Featured Articles

  Vanishing Islands  by Helen Chappell 
To get to Elliott’s Island the back way, you turn off Route 50 and follow a series of two-lane blacktops. You go out past the trailer park on Bucktown, past the airport and over the railroad tracks. Gradually, the suburbs of Cambridge thin out until you pass a farmhouse here and there, and fields of winter wheat and stands of hardwood. You head on past a road named Indian Bone (for reasons I have never discovered). Now you are at the edge of the Great Dorchester Marsh ~ that vast and increasing wetland that makes up most of the southern part of the county.  Read More …

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  South America & Antarctica – Part 3 by Bonna L. Nelson

We were about to begin the final leg of our journey, crossing the Drake Passage to Antarctica. This cruise was two years in the planning, and visiting the world’s last frontier, Antarctica, would be the highlight. Traversing the Drake Passage is considered an initiation rite for travelers as it is the only water route from South America to Antarctica. The Passage, named for 16th-century English sea captain and explorer Sir Francis Drake, extends approximately 500 miles from Cape Horn to the northernmost tip of Antarctica.  Read More...

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  Tidewater Kitchen: Superior Strawberries  by Pamela Meredith-Doyle

I will never forget the day I learned what “fresh” really means. I went to a local pick-your-own strawberry farm one summer morning. The farmer met me with baskets and pointed me in the direction of the berry patch. As I started to pick, the first thing that hit me was the fruit’s color; red had never been so brilliant! Then I noticed the pure, sweet aroma permeating the air. The longer I picked, the stronger the temptation grew to eat the strawberries ~ but a parental warning sounded in my head: “Always wash your fruit before you eat it.” Rationalizing that I was an adult, I popped a shiny red berry in my mouth.  Read More…

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  Tidewater Gardening: June is “For the Birds”  by K. Marc Teffeau
Are you interested in attracting more birds to your landscape? Want to see a better variety of species visit your garden? Feeding them with bird feeders is one way to attract these feathered friends to your yard. However, if you want to attract and keep birds in your home landscape, you need to make sure that you provide three main ingredients: food, shelter/nesting and water.  June is still a good time to plant ornamental shrubs and trees in the landscape. They will provide food and sheltering opportunities for birds.  Read More…

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  Nicknames  by Gary D. Crawford
Lots of people have a nickname, some little name they go by instead of the one they were given at birth. Such names are especially common in tight-knit groups, like sports teams or military units. In many of our small communities here on the Eastern Shore, nicknames were widespread, long-lasting and often colorful. In a recent article here, I mentioned Capt. Nathan Parks, whose own mother nicknamed him “Funny” when he was just a toddler on Hollands Island, the name he was known by all his life. That got me thinking about nicknames in general.  Read More…

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  Changes: The Man Project (Part 2 of 4)  by Roger Vaughan

Letters from the Earth is a book by Mark Twain. In the title novella, the angel Satan is banished to Earth by the Creator as punishment. Once on Earth, he begins writing letters to his angelic friends, Michael and Gabriel, about what he finds. That element of Twain’s story forms the basis of this teleplay. In this story, Gabriel is a woman (Gabriella). Part 1 ends with Satan writing an e-mail to Gabriella asking her to check out a man named Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), whose book Satan has been reading.  Read More…

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Tidewater Times was established in 1952 as a specialized monthly magazine which would appeal to the tourist, the prospective land buyer, and others for whom the Eastern Shore has a special allure. It was created to be small enough to fit into a woman’s purse or a man’s coat pocket. Today it has blossomed as a vital symbol of our thriving community.

Our award-winning group of Feature Writers include Helen Chappell, Dick Cooper, Gary Crawford, Pamela Meredith-Doyle, Roger Vaughan, Bonna Nelson, Michael Valliant and Marc Teffeau. Distribution covers an area including Dorchester, Talbot, Caroline, Queen Anne’s and Kent counties.

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