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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…
Month of Fundays Happy Dog Featured Photo
Good Times & Fun EventsMonth of Fundays Newsletter

Month of Fundays! September 2023

Fall is the busiest time of year for fun events and cool happenings on the Delmarva Peninsula, and as you will see here in your one-stop guide to getting out and about in the weeks ahead: The September 2023 Month of Fundays newsletter! Two skipjack races, the Maryland Folk Festival, 11 small-town festivals, a scrapple celebration, bigtime star-power at music festivals, the fiddlers' convention, two…
Month of Fundays Happy Dog Featured Photo
Good Times & Fun EventsMonth of Fundays Newsletter

Month of Fundays! Fun Events and Cool Happenings in August 2023

Time is running out for summer fun! You will find scores and scores of options to do just that here in the August 2023 issue of my Month of Fundays newsletter. Highlights: • Blessing of the Combines in Snow Hill • Pirates & Wenches in Rock Hall • OC Balloon fest • Unicorns in North East • A foodie-friendly Ancient Grains Festival • Dolphin cruises…
Month of Fundays Happy Dog Featured Photo
Good Times & Fun EventsMonth of Fundays Newsletter

Month of Fundays! Fun Events and Cool Happenings in July 2023

Time for summer fun! You will find scores and scores of options to do just that here in the latest issue of my Month of Fundays newsletter. Highlights: • Dozens of Fouth of July festivities--parades, fireworks, and more. • Pony Swim week in Chincoteague, Va. • The big Nanticoke Riverfest! • The Delaware State Fair, plus county fairs and firehouse carnivals! • Cruises and tall…
Mirror of the Almighty Tangier Island Camp Meeting Featured Image
Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

Way Back Machine: ‘A Mirror of the Almighty’ on Tangier Island, 1828

The modern-day tourism trade on Smith and Tangier islands dates to the 1960s, when tour boats first started shuttling curious daytrippers out into the middle of the bay. But visitors have actually been flocking to these islands for centuries. In 1821, one observer reported seeing more than 400 boats anchored around Tangier. He estimated the crowd attending that year’s Methodist camp meeting at more than…
Almost a State of Delmarva Featured Image
Way Back Machine

WAY BACK MACHINE: The Almost State of Delmarva, 1830s

In 1833, the Eastern Shore came within a whisker of becoming part of Delaware. One vote! That's all that prevented the union. No one called our peninsula "Delmarva" back in 1833. But lots of people recognized it as a well-defined place unto itself, thanks to a mix of geography and deep-seated cultural affinities. Lots of folks also thought it was kinda strange, how history had…
Month of Fundays Happy Dog Featured Photo
Month of Fundays Newsletter

Month of Fundays! June 2023

Time for summer fun! You will find more than 100 options to do just that here in the latest issue of my Month of Fundays newsletter. Highlights: • Bathtub races down Main Street! • High-flying aeronautics • Lavender beauty! • The running of the bull (not Pamplona, Dewey Beach)! • Cruises on the Bay! • Tall ships! • Music, music, more music! • Carnivals, circuses,…
Shore Fun Evil Title Change Featured Photo
The Newsroom

Adventures in Publishing: My Evil Book Title

My latest book was briefly released under one title, Shore Bets! The Delmarva Fun Guide, but now it goes by another title, Shore Fun: The Delmarva Wanderer's Guide. What's up with that? The book got off to a fabulous start out of the gate with that first title—press releases, TV appearances, initial sales. It even landed at the top of a best-seller list in regional…