Tidewater Times October 2021 by Tidewater Times

Tidewater Times

October 2021

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Vol. 70, No. 5

Published Monthly

October 2021

Features: About the Cover Artist: Nancy O. Henry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Witch Bottle: Helen Chappell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Teatime at the Hampton Mansion: Bonna L. Nelson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Talents on Tilghman: Kathi Ferguson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Play Baseball, Please: Roger Vaughan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Tidewater Gardening: K. Marc Teffeau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 That Sinking Feeling: A.M. Foley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Tidewater Kitchen - All About Chocolate: Pamela Meredith . . . . . . . . 113 Supporting Excellence in Public Schools: Michael Valliant . . . . . . . . . . 127 Changes - That Was Then - Part II: Roger Vaughan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Departments: October Tide Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Easton Map and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Caroline County ~ A Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Queen Anne’s County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Dorchester Map and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 St. Michaels Map and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Oxford Map and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 October Calendar of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Anne B. Farwell & John D. Farwell, Co-Publishers Proofing: Jodie Littleton & Kippy Requardt Deliveries: Nancy Smith, April Jewel & Brandon Coleman 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 Photographer Nancy O. Henry sponsored by Plein Air Easton!, the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Dorchester Center for the Arts. Her work is currently on exhibit at the Sea Captain’s Cottage in St. Michaels. Nancy and her husband, Ed, live in McDaniel where they share their home with two energetic puggles. This month’s cover photo is entitled Marsh Dance.

After completing a 41-year professional career, Nancy O. Henry was well into retirement when she was introduced to photography. Wildlife, landscapes and local scenes are her favorite subjects. Her goal is to emotionally engage the viewer beyond an initial cursory glance through the use of color and, frequently, the inclusion of something unexpected. Nancy’s work has been recognized by placement in competitions

Witch Bottle by Helen Chappell “I’ve been waiting to show you this,” the man seated opposite me said as he opened a plastic bag and unwrapped broadsheets of newspaper. “I read your columns, and I thought it might interest you.” And he was right. I’d heard of witch bottles, but I’d never seen one before. Even though they turn up from time to time on the Shore, they’re exceedingly rare. He placed it on the table between us. It was an old, old wine bottle, the kind with a round belly and a long neck. I think they stopped making them about 300 years ago. Sometimes, one turns up in an antiques shop or a salvaged wreck, but one like this is almost unique. The cork was decomposing, but it still managed to hold the contents in the bottle, such as they were. About a cup of gray-yellow liquid with a handful of old hand- forged nails drifting in the bottom, all rusty, and bits of what might once have been some kind of plant. I’m just superstitious enough not to want to touch it, but I allowed the owner to turn it over and show it to me from all angles. “It’s a witch bottle,” I said. “I’ve read about them, but I’ve never seen one before.”

“It’s probably been under our house since the original structure was put up, probably in the 1700s. At first, we didn’t know what it was, just that it was old, but we found an archeologist from Philadelphia who told us what it was and why.” “It was buried under the doorstep to keep witches from entering the house.” Lord, I’m smart, just a font of useless knowledge. “This is so cool.” I actually touched it. “Someone would pee in the bottle and add nails and fingernail clippings and whatever and bury it as a charm 9

Witch Bottle

do upgrades and find them in the cellar.” I thought for a moment. “I could see somebody from England coming over here and it would have seemed like a wild place, maybe full of magic and evil spells and neighbors and natives and Africans who meant you no good.” For obvious reasons, I didn’t add. “You’d think by the 18th century, people would be over that superstitious nonsense,” he commented. He is a man of science, so he was getting a whole education in local history and culture and folklore. “Stay around here long enough and you’ll run into people who still believe in witches and spells and all kinds of devilment. It’s no surprise that people will believe any-

against evil entering the house.” My companion nodded. Since he’s a respectable businessman from the Western Shore, I’m letting him remain anonymous lest his weekend home on the lower shore is overrun with nighthawks and other metal detector predators. “We did some research when we were updating the place, and we think the original kitchen dates to the early 1700s, so the people who originally built the house must have buried it there.” “It’s a thing, a charm, a spell that came over from England,” I spouted. “Apparently, they’re not uncommon over there when people

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Witch Bottle

bottle around on the table. I am so clumsy, I know if I handled it, it would smash all over the f loor of one of my favorite Easton restaurants. And probably release a curse on me that would just be the latest in a long line of karmic mishaps, knowing my luck. So, I smashed my ego down, put on my armchair archeologist’s hat and examined the object at hand. I spun it in place, afraid to lift it up. The vile liquid swished, 200-odd years of nastiness. No self-respecting witch, let alone Wiccan, would touch it. The glass was rough, probably from being buried so long, and cold to the touch. The stuff inside was just plain nasty, and it just had a cold, nasty vibe that I didn’t

thing, if you know how they were raised. Most of ’em won’t admit it, but it’s there. Maybe it’s wearing new clothes, but it’s the same old hoo-ha with a new name.” It’s true. In my decades of covering the waterfront, I have encountered a lot of people who will believe anything, no matter how much it defies logic or science or even common sense. I had an aunt who swore up and down the moon landing was staged and it changed the weather, and that’s just in my own family. And my father was a surgeon, so we’re not exactly swamp people. So, I mustered up my courage and carefully turned the witch

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Witch Bottle like. But I have a good imagination, maybe too good. “I wonder if it kept the witches away,” I mused. “We had a couple of witch trials and incidents around here, so people did believe. . .” “I was just surprised that we dug it up without breaking it. My wife was planting bulbs around the old kitchen doorway and hit something hard. Thought it was a pipe or a rock or something.” He shook his head. “Took it down to the college and they got us in touch with

an archeologist at Penn. And we got the whole story. Or as much of it as we’ll ever know. I wonder what they were thinking?” “What will you do with it now?” I asked, peering into the murky depths as if I could see the past in antique urine. “I bet a lot of museums or historical societies would love to have it.” What I thought but did not say was that the thing was so creepy I wouldn’t have had it on a silver platter. My companion grinned and shook his head. “Oh, we’re putting it right back where we found it. Some things aren’t meant to be messed with. Maybe the people who own that house in a hundred years will find it all over again.” Helen Chappell is the creator of the Sam and Hollis mystery series and the Oysterback stories, as well as The Chesapeake Book of the Dead. Under her pen names, Rebecca Baldwin and Caroline Brooks, she has published a number of historical novels. 18

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Teatime at the Hampton Mansion by Bonna L. Nelson

I clearly remember four generations of my family’s ladies ~ grandmother, mother, my sister and I and my toddler daughter ~ leisurely sipping tea on the terrace at the glorious Hampton Mansion. The tables were covered with cornflower-blue cloths and adorned with crisp white linen napkins and blue-and-white patterned fine china. There was always a breeze as we sat in the shade of old trees on the commanding hill above the estate. We shared a luncheon repast of scrumptious chicken salad, spicy crab cakes and small beaten biscuits along with dishes of local fresh fruits

and vegetables. It was a communal experience that we joyfully participated in a few times a year, usually spring and summer, at the Hampton estate in Dulaney Valley, north of Baltimore. Our tea was usually followed by a stroll through the always beautiful Hampton gardens and browsing the aisles of its cheerful gift shop. I can’t clearly remember when and why we stopped visiting tea. Was it after my grandmother could no longer comfortably enjoy our special outing? Was it when my sister left for college? Was it when my daughter became too rambunctious and

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Teatime

We learned that Dinah Toogood, an enslaved worker and estate head cook (from the 1840s to the 1860s) at what was known as Hampton Hall, probably worked in the same kitchen that was later used to make chicken salad and crab cakes for the tearoom.

bored? Or, was it after the tearoom was closed in 1998 by the new owners, the National Park Service (NPS)? In our years of blissfully patronizing the Hampton Mansion tearoom, we did not know the history of the property and its seven generations of Ridgelys who built and managed the estate. Now known as the Hampton National Historic Site (HNHS), located on Hampton Lane near Dulaney Road, it is operated by the NPS. On a recent visit with my daughter, who has no memory of teatime enchantments, we learned what we did not know about the people, the land, the mansion’s architecture and decor, the mansion outbuildings, the farm buildings, the gardens, the estate industries and the social interests. The first shock came when we learned from our online research at the NPS HNHS website, from onsite NPS Park Rangers and from our self-guided tour with signage, was that the estate was built by 500 African slaves as well as European indentured servants.

We learned that more than 100 years later, Yvonne Barber lost the job she had held for 43 years ~ managing the tearoom and creating the delicacies that we so enjoyed on its terrace ~ when the NPS closed the tearoom over kitchen safety concerns and declining revenue. So much that we didn’t know. Would it have made a difference to us? We learned that HNHS is one of America’s best-preserved estates and that it showcases Mid-Atlantic life from before the American Revolution to after WWII. Estate structures include the Georgian-style mansion, called Hampton Hall, its outbuildings; formal terraced gardens and landscape features; and a farm site with slave quarters, dairy barns, a creamery and an overseer’s home. HNHS preserves 63 of the original 24

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Teatime

changed little over its many years of existence. In our studies we learned that the fi ve-part Georgian-style mansion contains an astounding 24,000 square feet of living space. Prized for its symmetry, it was constructed between 1783 and 1790. The Hampton Mansion’s principal rooms are furnished to interpret varying periods during which the family occupied the home. Though the mansion was not open for tours due to the pandemic, we looked at the rooms at the HNHS

25,000 acres that once formed the core of a vast industrial, commercial and agricultural empire built by the Ridgely family. The site reflects aspects of American history and the social, cultural and economic activities across three centuries. The occupancy of seven generations of the Ridgely family and their diverse enslaved, indentured and free workforce are also well researched and documented. The entire estate has

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Teatime

house and maintenance building and a pump house. We were surprised to see that the structures were so well built that they have lasted over 100 years and that the parterre (formally patterned f lower garden) gardens are still beautifully maintained by HNHS staff and volunteers. Along with the Hampton Mansion, the some of the outbuildings and the Lower House on the farm grounds were closed to tours. In addition, the mansion’s cupola was enclosed in scaffolding and closed for renovations. Our research revealed that the Ridgelys used the cupola for its excellent view from the hill to show guests the magnificent and expansive estate grounds. The Ridgelys and their managers also used the cupola to oversee the estate laborers ~ slaves and indentured and paid workers. We found the ice house near the mansion fascinating, though it, too, was closed due to the pandemic. The

website and I remembered some of the glamorous furnishings from past visits.

The primary rooms include the great hall, parlor, dining room, drawing room, music room, kitchen, master bedchamber and bedchambers for guests and children. In decorating the mansion, the NPS is guided by a vast collection of the Ridgelys’ furnishing plans and documents about objects as well as historic photographs left by the family. Over 90 percent of the objects on exhibit are original to the mansion: furniture, drapery, carpet, fine and decorative arts, china, silverware and even chamber pots. On the grounds, we strolled by magnificent gardens and surviving structures that supported the mansion. Built from the late 18th to early 20th centuries, these include a rare ice house, a paint house, a smoke house, two privies, two large stables, a walled family cemetery, two greenhouses, an orangery, a gardener’s 30

Teatime

house/granary, a mule barn and the foundation for a corn crib. Meadows and fields survive as well. When I took tea with family, I do not recall that the Home Farm buildings were open or discussed on tours. The slave quarters were not mentioned. I did not know then what I know now: that enslaved persons and indentured servants labored to make the Ridgelys’ elegant lifestyle possible. The oldest building of those surviving in the farm area is the gambrel-roofed Lower House, dating from the mid-18th century. Interesting to us was the fact that the Ridgely family lived there both while the mansion was under construction and again after selling to the NPS in 1948

storage unit was built 34 feet underground to house the ice that was cut each winter from nearby frozen ponds and lakes and hauled by sledges and horses. With two openings, it allowed ice blocks to be shoveled into the tunnel from the upper hatch opening. Through the lower opening, covered with a black iron gate, we could see a stairwell leading to the base of the ice storage tunnel where ice blocks were tampered down, watered and later retrieved for the kitchen. I imagine that even with no refrigerators back then, the Ridgely adults enjoyed ice-chilled drinks and the Ridgely children ice cream thanks to ice from the ice house and much labor all year round. The Home Farm across Hampton Lane is where the estate’s commercial and industrial activities took place, as well as additional activities to support the mansion. Surviving structures on the Home Farm campus include two stone slave quarters, a log structure, an ash house (used to collect ashes for making soap, candles and lime for fertilizer), a dairy/creamery, a long 34

Teatime

workers to workers for the estate’s iron furnace (no longer in existence), blacksmiths, carpenters, jockeys, gardeners, cooks, servers, house servants and so on. In our research, we discovered that a multi-year study completed in 2020 focused on tracing the lives of Hampton Mansion’s escaped and freed slaves. Written by a multidisciplinary team at the University of Maryland, it traces the lives of the people who obtained their freedom

when they could no longer care for the property. When not occupied by the Ridgelys, the Lower House was home to overseers and farm managers and was used to conduct business related to the farm. The surviving farm structures are also in remarkable condition. On our tour, we saw that some of the buildings, such as the two well-preserved stone slave quarters, featured dioramas and furniture depicting interpretations of slave family life. The stone used to create the buildings came from the Ridgelys’ own quarry. The handsome farm structures with stone exteriors and gingerbread trim were designed and built for the family’s viewing pleasure. The difference between the meager interior slave accommodations and the lavish mansion furnishings is quite apparent, as you would expect. The entire family slept in one room, usually near the cook fire. There, they had meals together and some privacy from the overseer. Copies of documents about the Ridgely estate slaves are hung on the walls. They include descriptions of clothing allowances for slaves, discussions about how slaves were named, descriptions of how slaves lived at Hampton, descriptions of slaves purchased and rewards for escaped slaves. One poster explained that slaves were acquired for their skills, ranging from farm and dairy

The probate inventory list of Charles Carnan Ridgely, who served as Maryland’s governor, showing enslaved ironworkers and their monetary value. 38

Teatime

Perhaps ask about where the slaves went when they escaped or were freed (which is just now just being studied)? I know that I would like to return to HNHS to learn more about the many, many people who made all the glamor possible for just a few. I hope that readers will visit this multifaceted historic site. During this time of limited travel options, it is just a 1¾-hour drive from Easton, and there are many dining choices in the nearby Towson area. Admission is free. The HNHS is located at 535 Hampton Lane, Towson, MD 21886. More information is available by calling 410-823-1309 or online at www.nps.gov/hamp. As of this writing, August 2021, due to Covid-19, the gates and parking lots are open daily 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. but only on Thursday through Sunday are some outbuildings and restrooms open. The Visitors Center is not open either, but on Thursday through Sunday, the Park Rangers are posted outside under a small tent to answer questions and share maps, brochures and Junior Ranger books. As mentioned above, the Mansion and Lower House are closed. Masks are required in all indoor spaces. No tours are available. Best to check the website before visiting for changes.

A Hampton laborer circa 1897. Hampton staﬀ believe this is Jim Pratt, who was born enslaved at Hampton and then worked as a paid employee on the estate after emancipation. from enslavement at Hampton, including their family members and descendants and where they settled af ter freedom. The information learned will be incorporated into programming and signage at the HNHS and used as a core baseline for other NPS sites. I learned from our research, selfguided tour and signage what I didn’t know about the Hampton Mansion during family teatimes so long ago. I wonder what I would have done back then. Perhaps ask the Park Rangers about the history of the slave labor that built and maintained the mansion and its businesses? Perhaps ask to see the slave quarters and the farm buildings that were not open for touring back then, to my knowledge?

Bonna L. Nelson is a Bay-area writer, columnist, photographer and world traveler. She resides in Easton with her husband, John. 40

TIDE TABLE

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

HIGH PM AM

12:00 12:54 1:43 2:29 3:12 3:55 4:37 5:21 6:07 6:57 7:53 8:54 10:01 11:11 12:07 1:09 2:02 2:47 3:26 4:02 4:37 5:11 5:47 6:26 7:08 7:55 8:48 9:46 10:46 11:45 12:06

OCTOBER 2021

12:19 1:15 2:06 2:55 3:42 4:29 5:16 6:06 6:57 7:51 8:49 9:52 10:59 12:19 1:21 2:18 3:09 3:56 4:39 5:19 5:58 6:35 7:12 7:52 8:35 9:24 10:17 11:12 12:42

LOW PM

7:42 6:20 8:22 7:25 8:58 8:25 9:32 9:23 10:05 10:19 10:37 11:17 11:10 12:16 11:45am 1:18 12:24 2:24 1:07 3:31 1:58 4:38 3:00 5:42 4:13 6:40 5:32 7:33 6:49 8:20 7:57 9:01 8:58 9:37 9:53 10:09 10:44 10:35 11:33 11:00 12:20 11:24 1:08 11:51am 1:56 12:23 2:45 1:00 3:35 1:43 4:25 2:34 5:15 3:34 6:03 4:42 6:46 5:54 7:04 7:26

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Talents on Tilghman by Kathi Ferguson

Kristin Lednum A tabletop easel claimed its portion of the Lednum family dining area, where 18-year-old Kristin Lednum’s most recent painting was nearing completion. Her subject? A grandmother and grandchild done in acrylics that was being presented to a friend for Mother’s Day. Although work space may be limited, it is obvious that this multi-talent-

ed Tilghman Island native’s ability to produce impressive art knows no boundaries. It comes as no surprise when Kristin informs me that art has always been a part of her life. “When I was little, I would come home from school and just start drawing. In charcoal mostly,” she says. “I loved taking art classes, often participating in the Tilghman Elementary af-

“The Final Stretch,” Kristin holding, acrylic 45

Talents on Tilghman

Advanced Placement Art program (AP Art) offered at St. Michaels

ter school programs, and attending summer camp at the Academy Art Museum in Easton over the years. Mom says I was always the last to leave my coloring class!” A self-admitted perfectionist, Kristin’s was not terribly satisfied by her first attempts at painting. “I tried oil and watercolor and really didn’t like it,” she tells me. “That’s probably because I didn’t think I was good at it!” It wasn’t until in her senior year of high school that Kristin began to tackle mediums other than charcoal. The opportunity to expand her creative horizons further, however, came after being accepted to the

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Talents on Tilghman

workboats dash toward the finish line in a local boat race. One of the boats, aptly named Kristin Marie, belongs to Kristin’s dad, lifelong waterman Billy Lednum. Here, Kristin not only tackles the challenge of drawing in perspective but manages to capture the feel of the boats moving through the water. “I made sure to consult with Dad on this one,” she says, “to be sure I got it right!” A favorite of Billy’s is his daughter’s graphite drawing of an old car that happened to park in front of their house one afternoon. “Kristin was intrigued, took a picture and drew it. Simple as that,” Billy says. “Her mom and I were so impressed with the outcome.” Compositionally, this piece is a winner, earning Kristin a place in the Spring 2018

High School (SMHS). In order to qualify, a portfolio of five pieces of art is submitted ~ the equivalent of an exam for other AP courses. One project in particular called for students to create a certain number of pieces, 15 to be exact, focusing on one theme using any medium. That theme for Kristin would be “home.” “More specifically,” she explains, “what home is to me, my experiences, and how I can convey that to the viewer through my work.” It becomes apparent that spending time on or near the water is a major source of inspiration for Kristin as she shows me the first of many samples of her work. In The Final Stretch (acrylic on wood), two Chesapeake Bay deadrise 48

Talents on Tilghman

f lying colors in 2020, Kristin can now serve as a line officer and third lieutenant. Aside from graduating from SMHS with honors, Kristin was named valedictorian for her class of 2021. She also helped lead her varsity softball team to several victories in her role as starting centerfielder. Recently, she was awarded a full-tuition scholarship to High Point University in North Carolina, where she will pursue a six-year pre-pharmacy program. A bright future is surely ahead for Kristin Marie. Although her new journey may lead her away from Tilghman and on to a promising career, her love for home and the world of art is sure to remain

edition of SPINDRIFT, the literary arts magazine of Talbot County Schools, as well as in the Academy Art Museum’s student art show that year. As Kristin reveals more of her portfolio, I am struck not only by her attention to detail, but also by her ability to tackle a variety of subjects. A triptych piece, for example, done in watercolor, depicts an entire day in three different scenes. In another, Kristin selects the color purple for a monochromatic acrylic painting of a single rose done on fiber board. Perhaps two of my favorites are “Bay’s Bounty” (selected for the Celebrate St. Michaels 2021 Art League Banner Program) and an untitled work providing the viewer with a unique perspective of a firefighter’s gear. In this case, that firefighter is Kristin herself! What stands out in each of these works is her eye for color, a strong sense of design and a touch of whimsy. Ambitious and driven, there is no doubt this young artist enjoys taking on a challenge. At age 16, she officially joined Tilghman Island Volunteer Fire Department, where her father has served for 30 years and is currently chief. “I loved following Dad around and riding on calls,” she grins. Firefighting classes would come next. After completing her training with

Nancy at 2VintageChics boutique with one of her works. 50

or stone. The pieces are closely set, often variously colored, and can result in works that are either very complex or simpler in nature. Nancy discovered this intricate art form a few years ago when she attended a class taught by Eastern Shore mosaic artist Jen Wagner. “I immediately got the bug,” she says. “The colors, textures, patterns, I love all of that. It is really a good medium for me.” Nancy has always dabbled in art ~ drawing and painting since childhood. “We would have drawing contests at home,” she says. “When I turned twelve, I got my first artist’s paint set and started painting up a storm. Actually, my parents let me paint on the walls of

constant. “I will never stop making art,” she says. “I simply love the way it makes me feel.” Nancy Sullivan Tilghman Island resident Malissa Kirszenbaum had recently opened her new boutique and was looking to showcase local talent when Nancy Sullivan’s colorful mosaics came to mind. “I had seen Nancy’s work at a local fundraiser and was immediately attracted to it,” says Malissa. “I now carry a number of her pieces, and they have been very well received.” Mosaic art is defined as the decoration of a surface with designs using small pieces of materials such as glass, tile, marble, shell

Talents on Tilghman

Hundred Restaurant, now Marker Five. It did not take long for us to conclude that ultimately, Tilghman would become our home. Bob had his own building business in Connecticut, and I began working with him in 1993. Six years later, we sold Bob’s business, started Sullivan Building and Design and became permanent Tilghman residents. We have been busy ever since!” Along with painting and drawing, breaking glass apart and reassembling it to create something eyecatching has provided Nancy with a welcome diversion from the rigors of the construction business. Her inspiration, she tells me, “Comes from all kinds of things. The possibilities are endless. When I am on the lookout for subjects, I always

my bedroom. I would do skylines, unicorns, fun stuff like that.” Then, home for Nancy was Greenwich, Connecticut, where she was born and raised before moving farther north to Newtown in 1975. Her early career was spent in the food business, working for a catering facility on weekends and helping out at her mom’s delicatessen during the week. The building business, however, would become Nancy’s bailiwick after meeting and later marrying her husband, Bob Sullivan. It would also be what led her to Tilghman Island. “My first of several visits was with Bob in 1997,” says Nancy. “His father had retired here and leased what was then Bay

Talents on Tilghman

or subject, lays it underneath the glass and begins the process. With no measuring necessary, Nancy uses nippers to cut the glass into various shapes, sizes and angles that she feels best suit the elements of the piece. Guided by her sketch, she tackles the subject first, then places pieces around it for the background. The pieces are glued to the surface, and the gaps are filled with grout. “It is like doing a jigsaw puzzle,” she explains. “The technique is what makes it realistic. For example, if I am working on the sky or water, I will cut pieces that are longer and more angular. I am also mindful of the glass color, thickness, transparency and how it catches the light. Sometimes the subject is all clear glass with color surrounding it for a different look.” An average piece will take anywhere from three to five hours to complete. As I admired Nancy’s work, it struck me that the process shares several characteristics with the building and design industry. Both require planning, gathering and assembling the pieces, attention to detail, and patience, all leading to a visual result. Nancy agrees. “I had not thought of that before, but you’re right! When creating mosaics, however, it’s just me and the glass. I get tremendous satisfaction when folks tell me, ‘Your work is great!’ That makes me smile. And it is something I really love to do.”

consider how something might look in glass.” Many of those subjects have a local flavor, reflecting nature and the beauty that surrounds her. Popular works include those of Sharps Island Light, once serving the Eastern Chesapeake Bay area near the entrance to the Choptank River, and Tilghman Island Bridge, which spans the Knapp’s Narrows Channel between the mainland and the island. Using a combination of storebought glass and glass from other sources, a Sullivan mosaic begins with the frame, typically purchased from a thrift store. Nancy first removes the glass from its frame, which then acts as her palette. Next, she does a rough sketch of the scene

r Fo lity l i l Ca ilab a Av

Chef Eddie ErkenBrack It all begins with the basics. That’s what local Chef Eddie ErkenBrack would tell you about his approach to cooking. Main ingredients are carefully selected, skillfully prepared and then enhanced to produce a well-balanced and completed dish. Currently at the helm of the kitchen at Tilghman’s popular Marker Five restaurant, Chef Eddie has effectively orchestrated this process time and time again for the past six seasons. No novice to the food industry, Eddie formally began his career with an internship at the Tilghman Island Inn after completing one year at the Culinary Institute of America

Chef Eddie ErkenBrack in the dining room at Marker Five. 55

Talents on Tilghman

Five offers its diners exceptional food in a beautiful setting. As the restaurant’s executive chef, it is apparent that Eddie brings that aesthetic into his kitchen. “It’s all about freshness,” he tells me. “Available ingredients are always changing, and that keeps things exciting. I tend to be a seafood kind of guy. Of course, we get a potpourri of fish in this area ~ rockfish, oysters, scallops, blue catfish, which I love working with, by the way. Combine that with the awesome local produce that we are surrounded with, and go from there!” ‘Going from there’ for Chef Eddie involves looking at the entire dish equally as it is being made, putting as much thought into the presentation as into its entire preparation. “It is a balancing act,” Eddie explains. “I constantly ask myself if the components meld right in my mind, is the protein perfectly cooked, does the sauce enhance it,

in Hyde Park, New York. He then returned to culinary school, graduating in 2011, and worked at several restaurants in his hometown of Arlington, Virginia, before a job offer led him back to the Eastern Shore. “The chef at Tilghman Island Inn asked me to come back, and I had no reluctance in accepting the offer,” says Eddie. Three years later, he would join the staff at what was then Mike & Eric’s (now Marker Five) and continued working with them when the restaurant relocated from Tilghman to St. Michaels. A new opportunity would soon come to Eddie when he was hired to work at Marker Five, which had recently reopened. “You might say I’ve come full circle,” he smiles. ErkenBrack reaches back to his childhood for what led him on his culinary journey. Growing up for him and his two older siblings meant that food and family came together. As a young boy, he would work with his mom in the kitchen every chance he got. His mother, Cynthia, can remember when her son would find recipes and make them as gifts for the family. “He was always experimenting and loved to try new things,” she recalls. “I really think this cooking thing is just in him.” Situated on Knapp’s Narrows between the Eastern Chesapeake Bay and the Choptank River, Marker 56

here a few years ago, I had one foot out the door of the restaurant business,” he tells me. “I credit Chef with helping me to enjoy cooking again. His love for the craft motivates me to perfect my own.” According to Eddie, one of the most popular dishes at Marker Five is the scallops. Seared to perfection, they are Chef Eddie on a plate. In a popular version of the dish, Eddie places them over a pickled corn salad and adds a beautiful carrot puree, house bacon Old Bay aioli and thin slices of radish to complete the plate. “For dishes like this, I tend to be big on herbs and light on garnish,” he tells me. “And I love to work with veggies. They are so versatile and add that pop of color.”

is it colorful. To me, this is very important since we eat first with our eyes. If it looks good, it had better taste good!” Although much of Marker Five’s menu creation comes from Chef Eddie, he is a proponent of getting his staff involved throughout the process. “It is important to gain input from my team,” says ErkenBrack. “Everyone tastes the dishes so that we are all on the same page, particularly since we change the menu up every few weeks. There is great camaraderie in the kitchen. We all work wonderfully together, and during our busiest times, that’s critical.” Sous chef Ray Gibson credits his boss for helping him enjoy cooking again. “Until I came on board

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Talents on Tilghman

tends to remain in style. And that’s a beautiful thing.”

Other than seafood, Marker Five’s house-smoked chicken wings, ribs and wood-fi red brick oven pizza tend to be top sellers. Succeeding as a chef requires a commitment to creating the perfect blend of food, taste and aroma. Every bite on the plate should be different, but one must always complement the other. Partaking of this talented chef’s food, it is obvious he continues to master his craft ~ one satisfying bite at a time. “I love being here,” says Eddie. “And I love to cook the food that I think locals, passersby and others will enjoy. Culinary trends are ever changing, but keeping things fresh and simple

Tilghman may be a small island, but there is no shortage of talent to be found here. As a resident myself, I can attest to that. Akin to much of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the island’s unique calm, proud history and natural charm continue to inspire many. That, too, is a beautiful thing. Kathi Ferguson is a freelance writer with a diverse and creative professional background. Some of her favorite subjects are the people of the Eastern Shore. To reach Kathi, e-mail kathi@inotherwords. info. The world deserves a better e-bike and Electra has cracked the code, combining comfort, stability and performance in one stylish package. Ready? Where will you Go!

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

Today:

Play Ball, Please by Roger Vaughan

Series and won six of them. The Red Sox would come back to life, as we knew they would. It only took 45 years before they pulled off that amazing comeback in 2004, when they beat those damn Yankees in the AL Championship series after losing the first three games. They went on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series after an 86-year World Series drought. Those memories caused me to stay with the Yankees/Red Sox game on TV long enough to be reminded why I have lost interest in watching baseball. It’s gotten very slow, first of all. Could it be that my tolerance for pace has been

While channel surfing the other night, I came upon a Yankees/Red Sox game, which caused me to realize it had been weeks since I had bothered to check the MLB standings. I grew up in Massachusetts. Like my father, I was a die-hard Red Sox fan. I had a treasured ball autographed by the whole team, including Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, Jimmy Piersall and Dom DiMaggio, to mention a few. I lived and breathed their every win, suffered their every defeat and learned to hate the Yankees because they became a dynasty during my formative teenage years. From 1950 to 1959, the Yankees played in eight World

The 1954 Boston Red Sox 63

Play Ball, Please

Meanwhile, the batter was calling time, stepping out of the box, re-tightening his gloves for the umpteenth time, adding more glower to his game face, banging a bit of dirt out of his cleats, taking another practice swing. Forty seconds ~ damn near long enough to run an Olympic 440 ~ of this posturing went by before another pitch was thrown, a 98-miles-anhour fastball that clearly missed the outside corner. The electronic device showing balls and strikes superimposed on the screen confirmed it was a ball as the umpire raised his right hand to indicate “strike.” Current Major League pitching isn’t hard enough to hit without umpires making bad calls? It’s well beyond time to trust the tired eyes of a Major League umpire, whose average age happens to be 49, to accurately call balls and strikes. Broadcasters continually tell us each of these umpires has his own strike zone. Seriously!? During games, announcers comment on how the plate umpire on

short-circuited by living in the highspeed digital world? They say that has happened to many of us. Maybe, but there on the screen the pitcher was fidgeting between pitches, scuffing his feet, resetting his hat, picking up the rosin bag, scrubbing the ball, scratching, fi xing his pants, shaking off signs, taking time to recover after somehow throwing his last pitch at 99 miles an hour.

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Play Ball, Please

60’ 6” distance from the mound to home plate, which further reduces the following math. Researchers have calculated it takes .4 seconds for a baseball traveling at 100 miles an hour to reach the plate. The swing of the bat takes .15 seconds. The math indicates the batter has .25 seconds to see the pitch and decide whether or not to swing. The combination of technology, diet, drugs and advanced training techniques has kept records falling in all sports, but the difficulty of hitting a three-inch ball traveling at 100 miles an hour with a bat no thicker than 2.75

duty is tending to give the pitcher the outside (or inside) corner. Really!? Bases loaded, two out, game tied, a 3-2 count on the batter, and the umpire calls an obvious ball four a strike? Inning over. Outrageous. An electronic system has been developed for calling balls and strikes. We see it on television. It works. Why not use it? A dozen pitchers now have fast balls that travel 100 miles an hour. The release point from these tall (6’ 4”, some of them) pitchers is as much as five feet in front of that

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Play Ball, Please

batting average was 15 points below 2019.” No wonder the game is slow, less compelling. Fewer hits means fewer baserunners, fewer stolen bases (1,000 fewer than 10 years ago), fewer hit-and-run calls, fewer remarkable double plays, fewer spectacular catches in the outfield, fewer impossible plays by infielders, fewer run downs, fewer brilliant throws from outfielders to nail runners. In other words, there is much less of the athleticism that lures us to the ballpark, or to watch the game on television; less of the marvelous complexities of the game of baseball, and more endlessly boring strikeouts, walks, maddeningly bad pitch

inches is one indication we’re approaching the edge of what’s humanly possible. Commentator George Will wrote a baseball piece in the Washington Post recently in which he stunned me with numbers. “Five seasons ago there were 3,294 more hits than strikeouts.” Wills wrote. “Three seasons ago, strikeouts edged past hits. . . This April there were 1,100 more strikeouts than hits. . . This season is on pace for 5,000 more strikeouts than hits. Twenty-four percent of plate appearances end in strikeouts. . . As of mid-June, the .238 collective Major League

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Play Ball, Please

can occasionally connect with 100 mph fastballs, how can the average middle-aged umpire reliably judge the trajectory of those screamers? Surely the umpires would protest the removal of a significant piece from their little kingdom, but it would improve the game. The umps would still have plenty to do. Next, put a maximum of 88 miles an hour on pitches. Then the 20-second pitch clock (between pitches) George Will suggests would make sense. That one rule change would revitalize the entire game, produce more hits, put runners on base, bring back strategy and re-excite the game. Pitchers would have to employ more finesse than power (remember Greg Mad-

calls by umpires, and home runs. A home run, when a batter catches one of those 100 mph rockets on the fat of his bat and sends it out of the park as fast (or faster) than it came in, is electric, no question. But home runs take about four seconds followed by a relaxed trot around the bases by the hitter. Ho hum. It wouldn’t be all that difficult to fix baseball. First of all, put the electronic system in charge of calling balls and strikes. Electronic replays work for tennis, even volleyball. Baseball desperately needs that move into the modern world. If only the very best hitters

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dux?) At the same time, it would save pitchers’ arms, give them a longer playing life and less time in the operating room. Radar guns are used on every pitch. If a pitch is thrown faster than 88 mph, it would be considered a no-pitch. The second time it was thrown during the same at-bat, it would be called a ball. Three times and the runner would be given first base. It would all be automatically registered on the scoreboard for the fans to appreciate. With just a couple fixes, “play ball!” would once again resonate. Vaughan.roger@gmail.com

F EATU R E D IN CAROLINE COUNTY

Martinak State Park by Maureen Theresa

FEDERALSBURG HERITAGE DAY

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MACTOBERFEST: MAC & CHEESE FESTIVAL Saturday, October 30th | Caroline 4-H Park, Denton

Find out more at V I S I T C A R O L I N E . O R G 72

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. 73

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

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Dorchester Map and History

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

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TIDEWATER GARDENING

by K. Marc Teffeau, Ph.D.

A Change of Season The change in the season is now apparent. Fall has now arrived, and a certain “nip” and fragrance are in the air. The days are growing shorter, the afternoon shadows are longer and the deciduous shrubs and trees are coloring up. Most homeowners think of spring as the

best time to plant trees and shrubs in the landscape. One of the reasons for this is the general spring gardening push and the availability of many balled and burlapped and container-grown woody ornamentals at the garden centers and nursery lots.

Tidewater Gardening However, October and November are generally considered the best time for moving woody shrubs and trees in the landscape. The cooler temperatures and increased rain will help them take root and become established with less transplant shock. The roots of woody plants will continue to grow until the soil temperature is consistently below 40⁰. A rule of thumb is to transplant deciduous trees and shrubs after they become dormant, usually after the first or second hard frost. You can also transplant evergreen trees and shrubs earlier in the fall before they become dormant. The

exception to fall transplanting is evergreen seedlings like pines.

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enjoyed for much longer than the plant’s f lowers in spring. For this reason, it may be more desirable when selecting trees and shrubs for the landscape to plan for greater emphasis on their fall features.

They do very poorly when transplanted in the fall because they are not able to develop a sound root system before winter sets in. The same principle applies to digging up and transplanting established evergreens in the landscape in the fall. Wait until early next spring to do this type of transplanting. Contrary to popular gardening opinion, it is not recommended that you “amend” the planting soil for shrubs and trees. It is impossible to amend the entire soil area into which the plant will grow, and amending a small area only makes one more interface the roots must grow through. Instead, work up the native soil in a wide area so the roots can quickly spread into the soil in which they will now live. However, amendments are helpful when planting a raised annual or perennial bed where the entire soil mass can be amended. Also, do not prune out the tops of trees when transplanting. The only pruning that should be done at planting is the removal of any damaged limbs or branches. When selecting accent plants for fall planting, consider their autumn color. Make a note of plants displaying outstanding fall colors as you drive around town or in the country. You may wish to incorporate some of them into your own landscape. Fall color often can be

Red is one of the dominant fall colors in our temperate climate. Trees whose foliage turns red in the fall include dogwood, sweetgum and red and scarlet oak. Remember, the tree’s genetic makeup more strongly inf luences that fall color than does the environment. However, the type of growing season the tree has been through inf luences the intensity of the color. Trees selected in the fall when they are in full color can be expected to produce the same colors in future years. Red maple is a standard tree for good fall color. Cultivars of red maple that display distinctive colors include ‘Red Sunset,’ ‘October Glory’ and ‘Au84

spring. Virginia Sweetspire prefers moist, fertile soil but is adaptable to full sun or partial shade. It has no significant disease or insect problems and is tolerant of low, wet sites.

tumn Flame.’ Other native trees that I like to recommend for planting include Serviceberry or Shadberry (Amelanchier spp.), Sweetgum (Liquidambar spp.), and Black Gum or Black Tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica). Shrubs with good red fall color include viburnum, winged euonymus and barberry. An excellent native shrub species that you might want to consider is Virginia Sweetspire (Itea virginica ‘Henry’s Garnet’). It is a medium-sized shrub that spreads by rhizomes, ultimately forming a large stand if left unchecked. This deciduous shrub is loaded with 2- to 6-inch-long racemes of fragrant white f lowers that last two to three weeks in late

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spring’s f lower display. To prevent reducing next year’s bloom, don’t prune spring-f lowering shrubs until after they bloom next spring. Old, fallen leaves may contain disease inoculum for next year’s plant infections. Remove any infected debris from around the plant’s base and dispose of it. I usually recommend mulching newly planted trees and shrubs to reduce weed problems and to conserve moisture. In fall, however, it is usually a good idea to wait to mulch until after the soil temperatures have reached 32°. Mulches applied too early can do more harm than good. Mulch is used to keep soil temperatures constant and prevent frost heaving, not to keep the soil warm. In October, the trees and shrubs start to harden for the upcoming cold weather. To encourage this process, remove mulch from around the stems of shrubs and trees. This practice will also discourage mice and vole damage to the stems during the winter. Keep your trees healthy by watering deeply, pruning out all wilt-

Numerous native perennial f lowers and grasses provide excellent fall color. These include Bluestar or Blue Dogbane (Amsonia tabernaemontana), Blazing Star or Gay Feather (Liatris spp.) and American senna (Senna hebecarpa). If you like grasses, then Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), a perennial, warmseason grass with attractive bluegreen fall color, would be a good addition. October is an excellent time to do maintenance on the trees and shrubs in the landscape. While you can still identify them easily, prune dead and diseased branches from trees and shrubs. Remember, however, that spring-f lowering shrubs like azaleas, rhododendrons, forsythia and spireas have already set or are forming their buds for next

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Remember to water evergreen shrubs thoroughly before the ground freezes, especially if we have a dry fall. Evergreens continue to lose water by transpiring during the winter, but when the ground is frozen, the roots cannot replenish the moisture lost through the leaves or needles. Also, hold a bag-

ed and dead branches and fertilizing in the fall or late winter with a balanced fertilizer with an N:P:K ratio of 2:1:2. Avoid damaging the roots with salt from sidewalks and roadways during the winter, and avoid cultivation around the trees. Conifers in the landscape that are exhibiting poor color or weak growth may respond to fertilizer applied between mid-October and mid-March. Light pruning of needled and broad-leafed evergreens is recommended in late fall to encourage a strong framework to help the plant overcome snow damage. Remove any weak or crowded branches.

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worm picking party in October to remove the bags from cedars and arborvitae shrubs and trees. Doing this will help reduce the spring hatch from over-wintered eggs in the bags and help to reduce the amount of spraying you may have to do next year. Now is the time to clean up the vegetable garden. If the ground in your vegetable garden is dry and workable and the garden site is not subject to soil erosion, consider doing a fall plowing and letting the ground lay exposed over the winter. Late-fall tilling can help control insects such as corn borer, corn earworm, cucumber beetle, squash bug and vine borer because it exposes over-wintering insects to winter conditions. It also makes soil preparation easier in spring.

Another alternative practice is to mulch the entire garden in the fall with straw to a depth of 4 to 6 inches. In spring, only pull back the mulch in the areas that you plan to plant. However, you will need to do this a couple of weeks before planting to give the soil time to warm up. If there is a threat of frost at 89

Tidewater Gardening

fruits that have begun to change color and bring them inside to ripen. Use recipes that require green tomatoes, or place a ripe apple in a closed container with green tomatoes to encourage the tomatoes to turn red. Ripe apples give off ethylene gas, which causes tomatoes to ripen. Cure pumpkins and Hubbard and butternut squashes at temperatures between 70-80° for two to three weeks immediately after harvest. After curing, store them in a

night, harvest your cucumber, eggplant, melon, okra, pepper and summer squash so the fruits are not damaged by the frost. Hot peppers store well dry. Pull the pepper plants up and hang them up or pick the peppers and thread on a string. Store in a cool, dry place. Tomatoes need an average daily temperature of 65° or more for ripening. If daytime temperatures consistently are below this, pick

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Also consider planting asters for late summer and fall f lowering effects. Colored “f lowering” cabbage and kale are also good additions for color. The coloration in these plants comes from the red, purple and white color of the foliage. The colors intensify as the weather gets colder, and they usually provide a lasting presence through the end of December. Happy Gardening!

dry place at 55-60°. If held at 50° or below, pumpkins and squash are subject to damage by chilling. At temperatures above 60°, they gradually lose moisture and become stringy. And don’t forget to add fall color to the landscape! Buy your pansies, snapdragons and mums now, and set them out in the f lower beds to add to the already colorful display of fall leaf foliage. When planted in fall, pansies will become established and survive the winter to bloom again in early spring. Pansies are customarily removed when they begin to decline in the early summer heat.

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

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That Sinking Feeling by A.M. Foley

Infrastructure projects currently occupy the zeitgeist and materialize across the country, if only on drawing boards. So many of these proposals are water related that our peculiar local situation could stand another look: As you may or may not have noticed, the Eastern Shore is sinking (!), though we needn’t yet run for our lives. Our beloved land has been subsiding since the end of the Ice Age, over some 15,000 years, and is due to continue for millennia if nothing else gets us first. Land subsidence provides island residents such as myself a front-row seat for the phenom-

enon, and I’m happy to report it’s not yet apparent on Elliott Island. We Islanders tend to blame erosion for intrusive tides and loss of land. Erosion can take several-foot chunks off the shoreline in one good blow, whereas sinking land and sea level rise are insidious, too-easily-denied issues, generally lumped together as “relative sea level rise.” They’ve been measured on the Eastern Shore at an annual average of 5 mm, almost twice the average elsewhere. As the Inuit have hundreds of words for “snow,” new terms for “water” are entering our everyday vocabulary: storm surge, king

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/. 97

That Sinking Feeling

gauge severity of f looding in various locations. They estimate 170 communities nationally will likely suffer chronic inundation by 2035; that is, at least 10 percent of usable land f looded 26 times per year, or every other week. Of those 170 communities, most are in Louisiana and Maryland: 58 on the Gulf Coast and 33 on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Saltwater encroachment is most apparent around the edges, as witnessed in the precarious and wellpublicized situations of Tangier and Smith islands. Before tourists and multimedia coverage reached saturation points there, hundreds of other Chesapeake Bay islands disappeared beneath the waves

tide, tidal f loods, nuisance f loods, sunny-day f loods. The Union of Concerned Scientists likes using the term “chronic inundation” to

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without drawing attention from officialdom. Now, inconvenient tidal water is getting harder and harder to ignore in Annapolis. Even on balmy days, “nuisance f looding”

from Spa Creek is creeping up below State Circle, often unexpectedly, right at the feet of the legislature. Directly downhill from the State

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That Sinking Feeling House, “Ego Alley” leads pleasure boaters into the heart of Annapolis. Inside this bulkheaded offshoot of Spa Creek, Ego Alley’s speed limit is strictly observed. Proud captains of high-performance powerboats may fill their need for speed elsewhere, but they cruise slowly into town to

tie up for lunch. Despite their care and the Alley’s seawall, fifty or sixty days a year their wake sloshes beyond the confines of the creek. Alighting for a favorite restaurant requires a choice of footwear: Sperry boaters, a change into waders or bare feet. A proposed infrastructure project promises relief. An estimated $56 million would buy an elevated walkway along a higher bulkhead, plus a new barrier to prevent saltwater breaking its boundaries during extra-high tidal events. To retain the harbor’s ersatz aura of colonialism, the new barrier will likely be either transparent or retractable. Parking along the bulkhead will move to a garage. The current impervious and frequently f looded parking spaces will be transformed into an absorbent, elevated grassy area that conceals a pump. The proposal commits to including a prominent location for the bronze statue of Alex Haley, which commemorates historic AfricanAmerican experience at the har-

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Oxford Map and History

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

That Sinking Feeling bor. The life-size depiction of the late author sitting on the seawall was inundated up to the neck in Isabel’s storm surge. Even more visually discomfiting were accompanying statues of youngsters posed at his feet, attentively listening to his reading of Roots, the beloved saga of Kunta Kinte. The City Dock Action Committee spearheads the Ego Alley proposal as a comprehensive solution to replace lesser, unexecuted plans from recent decades. Despite the new plan’s scope and price tag, the Union of Concerned Scientists doesn’t consider Annapolis at risk of “chronic inundation.” Less than

10 percent of the city’s usable area f loods; its f looding just occurs at an inconvenient location ~ especially so when it coincides with the Annapolis Boat Shows, which aim to attract up to 100,000 visitors each year. As Eileen Fogarty, co-chair of the City Dock committee, has said, “There’s a sense of urgency. The f looding is up to fiftytwo days a year. . . . a situation that can’t be ignored or kicked down the road.” The plan averts its gaze from what will become of saltwater diverted from overtopping Ego Alley’s seawall or blocked by backf low valves from surging up through storm drains. Also excluded is f looding on adjacent grounds

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of the Naval Academy, presupposed ideally to be coordinated with federal authorities. The feds also have an Army Corps of Engineers plan to relieve Smith Island. In 2012, Maryland offered to buy Smith Islanders out of their homes, but nearly all residents refused, putting their trust in erosion-blocking breakwaters. Thus, the Corps planned hundreds of feet of jetty and breakwater to improve navigation and reestablish some buffering wetlands lost to erosion. It is widely recognized that the value of Maryland’s last inhabited offshore island exceeds assets appearing on a spreadsheet. The alternative cost of inaction is often illustrated by a pre-2010

photo of the last house that stood on nearby Holland Island, the Bay lapping around its foundation on a “dish cam” day. The forsaken island was once the “Paradise of the Chesapeake,” ridges of high land rising above the water, topped with fine Victorian-era homes. Secure harbors sheltered islanders’ oyster f leet of pungies, bugeyes, skipjacks and schooners, numbering 87 sailcraft, plus innumerable smaller boats for hand-tonging, crabbing, fishing and gunning. Holland Island was notable because, before 1900, its rich soil, prime oyster reefs and wildfowl provided for 300 hard-working residents, with a generous excess leftover to be marketed. Within

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a few short decades, long before internal combustion engines or aerosol cans were in use, Holland Island was depopulated. Presumably, even then the land was sinking and the globe warming, but islanders only recognized stormdriven erosion consuming their land. Had the term “climate refugees” been coined then, Holland Islanders would have bristled if it were applied to them. In fact, erosion had forced some of the same families to retreat to Holland Island when life on Spring and Long islands became untenable. Long Island protected Holland from storm-driven waves building from the west across the widest reach of Chesapeake Bay. No trace

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of Long Island remains, nor does the high Western Ridge of Holland Island it once protected. Within twenty years, a former resident of the ridge could barely trace his old life. Captain George Todd ran a reporter there in his workboat from Crisfield in 1937. Transferring to a rowboat, Captain Todd stood on the middle seat, poling through shallow saltwater. His house had stood on the lower end of the Western Ridge, among something of a subdivision of homes overlooking the Chesapeake. The Captain pointed his pole into four feet of clear Bay water, saying, “See that big stone? That was our back doorstep. . . . I thought maybe I could show you one of the grave-

stones, but I guess they’re all about gone. Crabbers see them and if they want a white stone, they take ’em up and carry ’em away.” Other large stones could be seen lined along underwater. The Captain said, “They boated those stones down here from the Susquehanna long before my day . . . piled ’em along the Western Ridge where the tide was washing worst. I helped Pappa move ’em from where they were. We moved ’em here after part of the ridge had washed away. Yes, sir, they’re just where we put ’em. All along here where there’s just water, there was a high ridge sloping down to the west and a sandy beach. . . . “In these days when the govern-

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That Sinking Feeling ment’s got all this money to spend, we might’ve gotten a breakwater. That might’ve stopped it, but we couldn’t with what we had.” During Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s, much infrastructure was indeed funded. It was too late for Holland Island, of course, but in any case, Maryland and its counties generally only protect their own government property and infrastructure. Holland Island only had one lane, cleared by islanders themselves, Dorchester County contributing about a hundred dollars. This “road” followed the ridge landward of the houses. The Captain continued, “There

was a graveyard out here, before the island began to wash away. Then we moved most of ’em to the center of the island.” He poled up to a hummock of grass rising out of the water nearer shore. “This is all that’s left of this end,” he said, climbing overboard. “I think I’ll get out and stand on this. It’ll probably be the last time I will.” After going ashore and touring the remains of the island, the Captain’s passenger reported that

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That Sinking Feeling a few houses still stood, staring with “sashless windows and yawning doors” across the Chesapeake. These orphaned structures were scavenged for building materials, and eventually crumbled to storms and erosion. Nearly twenty years earlier, by 1918, most islanders had dismantled their houses and barged them to the mainland for reassembly. Many island houses stand today, on Tilghman Island and Bishops Head, in Cambridge and Crisfield, some rebuilt on higher foundations than neighboring

homes. A few are still occupied by island descendants. [Holland Island: Lost Atlantis of the Chesapeake is a more complete story available at dogwdbooks@ shorenet.net or www.HollandIslandBook.com/] 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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All About Chocolate However you celebrate the holidays, you have probably baked cookies, and chances are you have a childhood recipe or two to dust off each year. If you have a cookie jar at your house, then fill it with one of these chocolate delights. Each time the jar empties, you will have an excuse to try another recipe. This collection includes some

brand-new ideas as well as variations on old favorites. Some are drop, some are rolled and some are bars. Prepare this assortment of sturdy favorites over the course of a few days and then arrange them in tins to be shipped to a college dorm! I would like to think that I have made a modest contribution to better scores on midterm exams and LSATs all over the U.S.!

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Tidewater Kitchen What tastier treats can you prepare for family and friends than chocolate desserts? They are rich in f lavor and guaranteed to tempt. Chocolate comes in countless forms and varieties, but most chocolate recipes use the three more common types ~ unsweetened, cocoa and semisweet. Unsweetened chocolate is pure chocolate liquor, the base of all chocolate, that has been cooled and molded into 1-ounce blocks. This bitter chocolate is used primarily for cooking. Cocoa, a highly concentrated unsweetened chocolate powder, is made by removing most of the

cocoa butter from the chocolate liquor. The remaining liquor is then ground into cocoa’s familiar powdered form. Cocoa has the lowest fat content of chocolate products because most of the cocoa butter has been removed. Semisweet and sweet baking chocolates are made by blending unsweetened chocolate with varying amounts of sweeteners and cocoa butter. Semisweet chocolate comes in 1-ounce blocks or morsels, which are chips specially formulated to hold their shape softly when baked. Morsels labeled “chocolate f lavored” are chocolate substitutes. They are made from processed cocoa and vegetable oil rather than from un-

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sweetened chocolate and cocoa butter. As you will see, the magic is in

the proportions and the quality of ingredients. There is no big mystery; to get the best brownie, use

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Tidewater Kitchen the best chocolate and use a lot of it! This brownie is a rich, dark, fudgy confection with a crackly top. Even though this recipe will work with any brand of chocolate, Belgian baking chocolate like Callabaut or the extra-smooth intense f lavor of French Valrhona may produce the best results. Finely ground coffee also adds intense f lavor to cookies and cakes, and dusting the pan with unsweetened cocoa just intensifies the experience! BELGIAN CHOCOLATE BROWNIES 8 ounces unsweetened Belgian

A Taste of Italy

chocolate, coarsely chopped 1 cup unsalted butter 6 large eggs 1 T. pure vanilla extract 1/2 t. salt 3-1/2 cups sugar 2 cups f lour 1 T. milk Preheat the oven to 375°. Lightly butter a 13x9-inch baking dish. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat. Stir to combine and set aside to cool. Combine the eggs, vanilla, salt and sugar in a large bowl and stir together vigorously using the paddle attachment of a heavy-duty mixer until light and f luffy. Add the f lour and the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture in alternating batches, stirring until it is a smooth, thick batter. Spread the batter in the prepared pan.

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Brush the milk evenly on top and bake 35 minutes, until risen, just set and lightly cracked on top. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out chocolate-coated. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the pan before cutting. COFFEE BROWNIE WEDGES 3 T. cocoa powder for dusting 1/2 cup blanched hazelnuts 1 stick unsalted butter 4 ounces good-quality unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped 1 T. finely ground dark-roast coffee 1-1/2 t. ground cinnamon 1 t. pure vanilla extract 3/4 cup sugar 2 large eggs

3/4 cup f lour 1/2 t. salt Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly butter an 8-inch square baking pan and dust with unsweetened cocoa powder. Set aside. Scatter the hazelnuts in another small baking pan and toast in the oven until lightly colored and fragrant, 5-7 minutes. Remove the nuts from the oven: leave the oven on. Coarsely chop the nuts and set them aside. Melt the butter and chocolate in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat. Add the coffee, cinnamon and vanilla, and stir until smooth and combined. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar.

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Tidewater Kitchen Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring briskly after each addition. Stir until the mixture is thick and shiny. Stir in the f lour, salt and all but 2 tablespoons of the hazelnuts. Scrape the batter into the prepared baking pan and spread it out evenly. Sprinkle with the reserved 2 tablespoons of nuts, pressing them in lightly with the spatula. Bake on the middle oven rack until the brownies are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 30-35 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely in the pan. Cut into four squares, and cut each square into four bitesize triangular brownies. CHEWY CHOCOLATE COOKIES 1-1/4 cups butter, softened 2 cups sugar

2 large eggs 2 t. pure vanilla extract 2 cups f lour 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 t. baking soda Powdered sugar In large bowl, cream butter and sugar; add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. In a medium bowl, combine f lour with cocoa and baking soda; gradually blend into creamed mixture. Drop by teaspoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for 9-11 minutes (cookies will still be puffy when taken from the oven, then collapse as they cool on the cookie sheet). Transfer cookies onto waxed paper and sprinkle with powdered sugar when they are completely cooled. Store in an airtight container with a slice of bread to retain chewiness. Note: Quick and delicious, these can be made in a f lash using a food processor. For efficiency and uniform results, invest in a small handheld cookie scoop. It looks and works just like an ice cream scoop and cuts your time in half! GRANOLA CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES I make these with my own granola that is full of raisins and sunf lower seeds, but any good granola will do. 1-1/2 cups granola cereal

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Tidewater Kitchen 2 cups f lour 1 t. baking soda 1 t. salt 1 cup unsalted butter, softened 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 1 t. pure vanilla extract 2 eggs 1 cup bittersweet chocolate bits (see note) Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly butter 2 baking sheets. Stir the granola, f lour, baking soda and salt together in a mixing bowl. In a large bowl, cream the butter and both sugars together with

an electric mixer on high speed until light and f luffy. Add the vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed until well blended. Blend the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture until they are moistened and incorporated. The dough should be stiff. Add the chocolate bits and stir in well. Drop heaping tablespoons of the dough, at least 2 inches apart, on the prepared baking sheets. Bake, rotating the sheets once, until nicely browned, 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Note: For the best-quality chocolate bits, start with good-quality baking chocolate and coarsely chop your own. CHOCOLATE ESPRESSO BEAN COOKIES This cookie is a great present for teachers and neighbors at holiday time! 1 cup unsalted butter, softened 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar 1 egg 1 t. pure vanilla extract 1-1/2 cups f lour 1/2 t. baking soda 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (see note) 1-1/2 cups chocolate-covered espresso beans

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Tidewater Kitchen Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on high speed until light and f luffy. Add the egg and vanilla, mixing until well blended. In another mixing bowl, whisk together the f lour, baking soda and cocoa powder. Stir this into the creamed mixture on low speed just

until combined. Add the espresso beans and stir until well blended. Place rounded tablespoons of the dough, spaced 2 inches apart, on two ungreased or parchmentlined baking sheets. Bake, rotating the sheets once, until the cookies are just crisp around the edges but still a bit soft and puffed in the center, 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool on the baking sheets for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Note: Bensdorf, Droste and Cocoa Barry are excellent baking cocoas. CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT BISCOTTI Packed in a clamp-top jar, these

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Tidewater Kitchen make a wonderful gift along with a pound of your favorite coffee! 1-1/3 cups blanched hazelnuts 8 T. unsalted butter, softened 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 t. pure vanilla extract 2-1/2 cups f lour 3 T. unsweetened cocoa 1/2 t. baking soda 1/2 t. baking powder 1/8 t. salt Preheat oven to 325°. Scatter the nuts on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven until lightly browned and fragrant, 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla, and mix until smooth and well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. In another mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add this to the creamed mixture, and blend on low speed just until a stiff dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Remove the hazelnuts from the oven; leave the oven on. Coarsely chop half of the toasted nuts, and stir both the chopped and the whole nuts into the dough. Divide the

dough in half. With lightly floured hands, form each half into a 12x3inch flattened log. Place the logs, spaced at least 2 inches apart, on a large ungreased baking sheet. Bake until firm, lightly browned, and cracked on top, 25-30 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 300°. Allow the logs to cool on the sheet for 10 minutes. Then loosen them with a large flat spatula and transfer them to a cutting board. Using a thin, sharp knife, cut them into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Return the slices to the baking sheet, cut sides up, and return the baking sheet to the oven. Bake, rotating the pan once to ensure even browning, until the biscotti are firm and dry throughout, 2025 minutes. They will be slightly soft coming from the oven but will crisp nicely as they cool. Allow the biscotti to cool completely on the baking sheet, at least 30 minutes. Transfer to the cookie jar or arrange upright in clamp-top jars. A longtime resident of Oxford, Pamela Meredith, formerly Denver’s NBC Channel 9 Children’s Chef, has taught both adult and children’s cooking classes on the south shore of Massachusetts. For more of Pam’s recipes, visit the Story Archive tab at tidewatertimes.com.

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Supporting Excellence in Public Schools TCPS Education Foundation by Michael Valliant What do microscopes in a science department, an art patio at Easton Elementary, funding for the Easton Middle School drum line, a hydroponic garden and virtual reality goggles at Chapel District, and funding distance learning technology during a pandemic all have in common? They are all projects funded and supported by the Education Foundation of Talbot County Public Schools.

“A teacher makes a request ~ it all starts there,” said David Short, the Chairman of the Education Foundation’s Board. “And now we have teachers and educators whose creativity is stimulated by the availability of these funds, knowing there is money available. Now they can open their minds and say, ‘well if I had the money, I would do this,’ and not have to reach into their own pockets to do it.”

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Education Foundation Since its founding in 2016, the Education Foundation has raised more than $565,000 to support excellence in public education. The Foundation was formed in October of 2016 in partnership with the MidShore Community Foundation with a mission to engage the community in supporting excellence in public education and provide resources to enhance the teaching and learning experience for all. The idea of an education foundation was talked about for a number of years by the TCPS Board of Education before it happened. They were looking for additional ways to find funding for school projects that

couldn’t get adequate funding approved in the budgeting process. Like many school other districts, Baltimore County Public Schools has

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Education Foundation an education foundation that had been up and running for a number of decades. TCPS Superintendent Kelly Griffith reached out to Debbie Phelps, the executive director of the BCPS Education Foundation for guidance. Phelps, the mother of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and a former school administrator, also had prior experience with starting non-profit foundations. In 2016, the Talbot County Board of Education approved the initiative to establish an education foundation. Debbie Gardner, Coordinator of Public Relations and Special Programs for TCPS, was asked to help start the Foundation and serve as liaison to the school district.

“We would not have achieved this amount of success and growth without Debbie’s effort and continued support,” Short said. Short began his involvement with TCPS as a parent of a student at White Marsh Elementary in Trappe. He became president of the PTO, has been involved with Character Counts, and later was appointed to complete the term of a Trappe representative on the Board of Education. “My daughter is a product of Talbot County Public Schools, she is a junior at Easton High School this year,” Short said. “My wife and I are both public school people, so we believe in it a great deal. And what a great opportunity the foundation gives us, to go out and raise money

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Education Foundation to supplement the Board of Education’s budget and do things for the kids that might not happen otherwise.” What are some of those opportunities? There are too many to list, but to name a few: “One School, One Book,” which gets elementary

school students and staff reading and discussing the same book; new microscopes for the science departments; in partnership with the Talbot County Arts Council, co-funding an art patio at Easton Elementary; helping to fund the dynamic drum line at Easton Middle; funding for gifted and talented programs and arts programs; United Sound, a partnership music program at St. Michaels Elementary that pairs special needs students with traditional band students; and this year at Easton Elementary, funding physical education partner programs for students with special needs. “We had a teacher at Chapel District Elementary, who was super innovative in her approach to cur-

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riculum, and she put in a request for hydroponic gardens for her fifth grade science class and virtual reality goggles for her class. And we were able to help fund those initiatives,” Gardner said. And then, when schools shut down during the COVID-19 quarantine in 2020, students all had to have internet connectivity to access their education. The Education Foundation started raising money to help pay for those expenses for families who couldn’t afford it. They forged a partnership with Easton Utilities for those families who qualified for free and reduced meals at school. The Foundation board aggressively marketed and raised funds to meet that community need. In addition to the grant programs, the Education Foundation also has a number of scholarship funds, including a donor-directed fund specifically for students going on to technical and vocational schools.

“We also have a privately funded scholarship designated for a graduating senior from each high school who stands out for his or her exemplary effort, and may have faced and overcome unusual challenges. The student should also have demonstrated commitment to impacting the community both now and in the future.” Gardner said. “That scholarship was new this past year.” They now have a fund for mental health services in the school, thanks to a partnership with the Latin Honor Society and the Dock Street Foundation, as well as an award for graduating seniors in memory of a Talbot County teacher who passed away. The Foundation has also supported students interested in careers in the military, through grants to the Naval Junior Reserve Officers Corps

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Education Foundation (NJROTC) program at Easton High. “These programs have evolved pretty rapidly when you consider the relatively short time since the foundation was established,” Gardner said. In order to best work with and be responsive to teachers, the Foundation has kept the grant application process revolving and fluid, so there aren’t fixed deadlines, they take applications throughout the year. “Really what we want to do is look to the educators to tell us what the focus should be. We want to know from teachers what are the things we can help them fund?” Gardner said. “Our interest lies in every age group, every subject, every school. Our focus is keeping the information available to the public and garnering support that way.” To date, there have been two big recurring fundraising events, “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” among the county-wide fifth grade team, which was put together as a

streaming video program this year. And then an annual “Mission Possible” event, where TCPS Distinguished Alumni are honored, and donors can fund specific programs and initiatives with teachers there to talk specifically about their grant requests. An initiative like the Education Foundation only works through community support. In just five years, they have been able to get the word out, raise funds, and work with teachers and students to make a major impact on educational opportunities in Talbot County. The response has been incredible and gratifying. “Our community has been amazing, the generosity just keeps coming in,” Short said. “And we have to get the message out to remind people we are doing this and we’re going to be doing it forever.” For more information on the TCPS Education Foundation, volunteer opportunities, grant or scholarship opportunities, or ways to help fund, contact Debbie Gardner at dgardner@talbotschools.org or visit their website at www.tcpsedfoundation. org. Michael Valliant is the Assistant for Adult Education and Newcomers Ministry at Christ Church Easton. He has worked for non-proﬁt organizations throughout Talbot County, including the Oxford Community Center, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and Academy Art Museum.

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Excerpt from a novel in progress - Part II by Roger Vaughan I. Play the Game Every so often, Peters and Brewer would go to opposite ends of the barracks, run at each other full speed, and collide with a bone-crunching thud. First there would be a warmup with lots of posturing, the trading of insults and threats shouted back and forth. They always picked a time when the rest of us were on hand. No point creating such an exciting macho scene without an audience. We never knew what exactly triggered it. Probably just steam escaping, an overflow of Army life, the immense amount of boot-camp BS that all of us were trying to endure. We all had our reactions to the Army’s endeavor to reduce us to mindless pawns known only by our last names, spoken harshly when at all, pawns who would respond without thinking to commands. “Instant obedience,” they called it. It was the bottom line. Each of us had our way of dealing with this sudden intrusion into what had been our freedom to do pretty much what we wanted, when we wanted. The 18-year-olds from

the Bronx resorted to what they knew, wise-ass rebellion, carrying on after lights-out, telling jokes, rapping junk. That would result in an hour standing at attention for the whole barracks, outside, in the cold, or in the rain if that was what was happening. That would slow the Bronx kids down for a few days. That, and the rest of us threatening to hurt them if they did it again. Others just got depressed as their identities slipped away along with their hair, or tried to laugh about it, or wrote another letter home. Peters was a wealthy kid from Connecticut. An Ivy Leaguer. Dartmouth, if I recall. The rumor that his family had bought him a seat on the Stock Exchange had been confirmed. Peters was a talker, and he had volume. You could hear him across the parade grounds. The Army was already working on that. Brewer was a quiet guy, and bigger than Peters. I always wondered how Peters survived those collisions with him. But the two of them played it right. They were friends, actually. They had no intention of

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do 20 pushups when some hard-ass sergeant who had been passed over hurting one another. They had both too many times for promotion deplayed football, which is where cided he didn’t like our looks. Peters and Brewer provided a their act came from. They knew how to take a hit and be able to walk kind of harmless, in-house violence back to the huddle. that all of us craved. Violence. Yes! It was a good thing they had go- We found ourselves cheering, holing. I can’t say we all looked for- lering with delight as Peters and ward to it, but when it happened it Brewer ran hard from either end of made all of us feel better about our the barracks and smacked into each eight weeks of days without end, other with sweat flying. Take that! Whether the Army planned it, or about our new robotic lives, about sleeping in bunks in one big room it was just an accident, the variety among 49 other guys snoring and in our 50-man platoon was brilfarting, taking group showers, get- liant. We represented at least 25 ting ripped out of bed at 5 a.m. by states, and our mates were from the heart-stopping clang of a metal every possible socioeconomic background. The only trash can lid being bounced off the floor, Peters and Brewer provided common denomieating the terrible a kind of harmless, in-house nator was our ages, food, pulling guard violence that all of us craved. with 22 topping a median that was duty and KP (kitchen patrol), keeping our boots and belt around 19 and a half. But we shared buckles polished, saying sir yes sir only a few reasons why we found over and over until we wanted to ourselves squeezed into a barren puke, trying to understand how barracks living out of a small trunk: certain blithering idiots could have get it over with while avoiding the risen so high in a chain of command draft that could really screw you that was all-powerful, and trying to over; put in your time and get the GI

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This was a big game, a real, serious game with rules you broke at your Bill to finish your education; make peril. it a career; or, for some, continue a Every recruit has an older friend, family tradition of military service. maybe a parent or an uncle, who I was one of the get-it-over-with- gives sage advice as they depart while-avoiding-the-draft people. for military service. Mine was a I got sick of the ROTC program at guy who had spent 20 years in the college and joined the local Nation- Army until he’d finally had enough. al Guard unit. I was sworn in in the Milton was a friend of my dad’s. men’s toilet, a tradition. The slogan He ran the local hardware store. of my unit was perfect, one that of- “Never volunteer,” Milton told me ten came to mind during my time the day before I left, his eyes locked in the military, and since: “Play the on mine, “for anything.” I’ve never Game.” It was just good luck that been sure of why I went against that when it came time to do my active seemingly solid advice from a perduty, the six-month program was son I liked and respected, but one of available. It was six months active the first days we lined up and came duty broken down to attention on the into two months Rolf didn’t talk, he yelled. It drill field outside the boot camp, two was all he could do not to get barracks, our leader, physical with recruits. months school and a Master Sergeant two months field who was born furiwork followed by seven years of at- ous, asked if anyone in our group tending a two-week refresher camp could type. A fierce-looking black every summer. The six-month pro- man, Sergeant Rolf was in his 50s. gram was such a hot deal it only He was barely five foot seven, and lasted a couple years. he had to weigh at least 220 pounds. No matter why we had enlisted in He was a career enlisted man who the Army, each of us knew we would often told us how he had carried an be tested. Each of us hoped we immersion heater though Korea for would be up to it. While the chances several years. Immersion heaters of being exposed to real combat are inserted into tanks and barwere slim, given the benign situa- rels to heat gases and liquids. The tion in the early ’60s ~ there was a Army version was four feet long and war on, but it was designated “cold” weighed around 40 pounds. It was ~ the training would be based on an awkward thing to carry. that possibility. Kill or be killed, to Rolf didn’t talk, he yelled. It was put it simply. Our agreement to give all he could do not to get physical up control over our lives was scary. with recruits. Knowing he would be 144

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Volunteering for clerk typist opened the floodgates. There was court martialed for it was all that nothing I didn’t volunteer to do. I kept his fists at his side, fists the size volunteered to be a truck driver, a of grapefruits. When Rolf was par- job that saved me from many long ticularly annoyed by a recruit, he marches with heavy packs. I volunwould often bad-mouth Congress teered to be on the Company flag for outlawing physical punishment football team, which was not only by NCOs like himself. fun but provided a slightly better I could type, and Rolf’s query was diet. And, I volunteered to be the delivered in such menacing tones I recruit head of our barracks, which must have thought he would know I was by far the best job I landed, alwas lying if I didn’t raise my hand. I though it did prove challenging. I cast a quick look around and count- volunteered because it was evident ed seven other hands raised. “How that the fellow who quickly stood many can type 50 words a minute!” out as the most devious and unhe shouted. Again, it sounded like trustworthy among us ~ a barely a threat. All seven hands stayed 19-year-old, mean-spirited bully up. When he hit 80 named Guffy ~ had Volunteering for words a minute, only his eye on the job. clerk typist opened the two of us were left. At I jumped in, told f lood gates. 60 words a minute, I Tony Williams, a had decided I would young Corporal who hang in there until at least 100, but lived in the barracks with us, that my last competitor gave it up at 90. I I wanted to apply. Guffy, who was a had the job, whatever it was. lot larger than me, glared at me the The job turned out to be Rolf’s next day when Williams announced clerk typist, which meant spending I was the go-between, but nothing many hours in an air-conditioned ever came of it. office typing letters and orders, and The chain of command did not filling out rosters for KP and guard go any lower than me. The other reduty from which I would carefully cruits were to bring their problems omit my own name. Every month to me and I would bring them to I would have to type a letter from Williams, who would pass them up Rolf requesting a promotion. Luck- the line if he thought it was necesily, Rolf did not blame me that no sary. There were a few minor things, promotion was ever forthcoming. If like the half a razor blade one of our he ever noticed I was typing at less guys found in a mouthful of spinach than 90 words a minute, with two one mealtime. We managed to make fingers, he never mentioned it. a deal to keep that quiet as long as 146

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That Was Then the weekend pass for our barracks would not be canceled. The best thing was when Corporal Williams found out I also knew close order drill. Williams wasn’t a day over 23, a very cool, smart dude. He had been in a color guard unit in Washington. I had been to a summer camp run by a boarding school with old Naval Academy associations. We campers had worn sailor suits on Sundays and learned to march. Our barracks was soon showing its stuff on the drill field, with Williams and I each taking half the men and marching them in and out, through and around each other. Everyone enjoyed it because everyone

got it, even Guff y: if you are in the soup, you may as well try to improve the flavor. It got interesting when Peters took me aside one day. When he started talking very quietly, I was immediately on the alert. It was a good thing. He told me I had to help him get out of the Army because he was gay. Homosexual. It was 1960, and for those who don’t remember, or weren’t around, being gay was not talked about back then because it didn’t exist. Words like “queer” and “faggot” were part of my high school lexicon, but they were just generic put-downs. No one really stopped to understand their real meaning. Surely there were homosexuals of both sexes in my high

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I had dated in college who had worked in the library. She agreed to school, but those closet doors were do some research for me, and a few closed tighter than the whipping on days later I received an envelope at a rope. If you actually knew of any mail call. I didn’t have time to look “gay” people in the 1950s, it was over what Gretta had found until very unusual. that night, and it didn’t exactly proBeing gay was just the beginning mote sleep. of Peters’ problem. He went into I may have not been aware of how taking showers with a bunch of homosexuals growing up, but it naked men was extremely challeng- turned out the Army had been ing for him. Then he told me the real dealing with that “problem” since issue: Captain George Howard, the 1916. That year, they had created officer in charge of our company of something known as the “Blue Dis250 men ~ five barracks (platoons) charge,” or “Blue Ticket,” as it was of 50 men each ~ was making ad- known on the street. It was a way vances to him. This might not have of removing homosexuals from the been a problem, Peters explained, ranks, and while not exactly disbecause Captain honorable, it carried Howard was an okay He told me I had to help him heavy negative conguy, good looking, get out of the Army because he notations. Good luck was gay. Homosexual. and gay men, Peters getting a job with Big told me, were easy ~ Blue on your record. very promiscuous. And getting next It also denied those so discharged to the Captain could have its advan- the benefits of the G.I. Bill. Blue tages. But Peters and his roommate tickets were disproportionately isfrom college, who was captain of the sued to African Americans. It took football team, were in love. They until 1947 before blue tickets were had a relationship, albeit long dis- discontinued. The new classificatance. And here was Captain How- tions for getting rid of gay soldiers ard, no doubt flaunting his rank to were “general,” and “undesirable” some degree, coming on to Peters, ~ not much of an improvement. making Peters very upset. That’s where we were in 1960. The One of the many advantages of policy would not change until 1993, my clerk typist job was use of the when President Clinton introduced telephone. I had to be careful and “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT), not abuse it. I always picked times which required gay personnel to rewhen Sergeant Rolf was either ab- main closeted while in the military. sent or engaged. At the first oppor- Again, not much of an improvetunity, I called Gretta, a woman ment. 150

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Dr. Howard’s schedule, she said the doctor was holding the fort In 1960, Gretta’s research indi- pretty much alone on Wednesday cated soldiers who had not com- evenings. Perfect. Peters arranged mitted any homosexual acts would to irritate an old football injury to receive a general discharge. Those his shoulder on the obstacle course who had engaged in “acts” would on Wednesday, and had to be taken receive undesirable discharges. to the hospital after mess. He was For gays, even obtaining a general treated by Dr. Howard. He stopped discharge was a perilous path that by my bunk afterwards to report. The idea had been for Peters to could, on some commander’s whim, include hospitalization, psychiatric make a strong enough impression evaluation or a discharge under the on the doctor so she would meninfamous Section 8 of the UCMJ tion his visit to her husband when that read: “unfit for service.” It was she got home. Peters was sure he’d obvious we had to find a way around pulled it off. He said he noticed her name tag and said what a coincithe legal system. With Peters’ permission, I went dence, the Captain of our company is named Howard. to Williams. It was a risk we had to take. For gays, even obtaining And she got right If Williams blindly a general discharge was a into it, yep, that’s my perilous path... husband. Peters said adhered to the chain he’d created a meof command, Peters would be put through the wringer. andering tale about people named We lucked out. I had barely got- Howard, said he’d known a bunch ten halfway through my explana- of them, said there were many in tion about Peters before Williams Scarsdale, New York, where he had stopped me. He got it. Williams just grown up, and wondered if they happened to have a brother who were her relatives. He kept at it, was gay. He was crafty, Williams. said he had a friend named Howard He simply gave me a piece of in- at college whose father was a white formation. Capt. Howard’s wife, he collar criminal, until she got visibly told me, was also a Captain. She was annoyed, said the Howards would a doctor at the base hospital. Cap- be related to her husband, not her, she was a Smith, and she did that tain Louise Howard. Back to the phone. In the course hard-eyed rank-pulling thing, nose of doing Sergeant Rolf’s business, up, that quickly shuts up enlisted I’d gotten to know Betty, a recruit men. But Peters was confident she’d like me who was a clerk typist at be sharing his rap about the Howthe hospital. She not only gave me ards with her husband. “Probably 152

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That Was Then

his fatigues taping the whole incriminating conversation. Captain Howard turned a whiter shade of pale when Peters and I confronted him and told him about the tape and about Peters’ intention to pay another visit to the good doctor, unless. . . I had to give Howard credit. He knew when he had been busted. He got right on it. It took less than a month for Peters to be discharged for medical reasons (4-F).

over dinner,” Peters added with a grin. Williams listened to our plan but didn’t say much. We understood he had to be careful. We told him the next time our Captain came on to Peters, Peters was going to tell him he planned to make another appointment with his wife. Williams just looked at us, shook his head, then reached into his desk drawer and pulled out what looked like I went on to field communicaa small transistor radio. “You’re tions school, which meant climbing gonna need this,” he said. It was an telephone poles. The fi rst day in the Olympus Pearl Corder, a little tape field of poles that looked fuzzy for recorder that had just hit the mar- being climbed so frequently, one ket. Voice activated. He said he’d of the toughest-looking sergeants I gotten it in D.C. “I’d had seen instructed like it back,” Wil- The Pearl Corder was in the us on the basics of pocket of his fatigues taping the attaching climbing liams said. It was only a few incriminating conversation. spikes to our legs days before Peters and feet. He climbed received a call to report to com- up 15 or so feet to show us how it pany headquarters. It was some was done. His spikes cut out of the nonsense about his records missing pole and he slid down, putting a few data. As he was leaving headquar- splinters in his chest and forearms, ters, Capt. Howard just happened and fi rmly driving the spike from to appear driving his car. As Peters his right foot into the middle of his tells it, the Captain rolled down the left foot as he landed. As one, we window and asked if he would help held our breath. The sergeant’s face him move some items he had in the did not register as much as a fl inch trunk. Peters got in the car. The of pain as the blood poured out of Captain asked him how his shoul- the hole in his boot. He got in a Jeep der was and had a hand on Peters’ and was taken away without a word. thigh before they’d gotten up to Play the game, I was thinking. Play cruising speed. Peters protested. the game. The Captain persisted. The Pearl Corder was in the lower pocket of vaughan.roger@gmail.com 154

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OCTOBER 2021 CALENDAR OF EVENTS Sun.

Mon.

Tues.

Wed.

12  13

24 31 25 

FULL MOON

Fri.

Sat.

20  21

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Thurs.

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LAST QUARTER

Daily Meeting: Mid-Shore Intergroup Alcoholics Anonymous. For places and times, call 410-8224226 or visit www.midshoreintergroup.org. Daily Meeting: Al-Anon and Alateen. For a complete list of times and locations in the Mid-Shore area, visit www.easternshoremdalanon.org/meetings. Every Thurs.-Sat. Amish Country Farmer’s Market, 101 Marlboro Ave., Easton. An indoor market offering fresh produce, meats, dairy products, furniture and more. For more info. tel: 410-822-8989. 1 First Friday Art Walk in downtown Easton from 5 to 8 p.m. Come out and enjoy the extended hours of the galleries and have an artistic adventure! Many other downtown





NEW MOON



FIRST QUARTER

retailers are open late and invite you to shop their fine selections and meet artists or special guests they are hosting in store. 1-3 Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels. Hundreds of amateur and professional boat builders, model boat builders and enthusiasts come from all over the region to display their skiffs, kayaks and canoes. Admission charge. For more info. visit cbmm. org. 1-10 Chesapeake Film Festival ~ Friday evening begins with a VIP reception for sponsors and donors

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October Calendar

animation, shorts, narratives, student films, Made in Maryland films, thrillers and environmental films. Avalon Theatre, 40 Easton Dover Street, Easton. Admission charge, advance reservation recommended. For more info. tel: 410-822-3500.

followed by screenings and discussions of environmental films, including the world premiere of a new film by local favorites Tom Horton, Dave Harp and Sandy Cannon-Brown. Nearly 60 films will be shown during the Festival, including documentaries,

2 Easton Beer Fest from noon to 4 p.m. Maryland’s largest indoor craft beer festival features brews from all over the mid-Atlantic and beyond! This event is located at the Easton Volunteer Fire Department Firehouse at 315 Aurora Park Drive. Live music, food, vendors, raffles and games will also be at the festival. Proceeds from ticket sales support the EVFD. Join us and vote for your favorite craft beer and brewery. You may win tickets to next year’s festival! For more info. visit discovereaston. com/beer-fest. 3 12th Annual Harvest Festival at Layton’s Chance Vineyard. Noon to 5 p.m. A day-long celebration of the end of our harvest season!

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October Calendar

under 21 and Gold Leaf members, free. For more info. visit laytonschance.com. 15-17 Academy Art Museum Craft Show ~ Indoor juried craft show features 60+ outstanding artists from across the United States. For -sale collections encompass all craft mediums, basketry, ceramics, glass, fiber, jewelry, metal,

Plenty of things to do for adults and kids alike. Food byThat Kitchen & Pete’s PeteZa, craft vendors, alpacas, hayrides, grape stomping, moon bounce, live music by The Ginger Cats & Neil and Sarah, and so much more! $15 per person,

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October Calendar mixed media, sculpture and wood. Academy Art Museum, 106 South Street, Easton. Admission charge. 16 Culture Crossing from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. An open air-style market with an artisan’s showcase celebrating the diversity of Easton’s

neighborhoods. Rails to Trails, East Avenue and Goldsborough Street, Easton. 16 The Federalsburg Historical Society invites you to Heritage Day, a fun-fi lled day celebrating Federalsburg’s vibrant history. Stop by the museum to view the many displays and exhibits. This year’s

WEAVER, MAVITY, SHORT ASSOCIATES, LLC Since 1982

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October Calendar event will also feature a special luncheon to honor the Federalsburg High School Class of 1961, the school’s last graduating class. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more info. tel: 443-786-1614.

Harriet Tubman

17 2021 Kite Festival at Sailwinds Park, Cambridge. Bring a kite or

MUSEUM & LEARNING CENTER 424 Race Street Cambridge, MD 21613 410-228-0401 Call ahead for museum hours.

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Sweet baby dolls by Corolle 410-822-7716 7 S. Washington St., Easton CrackerjacksToys.com

A beautiful 400-acre science education center and farm on the shores of Pickering Creek. Come explore our forests, shoreline, fields, wetlands and nature trails. Check out our adult and family programs! 11450 Audubon Lane, Easton 410-822-4903 · www.pickeringcreek.org 168

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October Calendar watch others f lying kites; food, music and other family-friendly ac t iv it ie s. O t her ye a r s have had rock wall climbing, exotic animals, face painting, bounce house. Noon to 4 p.m. For more info. visit www.facebook.com/ Sailwinds. 23 Beer Garden at Adkins Arboretum, Ridgely. 2 to 4 p.m. Food trucks will be open for business at 1 p.m. Fee: $20 adults/$5 children ages 3–18/free for children ages 2 and under. Get down with The Dirty Grass Players while sampling local craft beer from Bull and Goat Brewery and Ten

Eyck Brew i ng C ompa ny a nd fare from Blue Monkey Street Tacos and Chesapeake Celebrations food trucks. As the day cools, take a leisurely stroll in

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EASTERN SHORE TITLE COMPANY

The Mid-Shore’s Leader in Real Estate Title Services “Why settle for less when you can settle with the best!”

Melissa Grimes-Guy Photography

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Hawaiian Village - Outrigger - Gorgeous 1 bedroom, 2 full bath turnkey ocean block condo with generous balcony. Renovated & updated with open ﬂoor plan, spacious kitchen with breakfast bar, Corian counters and updated appliances. Large living room and comfortable bedroom. In unit washer and dryer & owners closet. Building has indoor (year round) and outdoor pools, ﬁtness center and assigned parking. Absolutely turn key and ready to go. Good rental potential. $299,000

Resort Living! Pristine 2 BR condo overlooking the Choptank River and the 18th fairway. Unit has open ﬂoor plan with good ﬂow. Large living room with balcony access and great water views, separate dining room with tray ceiling. Large Kitchen with granite, stainless appliances, breakfast bar and pantry. $239,000

Oxford Duplex - Perfect for weekends or year round living! Bright and airy 3 Bedroom, 2 Bath condo close to marinas, restaurants, parks and beaches. 1st ﬂ oor primary bedroom and bath. Living room with wood burning ﬁreplace and triple french door accessing the deck. Dining space and good sized kitchen. Outdoor features screened porch, deck and storage. Condo fee includes lawn care. Enjoy carefree living in Oxford! $299,000

Waterfront Estates, Farms and Hunting Properties also available.

Kathy Christensen

410-924-4814(C) · 410-822-1415(O ) Benson & Mangold Real Estate 27999 Oxford Road, Oxford, Maryland 21654 kccamb@gmail.com · www.kathychristensen.com

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October Calendar the woods and join in a game or two. Advance registration is required. Only 500 tickets will be sold. Seating is available but is limited ~ bringing chairs and/ or a blanket is highly advised. For more info. tel: 410-634-2847 24 Annual Harvest Festival ~ 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fun activ ities for the whole family. Day will be filled with fall-themed family fun games, rides, food, 4-H exhibits, bingo, pumpkin painting, crafts and a benefit dinner. Talbot Agriculture and Education Center, 10659 Hiners Lane, Easton. Admission charge.

29-31 Tuckahoe Fall Festival ~ Steam engines, antique tractors, antique gas engines, flea market, crafts, sawmills, shingle sawing, blacksmith, corn husking, weaving, basket weaving, live music by “Flat Land Drive” and much more. Tuckahoe Steam and Gas Association, 11472 Ocean Gateway, Easton. Admission charge. For more info. 410-822-9868. 30 Mac and Cheese Fest iva l / Mactoberfest 2021 at the 4-H Park in Denton. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 10 or more delicious mac and cheese creations, a xe throwing, vendors, games, pumpkins, cupcakes, alpacas and more! For

“Super Fun Gifts For All!”

213A South Talbot St., St. Michaels 410-745-8072 174

more info. visit www.carolinechamber.org/events. 30 OysterFest at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels. Sip, slurp and savor oysters at the favorite fall festival. The event features live music on two stages, boat rides, retriever demonst rat ions, oysters a nd

other local fare, an oyster stew competition and cooking demonstrations, children’s activities, oyster demonstrations, harvesting displays and Chesapeakerelated documentary screenings. Admission charge. For more info. tel: 410-745-2916.

Full Service - Start to Finish Representing Sellers and Buyers C: 410.924.0901 ◆ O: 410.770.9255 JimBent@goeaston.net

Benson & Mangold

Real Estate 24 N. Washington St., Easton, MD 21601 www.Jbent-MidShoreHomes.com

Jim Bent Realtor® GRI

Celebrating 25 Years Tracy Cohee Hodges Vice President Area Manager Eastern Shore Lending

111 N. West St., Suite C Easton, MD 21601 410-820-5200 tcohee@ﬁrsthome.com

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NMLS ID: 148320

This is not a guarantee to extend consumer credit. All loans are subject to credit approval and property appraisal. First Home Mortgage Corporation NMLS ID #71603 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org)

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BOZMAN - ST. MICHAELS FIRST TIME OFFERED Bright one-story home designed for comfortable living. Hardwood floors. 70 x 22 elevated deck and screened porch overlooking Broad Creek. Southeast exposure. 2-car Garage. Guest house with two bedrooms, kitchen and living room. Loggia (20 x 27) with bluestone patio and wisteria arbor, overlooking pool, tennis court and creek. Houses available partly furnished. The private 15 acre property has been subdivided into three parcels: two wooded building lots plus the main homesite. Great birdwatching. Dock with deep sheltered anchorage. $2,500,000.

SHORELINE REALTY 114 Goldsborough St., Easton, MD 21601 410-822-7556 · 410-310-5745 www.shorelinerealty.biz · bob@shorelinerealty.biz

aqua74.com 178

Tidewater Times October 2021

Articles inside

October Calendar of Events

Changes - That Was Then - Part II: Roger Vaughan

St. Michaels Map and History

Oxford Map and History

Tidewater Kitchen - All About Chocolate: Pamela Meredith

Supporting Excellence in Public Schools: Michael Valliant

That Sinking Feeling: A.M. Foley

Tidewater Gardening: K. Marc Teff eau

Caroline County ~ A Perspective

Queen Anne’s County

Teatime at the Hampton Mansion: Bonna L. Nelson

October Tide Table

Witch Bottle: Helen Chappell

Talents on Tilghman: Kathi Ferguson

About the Cover Artist: Nancy O. Henry

Easton Map and History