Local youth to attend inauguration

Local youth to attend Presidential Inauguration

By Richard Kendall


LAKESVILLE – When Barrack Obama is inaugurated as the President of the United States, 16 year old Cody Paul of Lakesville will witness the event in person.
“I really wanted to attend this event because I knew it was history in the making,” he said at his home this week.
Beginning on January 17, Cody will take part in a 4 day trip to Washington, D.C. through the Presidential Inaugural Youth Conference. Approximately 200 youth from across the nation will take part in the conference.
Through his scholastic achievement, Cody has attended 2 previous National Youth Leadership Conferences, starting in 8th grade and a several day event in Washington, D.C. The following year, he attended a 6 day conference in Boston. Last year, he attended the conference in Vienna, Va.
Cody Paul’s scholastic achievements are not a new development. He has maintained very close to a 4.0 average throughout high school and became interested in math early on.
In 7th grade, he took Algebra I, in 8th grade, Algebra II. In 9th grade, Geometry led him to take Trigonometry/Pre-Calculus in 10th grade. This year, he is one of only a few juniors taking Calculus.
Following college, Cody Paul hopes to become a Certified Public Accountant.
“I also want to work the water, with my brother” he added, referring to his older brother, Aaron.
During the trip to Washington, D.C. for the Inaugural events, the youth group will stay at a Northern Virginia hotel, close to the Nation’s Capital.
Cody’s mother, Cindy, and his father, Dwayne, are excited for Cody and proud of his accomplishments.
“One way or the other, this inauguration was going to make history,” Cindy Paul said. “Either Cody was going to see the first female become Vice President or else see the first African American become President.”
“He will be on the Capital steps to see the inauguration, and the see the parade, and then Cody will attend a Black Tie Gala,” Mrs. Paul added. For the gala event, a tuxedo is required.
None of this is free. In previous years, Cody has paid to attend the conferences from money he has earned working his turtle pots, according to his mother.
This year, the trip will cost approximately $2,000. Fortunately, Cody has secured several local sponsors who have helped with some of the expense. They are: Mulaney Insurance,
Bank of the Eastern Shore, Gootees Marina, P. L. Jones Boatyard, Russell Hall Seafood, King’s Island Pride, and Alternative Outfitters who are helping offset the cost of renting the tuxedo. Amy Nicholson, the New York filmmaker who produced “Muskrat Lovely” several years ago, helped Cody Paul too. (Cindy Paul was featured in the film along with a gathering of other local residents).
“Twenty or thirty years from now, I will be able to tell my grandchildren that I saw Barrack Obama become President,” Cody Paul predicted.

Funds sought for Public Safety Fitness Room

By Richard Kendall


CAMBRIDGE – Within the confines of the Cambridge Public Safety Complex, a space designated as a physical fitness workout area is completely empty except for mirrors covering one wall, extending from floor to ceiling. There have been no workouts here, no elevated heart rates, calories burned or muscle development. There is no equipment to workout with, only mirrors reflecting the emptiness.
Last summer, when the Cambridge Police, Fire and EMS moved to their new, spacious, hi-tech facility, exercise equipment for the fitness room was not in the budget. Several months later, a committee of police, fire and EMS personnel was formed to identify suitable equipment for the room and raise money to pay for it.
Tom Hurley, a Cambridge police officer and President of the local FOP Lodge #27 chairs the group. Other members include Bob Phillips, Martin Pepper and Gary Hickman of Cambridge Rescue Fire Company, Bill Watkins from EMS, Jesse Guessford and Mark Lewis of Cambridge Police. Guessford, a personal fitness trainer, also serves as a technical advisor.
After extensive investigation, the committee has chosen equipment made by Life Fitness, a highly rated manufacturer of commercial and home fitness products.
Tailored for both cardio and strength development, the list includes two treadmills, a Smith Machine designed for bench press and squat training, a cable/pulley device, a full rack of free weight dumbbells totaling more than 500 pounds, two benches, two stair climbers, a bike machine and an elliptical device.
“This equipment will improve and enhance the health of the first responders of our community,” Hurley pointed out. “In doing so, it will improve our service and response to aid our citizens.”
Beyond an economic downturn which the media and government are currently emphasizing, Tom Hurley believes there are people and organizations ready, willing and able to help fund this project.
“We are going to need a total of $35,000 to equip our workout room,” Cpl. Hurley stated. “I know we could go a cheaper route and get equipment costing half that much but in 5 years we would be replacing it because it wore out. Over a period of 20 years, it will be much more cost effective to purchase equipment built to last.”
Donors/Sponsors of the effort will be recognized on a plaque in the room, as follows: Bronze Sponsor, donations of $100 or more; Silver Sponsor, $500 or more; Gold Sponsor, $1,000 or more and Platinum Sponsor, donations of $3,000 or more.
“If a person or group would like to donate a larger amount of money to purchase one of these machines, we will dedicate that machine in their name on a plaque we will mount in the room,” Cpl. Hurley said. “Of course, we will be very happy with every contribution, large or small.”
After the equipment is installed, the workout room will be available 24/7 to active duty police, fire and EMS employees.
According to Cpl. Hurley, approximately 150 personnel from the three public safety departments will have access to the fitness room although the number of them who will use the facility is unknown. Hurley said he was not aware of a physical fitness policy observed by the Cambridge Police Department.
Donations can be made to the Fitness Room Fund at the Bank of the Eastern Shore, 301 Crusader Road, Cambridge, MD. 21613 (Contact Tina White at BOES, 410-228-5800) or by mailing a check made payable to the Fitness Room Fund to P.O. Box 401, Cambridge, MD. 21613.
“All donations will be appreciated and are tax deductible,” Cpl. Hurley advised.
In the meantime, the workout room makes a suitable place for quiet reflection.

Brooks Spicer finishes 11th at World competition

By Richard Kendall

GOLDEN HILL - When Brooks Spicer was 4 years old, her Aunt Janet (Lewis) lifted the youngster onto the back of an old Appollusa mare. That was the beginning of a journey no one could have predicted.
In August, 2008, at age 15, Brooks, a 10th grader at Cambridge South Dorchester High School, competed among 189 riders and horses at the American Quarter Horse Association World Show, at Oklahoma City, OK. Top competitors from across the U.S., Canada and South America. Riders showed in categories of Horsemanship, Showmanship and Halter.
In World competition, Brooks finished 11th in the Youth Performance Halter Gelding class. (The top 15 were Finalists).
“As far as I know, nobody from Dorchester County has ever done that,” her father, Tom Spicer said this week.”
In order to compete there, riders must have first earned high scores in other competition through the year.
“It’s been my dream for the last few years to compete at World,” Miss Spicer said this week. In 2007, she won scored in 8 separate events with the highest points in her age group. At the All American Quarter Horse Congress, in Columbus OH., Brooks Spicer was a finalist, finishing in the top 20 out of 89 riders and horses.
For Tom Spicer and his family, showing horses has become a way of life.
“This involves a whole lot of work, a lot time and money,” he said. “Each of us has our own area of responsibilities to make this work.”
Brooks’ mother, Debbi, explained, “Its something we do together, as a family,” she said.
“Deb takes care of the fashion,” Tom Spicer said. “She gets the cloths together, the outfits, boots, the trailer (a piece used to accent the horse’s long, course tail).”
“Brooks and I take care of bathing the horse, clipping, brushing the tail, shaving whisker,” he explained, “there is a whole lot to it and a lot of sacrifice.”
As for the sacrifice of time, effort and the expense, Mr. Spicer explained his view:
“If I know my child is focused on this, and is working hard at something she enjoys and not using drugs, or alcohol or whatever, then it’s worth it to me,” he said.
“I bought her the first Quarter Horse in 1998,” Mr. Spicer recalled, “a gelding named Bear.”
At Christmas, 2000, Brooks was surprised with a 1st Grade American Quarter Horse.
“Mister is his barn name,” Mr. Spicer explained. “But, his registered name is Gotta Be Awesome.”
In 2005, a stunning, white gelding with black socks and mane joined the Spicer’s show lineup.
“Uptown Goods is his name,” Mr. Spicer advised regarding the horse Brooks rode in Oklahoma.
“It’s not all the horse or all the rider,” Debbi Spicer explained. “It’s the combination, how well the rider and horse show together.”
The show season begins in February.
“Brooks goes to school all day, then travels 2 ½ hours each way to her trainer’s arena in Davidsonville,” Mr. Spicer said. “Then, after riding and training for 2 hours, she comes home. She does that 2 or 3 times a week until she starts showing in March.”
Her trainer, Kerry Winter, made the 1450 mile road trip to Oklahoma City with the Spicers in August.
“Pulling that trailer, my truck got 9 miles to the gallon,” Mr. Spicer said. “But, Brooks did what she had to in order to compete there so I held up my end of the deal by making sure she got there.”
Brooks Spicer was asked what she aspires to be when she gets out of college.
“I want to be an Equine Dentist,” she said without hesitation, “and a horse trainer.”
How about a goal closer to the horizon, she was asked.
“I want to compete at World again next year,” she said with certainty. “And I want to finish in the top 10.”

Tough times on the water

By Richard Kendall

TODDVILLE – By late September, the Hayden family usually have saved enough money saved from the summer months to help them through the leaner times of winter.
“This year, we haven’t been able to save anything, not a dime,” Michele Hayden lamented this past weekend. Her husband, Jimmy, 37, works a waterman, crabbing a trotline during the summer. Michele works with him during the winter, hand tonging and dredging oysters.
“I love oystering,” Mrs. Hayden admitted.
The Haydens were married 4 years ago, in Easton. Each of them brought 2 sons to the marriage. Buddy, 15 and Dylan, 10, are Jimmy’s sons; Brian, 12 and Shane, 8, is Michele’s.
On Sunday afternoon, Mr. Hayden sat aboard his wooden workboat baiting a trotline for Monday morning. The vessel’s name is the Buddy Dylan, after his sons.
There is urgency in their voices when Jimmy and Michele Hayden speak of their situation.
“Everything we use to operate has gone up – it seems some things have doubled in cost since last year,” Mr. Hayden said. “Diesel fuel, bate, upkeep of the boat it’s all up this year. It seems the only thing that hasn’t gone up is what we get for our catch. That hasn’t gone up any.”
“Retail stores are selling a bushel of crabs for $120 to $180,” Mr. Hayden said. “We are getting $40 for a bushel of males and $22 for females. And, this time of the year, about all we are catching is females.”
Michele Hayden believes the economy, crab populations and State regulations are simultaneously bringing an end to the seafood business in Maryland.
“With prices so high for fuel and bate, lower numbers of crabs to begin with and tighter catch limits for watermen, it’s almost impossible to make a living on the water,” she said. “And with watermen getting out of the business because they can’t make a living, sooner or later, there isn’t going to be any crabs, crab dip or any of that.”
Jimmy and Michele Hayden are unsure how they are going to make ends meet this winter.
“We have a mortgage, two truck payments, heat, electric and food to pay for,” Mrs. Hayden figured. “I don’t know how we are going to do it.”
Jimmy Hayden and his brothers Gary and Eddie have been watermen most of their lives.
As children growing up in Crapo, they made extra money helping out aboard the workboat owned by the late Maurice Adams, of Wingate.
“I started going out on the water with him when I was 8,” Mr. Hayden remembered.
“It got in his blood, the water did,” his wife added, “like a poison.”
Other than working for a few years at the Wire Belt Company in Cambridge, Mr. Hayden has remained a waterman.
“I know how to do other work but who is going to hire me,” he asked. “No body wants to hire a waterman because they know that in the spring, we’re going back out on the water.”
Although their children have health insurance, neither of their parents have full health coverage. “That’s the case for most watermen,” Mrs. Hayden explained.
Jimmy and Michele Hayden believe the factor having the worst effect on their livelihood is the catch limit set by the State of Maryland.
“They used our crab reports from the last few years and averaged out what we have been catching,” Mr. Hayden said.
“And then, they limited the daily catch to two-thirds of what had been caught each day,” Mrs. Hayden added. “But, lots of factors play into it that they don’t take into consideration.”
“For instance, 3 years ago, the engine in Jimmy’s boat blew up and he wasn’t catching crabs,” she said. “That affected his average.”
When the limits were first announced, Mr. Hayden was restricted to 5 bushels of crabs a day.
“It takes 3 bushels a day just to pay for expenses: $50 a day for bait, $50 to $80 a day for fuel,” she said. “We appealed and they said they lost Jimmy’s crab reports. Fortunately, we kept copies.”
Their appeal was won and the Mr. Hayden’s daily catch limit was elevated to 15 bushels per day.
“That sounds great but I haven’t been able to catch anywhere near that,” he said.
“Plus, starting this week (Oct. 1), I can only catch 5 bushels of females, that’s it.”
The crab season end Oct. 22.
There are rumors of relief coming but so far, the Haydens have seen nothing tangible.
“We heard that the DNR is going to offer watermen jobs during the winter,” Mrs. Hayden said.
Jobs supposedly include cleaning oyster bars by dragging dredge rigs over the oyster beds and working in state parks by cleaning up or planting trees.
“But, all we have heard is rumors about these jobs; I haven’t seen anything posted on the internet about it.”
Another ray of hope concerns a declaration of assistance for watermen supported by Md. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D)
“But, again, we’ve only heard rumors,” Mrs. Hayden said. “We can’t support our family on rumors.”

Collecting cans of Dorchester history

By Richard Kendall

LAKESVILLE – Carpenter, muskrat skinner and trapper Ted Abbott, 68, has for the last 15 or 20 years collected tin cans, labels, tokens, boxes, sporting apparel, anything branded with the name of Phillips Packing Company.
“They were the largest food canners in the world,” he stated of the long-defunct Cambridge based conglomerate.
The late Arthur Abbott, Ted’s father, worked for Phillips Packing Company in the 1930’s, during the Great Depression, according to Ted Abbott.
“He stirred soup in big, huge containers,” Mr. Abbott explained.
“With a wooden oar, that’s what he used to stir. They paid him twelve and a half cents an hour.”
Arthur Abbott continued on until the late Saul Smith stopped to speak to him one day.
“Mr. Smith offered my father fifteen cents an hour to build him a house,” Mr. Abbott said. “So, he left Phillips to build the house for Mr. Smith. That house is still standing over in Andrews.”
“Dad never went back to working at Phillips and went on working as a carpenter,” Mr. Abbott said. “Dad trapped in the winter, like me, he loved to trap, had to do it.” Arthur Abbott passed away in 1972.
To begin to explain why he would go well out of his way to secure yet one more can, label or other Phillips memorabilia, Mr. Abbott recalled picking tomatoes as a boy.
“I used to get eight cents for every 5-8 basket I picked,” he recalled. “They were wooden baskets that held five eighths of a bushel.”
“You didn’t get too many the first picking of the year but after that I could pick 50 or 75 baskets in a day,” Mr. Abbott said.
“The tomatoes were called Old Ruckers and they were about the size of tennis balls,” he explained. “They were perfect size for canning.”
“Canning was big, big business in Dorchester County,” Mr. Abbott said. “Phillips had factories A, B, C, D, E and F in Cambridge. One factory canned tomatoes, another canned peas, another potatoes, and so on.”
In addition to the Cambridge facilities, Phillips cooperated with independently owned canning house operations throughout Dorchester County. Mr. Abbott shared several of the names of owners of canning houses, along with their respective locations:
“There were Baker Robbins and Sewell Simmons around here,” he recalled. “There was a canning house owned by Mr. Slacum directly across from Shorter’s Wharf, one at Meekins Neck owned by Willy Mills and another one at Wingate owned by another Willy Mills.” Others mentioned: a canning house at Charles Creek owned by Bill Carroll Insley and another in Church Creek at a location which later functioned as the Wire Belt Company.
“There was a time when just about everybody in Dorchester either worked on the water or for Phillips Packing Company,” Mr. Abbott estimated.
However, according to Mr. Abbott, things began to change for the company when the United States battled simultaneously the fearsome Nazi Germany and Japan and their allies, during World War II.
According to Mr. Abbott, Phillips shifted their primary attention to packaging the staple food of wartime U.S. troops: C Rations.
Stepping up to the plate to fill the void left by Phillips in providing the public with canned foods was the Campbell Soup Company, according to Mr. Abbott.
“People started eating Campbell’s Soup and never went back to Phillips,” he explained.
The following details were copied from the website at www.tourchesapeakecountry.com:
“In 1902 the Phillips Packing Company was started, and by 1929 was marketing more than 60 kinds of canned goods. However, the phenomenal reign of the company ended in 1957 when the company, facing competition and slumping sales, was sold.”
A longtime friendship with the late R. Lee Burton helped keep Mr. Abbott’s interest in Phillips memorabilia going.
“Mr. Lee collected all that,” Mr. Abbott said. “He and I used to trade our stuff back and forth.” Mr. Burton authored a book entitled Canneries of the Eastern Shore, published by Tidewater Publishing.
Over time, availability of Phillips memorabilia has evaporated. Currently, very few items are offered for sale, according to Mr. Abbott. Throughout Dorchester, the old canning house operations are long gone.
Still, in Cambridge, several of the sprawling, red brick and metal shells of buildings that were once Phillips factories have survived. Others have been torn down; several have been destroyed by fire.
“The Phillips company was a big part of Dorchester’s history,” Mr. Abbott said. “It’s gone now but we shouldn’t forget that it was part of who we were. That’s why I collect it.”
“I have friends who own some of those buildings in Cambridge,” Mr. Abbott said. “Sometimes, I like to go in and just stand there and listen. If you imagine, you can still hear those cans rattling.”

Boat Docking competition at Slaughter Creek Marina

By Richard Kendall

TAYLOR’S ISLAND – The Volunteer Fire Companies of Taylor’s Island and Hooper’s Island held their annual Boat Docking Competition at Slaughter’s Marina on Sunday.
Hundreds of spectators turned out to watch dozens of captains and crew members compete. Here are the results:
A Class 40’ and over
1st Place: Bo Hughes, Madison; Boat: Hunter, Time: 31.51 sec. Prize: $1,000.00
2nd Place: Joel Hayden, Hoopersville; Boat: 6 Angels, Time: 32.46 sec. Prize: $600.00
3rd Place: Benny Horseman, Fishing Creek, Boat: Spirit, Time: 33.63 sec. Prize: $400.00

B Class 35’ – 39’11”
1st Place: Kevin Marshall, Smith Island, Boat: Fabricator, Time: 27.53 Sec. Prize: $1000.
2nd Place: Alvin Richardson, Boat: Delusional Time: 37.67 Sec. Prize. $600.00
3rd Place: Dusty Flowers, Hoopers Is. Boat: Island Fever, Time: 42.59 Sec. Prize:$400.00


C Class 28’ – 34’11”
1st Place: J. B. Teider, Taylors Is. Boat: Shikar Time: 38.04 Sec. Prize: $1,000.00
2nd Place: Joe Ruark, Hoopers Is. Boat: Next Jenn-Eration Time: 42.06 Sec. Prize: $600. 3rd. Place: Derrick Hoy, Boat: Full Throttle Time:45.46 Sec. Prize: $400.00


Team Competition
1st Place: Kevin Marshall, Smith Island, Boat: Fabricator, Time: 26.39 Sec. Prize:$1000.
2nd Place: Bo Hughes, Madison; Boat: Hunter, Time: 32.09 sec. Prize: $600.00
3rd Pace: Joe Ruark, Hoopers Is. Boat: Next Jenn-Eration Time: 42.06 Sec. Prize: $400.

Ms. Dora: Picking Dorchester Crabs at 90

By Richard Kendall

BISHOPS HEAD – Long before morning’s first light, a group of faces familiar to each other have assembled around long, cat’s eye green tables at the Dorchester Crab Company.
They need few tools: many use only their favorite knife but primarily their hands. Their obstacle is hundreds of pounds of crab shells and innards. Their goal for the day: pick as many pounds of pure Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab meat as they can bowl.
The youngest is a Mexican woman in her early 20’s. The oldest is Dora Pearl Pritchett Murphy.
Born April 17, 1918, Ms. Dora - as she is adoringly referred to by her many friends and neighbors – is 90 and still working 6 days a week during crab season.
When work commences at 4 a.m., conversations among the workers drops off to a hushed silence. Only the sounds of their picking are heard as they concentrate on their work.
They take a break at 5 a.m. Some sip coffee, others dig into their lunch pail for a snack from home. Fifteen minutes later, it’s back to work. Their next break is at 7:30 a.m. After that, they work until quitting time at 11:30 a.m.
Ms. Dora picked her first crab when she was about 4 years old when both of her parents worked at a crab house in Wingate, at the end of Crab House Road.
“They worked for Mr. George Robinson and Mr. Will Dean,” she recalled. “That crab house was destroyed during Hurricane Hazel (in October, 1954).”
While her parents worked, young Dora would drag a ¾ bushel basket over to the counter where her mother and father stood picking. She remembers cracking crab claws.
Her father was Hilary Pritchett of Wingate and mother, Adedia Meredith. Home for young Dora was Toddville but she moved for a while to Cambridge, to a house that still stands near the corner of Cedar Street and Academy Street. It was the home of her grand parents.
“My mother worked then at a shirt factory on Academy Street,” she said. “I used to go down and wave at mother through the window while she was sewing.” The dilapidated, brown brick building is still there, many years after the last piece of apparel was stitched together.
When Ms. Dora was 13, she quit school to care for her younger brother, Edward.
“It was during the Depression and my mother and father had to work,” she explained. “Back then it wasn’t required to stay in school.”
At 16, she took a job with Phillips Packing Company, in Cambridge. She was placed in front of a conveyor belt and was to watch string beans as they passed along in front of her, picking out the bad ones.
“I looked at that belt all day long,” she said. “When I got home, guess what my mother had for dinner? String beans!” She quit the Phillips job after one week.
She shucked oysters for 6 years, in Toddville.
“I was pretty good at that,” she admitted. During the summers, Ms. Dora traveled by water across Fishing Bay to Crisfield, Somerset County, to pick strawberries.
“I get seasick,” she said. “But, those boats were big enough and I did all right on them.”
When she was 20, she attracted the attention of Lois Murphy, of Bishops Head, a man of 36 years of age.
“That was at the (Zion United Methodist) church (in) Toddville,” she recalled. “He had lived 3 miles away all my life and I had never seen him before and if I did, I didn’t remember.”
But, Lois Murphy remembered Ms. Dora and before long, he asked her out on a date.
“My father said that if a young man didn’t have the nerve to come and ask him for permission to take out his daughter, he would not be welcome around our house.”
Mr. Murphy did come and ask Mr. Pritchett and Ms. Dora accepted Mr. Murphy’s invitation for a date. But, there was competition.
During one of Ms. Dora’s trips to Crisfield, she had also attracted the attention of Freddie Cullen, a young singer on a radio program that broadcasted from Salisbury.
“Crisfield was too far from home,” Ms. Dora said to explain why she stopped seeing the radio singer.
In 1940, Ms. Dora married Mr. Murphy at the Parsonage of St. Thomas Church, not too far from the home in Bishops Head she would share with Mr. Murphy, a life-long waterman.
But, there was competition.
At least for space in the 4 room home. Both of Mr. Murphy’s parents still lived there along with four of Lois’s ten siblings.
“It was a full house, for sure,” Ms. Dora recalls with a laugh.
Years later, Ms. Dora and her husband bought the house from his parents.
They had two children, Lois Ann, of Linkwood, and Allen, who resides in Michigan.
In 1950, Ms. Dora worked began working at Capt. Spark’s crab house in nearby Wingate.
Years later, the name changed to Dorchester Crab Company and Ms. Dora is still there, picking.
Here are a few interesting facts about Ms. Dora:
Johnny Unitas, of Baltimore Colt fame, often dined at Ms. Dora’s home. How this came about was that one of Ms. Dora’s brothers, Clyde Pritchett, during the 1960’s, was the caretaker at nearby Crab Point Farm. Several well known athletes traveled there to hunt. When they asked Clyde where they might get a home cooked meal, he brought them home. (Ms. Dora is also a good cook). Johnny Unitas, Dennis Gaubatz and Jackie Burkett of the Baltimore Colts became frequent guests, much to the delight of Ms. Dora’s (then) teenaged son, Allen, a big sports fan.
According to genealogy records kept by her daughter Lois Ann, Ms. Dora’s great grand father, Edward Wallace Pritchett (born Oct. 14, 1821, died March 22, 1906), fought at the Battle of Gettysburg. It is not known at this writing whether he fought for the Union or Confederacy during the bloody encounter in Pennsylvania on July 1, 2 and 3, 1863.
Ms. Dora has never smoked.
“Daddy said if he ever caught us with a cigarette he would shove it down our throats,” she stated.
Nor has she ever used alcohol.
“Except for one sip of beer one time,” she recalled from many, many years ago. “I didn’t like it.” That was the end of her drinking experimentation.
Ms. Dora wanted to be an airline stewardess. But, like drinking, that idea never got off the ground.
“My father ruled the roost,” she said. “He did not want me to be an airline stewardess. He told me if I joined up, he would tend to me when I got home. I decided not to risk that.” Ms. Dora has yet to fly in an airplane.
When crabs are out of season, Ms. Dora, an avid reader, spends many hours pouring over her favorite books which of late have been a series of novels based in old west settings.
If there are two things that irk Ms. Dora they are those who make fun of others and in-law jokes.
“I don’t push fun at other people and I don’t like people to push fun at me,” she explained firmly. “And, my in-laws were just so good to me. I don’t like it when people push fun about their in-laws.”
Almost 5 years ago, Bill and Bonnie Cox moved to Bishops Head from Gaithersburg, MD.
“We just wanted to get out of there,” explained Ms. Cox, who formerly worked for a financial institution before moving to the Eastern Shore.
After scouting out the location of their new home, in Bishops Head, they found a most beautiful sunset.
“I’ve been to Aruba and I’ve been to Barbados,” Ms. Cox said. “But, I have never seen a more beautiful sunset than here in Bishops Head.”
One day, Ms. Cox knocked on the door of a house in their new neighborhood.
“An old lady came to the door,” Mrs. Cox recalled. “I asked her if I could walk behind her house, down to the water, to look at the sunset.”
Ms. Dora told her yes, she could walk to the water’s edge to take in the hues and colors of the setting sun over the Honga River. That was the beginning of a friendship. Neighbors in these parts carefully look out for one another but that does mean they don’t have fun. Trips to town can become an adventure. Festivals are seldom overlooked. Crab feasts are a must.
“I love crabs,” Ms. Dora stated. “And, fresh tomatoes!”
To share their fun, Mrs. Cox created an internet blog which is now enjoyed by family and friends as far away as Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
“I just want people to know that Ms. Dora is 90 and still having fun!” Mrs. Cox said with enthusiasm.
Ms. Dora does not want to stay up too late during the week because her alarm clock sounds at 1: 45 a.m. After making her bed, getting herself ready, downing a few Ritz crackers and some orange juice, Ms. Dora Murphy is ready pick crabs.

Robert Cannon, Cambridge waterman, turns 86.

Robert Cannon, Cambridge waterman, turns 86.

By Richard Kendall

CAMBRIDGE - Recently, an article was published in this newspaper regarding Crawford Windsor, Sr., of Crocheron, who was said to be the oldest known waterman still working in Dorchester County.
The following day, Charlotte Robinson of Cambridge contacted the Banner to report that her father, Robert H. Cannon, a waterman older than Mr. Windsor, was still working long hours every day on the Choptank River. A reporter investigated.
On Thursday, Mr. Cannon was found at the docks on Trenton Street, in Cambridge. He sat on his boat, the Charlotte Ann, attaching fresh chicken necks to white, braided rope, one after another, in preparation for Friday’s trot line.
With a warm smile and contagious laughter, he continued baiting his line as colorful details emerged of his long, productive life. He spoke of his upbringing on Academy Street in Cambridge and joining his father to work on the water; of military service in World War II along with a group of fellow Dorchester County enlistees who served together in the South Pacific.
He recalled the plight of his pet monkey who found a watery grave; and a mysterious illness that plagued him upon his return to the States; and the joy of meeting and marrying the love of his life, and of close friends he has met along the way including Crawford Windsor, Sr., of Crocheron.
At age 15, Robert H. Cannon followed his father and grandfather to a career on the water. The elder Cannons, Ogle B. and Burgoine, respectively, had been dredge boat Captains, harvesting oysters present in abundant quantities at that time.
“I worked with my father until 1943,” Mr. Cannon recalled. “Then, a bunch of us from
Hoopers Island, Fishing Creek, Toddville, Wingate, Crocheron, we all enlisted in the Army.” Mr. Cannon was 18.
“When the Army found out that we were all watermen, they put us in the same unit: Amphibious Engineers, Company B.”
After boot camp in Hyannis, Massachusetts, the young soldiers were sent to amphibious training in Florida. After that, Company B from Dorchester was shipped to the South Pacific, near Manila. They would serve there for two and a half years.
“I was the Captain of an LCM,” Mr. Cannon said. He described the LCM (Landing Craft, Mechanized) as a barge type vessel which allowed quick deployment of troops and vehicles and tanks by landing on a beach and lowering the hull for rapid deployment.
“We lived right on the boat, Mr. Cannon said. “Jim Mills, of Crapo, he was one. Rodney Robinson, of Wingate, was another. Oselee Lewis and Marvin Parks of Wingate were with us. Roger Shockley of Hooper Island was too.”
“Rodney Robinson was the boat’s Engineer,” he recalled. “He kept those two engines running and polished like they just came from the factory.”
Mr. Cannon also recalled another valuable asset (the late) Rodney Robinson brought.
“He was one heck of a cook,” Mr. Cannon remembered. “He made donuts and candy, all kinds of stuff. This was a time when you couldn’t get food like that. He’d fix it right there on the boat.”
While shored up on a Pacific island, Mr. Cannon picked up a small, playful, grayish-black furred monkey and found that the creature was gentle and tame. When it came time for the soldiers to return to their LCM and return to sea, he took the monkey along as a pet. He called it Pete.
“He was a nice little monkey, just as friendly to me as can be. Mr. Cannon said.

About 6 months passed and the war ended. In February, 1946, Mr. Cannon and his Dorchester army buddies received new orders: they were going home. Pete was brought along, headed for Maryland.
The first leg of their return to the U.S. involved being transferred to a state-bound ship. It was not long before an officer spotted Pete frolicking on a bunk bed.
“The officer asked where the monkey came from,” Mr. Cannon recalled. “I told him it was mine that I had as a pet for 6 months and I was taking him home.”
“He (the officer) said the monkey had to be thrown overboard, that Pete could spread disease,” Mr. Cannon said. “They took the monkey and threw him out a port hole. I was pretty upset about that. I thought about that monkey for a long time.”
Upon Robert Cannon’s return to Cambridge, there was little time for celebration before he found himself curled up in bed, too sick to eat or even use the bathroom.
“I got deathly sick, couldn’t walk or do anything,” he recalled as he looped another chicken neck onto his trot line. “Dr. Bunker, our doctor back then, was call in.”
“The doctor told me he didn’t know what was wrong, said he didn’t think he could do anything for me,” Mr. Cannon recalled.
“I told the doctor I had an idea of what was happening,” Mr. Cannon said, continuing:
“For a long time, during the war, I was taking handfuls of Adabrin, a drug that kept us from catching Malaria from the Mosquitoes. After I got back here and stopped taking the Adabrin, that’s when I got sick.”
Relief soon came in the form of Adabrin, fetched from the local pharmacy. Within days
of ingesting the tablets again, Mr. Cannon was feeling better. Within weeks, Robert Cannon felt like himself.
“I weaned myself off of it, a little at a time, and I never had another problem with any of it,” he said.
When it came time to go to work, Mr. Cannon learned from his father that crabs were at that time scarce in the Choptank River. In order to make a living, he and Ogle B., as his father was know, ventured to South Dorchester County where crabs were plentiful in Fishing Bay and the Honga River.
They met Austin Windsor and his son, Crawford, and other watermen from South Dorchester.
“Those people were just as nice to us as they could be,” Mr. Cannon said. “There was never any competition between Cambridge and South County watermen, nothing like that. After a while, it was like we were brothers.”
In 1947, Robert Cannon met and married Margarite “Peggy” Anderson, of Deal Island.
“We were married for 47 years,” he said. “She was the first love of my life.” Mrs. Cannon passed away in 1994. In addition to their daughter Charlotte, they had a son, Robert, Jr.
Through his friendship with the Windsors, Mr. Cannon met Crocheron based boat builder John Elliott.
“In 1954, I asked Mr. Elliott to built two boats for me,” Mr. Cannon said. “During that summer, he built a pretty, little 18 foot boat of white cedar of me and he built the Charlotte Ann which was the last boat he ever built.”
“I’ll tell you, that John Elliott was quite a man,” Mr. Cannon said. “He didn’t have any blue prints to go by. He’d stand back a ways and have two fellows hold boards, telling them to lower the aft, raise forward, that’s how he designed the shape and sheer of this boat ” (referring to the 36’ x 9 ½’ Charlotte Ann).
“Mr. Elliott had a (disabled) wife who he took care of every morning before he’d start his work,” Mr. Cannon said. “I never did see her, but he was an amazing man.”
On October 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel ripped through the Mid-Atlantic. Robert Cannon recalled that his newly complete vessel, the Charlotte Ann, was nearly lost that day.
“The storm hit and I was up here in Cambridge,” he said. “There was no way in the world I could get down to my boat, tied up in Tedious Creek, in Crocheron.”
“Crawford Windsor’s boat was tied behind mine,” Mr. Cannon said. “He was down there, making sure his boat was tied when he saw that my boat had broken loose.”
“Somehow, Crawford got up in my boat, trying to get it tied up,” he recalled. “The wind was blowing a gale to the East, toward the Bay and Crawford was caught in my boat.”
The vessel drifted helplessly beyond the normal confines of Tedious Creek, over what had been dry land the day before, following a strong current to the Chesapeake.
“When he got to where the old (Crocheron) road is, he hopped out into waste high water.
There was nothing else Crawford could do. The Charlotte Ann kept going with the wind, toward the Bay.”
And then, a twist of fate.
“Don’t you know, after another 15 minutes, the wind shifted to the West North West,” Mr. Cannon said. “And the Charlotte Anne blew right back up into Tedious Creek.”
She was found aground behind a house nearby and later returned safely to her mooring in the creek.
“I never will forget what Crawford Windsor did, trying to save my boat,” he said.
Robert Cannon went into the business of buying oysters and crabs during their respective seasons.
“I’d buy oysters at Long Wharf, paid cash money for them,” Mr. Cannon recalled. He would then transport the delectable, shelled creatures at points West of the Bay Bridge and elsewhere.
“In the summer, I’d buy crabs at Nanticoke Harbor,” he explained. “I’d sell my culled crabs in Cambridge and carry the fat ones to Washington and Baltimore. I did that for 35 years.” In the mid-1980’s, he returned to working full time as a waterman.
Robert Cannon was asked if he agreed with his friend Crawford Windsor Sr.’s regarding the prosperity of future waterman.
“I do,” he said, shaking his head. “A young person can’t come out here anymore and expect to pay for a boat, a house, a car, and raise a family from what he pulls out of the water. Its not like it was when guys like me and Crawford (Windsor) and the others could come out here and make a career out of this.”
Currently, Mr. Cannon works on the water in the summer months, crabbing his trot line in the Choptank River.
“In the winter, I might go out and catch a bushel or two of oysters for myself or to give to friends and neighbors, nothing commercial in the winter. I’m sort of retired, you know?

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog, "Appreciating Maryland's Eastern Shore." Posted here will be articles I have written about the people and culture of Maryland's Eastern Shore, primarily the Mid-Shore region of Cambridge and Dorchester County.

My family relocated to the Eastern Shore 8 years ago from the Washington Metropolitan area. I have found the culture and natural beauty of "the Shore" captivating and charming.

Please check out the articles and if you choose to, kindly share your thoughts. Thanks! Richard