TIME MACHINE ... An Eastern Shore Banquet!

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January, 1914

(The Denton Journal)

A Notable Banquet In Prospect

From The Baltimore Sun

The board of governors of the Eastern Shore Society have perfected plans for the first annual dinner, which will be given at the hotel Rennet on January 21. The menu has been arranged with a view of selecting those dishes for which the Eastern Shore counties are famous and nearly every dish served will carry the name of the county it represents. Here it is:

Selected Somerset Oysters.

Tomato bisque, Caroline County Style.

Wicomico Celery.

Salted Nuts, Terrapin, Dorchester County Style.

Queen Anne Filet of Beef.

Mushroom Sauce, Cecil County Peas.

Broiled Young Chicken, Kent County.

Worcester Sweet Potatoes Grilled.

Old Talbot Ham, Hearts of Lettuce.

Old Fashioned Ice Cream, Cakes, Coffee. Cigars, Cigarettes.

Eastern Shore Beaten Biscuit.

Beaten Biscuit will be imported direct from the Shore. The oysters will come from the waters of Somerset, while down in Kent they broil chicken as on one else can. Then there is the genuine diamond-back terrapin. It is said that in the board meeting there was considerable competition among the county vice-presidents as to which county the claiming of the terrapin should go. No one disputed the claim of Caroline to the tomato, for she grows more than any two counties put together; nor was there much dispute about the sweet potatoes, for the southern counties on the "Shore" produce the best that reach the city markets. Cecil took the petit peas, but Somerset, Dorchester, Kent, and Talbot all thought their terrapin the best.

A committee has been appointed to look after speakers and they will all be Eastern Shoremen. Lyn R. Meekins, of Dorchester, will be the toastmaster.

　　

August, 1887

(The Denton Journal)

Maryland Cooking

(Excerpts)

(Quoting a New York Times correspondent.)

In Maryland one of the roads to Paradise begins in the kitchen and ends in the dining-room. Nowhere in the world do people as a class live better. They are born to good eating, and the cultivation of the appetite becomes a second nature.

The choicest things of life flourish here with a luxuriance that few, if any sections of the country can match.

... Cantaloupe, oysters, soft crabs, trout, rail birds, luscious peaches just plucked, and an indescribable watermelon fresh from the vine!

Good eating is so infectious in the State that it pervades politics. In one of the counties, Wicomico, the campaign is invariably opened in the spring by a great turtle dinner. All the candidates and politicians and district leaders come together in a love feast of turtle and politics. They sit around on stools and fences eating and talking and laughing booms and courting friendships. The affair lasts an entire day, and after it is over the candidates proceed to slaughter one another instead of turtle. Oyster roasts are features of all large campaigns. Several dozen bushels of oysters are roasted in one great fire and every man, equipped with an oyster knife, helps himself. Good dinners are also numerously used in a political way, and many a boom had its fruitful origin in well cooked food, flavored with rare old wines.

A year or so ago the best restaurant here, and all in all the best in the south, imported a staff of high-salaried New York cooks. The arrangement lasted less than a week. By that time the guests had asked for a return to Maryland dishes, for to a Marylander the subtle charm of home cooking is the greatest glory of the ages.

　

March, 1957

With the dualization of the nine mile stretch of U.S. 13 from just north of Princess Anne to Salisbury completed, plans were in the works to dualize the stretch from Pocomoke City to Princess Anne. By-passes for Pocomoke and Princess Anne were also being planned. 1956 saw the completion of a new railway overpass near Pocomoke that replaced a dangerous Route 13 grade crossing.

Footnote: Digging out tons of gravel for the overpass created a quite sizable man-made body of water, perhaps about a quarter of a mile across, just to the east of the overpass. This became known as Merrill's Beach and with the help of one of Pocomoke City's civic organizations it was maintained for a number of years as a popular local swimming and bathing area. Merrill's Beach eventually had to close because Health Department water standards could not be maintained.

　　

December, 1967

Pocomoke City residents were remembering retired long time Market Street merchant L. Griffin Callahan who passed away at age 71. He had owned and operated Callahan's Ladies Shop; he was a charter member and past president of the Pocomoke Lions Club and had served several times as Commander of American Legion Worcester Post 93.

　　

August, 1892

(The Daily News- Frederick, Md)

A stranger who attempted to introduce politics into a Farmer's Alliance meeting in Worcester County was surrounded by the Snow Hill Brass Band and blown off the stump.

　　

　

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