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Kent County (Del.)

Chocolate Candy Murders Featured Photo
Flirtation to Fury: The Chocolate Candy Murders 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
Dover Ingenuity Road Trip Featured Photo
Road Trip! The Dover Ingenuity Trio 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
Cecile Steele of Ocean View, Delaware Featured Image
Character of the Day: The Delaware Housewife Who Invented the Modern Chicken Industry 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
Jim Duffy Will Be Telling Fun “Tales from Delmarva” on Fri., Nov. 8 in Milford, Del. 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
Bug & Bud Festival in Milford, Delaware
Event of the Month, May 2019: Bug & Bud Festival Event of the MonthGood Times & Fun Events

Event of the Month, May 2019: Bug & Bud Festival

The back story on the Bug & Bud Festival is pretty darn cute. Back in the 1970s, local second graders in Miss Molly Brown Rust’s classroom at LuLu Ross Elementary School petitioned the state legislature to declare the six-legged Coccinellidae to be the official insect of Delaware. The success of that drive is the reason so many people in Milford (and their dogs) don ladybug…
April 28, 2019
Moses Viney in Talbot County, Maryland
TUBMAN TRAVELS: How the Other ‘Moses’ Kept the Dogs of Slavery at Bay Tubman Travels

TUBMAN TRAVELS: How the Other ‘Moses’ Kept the Dogs of Slavery at Bay

The story of Moses Viney that follows is excerpted from Tubman Travels: 32 Underground Railroad Journeys on Delmarva, a book by Secrets of the Eastern Shore that tells stories of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and many other men and women whose journeys in slavery and out of bondage went through the Eastern Shore and Delaware. Moses Viney had a pretty fun go of it for…
March 27, 2018
Spence's Bazaar in Dover, Delaware
Spence’s Bazaar: Visiting a Delaware Classic Destinations

Spence’s Bazaar: Visiting a Delaware Classic

    Delmarva traditions can be funny things sometimes. Take Spence’s Bazaar in Dover, for example. When I approached the sprawling old marketplace for the first time recently, it had the look of a joint that hadn’t changed one iota since the day it opened eightysome ago. The flea market outside was old school, with table upon table upon table set under sweet shade trees.…
October 10, 2017
Strawberry Field in Fairmount, Somerset County
DELMARVA CLASSIC: The Sweet Strawberry Boom of Days Gone By Way Back Machine

DELMARVA CLASSIC: The Sweet Strawberry Boom of Days Gone By

The story behind the variety of strawberries we enjoy nowadays is a global affair that stretches across several centuries and three continents. Strawberries were a modest little culinary thing in Europe as far back as ancient Rome--there is talk in writings dating to those days about how wild strawberry bushes had medicinal properties. But farmed strawberries were another matter. The first mention of strawberry bushes…
May 16, 2017
“TUBMAN TRAVELS” EXCERPT: The Miraculous Escape of the Dover Eight Tubman TravelsWay Back Machine

“TUBMAN TRAVELS” EXCERPT: The Miraculous Escape of the Dover Eight

The story of the Dover Eight that follows is excerpted from Tubman Travels: 32 Underground Railroad Journeys on Delmarva, a book by Secrets of the Eastern Shore that tells stories of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and many other men and women whose journeys in slavery and out of bondage went through the Eastern Shore and Delaware. BIG PICTURE: The Pressure Cooker of 1857 The lush…
March 1, 2017