(Reader-friendly viewing of newspaper archives material)
I'm away this week and have selected some items that perhaps you didn't see originally or would like to read again. -tk
September, 1953
During the days of a 1953 protest by Pocomoke City's baseball team in the Central Shore League over the postponement of a play-off game between Pocomoke and Crisfield legendary Salisbury Times Sports Editor Ed Nichols recalled an incident from more than a decade earlier:
One memorable night years ago the tool shed at the Pocomoke City ball park was getting a battering.
Inside was an umpire, Ed Toach, we believe, who the hostile fans wanted to get their hands on. He'd done 'em wrong they screamed. The chief of police extinguished the hot tempers finally by having the fire siren blown loud and long. The only fire blazing in Pocomoke then was around that tool shed. This mournful screeching stimulated the curiosity of the angry crew. Off they hustled up town to find out they had been tricked. But it was too late. Toach was hustled out of town, saved by the fire bell.
They were the old blood and thunder days of the Eastern Shore (D) League, 1937-1941.
July, 1856
If you were living on the Eastern Shore in the mid 1850's and wanted to go to Philadelphia here's a connection route according to information in the July 4,1856 edition of the Delaware State Reporter in Dover: The Sea Steamer St. Nicholas leaves Lewes, Del., for Philadelphia every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 5AM. There's a stage route to Lewes from Cherry Stone, Va., via Drummondtown, Horntown, Snow Hill, Berlin, and Millsboro. There's also a stage route from Princess Anne via Salisbury, Laurel ,and Georgetown. For returning from Philadelphia, the steamer leaves the Arch Street Wharf on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7AM.
September, 1971
High School football was set to make its debut in Worcester County with teams in Snow Hill and Berlin but Pocomoke would not yet be fielding a team. The county commissioners had approved approximately $33,000 for each of the three High Schools for a football program. Pocomoke chose to use its first year funding for improvements to its athletic field, while continuing with its soccer program. Snow Hill and Berlin would continue their soccer programs as well.
February, 1935
(The Denton Journal)
(Excerpts)
For the first time since 1888 the upper Chincoteague Bay which laps tidewater Worcester County between South Point, near Ocean City, and the Maryland-Virginia boundary, is a solid field of ice. Approximately 90 square miles of the bay is frozen with ice ranging from 6 to 10 inches in thickness, which extends between the mainland and the beach peninsula. Last week several Stockton and Girdletree fishermen walked seven miles across the ice to the beach, chatted with Coast Guards isolated at the Green Run station, and returned without mishap. Ice skaters at Public Landing ventured miles out across the ice covered bay. Older residents, recalling the freeze on the bay in 1888, tell tales of horse-drawn vehicles being driven over the ice from Chincoteague, Va., north to Ocean City, Md., a distance of 40 miles.
October, 1967
R.E. Powell & Co. held dedication ceremonies for its newly remodeled store, the former Coffman-Fisher clothing store, at the northwest corner of Second and Market Streets in Pocomoke.
Footnote: Some may have childhood memories of climbing the steps above the balcony level to Coffman-Fisher's toy department which was set-up once a year for the Christmas season.
Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers.. such as a big snow storm, a favorite school teacher, a local happening, something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? It can be just a line or two or more if you wish. Your name won't be used unless you ask that it be. Send to tkforppe@yahoo.com and watch for it on a future TIME MACHINE posting!
