The Tilghman Street Country Club  by Helen Chappell 
After a guided tour of the house, a friend of mine sniffed, “If they made them live like this, they’d hire a lawyer.” They were a rotating set of bachelors whose habitat was a crumbling yellow house on Oxford’s least upscale boulevard of broken dreams, Tilghman Street. Remember, this was back in the ’70s, when gentrification was still creeping through the small town and Oxford was the home of the newly wed, the nearly dead and people whose people had lived there since the beginning of time. Read More …

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  Humpbacks and Orcas, Sea Lions and Spirit Bears by Dick Cooper

INSIDE PASSAGE, Coast of British Columbia, Canada ~ I was steadying my balance against the lifeline of the 1929 tugboat David B as I zoomed my camera lens in on the dorsal fin of a humpback whale creasing the water’s surface just off the boat’s bow when the sea in front of me erupted. I instinctively held down the shutter button as a massive shape, almost as big as the boat, burst into the air. A breaching whale turned on its side in mid-air, its massive pectoral fins seeming to be fighting to find flight.   Read More …

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  Going Back to Chestertown  by Michael Valliant

Chestertown has it going on. It’s a small town, nestled right on the Chester River, with some of the Mid-Shore’s most popular annual events, an expanding number of bars and restaurants, distillery, bakery, theater, galleries, unique shops, historic inns, spirited bookstore and weekly farmer’s market with artisans of all kinds, to name a few things. And it’s home to one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country, Washington College, creating a diversity of ages and an incredible cultural life. If you haven’t been to Chestertown lately, you owe yourself a day or an overnight trip.  Read More…

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  Chesapeake Multicultural Resource Center by Bonna Nelson
You may be as surprised as I was to learn that close to 40% of the students attending Easton Elementary School are Hispanic. It is estimated that in five years, one in three graduates will have an immigration story. I learned about our multicultural neighbors and immigration stories on the Shore when I attended several presentations by Matthew Peters, executive director of the Chesapeake Multicultural Center (ChesMRC) in Easton, MD. Before we left for a trip to Guatemala in 2017, a friend suggested that I meet Matt, known as “Matteo” to his clients, because he had spent 13 years living and working there.   Read More… 

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  Maple as a Houseplant  by K. Marc Teffeau
A very interesting subtropical shrub known as a flowering maple can be grown as a houseplant. I was introduced to this plant back in the spring by a fellow Master Gardener when she asked me to identify it. Known as the flowering maple houseplant, a.k.a. Abutilon spp., it is called a flowering maple because the plant’s leaves are similar in appearance to maple leaves. Other names for the plant are Chinese bellflower or Chinese lantern and Indian Mallow. Abutilons are native to southern Brazil and are commonly found throughout the South and Central Americas.   Read More…

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  Memories of Christmas Past  by Gary Crawford

Ah, the year-end holidays are upon us once again. Christmas celebrations are many and varied and ~ for me, at least ~ have changed much over the years. After all, it’s the kids who have the real fun. And boy, do I remember one of those super-fun Christmases!… but more about that one later. For adults, the Christmas season is one of home decorating, gift-buying, wrapping of presents and planning gatherings of friends and family. Parents and grandparents dither about what to purchase and how much to spend. What would Judy like? Or Billy?  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, Gary Crawford, Pamela Meredith, Roger Vaughan, Bonna Nelson, Michael Valliant, Tom Horton, Jim Dawson, and Marc Teffeau. Distribution covers an area including Dorchester, Talbot, Caroline, Queen Anne’s and Kent counties.

Subscriptions are $25 per year. For rate or subscription information please contact Tidewater Times.