Tidewater Times May 2021 by Tidewater Times

Tidewater Times

May 2021

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Vol. 69, No. 12

Published Monthly

May 2021

Features: About the Cover Artist: Erick Sahler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Rags to Riches: Helen Chappell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Covid-19 Vaccine Hunger Games: Bonna L. Nelson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Skating Through Mid-Life: Michael Valliant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Tidewater Kitchen - Tiny Bits: Pamela Meredith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Tidewater Gardening: K. Marc Teffeau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Hyperbole: A.M. Foley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Before Easton Was Easton: James Dawson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Stellar Stay with Stella: Tracey F. Johns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Changes ~ All American (Part XX): Roger Vaughan . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Departments: May Tide Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Easton Map and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Caroline County ~ A Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Tilghman ~ Bay Hundred . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Dorchester Map and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 St. Michaels Map and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Oxford Map and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Queen Anne’s County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Kent County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Anne B. Farwell & John D. Farwell, Co-Publishers Proofing: Jodie Littleton & Kippy Requardt Deliveries: Nancy Smith, April Jewel & Brandon Coleman Social Media Liaison: Mary Farwell P. O. Box 1141, Easton, Maryland 21601 3947 Harrison Circle, Trappe, Maryland 21673 410-714-9389 www.tidewatertimes.com info@tidewatertimes.com

Tidewater Times is published monthly by Bailey-Farwell, LLC. Advertising rates upon request. Subscription price is $30.00 per year. Individual copies are $4. Contents of this publication may not be reproduced in part or whole without prior approval of the publisher. Printed by Delmarva Printing, Inc. The publisher does not assume any liability for errors and/or omissions.

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About the Cover Artist Erick Sahler Our May cover feat ures “ The Inn,” a hand-pulled silkscreen print edition by Erick Sahler celebrating The Inn at Perry Cabin, the historic St. Michaels resort made famous in the film “The Wedding Crashers.” Erick Sahler’s “Eastern Shore art for the rest of us” salutes the common but often overlooked events and institutions ~ like scrapple, log canoe races and screwpile lighthouses ~ that make life in Chesapeake Country so special. “The Eastern Shore is chockfull of so many great traditions that make it such a wonderful place to live and make art,” Sahler said. “I want to celebrate them all.” Sahler is a Salisbury, Md., native. He learned his craft as a teen-

ager, apprenticing for a Salisbury screen printer and studying with Chesapeake Bay maritime painter C. Keith Whitelock. Sahler graduated from the University of Maryland Baltimore County with a bachelor’s degree in visual arts. He has created artwork for clients across the Eastern Shore since 1983. In 2015, he was elected to the Society of Illustrators in New York. This July, works spanning his career will be featured in the monthlong exhibit “RETROspective: Erick Sahler” at the Dorchester Center for the Arts in Cambridge. You can find Erick Sahler’s work in shops across Delmarva. For a list of sellers or to order online, go to www.ericksahler.com.

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Rags to Riches by Helen Chappell

One of my earliest memories is crawling around on the rag rug on my bedroom f loor. I remember the colors and the pattern and the rough textures. Seeing a rag rug brings back memories like few other things. There was a revival of interest in Early American style after World War II, and my parents hopped on it. Antiques were the thing for them, while other people hopped on the austere teak Scandinavian style now making a comeback as Mid-century Modern.

But Early American was my parents’ passion, and I still have two Chester County case pieces they picked up somewhere before my brother and I were born. I also still have the quilt I had as a baby, even though it’s worn and ragged. It was made by some North Carolina relative, so it’s got sentimental value. The shelter magazines of the ’50s were filled with Early American, both real and reproduction. It might have been a century and a half since anyone had used a spinning wheel, but if you look at the

Rags to Riches

Market Brilliance by Master Jove Wang

old photos, no Colonial-style brick hearth was complete without a rickety old spinning wheel decorating the fireplace. Cast iron warming pans, straw brooms, rush- and cane-bottomed Hitchcock chairs ~ the enthusiastic collector had to have these things, ideally in a second house somewhere in the country, if you believed what these shelter magazines were selling to those post-war couples. The value of the mundane from the past had suddenly become a thrill. Of course, all the formal pieces from the grand cabinetmakers had been snapped up by Henry duPont for his legendary Wilmington estate Winterthur. But the average person could haunt the auctions and the antique

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Rags to Riches

and necessity was suddenly ART. Recycled from clothing that could no longer be patched, printed f lour sacks, sheets and curtains long past patching, what had once been a thrifty way to cover a bed or insulate a f loor had become a quaint way of decorating your Early American-themed home. While I know of many people who still make quilts, and I especially treasure a Diamond in the Square made by an Amish writing student of mine, I thought braided rugs were a dying art. A great-aunt of mine was the last person I knew who braided rugs, and she died when I was about five. A few years ago, my friend Karen and I wandered into a small gen-

stores and find stuff used by their average ancestors to haul home and recreate a reproduction of an Early American home. Quilts and braided rugs, once considered old fashioned and downscale, were suddenly desirable again and, at prices that would have made our ancestresses swoon, were draped across four poster Grand Rapids beds or laid out on kitchen f loors. Even after my mother replaced all her Berbers with Persians in the formal rooms, those rag rugs remained in the well-used areas of the house. The needlework our greatgrandmothers had made from rags

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Rags to Riches

three or four feet. Every once in a while, she would bend over, pick up a piece of cloth from the pile, rip a strip away from it and braid the strip into the rug. All kinds of rags were in that pile: men’s f lannel shirts, polyester curtains, worn-out sheets, you name it. She wasn’t picky; she stripped and braided. Even the colors didn’t match. But Karen and I thought they had a certain kind of

eral store near Shaft Ox Corner in Lower Delaware. It was a lot like the country stores of my youth, dark and musty, with out-of-date dry goods and a bunch of old retired farmers and watermen sitting around a kerosene furnace while the proprietress, an older lady with a gray bun, sat among a pile of rags, braiding rugs no bigger than

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Rags to Riches

told me about Iris Willis, her lifelong friend and the mother of some of her best pals from high school. This remarkable nonagenarian has made some of the most beautiful rugs and quilts I’ve ever seen. On a recent visit to her home near Trappe, I met Miss Iris and got to see her remarkable handiwork. Not only has she spent her life making beautiful quilts, she’s also a master rug braider. Of course, she doesn’t do as much as she used to, but examples of her work are all over her home, along with other carefully curated objects she’s collected over the years. I’m always awed by people who surround themselves with wonderful collections that ref lect

old-fashioned charm. We picked up a handful of her rugs. I think they were about five dollars each, and they were great throws in the bathroom and the kitchen. I guess they lasted a few years before they began to unravel and disintegrate. We stopped by Shaft Ox Corner again, hoping to replenish our stock, but the store was boarded up and we were told the rugmaker had passed. Until recently, I thought the last of the rugmakers had passed and braiding had become extinct. I wasn’t sure if anyone did it anymore, but then my friend Lynne

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Rags to Riches

then, he has to be near Miss Iris. The rug beneath her feet, indeed all the rugs in the house, are products of her handiwork. Wool only. No cotton or cheap polyester for her. “You should see her take apart a wool men’s suit and cut it into strips,” Lynne says. It’s not a job for amateurs. But there’s nothing amateur or clumsy about Miss Iris’s work. Her father not only built her house as a wedding present, he made her a rugging tension machine that allows to her to adjust the stretch of the cloth before she works on it. It must also be washed and shrunk for maximum tension. As we tour the house, more and more of her work is on display. Quilts in every pattern from cross

their taste, especially if their taste is what mine aspires toward but will never quite reach. As we sat in her sunny Florida room, surrounded by thriving plants, Miss Iris told me she had started out training to be a nurse in Baltimore. Her goal was to get her R.N., she smiles, but she got married instead. A widow, she survives three of her children. It was only after the death of one of her children that she took up fabric work. “At first,” she says, “I just made things for myself and my family.” Her mixed breed rescue, Buddy, wanders over to have his ears scratched. He adores Miss Iris and is never far from her side, unless you offer an ear scratch, and even 20

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Rags to Riches

stitch to Philadelphia Pavement to Log Cabin, so beautifully rendered you feel clumsy just admiring them, spread out on beds, hung on walls, folded on chaises. And under your feet everywhere, braided rugs in singing tones. Some big enough to cover a living room f loor, others small enough to guard a hallway. I feel as if I have visited a museum. She has a skill and talent and an understanding of craft that I hope some generations ahead will pick up and carry on.

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The Covid-19 Vaccine Hunger Games by Bonna L. Nelson

Happy Hunger Games. And may the odds be ever in your favor. Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games “Did you get your vaccination yet?” a friend asked in early February 2021. “No,” I answered. “Did you?” “Yes,” she replied. “What? Really? Where? When? How?” I asked incredulously. I repeated the questions over and over in emails, texts, phone calls, FaceTime and Zoom with family and friends for weeks on end, hoping to find out how to get a virus vaccine. Thus began the great anxietyproducing hunt for COVID-19 vaccinations across the country. The vaccine rollout seemed interminably slow and inefficient. Frustrations were over the top after almost a year of fear, illness, deaths, closures and isolation. We heard that some vaccines were given as early as December 2020 in certain locales, to certain populations. Each state had guidelines on distribution, with some leaving it up to their counties to distribute. On January 5, 2021, the Maryland governor announced his plan for t he vac ci ne d i st r ibut ion i n phases. Priorities were rightly as-

signed. Older adults were next in line after Phase 1A, which included healthcare workers, residents and sta f f of nursing faci lit ies, f irst responders and public safety workers (law enforcement personnel, correctional officers and frontline judiciary staff). On Januar y 18, Phase 1B was initiated and included vaccinat25

Hunger Games

Phase 2 will begin after the majority of Phase 1 is completed or if the vaccine allocations increase. It includes adults ages 16 to 64 who are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness, as well as essential workers in critical utilities, transportation and food service Phase 3 will begin after the majority of Phase 2 is completed or if the allocation of vaccines increases. Vaccination groups include general population adults, ages 16 to 64 I am not the first or only writer to suggest that trying to obtain a timely vaccine to protect yourself, your loved ones and everyone in the world from the ravages of the novel v irus is like the Hunger Games story. In The Hunger Games, young

ing special needs individuals and group homes, high-risk inmates, the homeless, continuity of government groups, K-12 teachers, child care workers, education staff and Marylanders over 75. By January 25, Phase 1C vaccinations could begin, which included high health risk populations, other higher education workers, public safety and healthcare professions, mass transit workers, veterinarians and staff, Marylanders ages 65 to 74 and essential workers in lab services, agriculture, manufacturing and the postal service. (Maryland was in this phase as of the writing of this story, mid-March 2021.)

Hunger Games

severe illness increases with age. Eight out of ten COVID-19 deaths repor ted in t he U. S. have been adults 65 years and older. Yet older adults, the highest atrisk population for hospitalization or death from the pandemic disease, were not the highest priority group for vaccination and had to scramble and hunt on their own to find an orga ni zat ion to ad minister t he shot. By contrast, the higher priority essential workers were usually vaccinated at their workplace or arrangements were made for them to get appointments at facilities administering the vaccinations. In those early days of virus vaccination distribution, the hunger

people participate in life-or-death competitions to win food for their families and their districts or hometowns. The losers die. When the COVID vaccine phases began, senior folks had to actively “hunt” to “win” a vaccine registration/appointment, participating in a possible life-or-death competition with the winners surviving and the losers possibly not, due to limited allocations in certain areas of the country. Note that according to evidence-based reports, older adults are at greater risk of requiring hospitalization or dying if diagnosed with COVID-19, since the risk for

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Hunger Games games (competitions for access to appointments) were conducted on computers, iPads, telephones, cell phones or in person. And some of those venues are not easily handled by or available to older adults or other populations. It was a roller coaster ride filled with psychological turmoil. As we, along with friends and family in that high-risk 65-and-above age group, tried to obtain COVID vaccine access, I started documenting our somet imes f r ust rat ing, sometimes confusing, sometimes amusing experiences. What follows are how our competition played out and some stories shared by friends

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Hunger Games

putting yourself at risk in crowded settings. We, husband John and I, like most others, had a “hunger,” a craving, an urgent need to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. We had spent more than nine months in breast cancer treatment and pandemic sheltering-inplace. We missed family and friends and were hopeful that with the vaccine we would win our freedom to see and hug loved ones again. Our competition experience for vaccine access follows, interspersed with friends’ experiences and related news items. February 2: Fr iend s liv ing in Dorche ster County. Husband, age 77, received a county appointment. After several unanswered phone calls, wife, age 66, registered in person with the Cambridge Walmart on a backup list (she heard about this from a

on their contests in the Vaccine Access Hunger Games. Although President Biden projects having enough vaccine doses for everyone by the time this piece is published in May, maybe these stories will still be of help or will, at least, amuse. Happy Hunger Games. And may the odds be ever in your favor. First of all, you needed to have a computer, internet access and enough computer savvy to surf the net or have assistance to register on wait lists on the myriad sites that would potentially be offering appointments to get the vaccine. Or, you needed to have a telephone or cell phone to call those entities that offered a telephone number and a person at the other end to help. Or, you needed a car to go to various sites to try to sign up in person, thereby

step in obtaining an appointment, for the vaccine with Talbot County; the county was then working on 1A priority groups and those over age 80. We also registered w ith Dorchester and Caroline counties, all via websites. February 5: We registered interest in t he vaccine w ith Walmart, CVS and Walgreens COVID-19 vaccine websites. Additionally, I called and John visited the Easton Walmart to try to register on their backup list. Unlike the Cambridge Walmart, they had none. Friends, family, news feeds and rumor mills were saying to try to register at online sites at midnight or 5 a.m. A friend tried that for a few

neighbor). If, at the end the day, there were leftover vaccines, the people on the waiting list would be called to come in immediately for a shot. (A few days later, she was called while driving over the Bay Bridge on the way to a medical appointment on the western shore. She begged to be put back on the list and was called in the following week, 2/9) February 3: Friends living in St. Michaels, over age 80, heard about Dorchester County vaccine availability, registered and received appointments. A neighbor was offered the vaccine through the Veterans Administration in Cambridge. February 4: We registered interest, the first

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Hunger Games

Medical System, Luminis Health and the Baltimore Convention Center Mass Vaccination Site and revisited our registrations with Walmart, CVS and Walgreens. There was no federal, state or county centralized registration available at that time. February 13: Early on a Saturday morning, after multiple website searches for an appointment, I had a breakthrough. Friends had received vaccines at a CVS in Ocean City. So, this time when I scrolled the CVS website for vaccine appointments, instead of asking for an appointment in Easton, Cambridge, Denton, Annapolis or Salisbur y, which always said no appointments available, I typed in Ocean City and received a long list of appointment openings. Hallelujah! I chose the follow ing Tuesday at 1:30 and told my husband to log on for his appointment. Just that

days ~ no luck, the sites were always swamped. No one was successful, as far as I know. Online sites were blowing up with traffic, due to the competition to get a shot. One persistent, frustrated friend emailed the governor’s office frequently, to no avail. February 12: With still no luck finding vaccine appointments, our concerned daughter, Holly, emailed us a Maryland vaccination spreadsheet, titled Maryland Vaccine Hunting, prepared by a professional acquaintance. Along with a long list of vaccination providers, the spreadsheet included best hours to register online or to call. Using the spreadsheet, we registered our vaccine interest online with the University of Maryland

Hunger Games

City CVS nurses said they would have more vaccines in a few days and to register early in the morning, around 5:30 a.m. But for weeks no one had any luck fi nding an appointment. March 1: Weeks later, after trying night and day, friends started to get appointments, too. It seemed that after we had our appointments, vaccine distributions slowed and the stormy winter weather caused vaccine shipment delays. My brother-in-law had an appointment cancelled due to delivery delays. Friends, husband and wife, had a breakthrough on the Walgreens vaccine website. One got an appointment in Chester and one in Annapolis. Oddly, both had second appoint-

quickly, he couldn’t even get into the site. It seemed frozen or crashed. One half-hour later, persistence paid off. He landed an appointment on the same day and at the same time as mine! Miraculous! February 16: We both received our first COVID-19 vaccinations at CVS in West Ocean City, and the nurses also gave us our four-week follow-up appointments and vaccination verification cards. The visits were preceded by email and text reminders to both of us and COVID questionnaires. The actual vaccination process was extremely efficient. After our shots, we drove to the Ocean City boardwalk in hopes of purchasing some of our favorite treats, Thrasher’s French fries and Dolle’s candied popcorn, to celebrate, but both were closed. When we returned home, I sent t he Ma r yla nd Vac cine Hunt ing spreadsheet to family and friends in hopes that they too could beat the game. I told them that the Ocean

Hunger Games

were caught in the scam when they returned for their second shot and were asked for identification, including date of birth. In California, Florida and other states, there were stories about notyet-qualified power players, deal makers, hospital donors, the super wealthy and international visitors trying to jump ahead of legitimate groups to get in the vaccination line. Some good news: we started to hear that a few folks had vaccinations arranged by their doctors ~ usually oncologists and cardiologists ~ for legitimate high-risk health issues. March 4: More friends had breakthroughs in obtaining vaccines at online websites including CVS, Ocean City, Somerset Count y and Ferndale, Maryland. A funny story was relayed by my sister in Naples, Florida. A couple in her town, whom she described as ex-

ments scheduled for Annapolis. (We all had understood that the second vax would be in the same location.) March 2: A friend who had been repeatedly calling Talbot County to get her husband, age 80, scheduled for a shot received a call to come to the Easton Fire Department (EFD) right away. They had two doses left after a day of vaccinating EFD personnel. Around this same time, quirky stories starting popping up in the news. There were the gals in Florida in their 20s who dressed like older ladies, “grannies” with gray wigs and baggy clothes. They had succeeded in getting their first shot but

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Hunger Games

location on the Florida Panhandle, eight hours away. Her husband was thrilled, but she exploded over the idea of driving 16 hours round trip for each shot, totaling 32 hours, and wanted to search for something closer. Last I heard, they were still going at it without resolution. A s frustrations mounted over f ind ing vaccines at communit y centers, senior centers, churches a nd mobi le unit s, fa mi lies a nd

tremely kind, quiet, calm and loving toward others and each other, met with a virus vax challenge to their relationship. The wife had tried and tried to get appointments for both of them. One day, she met with success and secured dates. When the dust settled, she was horrified when she realized that she had obtained commitments at a

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TIDE TABLE

OXFORD, MD 1. Sat. 2. Sun. 3. Mon. 4. Tues. 5. Wed. 6. Thurs. 7. Fri. 8. Sat. 9. Sun. 10. Mon. 11. Tues. 12. Wed. 13. Thurs. 14. Fri. 15. Sat. 16. Sun. 17. Mon. 18. Tues. 19. Wed. 20. Thurs. 21. Fri. 22. Sat. 23. Sun. 24. Mon. 25. Tues. 26. Wed. 27. Thurs. 28. Fri. 29. Sat. 30. Sun. 31. Mon.

HIGH PM AM

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Hunger Games

the number of Americans who have died from COVID. As of that day, the total number of deaths in America was 527,726 (a sad and grim milestone). He said that the total was more deaths than in World War One, World War Two, the Vietnam War and 9/11 combined. On a positive note, he announced that there would be enough vaccine supply for all adults by the end of May. Fantastic, we said! Let the Hunger Games end! So, keep searching until you get vaccinated. Be patient. Keep trying. Ask for help if you need it. If you can, help others to get vaccinated: family, friends and neighbors. Vaccination is the only way to get back to normalcy. Continue to practice safe behaviors. Continue to mask up. Continue to socially distance. Wash hands. Avoid crowd s. By a l l of u s b e ing responsible and following the guidelines, maybe by July Fourth, as the President said, we can safely celebrate. Hope is the only thing stronger than fear. ~ Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games March 18: We received our second Moderna vaccine in Ocean City. Instead of a nurse administering the vaccine in a screened-off area, as we experienced with the first shot, the pharmacist, Ashley, administered the vaccine in the public waiting space.

friends stepped in to assist others with registering for vaccines. Also, later came state and county websites and call centers through which to register. Even though closed for in-person visits, our local libraries offered the use of computers to those who needed to use them to register. A Facebook group called t he Ma r yla nd Vac ci ne Hu nter s popped up to assist. March 9: During this week and the week following, the f loodgates opened and we started to receive emails and calls from organizations that we had registered with almost a month earlier for the much-desired poke in the arm. UMMS, Luminis Health, Dorchester County, the Baltimore Convention Center mass vaccine site, Walmart and Walgreens were ready to play the vax game with us, though we hadn’t heard from our own Talbot County. Although Talbot County reported high vaccination rates, we learned that other Maryland counties and other states were way ahead in offering vaccines to more groups/phases and that the state of Alaska was offering the vax to all adult Alaskan citizens over age 16. March 11: President Biden commemorated the one-year anniversar y of the pandemic shutdown. He said that he carries a card in his pocket with 44

Due to a downpour of rain, we again could not celebrate with a bucket of Thrasher’s French fries and a box of Dolle’s caramel popcorn. Oh, well, we were vaccinated. Hooray, we are thankful! Thrasher’s and Dolle’s could wait until summer. We had some mild f lu-like symptoms for a few days after and, after a two-week waiting period, according to the CDC, we can gather with other twice-vaccinated family and friends, maybe still masked. Let the hugs begin! By March 19, 100 million Americans were expected to be vaccinated. On March 22, John and I were emailed to compete to make an appointment for a vaccine at the Talbot County Community Center, a month and a half after registering with the county. But things are looking up. A mass vaccination site opened in Salisbury, mobile vaccination buses will be offering vaccines to rural areas, more Maryland pharmacies will offer the vaccine, Dollar Stores across the country will offer the vaccines and vaccines might be available for all adults in the U.S. by April. T he Va c c i ne A c c e s s Hu n ge r Games are over.

r Fo lity l i l Ca ilab a Av

Bonna L. Nelson is a Bay-area writer, columnist, photographer and world traveler. She resides in Easton with her husband, John. 45

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

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Skating Through Mid-Life, Maryland and Beyond by Michael Valliant

you start a family; debt builds, you experience loss or uncertainty, lose touch with what your dreams were; put on weight, feel out of shape, feel stuck in whatever you are doing, feel old, or like it’s too late to change or do something different, wonder what happened to the life you pictured long ago. And you freeze, existentially speaking. The answer, for some people, is to do something drastic, impulsive, illadvised, breaking with this strange life they seemed to have stumbled into. In the words of Talking Heads

Warning: skateboarding may help prevent a proper mid-life crisis. Or, at least that’s been what some of us have experienced. At a time when there have been more reasons to be in front of screens, isolated and putting on COVID-19 weight, skateboarding offers a different way of being, connecting to a kind of Zen moment, or childlike wonder, outside. A mid-life crisis can go something like this: after high school or college, you get a job, buy a car, buy a house; maybe you marry, maybe

Skating

Yikes! Can skateboarding fix that? No. Let’s put that out there up front. What skateboarding can do is put us in touch with another way of feeling. It can connect us with childhood. It can get us moving. It can shift our mindset. It can provide escape, even if just for a moment. And maybe, that kind of connection, that kind of escape, that kind of fun, finding a place in our lives, can help keep us from reaching that existential breaking point. I got my first skateboard when I was 12, the summer before going into eighth grade. It was a Sims “Flagship” that came from Sunshine House in Ocean City and was painted to look like the British flag. It made me think of the album cover

singer David Byrne, “My God, what have I done?”

for The Who’s Greatest Hits. It was the gateway event that impacted my teenage years more than anything else. I went through many boards over the next six years, and skating shaped how I looked at the world. I never stopped following the sport through my 20s or 30s, though I had stopped riding. Then I bought a board when I turned 35, missing the feeling of skating. It took some tweaking over the next decade to find longboarding, long distance skateboarding and surf skating ~ a board set up that gives you the feeling of surfing on land. But skateboarding has reclaimed a space as one of my favorite things to do. And, as happens with any activ-

Skating

ity or hobby, a small group of skaters began to emerge. They weren’t the no-rules, punk rock rebels of my youth; they were a pediatrician, marine biologists, a university administrator, a contractor supply store manager, a carpenter, a physician’s assistant, an art teacher. And they were all fathers, managing jobs, family, kids’ activities. And that’s where something therapeutic begins to make its way into skateboarding: people connecting, laughing, dreaming, getting to know each other; people talking about life, the parts that matter. In cruising together at the Oxford Conservation Park, or the new trail at the end of Glenwood Avenue in Easton, or Kent Island’s

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Skating

a sunrise, birds and birding photographers, you start to build experiences together. Something you do to pass the time begins to shape how time passes. Scenic skateboard cruising is not at all limited to the Mid-Shore. Landy Cook has made a two-night skatepacking (skateboard back-

Cross Island or South Island trails, or skating the paved loop at Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and catching

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recently completed a single-day 30mile out-and-back skate of the C&D

Canal, Ben Cardin and Michael Castle trails in and around Delaware City, complete with stops for lunch and sightseeing. And so, a crew of would-be adventurers who have always sought dirt trails for hiking and trail-running now routinely looks for and scouts paved bicycle trails that would be suited for skateboarding. A scientist who joined us for a morning skate this spring had recently purchased a new longboard. He hadn’t skated since he was a kid. He and his wife are both scientists who have been working from home during the pandemic, and they have a young son. When I asked him what made him buy a skateboard, he said, “I am tired of sitting, and sweating,

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Adam Grant, an early-40s father of three, has fitted one of his skateboards with a scooter handle and steering bar for his young sons, who like to join him skating, or scoot/skate their way around the deck and garage. Adam is more frequently a kiteboarder than a skateboarder, finding chances to hit the water from Bellevue or Claiborne when the wind is up, and he and a longtime group of friends make a kiteboarding trip to the Outer Banks every spring that isn’t decimated by a pandemic. The videos they make of their North Carolina boarding trips reflect something of what many of us are looking for in skateboarding and life: adventure, camaraderie, fellowship and fun. I don’t have life figured out, or mid-life, for that matter. But there is something that happens when skateboarding, up early in the morning with the sunrise, smiling, laughing, talking about anything or nothing, the sound and feel of wheels surfing on pavement, where I know that those moments are good moments. And it helps me see other moments in a new way.

in front of a screen.” Treadmills and Pelotons may be convenient, but they are more like a hamster wheel than moving outside.” Skateboards are cheaper than Corvettes. Maybe spending a couple/few hundred dollars on a skateboard and a helmet and finding a way to stoke the dreams and wonder that have started to dwindle inside you as a preventive measure could stave off a bigger reckoning down the road? This is not a universal truth or a guarantee. Not everyone will enjoy or look forward to skateboarding. But what it is and represents is looking at things differently. It gives us a chance to get moving, to be outside, to feel the pavement move under us in a novel way.

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. 58

Tiny Bites Don’t skip the appetizer! Your first thought may be to pass on appetizers and save the calories. It seems that the concept of an appetizer as a food or beverage that stimulates the appetite is enough to frighten most people.

In fact, though, an appetizer can actually help you eat less. Warm soups and beverages start the digestive juices f lowing and can reduce the intake of dinner food. If you do choose to serve an appetizer, consider what will be served at

Tidewater Kitchen

will eat less if they have to assemble their own appetizers. Chunks of cheese, cheese balls and makeit-yourself sandwiches disappear more slowly than cubes of cheese and pre-made sandwiches. But, who doesn’t love garlic bread with mozzarella, basil, tomatoes and balsamic vinegar? Except for a few highly desirable items such as shrimp, roast beef and caviar, the more selections you add, the less amount of each item you will need. Deviled eggs, smoked salmon or oysters are easy and appealing. Another favorite for casual entertaining is homemade mac and cheese bites. To make them more appealing, decorate your plates and platters attrac-

the following meal and try to select complementary foods. Make the job easier by choosing tasty bitesize pieces you can prepare ahead and serve easily. A good rule of thumb for a dinner party is to allow for 6 appetizers per person. For a cocktail party, consider making 12 appetizers per person. Veggies, crackers and chips are inexpensive fill-ins, as they fill people up and keep well if not used. If you want something easy but a little fancier, consider oven-baked zucchini chips. A meat and cheese tray is one of the easiest to put together. People

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar 2 medium tomatoes, sliced (shop at your farmers market for the freshest tomatoes) Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil, from your farmers market Preheat oven to 400°. Place both halves of the ciabatta loaf on a jelly roll pan. Melt butter in a small bowl and add garlic. Spread evenly on bread halves. Place the mozzarella cheese slices on top of the bread, making sure the cheese covers the bread completely. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted. While the bread is in the oven,

tively with green leaf lettuce, kale, parsley and edible f lowers. Since a majority of these tiny bites can be made ahead of time, call up some friends this spring or summer and enjoy an easy backyard gathering. Food is something that always brings everyone together! Are you having a dinner party? Here are some crowd-pleasers that my friends and family love. These delicious treats can also be a tasty bite-size before-dinner snack.

A Taste of Italy

GARLIC TOMATO MOZZARELLA BREAD Who doesn’t love garlic bread? It is always a welcome delicacy, and this savory and light garlic bread invokes all the f lavors of a Caprese pizza with garlic, mozzarella, balsamic, basil and tomatoes. 1 loaf ciabatta bread, cut in half horizontally 4 T. salted butter 3 cloves garlic, smashed 12 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced

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These low-fat, oven-baked veggie chips are made from zucchini that you can get from your local farmers market. Add Parmesan cheese for a delicious touch of saltiness.

make the balsamic reduction. Place the balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, decrease the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is reduced by about half. This should only take about 5 minutes. Take off the heat and set aside. Remove the bread from oven. Top with tomato slices and add salt and pepper to taste. Add the fresh basil and drizzle with balsamic reduction. Cut into slices and serve. Enjoy the fresh f lavors ~ you’ll never call for pizza again! OVEN-BAKED ZUCCHINI CHIPS

1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs, storebought or homemade, GF if you want 1/4 cup grated Parmesan, or dairyfree Parmesan 1/4 t. garlic, smashed 1/8 t. pepper 1/4 cup milk or unsweetened nondairy milk 2-1/2 cups zucchini, sliced into 1/8-inch-thick rounds 1 t. olive oil

a great gourmet flavor without all the fuss, a must-add to your list. 2 T. vegetable oil 1 large onion, thinly sliced 4 oz. baby bella mushrooms, sliced 2 T. unsalted butter 1-1/2 Granny Smith apples, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 1 t. granulated sugar 1-1/2 oz. grated gruyere cheese 2 T. chives, minced 1/2 t. dried thyme 1 1-pound package of frozen puff pastry, thawed 1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 425°. Grease the top of a wire cooling rack with the olive oil and place on a jelly roll pan. Combine the first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl and stirwith a whisk. Add milk to a small bowl. Dip zucchini slices in milk and then dredge in the breadcrumb/ parmesan mixture to lightly coat both sides. Place coated slices on the wire rack. Bake for 30 minutes or until browned and crisped, watching closely to make sure the chips don’t burn! Enjoy immediately and dip in your favorite marinara sauce, I love Rao’s!

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GRUYERE MUSHROOM CARAMELIZED ONION BITES The sharp flavors of gruyere pair perfectly with the savory mellow flavor of mushrooms. Puff pastry is surprisingly easy to work with, and it always offers a stunning presentation. These are so satisfying, have

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With a pizza cutter, cut the puff pastry into 2-inch squares and place them on the lined baking sheets. Using a pastry brush, brush beaten egg on the squares. Using a tablespoon, place filling in the middle of each puff pastry square. Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through and switching the baking sheet on the top rack to the bottom and the bottom to the top, until the pastry is golden brown and crisp. Let the tarts cool a bit before serving, you don’t want people to burn the roofs of their mouths.

In a large skillet, heat the vegetable oil and cook the onions (with 1 t. of salt) until they’re golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove and set aside in a large bowl. In the same skillet, sauté mushrooms until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside in the bowl with the onions. In the same skillet, melt the butter and add in the apples with the sugar. Cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and add to the large bowl with onions and mushrooms. Add the cheese, chives and thyme to the bowl and stir to combine the mixture well. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

HOMEMADE MAC & CHEESE BITES These are sure to satisfy the little kid in us, yet they look grown up

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in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the salt, pepper and f lour until the f lour is smooth. Slowly whisk in the milk and heat until just boiling, then remove from heat and stir in the cheddar cheese. Once the pasta is done cooking, drain well and gently stir into the cheese sauce. Divide the pasta among the muffin cups. Top evenly with the breadcrumbs. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the tops are just starting to brown. Let cool completely before removing from the pan. You may need to loosen the cups with a butter knife before gently removing them from the pan.

and are perfectly appropriate for your next dinner party. The cheese bites are a real crowd-pleaser. After all, is there a better comfort food than macaroni and cheese? It’s everyone’s favorite! 8 oz. elbow macaroni 4 T. butter 2 cloves garlic, smashed 1/2 t. salt 1/8 t. ground black pepper 4 T. all-purpose f lour 1 cup milk 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 1/4 cup breadcrumbs Butter mini-size muffin tins and set aside. Set a pot of water over high heat on the stovetop to boil. Preheat oven to 350°. Cook the pasta according to the package directions or until al dente. While the pasta is cooking, melt 4 tablespoons of butter

GRILLED SALMON LEMON KABOBS Salmon is well liked in my household, yet when we think of kabobs, we often think of proteins like chicken or beef. Seasoned with fresh herbs, lemon and spices and then grilled to perfection, these kabobs are a delicious and healthy alternative. 2 T. chopped fresh dill 2 t. sesame seeds 1-1/2 pounds skinless wild salmon fillet, cut into 1-inch pieces 2 lemons, very thinly sliced into rounds olive oil cooking spray 68

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spice mixture aside. Beginning and ending with salmon, thread salmon and folded lemon slices onto 8 pairs of parallel skewers to make 8 kabobs total. Spray the fish lightly with oil and season with spice mixture. Grill the kabobs, turning occasionally, until fish is opaque throughout, about 8 to 10 minutes total.

1 t. kosher salt & pepper to taste 16 bamboo skewers soaked in water 1 hour Heat the grill on medium-heat and spray the grates with oil. Mix dill, sesame seeds, salt and pepper in a small bowl to combine; set

NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER Serves 6-8 1 quart shucked clams with liquid reserved 3 slices salt pork or bacon, diced 2 small onions, minced 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced 1 bay leaf ~ remove after 5 minutes

1 cup water 3 cups milk, scalded 1-1/2 cups half-and-half 1/4 cup butter Sea salt and freshly ground pepper and thyme to taste

liquid, then chop coarsely. Fry the salt pork or bacon slowly in a soup pot until all the fat is rendered. Add the onions and sauté until golden. Add potatoes, bay leaf and water. Remove bay leaf after five minutes. Simmer until the potatoes are tender. Strain the reserved clam liquid, then stir into the potato mixture with the milk, cream, butter and chopped clams. Add seasonings, and then simmer for 5 minutes or more. Add more seasonings, if needed.

Drain the clams, reserving the

POTATO SKINS Topped with bacon, green onions and plenty of sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese, these potato skins are easy to prepare

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Preheat oven to 375°. Scrub and dry the potatoes, then poke each one 10 times with a fork. Using your hands, rub the potatoes with a little olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt. Place them on a baking sheet. Bake for 50 minutes or until they are cooked through. Let them sit until cool enough to handle. Preheat oven to 450°. Cut potatoes in half lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop out the f lesh, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch around the inside of the skin. Use the filling for mashed potato cakes. Melt butter on top of the stove. Whisk in garlic. Brush over the tops and bottoms of the potato skins. Return the potatoes to the baking sheet and place in oven for 10 minutes. Flip and bake for another 10 minutes. Top evenly with both cheeses and bacon. Return to oven for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Top with green onions. I love to pipe sour cream on top for a beautiful presentation. Enjoy!

and so delicious! They are one of our family favorites and are a great go-to appetizer for any sports season or for having people over. 6 small to medium russet potatoes, (russets produce the crispest skins) 1-1/2 T. olive oil, this also helps with crispy skins Sea salt 3 T. butter 1 garlic clove, smashed 1/2 cup finely shredded cheddar 1/2 cup finely shredded Monterey Jack 4 slices crispy cooked bacon, chopped 1 green onion, thinly sliced Sour cream (optional)

BUFFALO CHICKEN WINGS 14 chicken wings 1/2 stick of unsalted butter 4 t. Frank’s Hot Sauce 1/2 t. kosher salt Homemade Dipping Sauce: 1-1/2 cups crumbled blue cheese 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 cup sour cream 72

Tidewater Kitchen

sour cream, milk and Worcestershire and mix with a mixer until well blended and creamy. Serve the chicken wings at room temperature or hot with the blue cheese sauce, carrots and celery sticks. I love to make homemade dipping sauce, but if you are in a hurry you can buy blue cheese dressing.

3 T. milk 1 t. Worcestershire sauce Carrot and celery sticks to serve along with the wings. Preheat the broiler. Cutting between the bones, cut the chicken wings into thirds and discard the wing tips. Melt the butter and add hot sauce and salt. Put the wings on a jellyroll pan and brush them with the melted butter. Broil them about 3 inches below the heat for 7 minutes. Turn the wings, brush again with butter and broil for 3 more minutes, or until cooked. For the homemade sauce, combine the blue cheese, mayonnaise,

A longtime resident of Oxford, Pamela Meredith, formerly Denver’s NBC Channel 9 Children’s Chef, now teaches both adult and children’s cooking classes on the south shore of Massachusetts. For more of Pam’s recipes, visit the Story Archive tab at tidewatertimes.com.

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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. 77

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Tilghman’s Island “Great Choptank Island” was granted to Seth Foster in 1659. Thereafter it was known as Foster’s Island, and remained so through a succession of owners until Matthew Tilghman of Claiborne inherited it in 1741. He and his heirs owned the island for over a century and it has been Tilghman’s Island ever since, though the northern village and the island’s postal designation are simply “Tilghman.” For its first 175 years, the island was a family farm, supplying grains, vegetables, fruit, cattle, pigs and timber. Although the owners rarely were in residence, many slaves were: an 1817 inventory listed 104. The last Tilghman owner, General Tench Tilghman (not Washington’s aide-de-camp), removed the slaves in the 1830s and began selling off lots. In 1849, he sold his remaining interests to James Seth, who continued the development. The island’s central location in the middle Bay is ideally suited for watermen harvesting the Bay in all seasons. The years before the Civil War saw the influx of the first families we know today. A second wave arrived after the War, attracted by the advent of oyster dredging in the 1870s. Hundreds of dredgers and tongers operated out of Tilghman’s Island, their catches sent to the cities by schooners. Boat building, too, was an important industry. The boom continued into the 1890s, spurred by the arrival of steamboat service, which opened vast new markets for Bay seafood. Islanders quickly capitalized on the opportunity as several seafood buyers set up shucking and canning operations on pilings at the edge of the shoal of Dogwood Cove. The discarded oyster shells eventually became an island with seafood packing houses, hundreds of workers, a store, and even a post office. The steamboats also brought visitors who came to hunt, fish, relax and escape the summer heat of the cities. Some families stayed all summer in one of the guest houses that sprang up in the villages of Tilghman, Avalon, Fairbank and Bar Neck. Although known for their independence, Tilghman’s Islanders enjoy showing visitors how to pick a crab, shuck an oyster or find a good fishing spot. In the twentieth century, Islanders pursued these vocations in farming, on the water, and in the thriving seafood processing industry. The “Tilghman Brand” was known throughout the eastern United States, but as the Bay’s bounty diminished, so did the number of water-related jobs. Still, three of the few remaining Bay skipjacks (sailing dredgeboats) can be seen here, as well as two working harbors with scores of power workboats. 79

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TIDEWATER GARDENING

by K. Marc Teffeau, Ph.D.

Monarda in May Are you interested in attracting insect pollinators to your landscape? Planting pollinator gardens has become an increasing trend in home landscaping the last few years. A pollinator-friendly and ecologically sustainable garden is both beautiful and able to attract and sustain beneficial insects, re-

ducing the need for pesticides. A number of annual and perennial plants can be used in a pollinator garden. The flower nectar of Monarda, aka bee balm, spotted bee balm, bergamot and Oswego tea, is excellent for attracting pollinators. It attracts hummingbirds, butterflies

Tidewater Gardening

“Plants of the Year” for 2021. Monarda is a drought-tolerant member of the Lamiaceae (mint) family. You can always identify members of the mint family because they have square stems. Monarda gets its common name “bee balm” because it is a medicinal herb that has traditionally been used to soothe bee stings. Native Americans used Monarda to make a bee balm tea to treat fevers and chills. This native perennial also has an interesting place in American history according to the NGB. The Oswego tribe made an herbal tea from bee balm, and they taught early American settlers how to use it. The NBG notes “This just happened to come in very handy fol-

and pollinator bees. The National Garden Bureau (NGB, ngb.org) has selected the native tall-growing perennial flower Monarda as one of its

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make this distinctive and unusual. Monarda fistulosa, or wild Bergamot, is one of the species commonly used for medicinal purposes. Being highly aromatic with showy lavender-pink f lowers, it is also used as a honey plant. Monarda didyma (Scarlet Bee Balm) has long been cherished for not only its use for tea but also its ornamental value. The bright scarlet/red f lowers of M. didyma are still a part of many ongoing breeding programs with Monarda.” Monarda leaves have an indefinable, almost lemony scent. According to the NGB Monarday leaves and flowers add a citrus, note to salads, and the dried flowers can be used in potpourris. Considered an old garden favor-

lowing the Boston Tea Party. As the settlers revolted against the British tax on tea, they drank tea made from Monarda instead, thus thumbing their noses at the British and their taxes.” Monarda is made up of multiple species, most of which are hardy perennials and all of which are native to certain regions of North America. The NGB lists three species of interest: “Monarda punctata, aka Horsemint or Dotted Mint, is somewhat of an unruly native prairie plant characterized by tall unbranched stems topped with rounded clusters of pink or lavender tubular flowers. The stacked combination of speckled f lowers and colorful bracts

To keep the plant looking nice, it is important to remove spent flowers and to prolong bloom. Bee balm spreads by runners to form large clumps but is not considered to be too aggressive. Like other members of the mint family, it is a perennial that should be divided about every three years. The NGB recommends that if you would like a bushier habit to the plant, you should pinch some of the emerging tips of the Monarda as it emerges from the roots/rhizomes in the spring. A number of Monarda cultivars are available for landscape plantings. ‘Cambridge Scarlet’ offers bright red flowers in early summer that attract hummingbirds. ‘Mahogany’ is another cultivar that you

ite, Monarda blooms all summer. Its colors range from white to rosepink to wine-red. Most varieties grow 2 to 3 feet high. Monarda also makes an excellent addition to any cut flower garden.

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Tidewater Gardening might try. An added plus is that the plant is deer and rabbit resistant. The major downside of this plant is that it can have mildew problems later in the summer. The cultivar ‘Mahogany’ is reported to have resistance to powdery mildew. Bee balm is an easy perennial to grow in the home landscape. It prefers full sun to get the best flower production but will tolerate some shade. It is somewhat drought tolerant but will need water during extended dry periods. In heavy clay soils, it is a good idea to amend the soil with a good compost or other organic mixture before planting. Space bee balm plants 18 to 24 inches apart in the flower bed. Bee balm has no special fertilizer requirements other that what is normally applied to the perennial flower bed. Did you plant shade trees or shrubs in March or April? It is important to water newly planted trees and shrubs regularly during the first year or two after planting to help establish a good root system. They need at least 1 inch of water each week. It is better to water deeply once a week than to water lightly every day; the former practice encourages deep, droughtresistant roots, while the latter encourages surface roots that may suffer during dry spells. Be careful, however, when wa86

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Tidewater Gardening

are tended during the summer. Now is the time to set out marigolds, petunias, ageratums and fibrous begonias in the flower garden. All are good border plants. Multiflora petunias withstand heat much well than other types and are more attractive throughout the summer. They are more resistant than other types to botrytis, a disease that cripples petunias, especially in damp weather. They also branch more easily, which means less maintenance. Multifloras are most useful for massed effects in beds. You can also set petunia plants among fading tulips or daffodils to hide the unsightly wilting leaves. After the bulb foliage begins to fade, you can tie the leaves in gentle knots to neaten them, but don’t remove them until they have dried completely. The spring-flowering bulbs

tering plants in heavy clay soils. With soils with poor drainage, like clay soils, you can kill the newly planted tree or shrub with kindness by over watering too much. It is also important to mulch to conserve moisture and control weeds, but PLEASE, no “volcano” mulches where the mulch is piled up 7 or 8 inches against the stem of the tree. You can still plant trees and shrubs in May, just make sure they

need to have their leaves intact to generate the food reserves that go into the bulb for next spring’s flowering and growth. Impatiens is the most satisfactory annual for use in shady areas. Begonias, coleus, ageratum, salvia and vinca prefer light shade (5 to 6 hours of sunlight). If you are looking for plants that flower each year, require little care and are rarely bothered by pests or disease, try some of these perennials: coneflower, bleeding heart, coral bells, daylily, geum, hosta, bergenia, Virginia bluebell and veronica. Anxious to get the vegetable garden beds planted? As a result of COVID-19 and people staying home, a lot of novice gardeners have started gardening. Sales of vegetable

plants, seeds and related materials have increased greatly as folks are getting back to growing their own food. The soil is warming up and the last frost date has passed, so we can get to some of our spring plantings. In the vegetable garden, it is time to make your first sowing of green beans, cucumbers, squash and sweet corn, and a second seeding of lettuce. Transplants of tomatoes, eggplants and peppers can be placed in the garden. To prevent cutworm damage on these transplants, remove the tops and bottoms from small coffee cans and place the cans over the transplants in the early evening. Next morning, remove them so the plant can

Tidewater Gardening get full sun. Repeat this practice for about a week until the plants become established. A telltale sign that you have cutworms in the garden is holes in the ground the diameter of a pencil. The cutworms come out at night and clip the transplants off at the ground level. Other insect pests that are active now include aphids, cabbageworms, squash bugs, cucumber beetles and Colorado potato beetles. Aphids seem to appear overnight and suck the sap from the leaves and tender new growth but usually cause little permanent damage. Several parasites and predators, notably the

ladybird beetle, usually help keep this insect pest in check. A force-

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ful spray from the garden hose will also help keep aphids under control. For serious infestations, try using a soap insecticide.

etable garden, picked a couple of nice heads of broccoli, brought them inside and steamed them for dinner and then found a couple of blanched white cabbageworms in the heads when you put them on the dinner plate? Don’t worry, the cabbageworms are a source of protein, but most of us prefer being served protein in the form of a steak. Use a biological control called B.t. or Dipel to control these worms. Striped and spotted cucumber beetles are voracious feeders on many vegetables, including squash, corn, cucumbers, melons and beans. They also transmit the bacterial wilt disease that causes the plants to rapidly wilt and die. These pests must be controlled early with

Keep an eye out for cabbageworms in the cabbage and broccoli plantings. They can ruin the heads if not kept under control. How many times have you gone out to the veg-

Tidewater Gardening floating row covers. Plant protection in the early stages of growth is important. However, when the plants start to flower, especially squash and cucumbers, you will need to remove the row covers to allow bees access to pollinate the flowers.

Try using a homemade spray of horseradish roots and leaves, garlic, peppercorns, hot peppers and green onions. Blend these ingredients up in your blender and then place in a pail and add one cup of liquid detergent. Stir and let set overnight, and then strain through cheesecloth. Use one-half cup of the solution to one quart of water and spray on the plants. 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. 92

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Dorchester Map and History

Dorchester County is known as the Heart of the Chesapeake. It is rich in Chesapeake Bay history, folklore and tradition. With 1,700 miles of shoreline (more than any other Maryland county), marshlands, working boats, quaint waterfront towns and villages among fertile farm fields – much still exists of what is the authentic Eastern Shore landscape and traditional way of life along the Chesapeake. For more information about Dorchester County visit https://tidewatertimes.com/travel-tourism/dorchester/. 95

Hyperbole by A.M. Foley

The hype over sporting events comes at us year-round: March Madness from October into April, the Triple Crown and odds of one horse winning, baseball’s World (read: U.S.) Series, Super Bowl LSomething. The actual event rarely equals the pre-event hype. But for contrast between build-up and outcome, nothing beats the justly

forgotten 1849 “First Heavyweight Championship” bout, fought on the shore of Chesapeake Bay. Combatants were billed as Tom “Young America” Hyer vs. James “Yankee” Sullivan. Every label exaggerated reality, starting with “heavyweight.” Hyer might have qualified as a heavyweight, but Sullivan, at an estimated 150

Hyperbole pounds, would be a welterweight. Hyer, a butcher and saloon keeper by trade, was American, but not exactly “young” for a prizefighter. He was over thirty and was established as a successful brawler. Sullivan may have been “Yankee” to his countrymen back in County Cork, or to his fellow convicts sentenced to transportation to Australia by the British. After he escaped to America, no native New Yorker considered Sullivan a Yankee. By the onset of the Hyer-Sullivan feud, the Great Hunger had destroyed Irish crops four prior seasons. Ultimately, 1.5 million Irish would be driven from their home-

Tom “Young America” Hyer

several toughs Hyer’s size. Given a few drinks, he must have begun believing his own hype. Sullivan should have remembered the old Irish adage: “Many a time a man’s mouth broke his nose.” He was four inches shorter and eight years older than Hyer, who was still in his prime and ran upwards of 200 pounds. Hyer made short work of the Irishman. When excited shouting drew Officer George Walling into the saloon, Sullivan was slumped at a table “as if he had been roughly handled.” Hyer stood aside prepping a pistol. Walling described what followed: “‘Put up that pistol,’ I said to Hyer, who looked calm and collected enough, and with no trace

land to the East Coast of America, creating a strong backlash. Hyer’s saloon was a Bowery hangout of a secretive anti-immigrant society commonly called the Know-Nothing Party. (Adherents were to answer questions about its activities with “I don’t know.”) Hyer’s Dutch ancestry conferred a sense of entitlement in New York. Sullivan’s murky past, pugnacious attitude, and fondness for spirits epitomized the Irishman who raised the hackles of a Know-Nothing. Sullivan was surely looking for a fight in April 1848, when he turned up in a Know-Nothing hangout. The wily scrapper had earned a reputation among his countrymen for being invincible after defeating

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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/. 101

Hyperbole

James “Yankee” Sullivan

of having been engaged in a fight. ‘Who the devil are you?’ he asked, in a gruff voice. ‘I’m an officer,’ I replied, exhibiting my star. ‘They’re going to bring the gang here,’ said Hyer, in a calm voice, ‘and I’m not going to let them murder me without a pretty tough fight for my life.’” “Come, get out of this. Come along with me,” Walling advised. The two left the saloon arm-inarm and Hyer went on his way. “No sooner was he out of sight,” Walling reported, “than a howling mob of Sullivan’s friends came rushing toward me. They . . . were in search of Hyer, who if they had caught him, would most assuredly have [been] murdered.”

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Hyperbole Newspapers reported the incident, describing the “Irish braggart” getting his comeuppance. Sullivan and his adherents blamed his defeat on Hyer’s taking advantage of a moment of weakness, claiming Sullivan could beat the big butcher in a fair fight. The incident took on inordinate importance in the lower reaches of New York, undoubtedly fed by tribal allegiance and a tinge of religious bigotry. Prodded by the notoriety, the two disputants traded charges and counter-charges from April till August, when they finally agreed to settle matters in a formal fight under recently published rules.

Hyer and Sullivan encamped in different locations on Long Island for six months of well-publicized training, abstinence and sparring matches. Back in the city, their followers and the press kept the pot boiling in saloons and among rival volunteer fire companies and political clubs. Thus April’s saloon scrap over Bowery bragging rights grew into a match for the “Heavyweight Championship.” Backers raised prize money to an unheard of $10,000, more than a workingman’s lifetime earnings. Boxing then bore little resemblance to a “noble art of self-defense.” Marquis of Queensberry Rules were nearly twenty years in the future. Bared knuckles were the

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“Yankee” Sullivan

Tom Hyer

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Oxford Map and History

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Oxford is one of the oldest towns in Maryland. Although already settled for perhaps 20 years, Oxford Oxford Bellevue Ferry marks the year 1683 177 166 as its official founding, 155 nd Stra St. 144 for in that year Oxford The 133 was first named by n a 18 8 19 9 hm Tilg the Maryland General k e e Assembly as a seaport Cr 122 St. n and was laid out as a son il W 11 East town. In 1694, OxSt. lair St. t nc 10 e Si rk St. Ma ford and a new town Oxford 9 t. Park hS called Anne Arundel son Hig 8 Richard . St (now Annapolis) were n Divisio St. selected the only ports of entry for the entire i Town Rd. non . eek Cr e B Ave Maryland province. n 3 isio t. Until the American S Div W. 2 Revolution, Oxford 1 t. S ne enjoyed prominence roli 7 ad Ro Ca d 333 Oxfor To Easton as an international Pleasant Oxford St. Community shipping center surCenter Hbr. Robes t. 4 C rounded by wealthy E. Pier St. Pier St. tobacco plantations. Oxford Today, Oxford is a © John Norton 6 5 charming tree-lined and waterbound village with a population of just over 700 and is still important in boat building and yachting. It has a protected harbor for watermen who harvest oysters, crabs, clams and fish, and for sailors from all over the Bay. For a walking tour and more history visit https://tidewatertimes. com/travel-tourism/oxford-maryland/.

Hyperbole least of the brutality in a contest that combined the worst of kickboxing, wrestling and X-treme sport. A ring fatality had recently caused a lull in prizefighting, but interest revived when newspapers ballyhooed an upcoming heavyweight battle for “Champion of America.” One New York newspaper reported never having “seen so great an excitement among certain classes of society. . . .” As in any duel, the boxers’ agreement called for designated seconds to conduct formalities. Sullivan chose his Baltimore friend Joseph Beard, a noted sportsman. Beard owned oyster boats and knew the

Chesapeake well. When Sullivan drew the right to choose a site, he chose Pooles Island, where an old lighthouse stood under federal jurisdiction. Its remote location off the mouth of the Gunpowder River suggested they might avoid law enforcement, boxing being illegal at the time. Hype about the illicit grudge match grew as the fighters, their sparring partners and their entourages progressed from New York down to Baltimore. Despite record-setting cold, a growing crowd of spectators was drawn to the bout, set for February 7, 1849. Ads instructed interested parties to be at Union dock on the eve of the fight to board a steamboat for

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an undisclosed site. How could a sporting man resist? As fight fans boarded the steamboat on the frigid morning of February 6, the Law was on the case. According to one witness, “A tremendous crowd was on the Steamer Boston . . . but the steamer was held by the authorities and could not get off.” Police searched among passengers for Sullivan and Hyer. At the time, the two fighters and their associates had already set sail, jammed among an estimated 200 men aboard two schooners, likely Beard’s oyster boats. When the High Constable of Baltimore, Captain Thomas Gifford, failed to find the principals aboard the Boston, he took a squad over-

land, then rowed for frosty Pooles Island. Sullivan and Hyer had debarked on the island and taken refuge with the lightkeeper. In the middle of the night, boatloads of law enforcement officers landed. Alerted that police neared, quick-thinking Joseph Beard took Sullivan’s distinctive green robe from his shoulders and draped it around a larger sparring partner, then did the same for Hyer. Arriving officers wrongly arrested the two training partners. Captain Gifford returned to Baltimore with the wrong men, while Sullivan and Hyer slipped out and set sail through falling snow for the Eastern Shore. They tied up at Point Rock by Still Pond Creek in Kent

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Hyperbole County. It was reported that an unnamed landowner, perhaps a friend of Beard, had conveniently departed earlier for Pooles Island. In his supposed absence, measurements were paced off on snowy ground and spiked poles driven down to outline the ring. Schooner halyards improvised as ring ropes. Two carts were drawn up as premium seating, while the balance of the estimated 200 spectators stood on stones or logs to be off the snowy ground. Bricks were warmed for the waiting fighters’ feet. Flight-and-fight culminated in a bout that lasted roughly seven-

teen minutes. In the bare knuckle era, a round was not timed with a bell. More like a wrestling match, rounds ended whenever a fighter went down. In seventeen minutes of action, sixteen rounds occurred,

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only one pin attributed to Sullivan. When Hyer was pulled off the little Irishman the final time, Sullivan was badly cut, one wrenched arm hanging uselessly. A newspaper described the “shameful affair” in gory, blow-byblow detail. Reportedly, a punch detached a f lap of skin above Sullivan’s left eye that was pinned up to enable him to see. Another blow to the back of his head felled him, rendering him momentarily unconscious. To sum up, the headline declared, “Sullivan Not Expected to Live.” Meanwhile, back in Baltimore, police learned they had impostors locked up. Two companies of militia set off by steamer, searching the

Bay for the real Sullivan and Hyer. The Sun reported, “We are told that the surgeons carried instruments and lint for the wounded.” After running aground, they returned empty handed. The victorious Hyer made the mistake of a post-fight visit to Chestertown, where he was promptly arrested and charged with assault and battery. His lawyer argued that the bout had been amicable sport, but Hyer was found guilty and fined $1,000. Sullivan survived the match but, abashed in every sense, joined the ongoing Gold Rush to California, where his luck failed to improve. ***

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Hyperbole

from having been away from any place where food was to be had. He said, ‘The great fight is over, and I’m dying for a cup of hot coffee.’” In today’s world, we can be grateful that over-hyped events are generally well provisioned.

The day after the fight, halffrozen, disillusioned spectators began to trickle back into Baltimore. Constable Gifford’s brother Jim described meeting such an acquaintance: “I met Mr. Alexander Thompson coming down the street, tired to death and almost starved

Forty-some years ago, A.M. Foley swapped the Washington, D.C., business scene for a writing life on Elliott Island, Maryland. Tidewater Times has kindly published portions of one upcoming work, Chesapeake Bay Island Hopping, along with other regional musings. Foley’s published works are described at www.HollandIslandBook.com.

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Oxford Business Association May Calendar Spring is here! Pope’s Tavern is opening under new ownership and will feature homemade pastas. Capsize and Scottish Highland Creamery have opened for the season and the Robert Morris Inn, Doc’s Sunset Grille, Latitude 38 and Oxford Social will have expanded days and hours. Come for lunch or dinner and enjoy the views. Stroll our bucolic streets and shop at our unique shops for those one of a kind items. Sit for a while in Town Park, unwind and watch the boat races. Oxford - Bellvue Ferry will begin operation on May 1, pending completion of its USCG inspection, (call 410745-9023 for updates). Check restaurant and shop websites or facebook for updated hours. 1 – Cars and Coffee - Anyone can 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 a.m. the 1st Sat. of each month. Oxfordcc.org; 410-226-5409 2 – Love Letters, by A.R. Gurney - Tred Avon Players free, outdoor readers theatre. Bring a lawn chair and picnic to the Oxford Community Center, 200 Oxford Rd.; 3 p.m.. RSVP required @ oxfordcc.org. 3 – Intermediate Furniture Painting Class – Learn how to use waxes and color blending. Materials provided. 10% off any paint or supplies purchased the night of the class. 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.; $45; The Treasure Chest, 111 S. Morris St. Limited to 4, social distancing, mask required. Visit treasurechestoxford.com 6 – Sign Painting Class - Dixie Belle Chalk Mineral Paints, paint a plaque and apply an inspirational word transfer. Materials provided. 10% off any paint or supplies purchased the night of the class. 5:30 – 7 p.m.; $36; The Treasure Chest, 111 S. Morris St. Limited to 4, social distancing, mask required. Visit treasurechestoxford.com 9 – The Velocity of Autumn - Tred Avon Players free, outdoor readers theatre. Bring a lawn chair and picnic to the Oxford Community Center, 200 Oxford Rd; 3 p.m. RSVP required @ oxfordcc.org (due to space limitations). Will be moved indoors if inclement weather. 13 or 21 – Bring Your Own Piece Furniture Painting Class. Two opportunities to learn how to use chalk mineral paint to paint and seal it! The class price includes an 8-oz. jar of paint and an 8-oz. jar of sealer for you to keep and take home after the class. The Treasure Chest, 111 S. Morris St; 5:30-8:30 p.m.; $65; Limited to 3, social distancing, mask required. Pick your date and sign up at treasurechestoxford.com or call 410-924-8817. 14-16 - Virtual Art Show & Sale - 50 artists; VIP early preview available. Art Raffle; Virtual Studio Tours; On-site Demo’s (limited attendance); Visit oxfordcc.org for more info and Meet the Artist bios. 17 – SILK All-In-One Mineral Paint Demo & Instruction Learn how to use Dixie Belle’s new Silk All-In-One mineral paint. The Treasure Chest, 111 S. Morris St; 5:00-6:00 p.m.; $10 pp; Limited to 6 participants, social distancing, mask required. For more info or sign up, go to treasurechestoxford.com or call 410-924-8817. 26 – All About Waxes to Finish Your Chalk Mineral Paint Project Learn about finishing your chalk mineral paint furniture by using decorative waxes. 10% off all paint product purchases during the class. The Treasure Chest, 111 S. Morris St; 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.; $36 pp; Limited to 4 participants, social distancing, mask required. For more info or sign up, go to treasurechestoxford.com or call 410-924-8817. 29 – Spring Zing! Yoga Workshop - Geared to all levels. Oxford Community Center. 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. $45. Pre-registration required @ oxfordcc.org.

Tred Avon Yacht Club – race schedule and updates available at http://tayc.com/racing Check www.portofoxford.com calendar for event updates and ongoing events.

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Before Easton Was Easton A Rare Old Document Comes to Light

by James Dawson Easton was not always called Easton, nor did it always have the county courthouse. As a reminder of this, I had an interesting call recently from a Distinguished Local Gentleman of Parts who found some old papers that had belonged to his father and wondered if I would look at them for him, as he was having trouble with the old handwriting, so we made an appointment for him to meet me at the bookshop. He did not know how his father had gotten these old papers. A s we put t he document s on the counter, they seemed to be old deeds and bills of sale from the mid-1800s. Interesting, maybe, but not especially exciting, until one stray detached fragment caught my eye. The D.L.G of P asked me how old I thought it was. Judging from the handwriting, I told him that it probably dated from the early 1700s, but suddenly doubting my estimate, I looked more closely at the crabbed old writing and, much to my relief, found it was dated 1710! Suddenly, this old fragment got ver y interesting. Unfor tunately, it was only a fragment, so I sifted through the dozen or so other papers

hoping to find more and, amazingly, there was the rest of it! Glancing at the full document, I saw it read, “THE COURT proceed to the Laying out Two acres of Land in Armstrong’s old field near Pitte’s Bridge, whereon to build a Court House in this County according to act of assembly etc.” This was great! It was the order to buy 2 acres of land to build the Talbot County Courthouse in what would be Easton! But first a brief history of courthouses in Talbot County. Talbot County was established in either 1661 or 1662, depending on who is counting, but never had a real courthouse until one was located in the long-vanished town of York, up near Skipton on the Wye River, in 1674 in a tavern run by Mistress Winkles that was replaced by a proper courthouse building in 1680. Prior to York, court had been held in houses of various county commissioners. Since county courthouses were usually centrally located in a county, it would seem that courthouses located up near the northern boundary of Talbot County would be inconvenient at best, but in those days Talbot County was much bigger than it is now. In fact,

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Before Easton Was Easton it went all the way up to the Chester River and so at that time York was centrally located. That is, until 1707, when the Maryland General Assembly took away the northern part of Talbot County between the Wye and Chester rivers to establish Queen Anne’s County. Inconveniently, this reconfiguration put York at the top of Talbot County. York was always a small place anyway, and its only other attractions besides governance were gambling and sales of alcohol, as there was a racetrack directly in front of the courthouse and a tavern next door. Not to mention a pillory and stocks in the front yard for when you got into trouble gambling and drinking.

There was no fooling around with 17th century justice. With stocks, you sat with your outstretched legs locked between two boards, but with a pillory you were forced to stand with your neck and wrists locked in place. In either position, you were out in the open and subject to abuse by passersby. In spite of these attractions, York soon withered and died without its courthouse. Nothing is left of it now. Architectural historian H. C. Forman drew a reconstruction of what the 1680 courthouse probably looked like. For the next three years, court was held at various places in the Oxford area, Oxford then being the oldest and most important town in Talbot County. However, since Oxford was off to one side, a more

Close-up of the handwriting.

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Before Easton Was Easton central location was needed in the county, so one was found in Anderson’s Old Field near Pitts Bridge in what was then proto-Easton. Two acres were purchased, and a 20’ x 30’ brick courthouse was built there in 1712, shortly followed by the jail, stocks, pillory and whipping post. At this time, the name of the place was changed to Talbot Town, and then finally to Easton in 1788. No contemporary illustration of the 1712 courthouse is known to exist. The 1712 courthouse was torn down in 1792 when it became too small. It was replaced on the same site by the present courthouse building in 1794, which was enlarged in 1898 and yet again in 1958 when, yet

again, it became too small. The purchase of those two acres in 1710 for the courthouse was how this delightful old document fits in the story. It is not often that one gets to handle a piece of local history over 310 years old! The D.L.G of P. graciously let me borrow the papers and look them over at my leisure. This I was very happy to do, because while I am not interested in made-up puzzles like crosswords, I love nothing better than historical detective work like puzzling out old papers and deciphering old handwriting, because they’re real and not made up. I like to think that I’ve developed a knack for reading old documents over the years, but something this old would be more of a challenge.

1680 York Courthouse 118

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Before Easton Was Easton Early 1700s handwriting is considerably different from later 1700s handwriting, and even more different from mid-1800s handwriting, which looks almost modern. The early 1700s writing was eccentric, to say the least, because while much of it has curvy lines, a good bit of it is angular and zigzaggy, almost as if an intoxicated ant had fallen into the ink well and then crawled drunkenly around on the paper. In this old script, not only do we see the long letter s that is typical of handwriting before the early 1800s, but if there is a double s, the first one is elongated and looks like an f without the short center

bar. As far as I can tell, this was just for looks and didn’t mean anything. When printed, it looks like the letter f without the short center bar, and when written in longhand, it looks like someone grabbed both ends of an 8 and then stretched it out like it was a rubber band. Additionally, with handwriting this old, you also find that e’s look like backward o’s with a small loop at the top. The letter A written big and small looks normal, but the capital letter F looks like two lowercase fs scrunched together. And capital Ms are almost not to be described. And let’s not even get into the orthography, what there is of it, as for the most part dictionaries did not exist then, and spelling was phonetic

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and not at all consistent, even in the same document, or maybe even in the same sentence. And not only that, but some words are spelled with too many letters. Why anyone then or now would need to spell the word at with two ts, when one would do, seems kind of silly. Or att least I think so! But maybe they just liked the way the extra letters looked. Some other examples of using too many letters are itt for it, doe for do, vallue for value, summ for sum and pannel for panel. Also, the way they capitalized words back then seems odd to us. They often capitalized words, usually Nouns, even in the Middle of a Sentence. Naturally, I had to do a transcription. I tried to preserve the capri-

cious spelling and quirky capitalization in my transcript to keep the look and flavor of the original, but I know that in these modern times, the spelling police does not approve of that. But my opinion, if you tamper with the spelling, you tamper with history. But all of this made for a fun-filled afternoon for me, as I was home not only because of the Covid Threat but also recovering from a Fractured Fibula from slipping on mudd while walking my dog. But then, of course, I have weird ideas of what is funn. This document, approximately 900 words long, was the actual minutes kept of the Commissioner’s meetings on Jan. 16, Feb. 20, and March 1, 1710, relating to the pur-

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Before Easton Was Easton chase of two acres in what would be Easton for a county courthouse. The cost of the land was 5,000 pounds of tobacco (I have no idea how much that would be in 21st-century bitcoins).

Queen Anne The first line began,” Talbot so. AT T A COU RT of our Sover ig n Lady ANNE Queen of Great Brittain etc…” Note that Anne is named as the Queen of Great Britain. Remember 1707? Anne had originally been the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland when she ascended to the throne in 1702, but with the Acts of Union of 1707 when England and Scotland united to became Great

Britain, of which she was now the Queen, it was such a big deal that a big chunk of Talbot County was taken away from us to name the new county for her in celebration. The minutes of two of the meetings are titled “Att A Court of Adjournment,” which meant that since there was no courthouse then in which to hold the meetings, they had adjourned to hold the meeting at another location, in this case at Philemon Armstrong’s plantation house. I had no doubt of the document’s authenticity. The paper and ink look exactly correct to me. The ink is that old iron gall ink, so whenever the clerk whose handwriting I was deciphering pressed hard on his quill pen to make the lines thick and bold, he obviously transferred more ink onto the paper. Over the centuries, this ink, which is acidic, starts to damage the paper, and in the very wide lines it looks just like the paper has been burned, which it has ~ not by a f lame, but by the corrosive effects of the ink. Yes, this probably could be faked, but it wouldn’t be easy. Also, the thick ink lines have stained completely through the paper, making it difficult to read what is written on the other side. But who was the clerk who recorded these minutes? His f irst name looked like Robert, but his last name was written with so many dense overlapping loops and curlicues that it seemed impossible to

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Before Easton Was Easton tell the loops from the name or the name from the loops. Here, Talbot County historian Samuel Harrison came to the rescue. He devoted a page in his history of Talbot Co. listing all the names of the court clerks from 1662 to 1915, and there was only one Robert in the proper time period. His last name was Finley, which it kind of

looked like after I stared at it for a while. So that problem was solved. The document measures 6 1/8” x 71/2”, eight pages made of two larger pages folded in ha lf and stitched together by thread at the fold through two holes near the top and bottom, which is called a stab binding. This was commonly done in the days before there were staples or paper clips to hold pages together. People also used ribbons

How the courthouse looked in 1856. 124

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Before Easton Was Easton

Finley's signature. or pins to secure multiple pages together then. It is not at all unusual that paper this old has survived, because the handmade paper used then was nat u r a l ly ac id f re e, a nd u nder proper conditions, can seemingly last almost indefinitely, unlike most of the wood pulp paper we use now.

I repaired the section that was detached with acid-free archival document repair tape. A not her fold had also split long ago and had been repaired with a small piece of paper cut from a newspaper that was glued on. This normally would have been a bad thing to do, but the repair was done so long ago that the newspaper was printed on acid-free paper and so was safe, even though whoever did the repair had not done a very good job of aligning the two pieces. This piece of newspaper used for the repair measured 1 1/4” x 7” and mentioned the Whig political party, which was in existence from 1834 to the mid-1850s, which would seem to date that repair fairly accurately as we shall see.

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Before Easton Was Easton I found out in later resea rch that historian Samuel A. Harrison (1822-1890) owned this exact document in 1870 and mentioned it in his history of Talbot County on p. 221 and quoted it in full on pages 221-223. This was reprinted from Ha r r ison’s or ig ina l monog raph written in 1870 titled “The Court House” that was used in 1915 as a chapter in his history of Talbot County Harrison wrote in 1870, “There is in the possession of the compiler of these annals a record of the laying out of the county land for the purposes of a courthouse, which record is not among those belong-

ing to the county. This record is in the handwriting of Robert Finley, the clerk, and they therefore must be regarded as perfectly authentic. For the sake of perpetuating this record, as well as for its intrinsic interest, it is here copied in full…:” [on pages 221 to p. 223 in vol. 2 History of Talbot County Maryland 1661-1861. Compiled Principally From The Literary Relics Of The Late Samuel Alexander Harrison, A.M. M.D. by his son-in-law Oswald Tilghman Easton, Md. published by Williams and Wilkins, 1915. How’s that for a grand title! This also helped to establish the provenance of the document. However, the 1710 document is in a later paper folder labeled “An

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instrument relating to the Town of Easton bearing date 1710 record in Liber 65 folios 529, 530 and 531 one of the Land Record Books for Talbot Count y Circuit Cour t for Talbot Co.” made on Sept. 26, 1854 by John Bozman Kerr when it was copied in the records in full. So in 1854, it had belonged to Kerr, who had probably made that old repair. It is interesting that this fascinating document was not officially recorded in the Talbot County Land Records until 1854. That Kerr had the document recorded shows its importance, and the fact that the document was returned to him indicates that it was regarded as his private property and not the property of either the Town of Easton or

the Circuit Court of Talbot County. One t hing about t he or ig ina l document t hat st ill puzzles me is what was “Talbot so.” At first I thought it was Co. as an abbreviation for county, which would have made sense, but that letter wasn’t a c, but an s. Kerr’s 1854 transcript has it Sc., while Harrison’s 1878 has it So. I have no clue what Talbot Sc. or Talbot So. meant, but there’s nothing like a little mystery to keep things interesting. Pleafe lett mee know iff yew have annie clews. James Dawson is the owner of Unicorn Bookshop in Trappe.

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Queen Anne’s County The history of Queen Anne’s County dates back to the earliest Colonial settlements in Maryland. Small hamlets began appearing in the northern portion of the county in the 1600s. Early communities grew up around transportation routes, the rivers and streams, and then roads and eventually railroads. Small towns were centers of economic and social activity and evolved over the years from thriving centers of tobacco trade to communities boosted by the railroad boom. Queenstown was the original county seat when Queen Anne’s County was created in 1706, but that designation was passed on to Centreville in 1782. It’s location was important during the 18th century, because it is near a creek that, during that time, could be navigated by tradesmen. A hub for shipping and receiving, Queenstown was attacked by English troops during the War of 1812. Construction of the Federal-style courthouse in Centreville began in 1791 and is the oldest courthouse in continuous use in the state of Maryland. Today, Centreville is the largest town in Queen Anne’s County. With its relaxed lifestyle and tree-lined streets, it is a classic example of small town America. The Stevensville Historic District, also known as Historic Stevensville, is a national historic district in downtown Stevensville, Queen Anne’s County. It contains roughly 100 historic structures, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located primarily along East Main Street, a portion of Love Point Road, and a former section of Cockey Lane. The Chesapeake Heritage and Visitor Center in Chester at Kent Narrows provides and overview of the Chesapeake region’s heritage, resources and culture. The Chesapeake Heritage and Visitor Center serves as Queen Anne’s County’s official welcome center. Queen Anne’s County is also home to the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center (formerly Horsehead Wetland Center), located in Grasonville. The CBEC is a 500-acre preserve just 15 minutes from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Over 200 species of birds have been recorded in the area. Embraced by miles of scenic Chesapeake Bay waterways and graced with acres of pastoral rural landscape, Queen Anne’s County offers a relaxing environment for visitors and locals alike. For more information about Queen Anne’s County, visit www.qac.org. 131

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

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Stellar Stay with Stella at Aloft Ocean City by Tracey F. Johns

I scurried with my laptop in hand and dog in tow ~ with a pause at the entranceway dog treat bowl ~ to arrive in the swanky lobby of Marriott’s new Aloft Ocean City waterfront hotel just in time for my work appointment. I had learned I could get a super-early check-in an hour and a half earlier while I was still in Easton. The friendly front desk associate helped get me into my bayfront room just in time for me to settle

my Puerto Rico rescue puppy, Stella, gaze at the water, smell the salty air, sit down and hook up to conduct my telephone interview with Yolanda V. Acree for last month’s story in Tidewater Times. I enjoy working from home but felt I had gone nowhere else for more than a year due to COVID-19. I wanted to look at the water for a couple of days while I was teleworking. I also did not want to leave my new pup alone at home in

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Stellar Stay

Easton. We’re a team now. Stella and I were eager to start our two-night, close-to-home vacation with promises of relaxation and beach adventures in a petfriendly waterfront environment. I grew up in Ocean City’s “Little Salisbury” neighborhood and remember the location as the old

45th Street Village. Before that, Josh’s Market was nearby. Now, the waterfront property in the heart of Ocean City and close to its conference center is much more suited for a hotel. Aloft Ocean City offers rooms overlooking Isle of Wight Bay, indoor and outdoor pools, a tiki bar, an indoor bar, the WXYZ lounge, game rooms, waterfront conference and wedding venues and more. Better yet are the daily activities and food and drink specials, bicycles for guest use, on-site kayaking and launch, a gym with a Peloton, and live music. Most importantly, the Atlantic Ocean is right across the street, with a puttputt golf course, the boardwalk

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Stellar Stay and other restaurants and nightlife nearby. I had been following the lifestyle hotel on social media since its 2019 opening, so I was eager to see if the photos and personalities I had seen were the real deal. I could not have been more impressed. Moreover, I’ve worked in the tourism industry, so my standards are high. Think crisp sheets, awesome pillows, an amazing shower and, of course, the view from my room. I think Stella enjoyed those sunset views and watching all the waterfowl the most. Scott Wable, a friendly, notable

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Stellar Stay Stella and I headed to the bar and lounge after an afternoon walk on the beach. The music was loud, the décor bright and lively, and the place just had a feel of a homey party in so many ways. I took a seat at the bar with Stella on my lap and watched the sky turn its glorious shades of sunset while Scott made an orange crush (or two) for me. I chatted with the couple next to me and enjoyed baked oysters and a crab cake prepared by Chef George. A local band was playing on the WXYZ stage as the lobby and bar filled with what seemed like more locals than guests.

The best part for me was the ability to sit at the bar with Stella on my lap while other friendly dogs and their people were nearby. She mingled while I met the other dogs’ people. We’d see the others in the lobby the next day, when even the dogs greeted each other. I remember thinking that this was so unique, and it brought so much joy to this single traveler, that I needed to write a story about it. Aloft Ocean City Director of Sales and Marketing Becky Akcam says this is Marriott’s first Aloft hotel in a resort city, as most had been located in business areas and airports. Now the lifestyle hotel is in other resort areas, including Miami.

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Akcam says a lifestyle hotel is a new generation in traveling style where guests feel like they are in their homes. “If you are looking for buffet breakfast, we don’t have those,” Akcam says, although the kitchen does prepare coffee and hot breakfast a la carte items. “But we do have comfort. Lots of open spaces,

and games everywhere. It’s lively, and our goal is to always bring people from upstairs to come downstairs.” Part of being a lifestyle hotel is keeping things lively, and that includes hosting fun events like Coloring Mondays, where guests are invited to color a large image covering the entire bar. There’s also Tito’s Tuesdays, and Friday Sip & Shops when local vendors set up shop in the lobby while guests enjoy an adult beverage. They once offered ukulele classes, so you can expect future programs as the COVID-19 restrictions lift to be engaging and enlivening. Aloft’s pet program is called “Arf.” The hotel does not charge

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Stellar Stay extra fees to bring your dog, and the property includes many petfriendly places, with a dedicated pet lawn, treats in the lobby and doggie goodie bags in your room during non-COVID times. You do have to sign an agreement that includes not leaving your dog alone in the room. Happy Hour is from 3 to 6 p.m. during the week, and the indoor pool is currently open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Live music is on Saturdays, with Fridays and Sundays added when Aloft’s outdoor pool and tiki bar open sometime in May, once the weather stays consistently warm.

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I see guests walking in and enjoying their time here, that’s the best part.” More about the hotel, including online reservations, is at aloftoceancity.com.

Akcam recalls her eager anticipation watching the property transform from an empty lot to the stylish hotel that is here today. She’s been with the brand prior to Aloft Ocean City opening. She says she finds joy in her work when she emotionally connects with guests. “I love to talk about how different Aloft is,” says Akcam. “When

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All American Part XX of a novel in XXI parts

by Roger Vaughan Previously: The year is 1988. Andy Thomas made an ill-advised tactical call during a race in 50foot sailboats that nearly caused a dangerous collision. His father, Mitchell (at the helm), was livid. Later, at the awards dinner, a drunken Andy delivered a public declaration that made it virtually impossible for Mitchell Thomas, a well-known amateur sailor, not to mount a Round the World Race challenge. Okay, you know the rest, but if you missed anything or need a refresher, go to www.tidewatertimes. com (writers, Roger Vaughan), where you can find all previous chapters. ***

t was Andy and Becky’s third night on the rooftop. It had taken some doing. At considerable risk, Jeff Linn had outmaneuvered Mitch’s guard dog secretaries and managed to find the address of his Manhattan hideaway, a penthouse apartment on the west side of Cen-

tral Park. Then Jeff had broken all kinds of laws by flying a small drone over East Side rooftops and across the park to find the ideal place for observation. New Yorkers living on either side of the Park have long enjoyed innocent amusement by observing one another over the treetops with powerful telescopes. One of Manhattan’s highest rent districts is not immune to one of the city’s oldest pastimes. It’s not that people don’t mind. They simply forget about it. Spying is just a part of big-city, high-rise life; nothing personal, just people-watching refined. And it’s free. If one does think about it, well, he (or she) can always close the curtains. Or choose to leave them open. With the drone, Jeff had found a building directly opposite Mitch’s, with a flat, uncluttered roof. Getting access to the rooftop was solved by slipping the building’s doorman a couple crisp hundreds, explaining that photographer Becky needed just the right elevation and location for a night shot of Central Park. Cards and credentials were

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minutes at a time. They were one story, maybe a little more, above also produced. By the third night Mitch’s f loor, giving them a good (they pleaded weather problems), view of the living room layout. the doorman was fast becoming The hallway to the elevator was on their best friend. He even said he’d the far left. The small window to watch their car in the no parking the right was a bathroom, Farther zone, not to worry. With Becky lug- right was the bedroom window, ging the tripod and Andy carrying also picture size. boxes of gear, the doorman happily Andy was hoping this would be ferried them to the roof in the ser- the night. If they had to wait any vice elevator. longer, he was afraid the cat would It was 10 p.m., and it was cold. be out of the bag. The thugs that A brisk northerly was putting the had attacked them at the boathouse wind chill at around 25 degrees. had been treated and were being It was also clearing the air. They held under tight security. The doctucked into the lee of a large air- tors had managed to save the guy’s conditioning unit and set up the foot. And as far as Andy knew, tripod. Andy atMitch was unaware They had located tached his Stealth he had f lown home. Mitch's apartment Scope to the tripod But all sorts of leaks for maximum stabilwere possible. Sam on the first night ity. He opened one was pretending of the gear boxes, took out a ther- business as usual, supposedly promos of coffee and poured each of cessing Deedee’s estate. Mitch had them a cup. From the other box he no clue Deedee had overwritten evremoved two folding stools. Andy erything, and he was pushing Sam stared through the scope. Becky and the other attorneys to get it sat down and sipped her coffee. done, signed, sealed and delivered They had located Mitch’s apart- ~ to him. But Andy could hear the ment the first night. Winter, and clock ticking. He had the goods, all the absence of leaves on the tall- the evidence, and it was in the right est trees, made the job easier, but hands, no problem there. Sam had it took an actual Mitch sighting to everything he needed. But sooner confirm they had the right place. would be better. Andy’s f light back After that, finding the apartment to Western Australia was in three was easy: top f loor, the one with days. Another night without a hit the big picture window framed by would not be good. red draperies. The two took turns “Contact,” Becky said quietly. gazing through the scope for a few “Lemme see.” Andy moved to 152

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er side of the Park. Captain Jason was waiting in the lobby with a dethe scope, taking a split second to tective and two young, uniformed marvel again at the clarity this gor- officers, a man and a woman. Jageous little optic provided, along son was a black man of linebacker with the incredible magnifica- proportions with a serious countion. Mitch must have been seated, tenance to match. His shoulders maybe watching television. Out of were broad under his overcoat. His sight. Now he was up, in frame, head was large, his jaw square, his moving to meet someone who had eyes calm, steady. Andy noticed just come in. Isha, in the f lesh. She the doorman was quite nervous. must have her own key. Maybe she Jason had read him the riot act, was calling this place home while and he was being watched just in Mitch was on the Island. She shed case resident loyalty moved him to her long down coat. They hugged. make a warning call upstairs. “Both home?” Jason asked, his Bingo! Funny, he thought, staring at the two of them, how he didn’t voice low and even. “Twenty-five minutes ago,” feel so much as a twinge. If he felt Andy said. anything, it was a swipe of disgust Captain Jason was waiting in the lobby with a “Good.” Jason inwith himself for being such a damn detective and two officers dicated to the male officer, whose name fool. He cursed untag read “Quimby,” that he should der his breath. “It’s over,” Becky said, catching stay in the lobby until they were the vibe with both hands. “Let’s inside, to prevent any warning calls. Andy suggested that Becky end it.” Andy opened the box, pulled out might want to wait for them in the lobby. a radio, made a call. “Not on a bet,” she said, with “Jason here.” “It’s Andy. We’ve had a sighting. enough enthusiasm that Andy knew it would be pointless to arWe’re on if you’re set.” “We’re set. Meet you at the ad- gue. He was finding everything this woman did appealing. Jason dress in thirty minutes.” glanced at Becky, gave Andy the t took them twenty-five min- slightest of nods, and the five of utes to pack up, thank the door- them took the elevator to the pentman, who wondered how they house f loor. The detective knocked could have gotten what they want- politely on the apartment door, ed so quickly, and drive to the oth- then rang the bell. Silence. He

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Thomas?” “Yes, I am,” Mitch intoned in his knocked again, a little stronger. best command voice, making an ef“Hello? Yes. Who is it?” It was fort to sound confident. Isha’s voice. “Mr. Thomas, at 11:04 p.m. on “Police,” the detective said qui- November 18, 1990, I am arrestetly, putting additional chill on a ing you for the murder of Doroword one doesn’t want to hear spo- thy Moss Thomas, also known as ken outside the apartment door at Mrs. Mitchell Thomas. You have eleven o’clock at night. the right to remain silent. Any“Police?” thing you say can and will be used “Yes, ma’am.” against you in a court of law.” “Just a moment.” One could hear Mitch stared at Jason as if he exfootsteps retreating. pected him to dissolve into a puff of Jason gave it ten counts, smoke at any second. Total disbeshrugged as if to ask, where could lief registered on his face. Then he they go? ~ then nodded. The detec- managed a chuckle. “Do you know tive knocked again, rang the bell. who I am?” he asked, his arrogance “Yes, yes, just surfacing. “This is Both Mitch and Isha a moment!” Isha a joke, right? You sounded irritated. spotted Andy and Becky come walking into She opened the my apartment, my just as Jason spoke door. Jason and the home, at 11 o’clock at detective moved in slowly but with night and tell me I am a murderer, resolve, showing their credentials. and, more than that, that my vicIt helped that they were both large tim is my wife?” men. Andy, Becky and the female “Yes, sir, that’s about right,” Jaofficer followed. Isha backed away. son said. Mitchell Thomas appeared, look“Well you can just wait a goding both puzzled and offended by damn minute because I have one this sudden intrusion of strang- call and I will make it right now ers into his penthouse fortress. to a lawyer who will make you Both Mitch and Isha spotted Andy wish you never heard my goddamn and Becky just as Jason spoke. name!” Mitch was yelling, the veins Andy saw a f lash of fear f lit across standing out on his temples. Mitch’s eyes. Officer Quimby arrived about “I’m Captain Victor Jason. This then. Detective Baker had pinged is detective first class James Bak- him on the radio. Baker was mover, and Officer Jones. I think you ing to secure Mitch as Captain know the others. You are Mitchell Jason was explaining to him that 158

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while she was still trying to unholster the revolver and flung the he would not be calling anyone, smaller woman to the ground with that he would be afforded his first all the frustration of a linebacker call at the station, when Isha at- who finally has that pesky wide retacked Quimby. With all the focus ceiver in his mitts. Becky followed on Mitch, Isha had done a slow but her down and sat on Isha’s expensure circling of the group, probably sive chest. with the notion of running out the Isha was suddenly hysterical, door and out of the building. But screaming a tirade about the intrusuddenly there was this police of- sion, about the stupid fucking cops ficer walking in, blocking the way. who think they own the fucking city, Quimby explained later that as about Becky the clueless bitch and he entered the room, here was this Andy the pathetic, stupid asshole, very attractive woman, if he may and finally settling on Mitch, how say so, very stunning, in fact, walk- Mitchell Thomas had been blacking toward him with an engaging mailing her to help him with his smile. It caught him off guard, yes, vile schemes and how she had been sir, it definitely did. held prisoner by him Without hesitation, The next thing Quiand how he forced Becky grabbed Isha mby knew, this sexy her to have sex with little package had him repeatedly unin a headlock punched him amaztil Mitch screamed, ingly hard in the stomach with her “Shut up!” at the top of his lungs. right hand, high up, in just the right Andy figured the residents might place to knock the wind out of him, have heard that admonition from while her left hand went for his Mitch three floors down. gun. Not expecting trouble in such Listening to Isha’s mad protestaelegant surroundings, and having tions, especially her immediate and had the most rudimentary of brief- also predictable efforts to throw ings about a standard white-collar Mitch under the bus, and taking a arrest, Quimby still had the leather moment to grasp the extraordinary keeper attached over the handle of scene ~ the detectives, Quimby still his revolver, secured to the protrud- trying to catch his breath, Becky’s ing steel pin. If not, it might have vicious tackle of Isha, Mitch’s back been a different story. firmly against the wall, finally, all Becky, who was standing clos- set in the luxurious confines of a est to Quimby, saw exactly what penthouse apartment on Central Isha was doing. Without hesitation, Park West ~ Andy couldn’t conBecky grabbed Isha in a headlock tain himself. He laughed out loud. 162

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them. There was a study off the living It wasn’t laughter, actually. It was room. The three men went in. Baker more like a couple of barks. The closed the door. sound made Isha want to kill him “What in the goddamn hell do with her bare hands. She twisted you think you’re doing, you . . .” under Becky’s weight with all her “Shut up,” Andy said quietly. “Sit strength, screaming more obsceni- down.” Baker helped Mitch lower ties and nearly throwing Becky, himself into an armchair. who grabbed both her wrists and “It’s nice to see you, too, Mitch. pinned them to the floor. This time you listen to me because I Captain Jason locked onto Isha’s have information you need to hear. eyes and held his finger to his lips First of all, I have learned you are as he bent down, gently moving not my father, a fact that has given Becky aside. Then he took Isha’s me immense pleasure. To think I arm and slowly drew her to her might have been infested with any feet. “I would be more than happy of your disgusting genes has caused to hear anything you have to say, me many years of grief. The relief is Ma’am,” Jason said tremendous. First of all, in almost a whisper, “Second, I have I have learned you are some news you will “but first I have to say Isha Mowbry, enjoy. Deedee, my not my father at 11:21 p.m. on Nomother, your wife vember 18, 1990, I am arresting you ~ your ticket to controlling Moss for conspiracy to commit murder. I Optics, as provided by my dearly also need to tell you that you have beloved grandfather ~ had been the right to remain silent. Anything diagnosed with cancer of the panyou say can and will be used against creas. Stage 4. She had about three you in a court of law.” months to live. So you didn’t really Isha’s eyes were wide with ap- need to kill her. But I doubt a jury prehension as this large man slowly will take that into consideration.” and effortlessly pulled her to her “I did no such thing!” feet with one hand. To Andy’s as“More news, not that it matters tonishment, Isha remained silent as where you will be spending the next Quimby slipped handcuffs on her, a twenty or thirty years, or perhaps click tighter than necessary. life, but Deedee, my mother, your “May I have a moment with Mr. wife, produced a new will before Thomas?” Andy asked Jason. The she died. In her own hand. It has captain nodded. “Be brief.” He been authenticated, declared valid. looked at Baker, who went with Of sound mind and all that. Every164

thing has been left to me. As CEO and chairman of the board of Moss Optics, I have terminated your services. The contents of your office are being confi scated as we speak. The news will be in the morning papers. “I can’t prove what seems to have been your attempts on my own life. Sam is quite sure there have been more than one. Although I do have a bank envelope from Punta de Este full of fi ngerprints, some of which I’m sure will turn out to be Isha’s. That, a bank employee’s identification of Isha from her photograph, Isha’s presence on the bank’s CCTV, the testimony of a Punta hood named Carlo Solatto about a meeting with Miss Mowbry and the matter of 5,000 U.S. dollars should be sufficient to put her away for a while. It will be interesting to see if there were any equivalent money transfers under your name about then. Maybe we could get you and Isha adjoining cells. “Then there are the two goofballs who paid a visit to Becky and me when we were at Sam’s camp. They got injured pretty badly, not being used to country ways, and they are quite willing to talk about the nature of the mission they were on, and who sent them.” Mitch, who had remained silent, rose to his feet. Detective Baker moved toward him, but Andy put out a hand. “Look,” Mitch said, his face a mask of truth be told, charming Mitch at his most appealing,

“you’re barking up the wrong tree. Isha has masterminded this whole takeover from the outset.” “Takeover?” “Yes. Of course! A takeover. It’s complicated . . .” “I’m sure.” “. . .how she came on to me. Talk about blackmail, that’s her game, and she’s a master at it. She’s got the right equipment for it, I have to say. I did a tight little stock deal a few years ago. Not illegal, of course, but a tad messy. She found out about it, threatened to use it. She had me, then unfolded her little plan for me to, well, you know, here we are. She is so clever, so deceitful. Too late, I had her investigated. Some dark career she’s got.”

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All American “You know, Mitch, I could actually believe you. I could. But no jury in the world is going to buy it. You’ve heard of smoking guns? Well, Mitch, we’ve got several of them with your prints all over them.” Mitch suddenly snarled. “You rotten little prick. For years I tried to get rid of your spoiled ass. You’re goddamn right I did, you mommy’s boy, always bailed out by that sorry excuse for a mother, but you always lucked out. “That day in the tunnel. . .and you had to take a shortcut. Even RD couldn’t get rid of you on the boat, dumb goddamn bad luck. You crummy little bastard.” Mitch sud-

denly aimed a kick at Andy’s crotch. On guard, Andy spun away, taking the blow on the outside of his hip. Baker grabbed Mitch. “Detective,” Andy said, “I think it’s raining. Could you have a look?” Baker turned toward the window. Andy drove his fist straight from his shoulder with all he had. He could hear Mitch’s nose break on contact. Mitch fell back into the chair, clutching his face, blood flowing. “Oh, yeah,” Andy said, “almost forgot. George Cooper. Remember George, the guy you conspired with to wreck Mountain View? The guy who walked with a hefty six figures? We found him. I’m told he’s quite ready to cooperate.”

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Andy turned on his heel and left the room, closing the door behind him. Quimby and Jones had left with Isha. Jason and Becky were seated, talking. Jason looked up as Andy closed the door. “I was just fi nding out where Miss Cotton got her martial arts training. All okay?” “Yeah,” Andy said. “‘Dad’ got a little emotional at some of the news I told him and did a face plant. He’ll be okay.” Jason cracked the slightest smile. “Good,” he said, getting up. “Guess we’re done here.” Roger Vaughan has lived, worked and sailed in Oxford since 1980.

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Tidewater Times May 2021

Articles inside

Before Easton Was Easton: James Dawson

Oxford Map and History

Kent County

Hyperbole: A.M. Foley

Tidewater Gardening: K. Marc Teff eau

St. Michaels Map and History

Tilghman ~ Bay Hundred

Easton Map and History

Skating Through Mid-Life: Michael Valliant

Tidewater Kitchen - Tiny Bits: Pamela Meredith

The Covid-19 Vaccine Hunger Games: Bonna L. Nelson

Caroline County ~ A Perspective

May Tide Table

About the Cover Artist: Erick Sahler

Rags to Riches: Helen Chappell