You Are Here (So Are We)
An Introduction to Destination Delmarva
It’s been a little more than a year since I’ve reached out from this channel, and I’ll catch you up directly, but first let’s talk about where we’re doing here.
We started this newsletter as a secondary part of what we hoped would be a storytelling project called One True Thing, which COVID had killed, but we didn’t get traction for long boring reasons I’ll share after a couple of drinks someday.
If you’re getting this first email, it’s because you somehow were involved or interested in that project, which we’re revamping here with a newsletter and podcast that aims to collect some of the best stories about living on the Delmarva Peninsula.
If you’ve written a non-fiction book about Delmarva, I’d love to hear from you. If you write fiction based on Delmarva, I’d love to hear from you, too. If you want to tell a story about what living here is like, same. If you think we’re only interested in nice, flattering stories about the beach, read some of my other work.
Anyway, if you want to participate as a podcast guest or contributor, shoot me a note.
We originally hosted this newsletter on Substack because it was free (which it still is). Since then, Substack has grown into more of a platform. It supports chat and social posts, video, and podcasting. The sky’s the limit.
If you’re getting this email, you’re technically already registered, but if you do anything creative or find the “traditional” social media channels a little too much, this is mostly (there’s always that one guy…) a place of conversation and insight.
So that’s the pitch. Please stay subscribed, please let me know what you’re writing or have written if you take Delmarva as your setting. Please expect the occasional email about travel, history, and events surrounding Delmarva.
Talk to you soon,
Tony Russo
PostScript
As a quick note, Substack is free because it takes a percentage of paid subscriptions. One of the prices for that is they may (and likely will) ask you to take out a paid subscription.
We’ve intentionally left that part of the site turned off, although, we hope to have an option to support us by the end of the summer.
Also, I do a ton of podcasts besides this one. Among them is the PinesCast, which is produced by the Ocean Pines Association. I’ve been sharing the stories behind the podcasts here, as well as a link to the shows themselves. You can subscribe to the podcast by clicking the link in any of the Ocean Pines stories.
Todd DeHart and I also produce a (mostly) weekly show called Day Drinking on Delmarva, which we’ve come to refer to as marketing therapy. We take a look at the particular challenges of small, rural market media.
Once again, feel free to comment below or reach out to me directly with more questions.
Here’s a useful introduction to the platform:
Hi Tony! Long-time, no-see--at least in person. Attached is a little piece I recently wrote for the First Saturday writers group, based at the Berlin Library. Thought you might enjoy it. Bob Faszczewski.
Riding the Rails Into History
The Claiborne Fresh Air Association, tucked away on a remote country road of the tiny Eastern Shore, Maryland port town, for nearly 20 years, had quietly offered a 10-week summer retreat to children exposed to tuberculosis. Although Clairborne’s residents heard rumors of its existence, few really paid it any notice, least of all the rough and ill-mannered men who operated the local ferry service and helped transport passengers to the Ocean City-bound railroad train.
She had swept into town nine years before on the winds of expensive clothing and high-end perfume. Ruby Fielding stood out from the other plain school marms populating the charity camp with her classic, big-city looks and fashions few in the tiny backwater had ever laid eyes on. Ruby had, almost immediately, caught the eye of First Mate Clarence Mason, the bored second-in-command of one of the water transports. She had paid little attention to the gruff and loud boat attendant until he began accidentally running into her every morning at Kathy’s Downtown Cafe. Then, one day, he had overheard her talking to Kathy about the long boating and railroading history of the small town on the Chesapeake to which she had relocated from Long Island, New York.
“My daddy used to engineer on the local LIRR line to and from the waters where their sports fishing vessels docked. For a long time I also dreamed about working with these poor kids afflicted with TB. So, when I heard about this opportunity to teach during the week and go fishing and boating on the Eastern Shore on weekends I could hardly wait to sign up.”
Mason had heard all he needed to hear. He had immediately swooped in and offered his services as the unofficial Clairborne aquatic and trackside tour guide. The well-educated and cultured young woman seemed to have little in common with the rough-and-tumble sailor, whose only schooling had come plying the turbulent waters of the Chesapeake and helping out on the coal-and-ashes-billowing excursion to the Maryland beach resort.
Over time, their shared love of the sea and the railroad closed the gap between their apparently very diverse backgrounds. A number of weekend excursions on the ferry route, long afternoons of fishing and picnicking and a number of train trips to Ocean City cemented what looked like it would become a permanent bond.
For nearly a decade, on every Saturday, particularly during the summer, Mason and Ruby had packed a picnic lunch and crossed the bay on Mason’s motorboat on the first leg of their passage to their favorite fishing village on the Lower Eastern Shore. Then hard financial times hit the railroad industry, forcing the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway to shut down the trestle leading into the resort. This derailed their romantic getaways, at least temporarily.
The couple decided to keep alive the memories of their romantic excursions by picnicking near the abandoned railroad site every summer. Then, in August, 1933, it looked like nature would put a permanent stop to their romantic adventures. Local radio stations had, for several days, broadcast pessimistic accounts of severe winds and flooding rains possibly moving up the coast from the Carolinas.
With the typical optimism of young people in love, the couple, at first, did not allow the foreboding outlook to put a damper on their plans. They started out early on the short boat trip to the railroad depot.They felt encouraged by reports saying that the Maryland beaches and the surrounding area would not endure a direct hit. As they pushed their way through the Chesapeake on the way to the depot, the storm closed in and began whipping its way up the coast. Clarence, a skilled sailor, still handled the rocking craft easily despite a few powerful gusts of wind and rain that almost capsized their boat and nearly knocked them into the bay.
The storm, now classified as a hurricane, suddenly shattered their plans for a peaceful memorial of their romantic getaway. A radio commentator, with horror in his voice, described how the waters of the bay had splintered the train trestle leading into Ocean City and washed it away. Clarence and Ruby didn’t realize it at the time that broadcast would turn a page on a once-in-a-lifetime historic event. A number of days later, the sun broke through on a newly-formed inlet that would open an entirely new access point for the area’s watermen and give birth to one of the most famous resort areas in the United States.
The teacher and the sailor got married the following Saturday on the resort shoreline not far from the site of the fallen trestle and carried with them memories of the cancelled picnic that helped their area to turn one of the most significant pages in Maryland’s history.
Riding the Rails into History
Bob Faszczewski
First Saturday Writers
Buzz Word: Train
797 Words