The Pocomoke Public Eye

Saturday, March 11, 2023

Senator Carozza Reports

No go for Saturday launch from Wallops

(Shore Daily News)

Windy weather resulted in the postponement of the scheduled Electron launch by Rocket Lab at the Wallops Flight Facility. Strong winds both at ground level and aloft resulted in the postponement. Rocket Lab tweeted that there will be other windows of opportunity to get the launch off in the next week and they will be announcing the new launch attempt time shortly.

Friday, March 10, 2023

State Board of Ed has great report for Worcester County schools

In Worcester County, ninety percent of eligible schools earned a rating of four or five stars. For comparison, only 48% of all school types in Maryland reached four- or five-star status.

(Read more about it:)

WCPS Shines in latest MD School Report Card - Worcester County Public Schools (worcesterk12.org)

Time Machine Preview

This Sunday here at The Pocomoke Public Eye:

PLUS

1906 ..

Notice the article dateline name of "Hursley, Md." Where or what was Hursley? Read more about it Sunday.

1997 ..

1897 .. Hoping for an Ocean City inlet from Mother Nature-

Thursday, March 9, 2023

Saturday weather for Wallops launch

The second Rocket Lab Electron rocket launch from Wallops is scheduled for Saturday. Will weather conditions permit?

National Weather Service Saturday forecast for the Wallops area (updated 3/11, 5a.m.):

Mostly cloudy, with a high near 47. Windy, with a northwest wind 20 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 38 mph.

(View launch news story:)

Rocket Lab to launch Capella Space Project Saturday - Shore Daily News

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Worcester towns apply for county funds

(The following is a condensed version of the article. View the article in full at this link:)

03.09.23-Bayside-Gazette.pdf (baysideoc.net)

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Fire danger risk continues, March 8

A similar fire danger statement has been issued for Accomack and Northampton Counties.

Special Weather Statement

Special Weather Statement
National Weather Service Wakefield VA
533 AM EST Wed Mar 8 2023

MDZ021>025-090145-
Dorchester-Wicomico-Somerset-Inland Worcester-Maryland Beaches-
Including the cities of Cambridge, Salisbury, Crisfield,
Princess Anne, Snow Hill, and Ocean City
533 AM EST Wed Mar 8 2023

...Increased Fire Danger This Afternoon and Early This Evening...

Breezy and dry conditions are expected again today. North to
northwest winds will be gusty to 30 to 40 mph. Relative humidity
values will drop to around 30 percent across the lower Maryland
Eastern Shore. These winds and low relative humidity levels will
lead to an increased fire danger risk from midday today through
early this evening.

Residents are urged to exercise caution handling any potential
ignition source...including machinery... cigarettes...and matches.
Be sure to properly discard all smoking materials. Any dry
grasses and tree litter that ignite will have the potential to
spread quickly.

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

A Tale Of Two Theaters

It was late January or early February 1964. I had just completed the first semester of my freshman year at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Final exams were over, it was a cold Saturday night and group of us went to the movies. Back then, first run films newly released could be seen only in downtown theaters; only after several months did they make their way to the suburbs.

Like many cities, D.C. had several large and very elegant movie theaters, with 1500 to 2000 seats, large, wide screens, satin curtains, plush lobbies, tapestried walls, and ushers to help you find a seat. ( Only the Warner Theater still stands today, but it is used mostly as a performance venue and not a movie theater.) The most popular movies were big spectacular wide screen colorful spectacles; My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins were among the box office smash hits of that year.

But our destination that cold winter evening was not one of the large, wide screen movie palaces, and the movie of choice was not a tens of millions of dollars blockbuster cinema spectacular. No – we were headed to the Dupont Theater (also no longer there) on Connecticut Avenue just south of Dupont Circle. The Dupont was a small theater - just a large room really – no balconies or boxes – seating about 300 people and located on the bottom floor of an office building. While the theater did show first run films, they were not the big splash spectacles.

The audience that crowded into the small theater that night was mostly young people – probably college students like me on break. It was a somewhat raucous group. But just a few minutes before the start of the movie I caught sight of something – or I should say someone – unusual. Someone who didn’t belong with this noisy group of kids. In walked an elegantly dressed couple. He was very tall – at least 6’4” and broad shouldered, wearing a very nice cashmere or wool topcoat, in sharp contrast to the dirty jackets and sweatshirts of the rest of us. The woman with him was also well dressed. There were only a few empty seats left and my first reaction was fear that this large man might sit in front of me – there was not much slant to the floor and I was concerned that I would not see the movie so well. But that reaction was quickly replaced by one of awe – because this was not just any tall man – I knew who this was – newspaper columnist and CBS TV newsman Eric Sevareid. The celebrity presence seemed to innervate the crowd even more. And by the way, fortunately he sat behind me.

The movie showing was Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. While Stangelove does have an all-star cast (more on that in a moment), it is not a wide screen glamour film; in fact it is a black and white movie and is only 95 minutes long! It is a comedy satire on the cold war, the arms race (how many of you remember the missile gap?), and parodies the government and military of both the U.S. and the USSR. George C Scott and Sterling Hayden portray over the top parodies of U.S. Generals – one of them hawkish and power mad, the other just basically nuts. Peter Sellers plays three different roles: the U.S. President, a proper British army Captain, and Dr. Strangelove, a geeky German rocket scientist roughly based on Wernher Von Braun. Keenan Wynn is a by-the-book army man who disrupts the scheme. Cowboy actor Slim Pickens is the pilot of a bomber armed with the nuclear bomb that will start world war three, and a very very young James Earl Jones is the plane’s engineer and intelligence officer.

The movie is chock full of just the type of anti-establishment satire and sophistry that would have appealed to us college kids. After all, we knew that we were much smarter than any adults, and would never do any of the stupid things that they do – such as in this film. We laughed; we roared; we screamed; we applauded. I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen. And it was the start of a care-free weekend. I should also point out that at that time, the legal age for beer and wine in the District was 18. After the movie we all bundled up out into the cold and went elsewhere. Eric Sevareid and his wife drove off in their car.

I told everyone I knew – including relatives and friends in Pocomoke – that they just had to see this movie!

1964. I am back in Pocomoke for the summer. In fact, little did I know, it would be the last time that I actually lived in Pocomoke. But anyway, Dr. Strangelove came to the Marva Theater. I made sure as many people as possible went with me to see this movie; my parents, aunts, uncles, whoever I could. It was a very hot night. The Marva Theater is much larger than the Dupont Theater was. On the night we went, there were at most 40 or maybe 50 people total in the theater – so there were hundreds of empty seats. We watched the movie; we chuckled; we giggled a few times. We did not scream; we did not roar with laughter, and we definitely did not applaud (which is bad etiquette at a movie anyway). That hot night, in that near empty theater, I can honestly say that the movie was just not all that funny. Those who went with me told me that they thought it was “clever” or perhaps “cute.”

Since that night, I have seen the movie a dozen times or more; mostly on TV and I do own a DVD of it. I still think that it is a very funny movie, but it has never seemed as funny as that first night. Some of the humor is dated, although perhaps not as dated as it was 20 years ago. I used to think of the dichotomy between those first two viewings of the movie when I would see Johnny Carson deliver his monologue and sometimes would get no reaction. He would stare out at the audience and say “Is anyone alive out there?” I also think about the year or so that I worked part time as an usher at Lisner Auditorium. Observing the same concert or performance two or even three times, the audience reaction was not always consistent. But those are examples of live performances. Performers on any given night may have a chemistry, an interaction with the crowd. But a movie?

Was the D.C. audience right to think this was so funny? Was the Pocomoke audience wrong to think it wasn't? I believe that comedy is about a time, a place and an atmosphere. This is a variant of "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder." The first time I saw the movie it really was as funny as we thought because we - as a group - perceived it to be so. The second time it really was not as funny, because that is how we perceived it that night. I was part of both audiences and all these years later I can still remember and feel the perceptions I had at each of those screenings of the movie.

Perception is reality.

You had to be there.

(Reader comment)

Anonymous said...

I was there. It was funny. It's still funny. Especially Slim Pickens.

Your friend,
Slim

tk for PPE says- Slim, you've been conspicuous by your absence here at PPE. Would love for you to chime in more often like back in the "old" days.

Gene Lusby

Pocomoke City lost a longtime business and community leader this past weekend with the passing of Gene Lusby.

(excerpt from obituary:)

In 1958, he started working in Bata Shoe Company, and in 1966, he went into business for himself when he opened his first Montgomery Wards Retail &; Catalog store in Pocomoke City. Two years later he opened a second franchise in Parksley, VA, and he later opened his third franchise in Exmore, VA. Gene was the only person in the country to have three Montgomery Ward franchises.

After the closing of Montgomery Ward in 1985, he opened Lusby’s Appliances &; Electronics, which he ran with his wife and son until he retired in 1993.

He participated for years in the Little League Organization and Senior League Baseball Organization. He held the office of President in the Kiwanis Club, Rotary Club, Pocomoke City Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Business Association, Pocomoke High School Athletic Boosters, Holly Grove Grandparents Association.

(Read full obituary:)

Eugene "Gene" Herbert Lusby Obituary - The Daily Times (delmarvanow.com)

Fire danger on lower shore

(Shore Daily News)

(View news article:)

Increased fire risk next several days - Shore Daily News

Monday, March 6, 2023

Chincoteague Drill Team

(Picture from Shore Daily News feature story)

The Chincoteague Pony Drill Team is the only one of its kind. The ponies are all descendants of the famed "Misty."

(View feature story:)

Chincoteague drill team member came up with idea to make ponies the official state pony of Virginia - Shore Daily News

Sunday, March 5, 2023

Rescue at Sunday house fire near Pocomoke

(WMDT)

Pocomoke City Volunteer Fire Company photo

View news story:

One resident, dog rescued from Pocomoke City house fire - 47abc (wmdt.com)

"A Tale Of Two Theaters"

Mel is turning back the clock with memories of a film you know of, and maybe have seen, and recalls how it played to the audiences in Washington, D.C. and in Pocomoke City.

It's an interesting read and we think you'll enjoy it.

Check for "A Tale of Two Theaters" on Tuesday, 3/7, here at The Pocomoke Public Eye.

Time Machine: 100 years ago this week in the Pocomoke newspaper, 1940, 1892, 2007, 1910.

In considering whether to use the following two articles regarding the Ku Klux Klan we concluded that if we ignored these items we wouldn't be reflecting the times in which the local newspaper was published. So read if you wish to; if you do, grimacing can't be avoided. An editorial in this same edition didn't find fault with propositions advocated by the Klan but indicated concern that not enough details were put forth and that the public could adhere to principles it desired without the Klan's involvement. - The Pocomoke Public Eye

(Reader comment:)

Anonymous said...

History is not something for you to ignore or change. It is what happened and, hopefully, is something from which we can learn what we did wrong or what we did right and can use to guide our lives in the future.

tk for PPE says: Obviously the two Klan articles were not straight forward factual news accounts and appeared to reflect the writer's (editor's?)sentiments interjected (i.e. "and certainly what the Klan stands for can be backed up by every good American"). Thus the reason, initially, for the consideration as to whether or not to use these articles.