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Way Back Machine

Stories about the way things were on the Delmarva Peninsula–the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and Delaware.

Broadwater on Hog Island Featured Photo
From the BooksQuote of the Day

Quote of the Day: ‘No More Kindly Heart Ever Beat’

This excerpt from Eastern Shore Road Trips #2: 26 MORE One-Day Adventures on Delmarva is the bonus section at the end of a chapter that leads you along a backroads journey through the countryside and little fishing villages that line the oceanside length of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The chapter touches several times on the history of the barrier islands off of that shore,…
August 22, 2016
Feed Bay Dresses in the Poultry Industry on the Eastern Shore and Delmarva
Quote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: How “Women’s Work” Helped Start the Feed Sack Fashions Phenomenon

In its fledgling early years on the Delmarva peninsula, the poultry industry consisted largely of small family farms where folks were trying to raise some chickens on the side. As often as not, the hard work involved in running this side business fell to the woman of the house. This description of that state of affairs is from Delmarva’s Chicken Industry: 75 Years of Progress,…
August 15, 2016
VJ Day in Easton, on Maryland's Eastern Shore
Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY: VJ Day in Easton, 1945

    The scene on VJ Day in Easton--the night of Aug. 14, 1945--must have been something to behold, judging from this description by the historian Dickson J. Preston in Talbot County: A History. Click on the image to see more Eastern Shore-themed Christmas cards from Secrets of the Eastern Shore! In Easton, as everywhere in America, there was jubilation. People rushed into the streets,…
August 9, 2016
A Proposal on Holland Island
Quote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Rev. Joshua Thomas Proposes to the ‘Ugliest Woman in the World.’

    Ladies, is this the perfect time for a marriage proposal, or what? That question certainly popped into my head while reading up on Rev. Joshua Thomas during the work I did for my book, “Eastern Shore Road Trips: 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva.” Thomas was the famed “Parson of the Islands,” of course, and he traveled the Bay in a log canoe called…
July 8, 2016
Cape Charles Light off of the Eastern Shore of Virginia
Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day: The Terrible Scourge That Halted Work on the Cape Charles Lighthouse, 1895

There is a second Smith Island off of the Eastern Shore, with the lesser-known one shown here located all the way down by the mouth of the Bay. It's home to the Cape Charles Lighthouse, which is pretty as can be but just about impossible to go visit. Between the shifting sandbars and the tricky tides, the landing on uninhabited Smith Island is supposedly a…
June 28, 2016
Moonshine in Greenbackville and Franklin City
Quote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: A Moonshine Moment in Greenbackville

    The book “Voices of the Chincoteague” is built around oral-history memories of folks whose families lived in Greenbackville and Franklin City during boomtimes for those towns back in the day. Franklin City is gone now. Greenbackville is still there, right on on the Chincoteague Bay at the Maryland/Virginia line. When Prohibition became law, most of the women of the community applauded. On the other…
June 23, 2016
A Murderous Rage in Chincoteague, Va.
Way Back Machine

Murder in Chincoteague, 1885: The Sensational Crime of a Lovesick Man Who Lost His Grip

Do you remember those scenes in “The Shining” when a maniacal-looking Jack Nicholson would be typing and typing and typing like, well, mad, and in the end we see that he’s been typing the same insane few words over and over again? Those scenes popped into my head recently while I was reading up on the story of a sensational murder case that happened in…
June 15, 2016
Crab Pickers on the Eastern Shore of Maryland
Quote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Never before had seen a crab. No, they didn’t know what to do with it.’

    Local crab houses first started bringing in Mexican migrants as crabpickers in the early 1990s. A few years in, the historian Virginia Jenkins conducted a slew of interviews at Eastern Shore seafood houses to try and get a handle on how everything was going. Here is one thing she learned: Traditionally , women have taught their children or other family members how to…
June 13, 2016
Eastern Shore Quote of the Day: The Milkman
Quote of the Day

QUOTE OF THE DAY: The Cape Charles Milkman Remembers-“That Horse’s Name Was Frank”

    History lovers in Cape Charles, Virginia rounded up some grant money a few years back and conducted oral history interviews with some older residents there. Here is David Mitchell, remembering his days of delivering milk aboard a horse-drawn carriage through Cape Charles. At an early age my Uncle Jesse had me working. He used to do a little gardening and he would sell butter beans…
June 5, 2016