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Kent County (Del.)

Winterfest of Lights in Ocean City, Maryland
Good Times & Fun Events

CHRISTMAS 2023: The Big Light Shows

Here is all the info you need on the biggest and best season-long light shows of the 2023 holiday season! Winterfest of Lights in Ocean City, Md. Nov. 16 to Dec. 31 This is the 31st time around for Winterfest of Lights at Northside Park in Ocean City, Md. Take an outdoor walking tour through incredible light displays. Afterwards, see Santa in the gift shop.…
October 22, 2023
Typical Chicken Farm 1940s FEATURED PHOTO from Poultry Industry History
Way Back Machine

You’ve Heard of Bootleggers? How about Meatleggers? There Were Lots of Them on Delmarva in the 1940s

What you see up top here is an ordinary Delmarva chicken farm in the early 1940s. But that decade was anything but ordinary for the poultry industry: Think black marketeering, bushel baskets of cash hidden in attics, and military roadblocks set up on DuPont Highway. These were World War II years. Among the array of complex logistics in that conflict was the task of feeding…
September 21, 2023
Frenchtown New Castle Railroad Featured Photo
Way Back Machine

A Railroad Milestone, with Doomed Cow, Peach Baskets, and a Modern Cocktail

As I was putting this piece together, railroad safety was front and center in our 21st-century news media. Two big train derailments, one spewing toxic chemicals in an Ohio town. Who’s to blame? What should be done? How can railroad safety be improved? I don’t have answers to those questions, but I can tell you about the birthplace of railroad safety—the very first place in…
March 26, 2023
John H Muiholland Featured Photo
CharactersFrom the BooksWay Back Machine

This Milford, Del. Man Helped Ice Cream Parlors Take Off in the 1920s

This is a free excerpt from my book, You Wouldn't Believe! 44 Strange & Wondrous Delmarva Tales. That's right, the book has 43 other stories like this one. Info on the book here. The only folks who screamed for ice cream when that delicacy first came on the market were the filthy rich. The history of the ice cream parlors we know today dates back…
March 1, 2023
Chocolate Candy Murders Featured Photo
From the BooksWay Back Machine

Flirtation to Fury: The Chocolate Candy Murders

This is a free excerpt from my book, You Wouldn't Believe! 44 Strange and Wondrous Delmarva Tales. More info about that and my other books exploring the history, travel, and culture on the Eastern Shore and in Delaware here. If Shakespeare had written tragedies in early 1900s America instead of early 1600s Britain, he would have had another character named Cordelia to write about. The plot…
January 27, 2023
Delaware Beach Safari Featured Photo
DestinationsFrom the BooksRoad Trips

ROAD TRIP! Delaware Beach Safari

This is a free excerpt from my book, Eastern Shore Road Trips #1: 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. More info about that and my other books exploring the history, travel, and culture on the Eastern Shore and in Delaware here. There are two kinds of beaches on the Delmarva Peninsula, and they are as different one from the other as big cities are from rural…
August 3, 2022
Dover Ingenuity Road Trip Featured Photo
DestinationsFrom the BooksRoad Trips

Road Trip! The Dover Ingenuity Trio

This is a free excerpt from my book, Eastern Shore Road Trips #1: 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. More info about that and my other books exploring the history, travel, and culture on the Eastern Shore and in Delaware here. When Eldridge Reeves Johnson graduated from Dover Academy in 1882, the school’s director gave him some blunt advice: “You are too god damned dumb to…
August 3, 2022
CharactersWay Back Machine

Albert Jackson: How a Man Born into Slavery in Milford, Del. Became a Hero in Canada

Up in Toronto, Canada, there is a street in a residential neighborhood called Albert Jackson Lane. Downtown, on Lombard Street, there is a historical marker describing why Albert Jackson's life should be celebrated by Torontonians. The honors that Mr. Jackson has received up north go beyond those city limits--the Canadian postal service has issued a stamp in his honor. Why does this matter on a…
July 30, 2020
Cecile Steele of Ocean View, Delaware Featured Image
CharactersDelmarva WisdomWay Back Machine

Character of the Day: The Delaware Housewife Who Invented the Modern Chicken Industry

As a deeply religious young woman, Cecile Long Steele probably didn’t let loose with a string of curse words when the delivery truck driver showed up at her farm that day in 1923. Cecile had ordered 50 baby chicks, but the deliveryman had 500 chicks instead. This being 1923, Cecile couldn’t call or text customer service to sort out this mix-up on the spot. The…
May 28, 2020
The Newsroom

Jim Duffy Will Be Telling Fun “Tales from Delmarva” on Fri., Nov. 8 in Milford, Del.

Click the image to check out the book! Author and storyteller Jim Duffy of Secrets of the Eastern Shore will share some of his favorite "Tales from Delmarva" in a talk and discussion for the monthly 2nd Friday event at the First Presbyterian Church in Milford, Del. at 7pm on Nov. 8. Duffy is the author of two collections of Eastern Shore Road Trips, as…
October 22, 2019