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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…
Sunset atBlackwater 2013 Featured Image
The Newsroom

The Bethany Beach Book Signing: Sun., July 23, 2023

The award-winning writer Jim Duffy of Secrets of the Eastern Shore will be in Bethany Beach, Del. for a book-signing event on Sun., July 23, 2023. The affair will take place outside of Bethany Beach Books in the heart of town at 99 Garfield Blvd., 6pm-7:30pm. Duffy is the author of the bestselling Eastern Shore Road Trips series. Subtitled “One-Day Adventures on Delmarva,” the two…
The Newsroom

The Rehoboth Beach Book Signing: June 24

The award-winning writer Jim Duffy of Secrets of the Eastern Shore will be in Rehoboth Beach, Del. for a book-signing event on the afternoon of Sat., June 24, 2023. The affair will take place along the main drag at Browseabout Books, 133 Rehoboth Avenue, 11am-1pm. Duffy is the author of the bestselling Eastern Shore Road Trips series. Subtitled “One-Day Adventures on Delmarva,” the two books…
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.…
Strange & WondrousWay Back Machine

The Futuro House Aims for the Stratosphere

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. Unless you’re a pilot taking off from the tiny Eagle Crest Airport or a worshipper bound for Burton Chapel AME Church, there’s no reason to take a westbound…
April 22, 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…
MiscellanyWay Back Machine

Launch Days in Bethel

This is a free excerpt from my book, Eastern Shore Road Trips #2: 26 MORE One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. In a trip focused on visiting the Southern Delaware towns of Laurel and Bethel I write a bit about how Bethel was a famous shipbuilding center focused on building the gargantuan ships known as "Rams." This fun little anecdote appears as an afternote at the end…
November 20, 2022
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
Duffy_Portrait_lowres
The Newsroom

The Rehoboth Beach Book Signing: Sat., Aug. 13, 2022

The award-winning writer Jim Duffy of Secrets of the Eastern Shore will be in Rehoboth Beach, Del. for a book-signing event on the afternoon of Sat., Aug. 13, 2022. The affair will take place along the main drag at Browseabout Books, 133 Rehoboth Avenue, noon-2pm. Duffy is the author of the bestselling Eastern Shore Road Trips series. Subtitled “One-Day Adventures on Delmarva,” the two books…
MiscellanyWay Back Machine

Revisiting the Glory Days of Summertime “Camp Meetings”

Though much of the 1800s and well into the 1900s, "camp meetings" ranked as a summertime joy for families on the Eastern Shore and in Delaware on the level of our beach vacations and downtown block parties. Sponsored by local churches, these religious revivals were conducted out in forests and fields, mostly in the dog days of August. The preaching and singing and soul-saving stretched…