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Robert Banks Featured Photo 2
CharactersWay Back Machine

A Korean War Hero from Cambridge and the Price of our Freedoms: The Story of Robert Banks

Imagine a young soldier stationed halfway around the world. He's been through hell on the battlefield and landed in a prison camp where food comes in starvation rations, infectious diseases run rampant, and winter nights descend in a bone-chilling freeze deeper than anything he's ever known. His comrades in arms are dropping like flies, their bodies tossed unceremoniously into ditches. One thing keeps this young…
Spring Sailing Options Delmarva Featured Photo
Destinations

Sail Away! Nine Easy Ways to Get Out on the Water

You don't have to own a boat to get out on the water on the Delmarva Peninsula. Here are a few easy options, available in ticketed fashion rather than by putting a group together and chartering a vessel. • THE STEAM FERRY: The Patriot is a replica 1930s steam ferry that offers narrated cruises on various themes along the Miles River, sailing out of St.…
Storm of 1939 Featured Photo
Way Back Machine

The 10-Minute Storm that Turned into the ‘Worst Tragedy in Skipjack History,’ 1939

Nothing in the forecast for Feb. 3, 1939 hinted at trouble. The Baltimore Sun promised a ho-hum winter day: “Rain today, and probably tomorrow. Colder tonight.” Oystermen in the Chesapeake Bay didn’t see any red flags during their workday. A pair of then-young watermen, Art Daniels and Jimmy Murphy, were aboard the Robert L. Tawes out of Deal Island, Md. Years later, they remembered toiling…
Sunset atBlackwater 2013 Featured Image
The Newsroom

Fri., March 3, 2023: Author Jim Duffy to Spin Tales of Delmarva in Cambridge, Md.

Author and storyteller Jim Duffy of Secrets of the Eastern shore will spin tales of Delmarva days gone by in a talk at the Cambridge Woman’s Club on Fri., March 3, 2023 at 1pm. A Cambridge resident, Duffy is an award-winning writer and author of five books, including two collections of Eastern Shore Road Trips and the brand-new Shore Fun: The Wanderer's Guide to Delmarva.…
Robbins Davis Dawgs Featured Image Georgia Cambridge
CharactersWay Back Machine

How Bout Them Dawgs? The Crazy Connection Between Georgia Football and Cambridge, Md.

The 2022 college football season begins in earnest in the month I'm writing this, and the defending champion Georgia Bulldogs are once again ranked among the nation's top teams. I can sense the question forming in your mind: What in the world does this have to do with the Delmarva Peninsula? Executive summary: • Georgia's official nickname is "Bulldogs." • The team's rabid fan base…
August 27, 2022
JM Clayton in Fog Featured Photo
Characters

PICTURE THIS: On Cambridge Creek, the Oldest Crabpacking Plant in the World

Crabs weren’t always a big deal on the Eastern Shore. All the way through the 1800s, the oyster was the unrivaled king of Chesapeake seafood. Crabs were an afterthought. People rarely ate them—and when they did, they had to catch them, because nobody was selling crabs or crabmeat on a commercial basis. This iconic Delmarva scene up top here—it’s the work of Jill Jasuta Photography,…
Steamboat Memories: The Avalon and the Joppa
Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

“Like a Visit to Another World:” Remembering Childhood Steamboat Trips on the Choptank River in Times Gone By

Sometimes, the best-laid productivity plans in a day go awry. I ventured into the Maryland Room of the Talbot County Free Library in Easton, Md. one day to research a very specific topic within a tight time window. Alas, I stumbled upon a little pamphlet titled "Memories of Choptank" while thumbing through a shelf. The title is a reference not to the river, but to…
Cambridge Dodgers Featured Image
Way Back Machine

About That 1945 Day When Baseball Hall of Famer Branch Rickey Went Fishing on the Choptank River

Fred “Fritz” Lucas was a baseball man through and through. The New Jersey native toiled for teams in nine different minor-league cities during the 1920s and 1930s. He had a proverbial cup of coffee with the big-league Philadelphia Phillies in 1935, getting 34 at-bats as a pinch hitter and reserve outfielder. He returned to the minors the next year, but his time on the playing…