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The way things were in days gone by on the Delmarva Peninsual–theEastern Shore of Maryland, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and Delaware.

Steamboat Memories: The Avalon and the Joppa
“Like a Visit to Another World:” Remembering Childhood Steamboat Trips on the Choptank River in Times Gone By Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

“Like a Visit to Another World:” Remembering Childhood Steamboat Trips on the Choptank River in Times Gone By

Sometimes, the best-laid productivity plans in a day go awry. I ventured into the Maryland Room of the Talbot County Free Library in Easton, Md. one day to research a very specific topic within a tight time window. Alas, I stumbled upon a little pamphlet titled "Memories of Choptank" while thumbing through a shelf. The title is a reference not to the river, but to…
August 29, 2020
Saxis on Saturday Night Featured Photo
Saxis on a Saturday Night! Scenes from Days Gone By MiscellanyQuote of the DayWay Back Machine

Saxis on a Saturday Night! Scenes from Days Gone By

Those of you who've been there know that Saxis is a remote, real-deal watermen community on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. I visited there while working on my book, Eastern Shore Road Trips #1: 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. It's a quiet place nowadays, with one fun restaurant, one tiki bar, and a local history museum being the main attractions for visitors outside of the…
August 2, 2020
Colonial Tax Day on Delmarva Hunters Featured Image
QUOTE OF THE DAY: In Colonial Times, You Could Pay Your Tax Bill in Squirrels’ Heads Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY: In Colonial Times, You Could Pay Your Tax Bill in Squirrels’ Heads

Taxes come due a little later than usual here in 2020. Because of the big pandemic, the government pushed the deadline back to July 15. My condolences to those of you still wading through paperwork. If it's any consolation, taxes were complicated back in colonial times, too--just in a different way, one that might have you donning camo garb and grabbing a gun instead of…
June 24, 2020
Storm On the Worcester Coast Poem Featured Image
A Poetic Interlude, 1909: A Storm “On the Worcester Coast” Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

A Poetic Interlude, 1909: A Storm “On the Worcester Coast”

I only know the basics about William Henry Babcock (1849-1922), a lawyer who dabbled in poetry. He grew up in St. Louis and found his way to the Mid-Atlantic region by way of what was then called the Columbian University Law School and is now the George Washington University Law School. Though he lived in Washington, DC several of his works are set on the…
April 30, 2020
Ode to Steamboats Featured Image
ODE TO THE STEAMBOATS: ‘When the Bay Boats Blow’ Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

ODE TO THE STEAMBOATS: ‘When the Bay Boats Blow’

This ode to the steamboat era was written in 1910 by Folger McKinzey (1866-1950), who grew up on the Eastern Shore in Elkton, Md. and became something of an adolescent prodigy. He became editor of the weekly Shore Gazette newspaper in Ocean Grove, N.J. at age 17 and then, at 20, returned to Elkton as assistant editor of the Cecil Whig. While there, he brought Walt…
April 1, 2020
Exiles Song Featured Image of Littleton Purnell Bowen
“The Exile’s Song:” A Poetic Ode By a Homesick Eastern Shoreman Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

“The Exile’s Song:” A Poetic Ode By a Homesick Eastern Shoreman

Aside from having a beard for the ages, Littleton Purnell Bowen was a lawyer, historian, preacher, and poet. Born in Worcester County, Md. in 1833, he did his early schooling at the Berlin (Md.) Academy, graduating in 1851. He later earned a law degree, but abandoned that career to become a Presbyterian minister. Early on, Bowen served as a pastor in Lewes, Del. and Pocomoke…
March 31, 2020
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The stately looking steamboat … cautiously, almost stealthily edged her way into the locks” of the C&D Canal. Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The stately looking steamboat … cautiously, almost stealthily edged her way into the locks” of the C&D Canal.

In 1881, the Wilmington (Del.) Morning News published one writer’s eloquent account of his steamboat journey from the old city of New Castle through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and on across the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore. Here are some highlights: Steamboats ran on the bays and rivers of Delmarva for a century and a half, from 1813 until 1962. This account of one brief…
March 28, 2020
Liars Building in Trappe, Maryland
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Maybe we needed a whole building because we had so many liars.” Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Maybe we needed a whole building because we had so many liars.”

Lots of towns have had famous “liar’s benches” over the years--a corner in a store or post office where old men gather and tell tall tales from days gone by. But in Trappe on Maryland's Eastern Shore, they had much more than a bench--a whole building there was set aside for the fine art of small-town storytelling. The description below of what days back in…
January 29, 2020
Muskrat Trappers Headed to Marsh in 1954
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Muskrat Recipes “Worthy of an Epicure” from 1943 Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Muskrat Recipes “Worthy of an Epicure” from 1943

In the introduction to a 1943 “wildlife leaflet” titled, “Recipes for Cooking Muskrat Meat,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offers these reassurances: “In modern times many persons have eaten the flesh of the muskrat and relished it. Some have declared that it is game worthy of an epicure.” And: “The recipes given here are typical of the many suitable for cooking this meat. When…
December 30, 2019
Steamboats on the Choptank
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Steamboats, Steers, & Slapstick on the Choptank River MiscellanyQuote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Steamboats, Steers, & Slapstick on the Choptank River

A couple of months back I had a great time reading Trappe: The Story of an Old-Fashioned Town by the historian Dickson Preston. Trappe is in Talbot County, Md., across the Choptank River from Cambridge. Preston spends some pages in there discussing the steamboats that used to ride up and down the Choptank, including the Avalon and the Joppa. The section at hand here begins…
November 21, 2019