newborn baby; all my past vaccines markers were wiped out. Over the next two years, I would have to start over. After the fi rst six months, I was able to start getting vaccines again. First was the pneumonia vaccine, followed by COVID. Six months later, I was able to get the fi rst of my polio, hepatitis A&B and Hib vaccines. Over the

next six months I will continue to get vaccines so I can be up to date.

Masking in public is still required, but I have my life and I’m so thankful to God for watching over me, science, my doctors and nurses and my wife for all they have done for me. As I write this, I’m on a beach in the Bahamas, looking out at the ocean with my number one,

and am so thankful for getting this far. It’s our fi rst vacation since the diagnosis, the weather is beautiful and my outlook is favorable. Thanks for following along. I hope you found some inspiration in my words and that my story has helped you in some way. If you or someone you love must ever go through something similar, my advice is to fi nd the best doctors, the best facilities and the best hospitals, and don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions. Then let go and let them do what they do. That’s how I went into this from day one, and I believe my positive attitude made my recovery so much better. Love to all!

Experience the Exceptional at Londonderry!

At Londonderry on the Tred Avon, the Eastern Shore’s only 62+ independent living waterfront community, our residents enjoy exceptional experiences daily.

Chef Chelsea delights the resident dining experience using only the finest ingredients. Erica, our activities coordinator, works with residents to bring the best programs and speakers to Londonderry. Our goal is to provide entertainment that is engaging, fun and educational. Our housekeeping and buildings and grounds team put a smile on our faces every day. To live at Londonderry is to have exceptional experiences that go above and beyond.

This is retirement at its best. Londonderry residents don’t have the day-to-day commitments of homeownership or meal preparation. The team does it all for you. The Londonderry lifestyle allows our residents free time to do what they love on our exceptional waterfront grounds.

Let us show you how we deliver the exceptional! Contact us (410) 820-8732.

Hot-Type Days at the Salisbury Times , with Thanks to Carl Bernstein

by Richard W. Walker

Perusing Chasing History:

A Kid in the Newsroom , Carl Bernstein’s 2022 memoir about his early newspaper days, I am reminded that I owe a debt of gratitude to Bernstein for my own career in journalism. It’s not what you might think ~ i.e., that I was inspired to seek fame and fortune in the newspaper business by Bernstein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Watergate reporting with Washington Post colleague Bob Woodward. In fact, I had never given a thought to becoming a journalist until the serendipitous day in April 1974 when, on a lark, I applied for a job as a sportswriter/editor at the venerable Salisbury Daily Times. To my astonishment, I was hired.

Here’s what happened: After I had been at the paper a few weeks, an editor told me that a recent newsroom hire had been a hotshot journalism-school grad who fancied himself the next Bernstein or Woodward. Ultimately, this person didn’t work out and was sacked. In filling an opening for a sports staffer, the Daily Times editors were wary of gambling on another wannabe Watergate-style

super-reporter; they wanted someone who had no preconceptions about the news trade and could be trained on the job. So, I was offered the position precisely because I didn’t go to J-school and had not a lick of publishing experience. I didn’t even have references or writing samples. All I had was a degree in philosophy, although professing

Hot-Type Days

tionized the typesetting process in 1884. Bernstein’s vivid descriptions of the Evening Star’s newsroom and composing shop give immediacy to distant memories of my stint at the Daily Times, also a “PMs” (afternoon) paper.

Bernstein, who grew up in Silver Spring, was born to be a reporter. In August 1960, when he was a freckle-faced 16-year-old, he landed a job as an apprentice copyboy at the Evening Star, impressing the editors with his remarkable ability to type 90 words per minute. From the moment he set foot in the Evening Star building, Bernstein was intoxicated by the hurly-burly of the predigital newsroom.

a keen interest in sports during the interview surely must have helped.

Carl Bernstein is so inextricably coupled with the Washington Post that it may not be widely known that he spent his formative years in the business at the Washington Evening Star, the Post’s conservative rival and a great newspaper in its day.

Chasing History (Henry Holt & Co., New York) takes the reader on a 380-page tour of a golden age when printing systems and newsroom practices had scarcely changed since the Linotype machine revolu-

“People were shouting. Typewriters clattered and clanged. Beneath my feet, I could feel the rumble of the presses,” he recalls in his memoir. “In my whole life, I had never heard such glorious chaos or seen such purposeful commotion as I now beheld in that newsroom. I knew that I wanted to be a newspaperman.”

As a copyboy, Bernstein was expected to do “anything that the editors and reporters asked.” The job entailed more than rushing reporters’ stories to the appropriate news desk and responding to the holler of “copy!” City editor Sid Epstein saw the utility of assigning copyboys instead of full-fledged reporters to cover local civic meetings so they could gain some basic reporting

Carl Bernstein

experience. As a result, Bernstein’s first story ~ six column inches about a citizens’ association gathering ~ appeared after only two months at the paper. With Epstein as his mentor, he helped reporters cover John F. Kennedy’s campaign for president, Kennedy’s inauguration on January 20, 1961, and the Bay of Pigs disaster.

The six-foot-two Epstein cut an aristocratic figure at the paper in his bespoke suits, pink monogrammed shirts and silk repp ties; it was even rumored that he went riding in Rock Creek Park on his days off. Despite these affectations, Epstein was a commanding presence whose “talents as an editor and a leader were unearthly.”

While Bernstein had no desire to emulate the city editor’s dandyish style, Epstein was “my idea of what a newspaperman should be.”

At the vastly smaller Daily Times , founded in 1886 as the Wicomico News , we had no copyboys or city editor, but Bernstein and I shared largely congruent experi-

Hot-Type Days

ences in the newsroom and composing shop. As Victorian Linotype machines chattered and groaned, we cranked out our stories on 30-pound Royals, AP wire-service teleprinters clacking away, telephones shrieking, the air clouded with pipe and cigarette smoke.

There were 10 reporters (compared to about 100 at the Evening Star) and six editors at the Daily Times, including Dick Moore, the paper’s amiable, silver-haired editor-in-chief, the only newsroom staffer with a separate office. My boss, sports editor Rick Cullen, a Daily Times veteran at age 29, had a desk in a cozy corner of the newsroom, near the windows looking out on Carroll Street. Cullen spent most mornings working the phone, feet on desk, before banging out a pristine column in about 20 minutes for the next day’s paper.

Together, Cullen and I constituted the Daily Times’ sports department. The two of us did everything, including taking photos at sports

events and developing them in the paper’s darkroom. The workload was daunting, as our coverage included the sports programs of 14 regional high schools across the Shore, Salisbury State (as it was then known) and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore. I had days that began at 6 a.m. on the desk, where I laid out the sports pages for that afternoon’s paper, and ended after 10 p.m. with the fi-

nal whistle of a basketball game.

My desk was pushed together with those of the three news editors, all of whom smoked pipes. They were news chief Jim Nelson, assistant news editor Mel Toadvine and copy editor Mike Meise, who had been at the paper for 20 years. Nelson, a world-weary sort with dark bags under his eyes and a relentless five o’clock shadow, was always grousing about this and that. It was one of his idiosyncrasies to maintain a copy of Gray’s Anatomy on his desk.

Next to the editors’ desks was a window through which we transferred edited copy to the typists. Fingers flying across the keyboard at blistering speed, the typists en-

tered our stories into a device that encoded them on punch tape. The tape would then be fed into a reader on the Linotype machine, where words and sentences were miraculously transformed into “hot type” ~ single lines, or slugs, created from molten lead. It was a marvelously efficient system; used type would be melted down, turned into bars and deployed all over again.

Once stories were converted into hot type, smock-clad printers would assemble the columns of text, headlines and photographs in metal frames called “chases” (a term that, perhaps esoterically, gives Chasing History its title). They made up the pages according to layout schematics provided by the editors. I can still see the faces of the printers at the Daily Times: kindly, taciturn men with deep Eastern Shore roots whose curious accents were more cockney than country.

Work in the composing room was a dirty business. At the Daily Times, it had the oily, industrial feel of a machine shop. On my first morning at the paper, Jim Nelson cocked an eye, sized me up and then cautioned against wearing white shirts on the job. I thought he was joking. I found out why later that day, when my new white Brooks Brothers shirt featured several prominent black splotches on the sleeves, the result of visits to the grimy composing room. I was now truly the “inkstained wretch” of newspaper lore.

Chasing History contains page

after page of dense and sometimes bewildering detail, mirroring the extent to which Bernstein treated his own memoir as a story to be meticulously researched and reported. In the acknowledgments section, he cites more than 70 sources, ranging from neighborhood and high-school friends to dozens of former colleagues from the Evening Star.

Bernstein is disarmingly frank in the book, even publishing the real names of old girlfriends, including a seventh-grade crush, and airing the vagaries of his love life. In the same vein, he brings to light his colossal struggle to graduate from Montgomery Blair High School while he continued to

work nights and weekends at the paper. He even admits to an aversion to “school learning.” He somehow scraped into the University of Maryland, College Park, where his academic woes continued. Immersed in his duties at the paper, he lasted a handful of semesters and flunked out of the university twice, recording a 0.00 grade point average over his last two terms. His gobsmacking candor in Chasing History is such that he even publishes his embarrassingly bad transcript for all to ponder.

Bernstein’s lack of a college degree would become a roadblock to advancement at the Evening Star, whose unyielding managing editor required new full-fledged re -

porters to have a degree and undergo a training program. Despite boasting a scrapbook bulging with bylined stories, he sensed that his time at the paper was nearing the end. “I knew that I was never going to graduate from college,” he says. “It occurred to me that I might not be making my newspaper career at the Evening Star.”

In June 1965, Bernstein left the Evening Star for New Jersey, signing on with the Elizabeth Daily Journal , a modest-size afternoon paper. He performed brilliantly at the Journal , winning the top prizes in three reporting categories from the state newspaper association.

After a year at the paper, though, he was “already looking for a way back to the major leagues.” In September 1966, Bernstein, just 22 years old, was hired by the Washington Post, and the rest, of course, is history.

Toward the end of my stretch at the Daily Times , in late 1976, the paper installed an automated typesetting system in which machines spewed out stories in “cold type,” paper strips that would be pasted onto camera-ready pages. It signaled the beginning of the end for the Linotype era. However, not much changed initially for editors and reporters; we still used typewriters and edited copy manually.

In the composing room, as the

Hot-Type Days

old Linotype machines sat dead silent, printers worked at rows of tabletop easels pasting up pages with a wax adhesive. Automation proved to be a dispiriting transition for the older printers, whose big, thick, calloused hands and fingers made it difficult to grasp and manipulate the sticky paper strips.

The Daily Times ’ move to cold type seemed cutting edge at the time. But we could never in a million years have imagined what the future would bring: a world driven by byzantine digital systems and a global tangle of fiber-optic cables called the internet, where reporters file stories via iPhones and

break news on Twitter, and editors put together online papers in cyber-newsrooms.

I have no doubt that Carl Bernstein considers himself damn lucky to have experienced those wondrous hot-type days in the newspaper trade. I know I do.

Richard W. Walker is a longtime journalist and freelance writer living in Oxford. He started his career at the Salisbury Daily Times and went on to work for the Washington Post , the New York Times , Times-Mirror Magazines , ARTnews magazine, and Post-Newsweek Tech Media , among others.

“This novel ~ set in the round the world race ~ has some very bad characters out to ruin a young man struggling to find his identity, an unexpected love interest, and some intense blue water sailing."

The book was originally serialized in Tidewater Times. Available on Amazon, print or eBook.

Changes: Coming Again A novel in progress

by Roger Vaughan

Chapter 19: Venting

“You did what?!” Cameron couldn’t believe his ears.

“I had him tattooed.” Isha had said it quietly. She didn’t really know whether to scream it and do a little dance or whisper it like an embarrassment. Revenge is like that. It can have a disturbing aftertaste. That was why she had decided to tell Cameron, to get it off her chest. It had seemed like a great idea at the time, the tattoo. Instant gratification born of frustration. But Isha needed to share the deed with someone besides Jodi, who was a murderer, after all. That had given her pause. A father and mother murderer. That was a bit much even for Isha. She’d gone to see Cameron as soon as she had returned to Connecticut.

She knew Andy’s boat was carrying jewels. It had to be. The elements she’d pieced together were all too convincing. How RD’s boys had missed finding them was a mystery. Either RD’s incompetent, stupid crew had screwed it up or Grady had simply beaten them. How she hated

to lose. For Isha, losing required an immediate response. Over breakfast she’d focused on the stars tattooed on Jodi’s calf. She’d seen Jodi’s tattoo a hundred times, but this time it had sent a message.

“Tell me more,” Cameron said, collecting himself.

“It was easy to figure out where Andy was staying. He’d done some interviews in the Marriott lobby.”

“Andy? Interviews?”

Isha cursed herself. She hadn’t meant to mention Andy’s name. She had no reason not to trust Cameron, but don’t let it get out of hand, girl. Tighten up, damn it. What’s happening to me? she wondered. The answer was evident: she needed to vent, and there was Cameron, a professional bound by ethical standards. Pull out his fingernails ~ that Hipaa thing ~ and he wouldn’t betray a client. Reliable Cameron, safe Cameron, with the reassuring artwork on his office walls, with the dreamy photos of him fly-fishing, walking with Chum.

“Okay. Andy. He’s the target. Andy is the skipper and owner of

Coming Again

a boat in The Race who’s probably going to win it. Andy who stepped on me a while back before I met you at the rest area. Andy’s who I was going after, am going after, because we’re not done yet, goddamn it!”

“Didn’t they just come into Miami, the boats in The Race? This was in Miami, this tattoo business?”

“Yes, after we failed to find the bit of cargo he was carrying.”

“Cargo? On a race boat.”

“Very small cargo. A little canister full of jewels. Emeralds. Worth a million or more. So we thought. So I think! I know it was there. They just beat us.”

“Wait. We’re talking smuggling?”

“It’s complicated.” Isha was on a roll.

“Andy stepped on you?”

“Another story. But we’re pretty sure Grady has a little jewel-smuggling thing going on in Australia, and that he persuaded Andy to transport them on his boat. We had information about where the Australians like to hide such a package. And we had a plan. Get on that boat and search it right after they finished, posing as customs agents. We did. Found nothing. Either they beat us or I was wrong. Either way, I was really pissed. We lost. Had to do something. Anything.”

“The tattoo.”

“I expect there’s a good story about how you had him tattooed.”

“Yeah. That doesn’t finish it, but it sends a message.” Isha smiled. “Took fifteen minutes. Will take a lot longer to laser it off. Or maybe he’ll just wear it.” She smiled.

“Andy only met his real father a few months ago. There was this vile man who had pretended to be his father for years, a vicious, mean-ass man I was working for. His stepfather. He had a grand plan to ruin Andy and take over the family business. Mitchell Thomas, who killed his wife, Andy’s mother. I had nothing to do with that. He’s locked up. Anyway, Mitch forced Andy to go on this race, and in Australia he met his real father, a boat guy named Grady.”

Cameron realized his jaw had dropped slightly. “Go on,” he said, trying to remain professional.

“I expect there’s a good story about how you had him tattooed. I doubt he would have accepted an invitation to accompany you to the parlor.”

Isha laughed. “We managed to put a few drops of this powerful little drug in their desserts,” Isha said. “It’s good for several hours. Jodi doubled as the waitress. We had the artist lined up. Got the master key from the maid. Amazing what money will buy, isn’t it? Jodi and I got to watch. I only wish I could have made Becky watch, Andy’s girlfriend, his ‘true love,’ from what I gather. But I’m sure she’s enjoying

Coming Again

the end result. Pun intended.”

“May I ask what the tattoo looked like?”

“‘Forever, Isha,’ it says. With a heart. And some filigree.”

“Who’s Isha?”

Another flub! “Isha…a nickname Andy called me,” Isha said while cursing herself again. This truth thing was nothing but trouble. But it had worked with Jodi. “He said it meant ‘pretty bird’ in some language.”

“I see.” Cameron was suddenly on guard. This had been amusing up to now, with an agreeably sporting kind of moderate risk, dealing with this woman who’d picked him up on the Jersey Turnpike with her line of patent bullshit, this sexy little package of trouble waiting to happen who had managed to ingratiate herself with the mighty Creightons to the point that she was living in one of the cottages on their estate. Nina, now Isha, the welcome companion to the Creightons’ troubled teenage granddaughter, and heaven knew what sort of deal she had with the old man ~ even the Creightons’ guest on Mustique, of all things. But getting some guy forcibly tattooed, using who knew what manner of drug, and with this girl Jodi involved, in Miami, with jewel smuggling maybe going on…

these were red flags flashing in neon that called for some serious reconsideration. Cameron had learned a long time ago that it was never a good idea to put confidentiality ahead of safety. He realized the fact that he’d bedded Nina ~ Isha! ~ a few times reduced his options. Calling the authorities was out of the question. Cameron knew he had to stay in character, or he might very well end up getting tattooed himself ~ figuratively, or literally. The thought made him wince.

“Well, this must make you feel a lot better,” he said.

“What, talking to you?”

“Having tattooed your quarry.”

These were red flags flashing in neon that called for some serious reconsideration

“Both, actually,” Isha said. “But like I said, we’re not done.” *

“Oh, I know where to find her,” Cameron said. “That’s not the problem. The problem is what we’re going to do with her. As I said, she managed to torpedo my better judgment. I can only caution you as a target.”

Andy took another sip of his coffee.

“Men,” Becky said disparagingly. “I know what I’d do with her.”

Cameron smiled. “I bet you do.”

It hadn’t taken Cameron long to find Andy. Andy had been putting in some time at Moss when he’d gotten the call from Cameron. There were only six boats in The Race, and only one skipper/owner with

Coming Again

the name of Andy. The rest had been easy research: Moss Optics and the overpowering grandfather who claimed elves had helped him invent the big lens; the abused, frail mother; the news articles about Mitchell Thomas, the well-known amateur sailor and murderer of his wife, Andy’s mother; and Andy being forced into The Race, with Moss Optics, led by Mitchell, who was backing the first American boat ever. Andy had helped Cameron fill in the blanks and correct some of Isha’s more creative stories. Becky had enjoyed telling of the bust in Mitch’s Central Park apartment, when she had wrestled Isha to the floor as Isha went for an officer’s gun.

knew Paul, his pasta was the best, and Paul would let them use a little room upstairs where they could have privacy.

“You’re the doctor,” Andy said. “What exactly are we dealing with?”

“I think she’s dangerous in a benign, mostly irritating sort of way,” Cameron said.

Andy laughed. “In Uruguay, a guy attacked me with a knife after she’d sent me to a very badass bar,” he said. “She, or Mitch, had paid him. I took the trouble of going to see the guy in jail. He said she’d told him to kill me. That doesn’t sound benign to me.”

“I think she’s dangerous in a benign, mostly irritating sort of way,” Cameron said.

Andy and Becky had been amused by Cameron’s lively version of how Isha had picked him up at the Vince Lombardi rest area, how she had found RD, and how she had landed herself a job as Jodi’s companion.

The three of them had met at Paul’s Pasta Shop in tiny Groton, Connecticut, a couple of hours up I-95 from Larchmont. As Cameron had explained, Isha was in the habit of showing up at his house whenever she felt like it. She had a key, he was slightly embarrassed to admit. Not a good idea for her to find the three of them having a chat. Cameron had chosen a place far away. He

“I’ve had to sort through the many stories she’s told me,” Cameron said. “I do believe she’s had a tough go. Early and frequent abuse. Probably from a near impoverished family. She’s learned to use whatever cards she has to score some kind of a life for herself. She has some cards, and she likes a good life.”

“She does have some cards,” Becky said. “She certainly does.”

“She hates men for good reason,” Cameron said. “Thinks life is out to get her. Her first instinct is to strike out at people who get in her way, and ask questions later. She’s incredibly devious because she’s had a lifetime of practice.”

“She’s gotten to you a little, eh, doc?” Andy asked.

Coming Again

“She has,” Cameron admitted. “She told me the other day about your bad years with Mitchell posing as your father. I could hear a little empathy in her tone. Just a little, mind you, but from Isha that resonated. Maybe it struck me because I had been so eager to hear from that side of her.”

Empathy! Andy had to laugh, although laughing was the last thing he felt like doing halfway into his first laser tattoo-removal session. It was the first of six treatments ~ one a month for six months, they had said, to allow for healing. It was no fun, as the need for healing suggested. To require healing, one first needs to be hurt. Some “discomfort,” they had told him. How Andy hated that word as used by the medical establishment. The word “pain” was obviously bad for business. Discomfort, some PR firm had decided, was more friendly. Much less frightening. It didn’t matter what it was ~ pulling wisdom teeth, resetting a bone, relocating a shoulder, doing a root canal ~ there would be some “discomfort.” You bet. The laser treatments weren’t awful. The doctor had told Andy they wouldn’t hurt as much as the tattoo, not knowing he had been thoroughly drugged for that little

procedure. The indignity of lying bare-assed on a table while some technician burned away on his buttock with a laser topped it off. Better, he thought with a grim chuckle, not to know.

Andy had decided to have one laser treatment before the last leg of The Race began. In the tight quarters they inhabited, the crew would see his tattoo in the process of changing. He’d take plenty of heat about that. He’d have to think up some wild tale for them. But at least he could get Isha’s name removed. That would have been impossible to explain. All the boys had seen Isha in action. Always best to let old news be no news.

“This thing with ‘Isha’ must have been a quickie. The ink is barely dry, as they say.”

“Ow!” Andy gritted his teeth at a particularly harsh burn. Empathy was the last thing he would have chosen to describe what was going on in Isha’s head when she’d organized this little charade.

“Sorry,” the tech said. “This thing with ‘Isha’ must have been a quickie. The ink is barely dry, as they say.”

The tech, whose name tag read Janet, was attractive, but her eyes were cold. She wasn’t quite up there with Nurse Ratched from Cuckoo’s Nest, but she was cut from the same sadistic cloth. Janet was evidently into the punishment aspect of tattoo removal.

“Are you really sorry, Janet?”

Coming Again

Andy said, resulting in another harsh burn. “Ow! For chrissakes!”

“No, not really,” she said evenly. “I do enjoy my work, getting rid of these stupid things. I mean, why in the world would you do it, have some woman’s name inked into you? On your buttock, in this case.”

“I didn’t.”

“Oh, another drunk story. You were passed out and carried to the parlor by your drunken friends.”

“Close.”

“Really? Do tell, because I collect these stories. Maybe I’ll write a book someday. I already have the title: Bad Idea at the Time. Like it?”

“Can’t wait to read it. Soon to be

a major motion picture. Aren’t we about done here, Janet? Did you get ‘Isha’ off ?”

“The question is, did Isha get off.” Andy could hear Janet smiling.

“I’m sure she did,” Andy said wearily.

“Oh, I can’t wait to hear the details! We have plenty of time. Five more sessions to go. Almost done. Just now working on the A. Be patient.”

“Ow!”

Chapters 1-18 can be found at www. tidewatertimes.com

NEW

LISTING NEW LISTING

CHESAPEAKE BY DEL WEBB - Two story Wittman model on a corner lot close to clubhouse and amenities. Great room with gas fireplace, formal dining room, Gourmet kitchen with center island, breakfast nook, granite countertops and vaulted ceiling, primary suite, guest bedroom and bath, office, sitting room and sunroom leading to patio and fenced backyard with inground pool. 2nd floor loft and bedroom with bath. Irrigation system $480,000

Wye River Waterfront - Custom post and beam home with panoramic views and 1400’ of waterfront on the Wye River. Rustic feel with beams and floor to ceiling stone fireplace. Three bedrooms but septic is approved for four. This is a unique home on a peninsula of land. Dock with approx. 5’ of water depth (buyer to verify), and rip-rapped shoreline. Easy boating to Kent Narrows, St. Michaels and Annapolis. Close commute to Bay Bridge. $1,050,000

This is a great time to list your home. Our inventory is low and we have buyers looking for their dream home. Please call me for a no obligation Comparative Market Analysis.

TALBOT COUNTY WATERFRONT

A lovely country drive leads to this cozy updated 3 bedroom waterfront cottage. Built c. 1800, the structure with original floors and 5 fireplaces has newer heat and air conditioning systems. A first floor very bright primary bedroom with a large full bath, screened porch to capture the Southern breezes, front stone patio, and dock on Reed Creek offer country living with easy access to Easton, Trappe, and Oxford. Offered for $1,995,000

Trappe - Sally’s Cottage

WATERFRONT: Breathtaking waterfront estate minutes from St. Michaels. Architect designed 5000+ sq ft residence with “great room,” 1st fl. BR wing, Gray-stone patios and pool surround. Dock, guest or caretaker’s house, tennis court, two garages. Total privacy. Please call for details.

THE EMANUEL JENKINSON HOUSE (1763)

Built by Quakers, this house offers a wealth of Georgian paneling, original doors, floors, built-in cupboard, and 3 fireplaces. Much restoration has been accomplished, but there is plenty of work awaiting the next owner. Call for details.

EASTON, JUST LISTED : Low maintenance residence featuring Living Room with Dining “L,”. Kitchen open to Family Room with fireplace, brick floored Sun Room, 3 Bedrooms , 2 baths, large Laundry Room, Garage, Beautiful plantings. $359,000