Previously inaccessible archives from 1993-1997 now coming on-line, with more each week! Note that this is working copy (uncorrected text, no photos, including covers).

Take me back to this week's issue | Take me back to the archives

1997’s Best of Bill Burton | Earth Journal: 1997 in Review | NBT’s Editorial Year in Review |
| Letters to the Editor | Reflections |

to the top

Earth Journal: 1997 in Review

As winter commences, January’s spare landscape is bare of leaf but sharp in contrasts, Little in nature can escape our attention, if we are good observers. —Who’s Here: Jan. 9-15, MLF

The world turns too fast too look back. Until you walk in the woods on a snowy day. On such an outing, past, present and future lay themselves out in slow time. Simultaneously you can see where you are, where you’re going and where you’ve been. Ahead, if you’re out early, lies the unblemished field of your future. Behind, the path you’ve taken is preserved in high relief …
— Who’s Here: Feb. 13-19, SOM

Hale-Bopp just keeps getting bigger and brighter. This week marked the comet’s cross into night skies as well as the early morning skies. Hale-Bopp now rises an hour or so before dawn in the northeast. Throughout the day, the comet crosses overhead, invisible with sunlight. But as the sun sets, the comet shines bright for over an hour, low in the northwest …
- Sky Watch: March 13-19, JAK

The fast-moving, gray clouds rolled over the early dawn skies, and the southwest winds generated steady, two-foot seas with the occasional three and four-foot rogue waves lifting the hull out of the water. It made for an eerie run from Cape Charles Fishing Center to the fishing ground within sight of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel. Sometimes half the thrill of fishing is getting to the spot through challenging seas …
— Chesapeake Outdoors: Aug. 7-13, Capt. C.D. Dollar

In the half-light of a new day, an eerie fog suspended over the water, magnifying trees and plants as if outlined in charcoal. The wood ducks stirred in their roosts, using sharp-clawed feet to hang on tree limbs, their high-pitched screeching echoing off the water like a primeval war whoop …
— Chesapeake Outdoors: Oct. 16-29, Capt. C.D. Dollar

The good thing about fishing with someone like Willy Agee is that he doesn’t mind getting up before first light even when its cold. Early morning fishing is easy when it’s warm, but it takes a hardy soul to get out of a warm bed during the cold months …
— Chesapeake Outdoors: Nov. 13-19, Capt. C.D. Dollar

A slate gray ceiling canvassed the sky, yet another signal that autumn’s time is nearly done. The frigid temperatures and nature’s call have sent most species to warm water, either to deep holes throughout the Bay or out of the Chesapeake entirely. Most fishermen have oiled their reels and stowed their tackle, looking forward to the winter boating and fishing shows.

But recently, four expert fishermen compelled me to cut the engine and watch their sills unfold.
These fishermen of the first order were common loons, some of the last to follow the menhaden down to coastal Carolina. Before their final push south, loons form hunting parties, herding baitfish into shallows and devouring incredible quantities …

— Chesapeake Outdoors: Dec. 18-25, Capt. C.D. Dollar

to the top

NBT’s Editorial Year in Review

Editorials are a little like a sermon: good for you but oft-times dull. That’s why NBT takes our cue from a minister who preached that Sunday services should be as exciting as basketball.

We shoot for editorials that keep our readers awake, alert and sometimes cheering. That means — while we’re not shy of heavy issues or controversial opinions — we sometimes play on our editorial court.

Here’s a sample of how we met our standard this year.

March 27: When the World is Cruel, Be an April Fool
If you’re not careful, the world will make you crazy. Even reading the morning papers is enough to send you scurrying back beneath your comforter.

We have some advice about how to cope: Slow down, smile and practice a little laughter.

The start of spring is a fine time to take a load off. You even get an invitation to thumb your nose at all your woes by becoming an April Fool …

April 3: Along our Roads, Signs of the Times
“Meet the Monster that Could Eat South County.”

That scary warning that has sprouted throughout Southern Anne Arundel County on signs that are the work of the mischievously named Shady Deale Alliance …

Right or wrong, the signs are part of guerrilla warfare.

County Executive John Gary, the county council and the zoning bureaucrats had better know when making these fateful decisions about the future that people are feeling desperate.

If they don’t, it may be the county that meets the monster.

November 13: Salmonella Outbreak: A Wake-Up Call for Us All
A salmonella outbreak in St. Mary’s County last week sickened 700 people and may have been fatal to two …
For the sake of our families, all of us are responsible for looking out for the safety of our food, which is easier said than done.

So few of us grow, hunt or harvest our own food that it’s easy to forget about all that it goes through on the way to our table.

Bill Burton’s Year in Review

Bill Burton at his best is like amber: rich with treasures suspended in time. For some those treasures are his encyclopedic knowledge of fishing and hunting not only here on Chesapeake Bay but throughout the nation. Others read him to learn the history of Chesapeake Country and Chesapeake characters. His value for still others is the way he tells a story. And not a few, of course, read him to get mad.

Here are some of our favorites from Bill Burton’s 50th year in journalism—

Jan. 9: Burton’s Backyard Count
for the significance of the small:
My annual Christmas count at the six feeder, the bird bath and the rest of the east lawn turned up only six species, 23 birds in all … but I checked off 18 squirrel sightings, seven at one time.

By the way: Do squirrels have a game plan in their harvest? Or is it that they just figure if they bury enough nuts here and there, they will have enough around? Seems to me the recovery rate is not near what it could be if bushytails were more organized and efficient …

Feb. 6: White Perch: The Cold Bay’s Answer to Shmoos
for spring’s earliest report:
Yellow perch are stirring in some waters of the Eastern Shore. Then there’s the old Chesapeake standby: the white perch. Their late winter/early spring run usually follows yellow perch …

In Eastern Shore fish fries, the “regulars” reach first for the perch. The flesh is white, firm and sweet.

March 6: Where’s the Forest
for a look back in time:
This writer goes back to the Great Depression, when the only motorized aspect of wood chopping was the circular saw that cut the eight-foot lengths of cord wood into pieces small enough to fit into the kitchen range and the hot-air furnace. All other aspects were handled by musclepower …

Ah, the two-man saw operation was a sight to behold. What rhythm in motion and in sound …

April 3: Burton’s Beard
for its New England economy:
What with raising, educating and marrying off six kids in addition to being one who can’t resist expensive tobacco, fancy briar pipes and the latest in fishing tackle, I confess I haven’t saved much in 70 plus years on planet Earth.

Yet the other morning as I looked into the mirror, I realized I had saved something.

What I have saved is at least 110,000 minutes, which computes to about 1,850 hours. At minimum fast-food outlet wage scales, that figures out to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $9.500.

May be the Good Lord will credit me those 1,850 hours in the bank of life. I consider those extra 77 days my due, because of all in the process I’ve saved the environment …

You see, 31 years ago this week, I gave up shaving for good.

May 15: Mother’s Day in the Wild
for its unsentimental wisdom:
There is much to notice in this delightful season when the biggest changes of the year take place.

There is the fox intent on goose eggs in a Baltimore County meadow. Grasses are not yet high enough to secret the mission of the persistent sly red fox from my view — or that of the two Canada geese tending a nest close to the shore of a small pond.

Nature’s way is curious though well founded.

May 22: In Memory of Earl Ashenfelter
for the sense of the man:
I wonder which came first: Earl Ashenfelter or that six-mile stretch of the Susquehanna River from Lapidum to Conowingo Dam.

They were intertwined for more than 60 years, that boulder-littered, tumbling wash of beautiful water and the man who fish it so successfully that he became a legend in his own time.

He knew every rock and rockfish of his stretch of river. He could call the strikes before the fish hit …

July 17: Come with Me to Crisfield, Where the Fish Always Bite
for hope and characters
As the dog days of summer melt me, my thoughts turn to Crisfield on the lower Eastern Shore. There, in midsummer, the fish always bite.

I can understand bewilderment about Crisfield.

When I first traveled there to fish 40 years ago, my first boat carried a most unusual gaff; another had no fishing rods. On the third trip, once we reached the fishing grounds, the skipper jumped from the wheel, sprawled flat with an ear to the deck and croaked like a springtime bullfrog …

August 14: Hard Times on the Pocomoke
for the quiet:
Let me tell you about my river. Forget about Pfiesteria piscicida and its ugly implications. Think of primitive beauty, coffee-colored waters in snake-like configuration, a tide that can be swift as the wind, old cypress stumps, many kinds of fish and, on its banks, two state parks each appealing to its own kind of camper.

No where in the mid-Atlantic is there a better opportunity to get away from it all than on the dark waters said to be stained by the roots of the cypress. One can go for miles with no signs of civilization in a path that wends through a thick, swampy forest.

Nothing moves save for the tide and perhaps an osprey circling far above, waiting to spy a fish before making its nose dive. Occasionally, the tranquillity is broken by a bass splashing the surface in chase of a minnow or bug. Sometimes the boat of a fisherman, the canoe of a nature-watcher or perhaps a river barge reminds one that there is human life on the river …

Oct. 30: Remembering James Michener
for first-hand experience:
Several years after Chesapeake was published, the author called me at the Baltimore Evening Sun to say it was about time that we went fishing on the Chesapeake together, as we had previously said we would when fish were running and our schedules allowed.

He said he needed a day off, nothing to do but sit on a boat and relax. He was then 75. I was in my mid-50s, still young enough to think that someone his age wouldn’t be up to an early start, the long boat ride, hours of trolling and the long return. Through experience and age, I have learned otherwise — and that day on the water with the U.S.’s top writer of his time had much to do with my learning.

Nov. 13: Ode to a Small Fish
for whimsy in realism:
It’s dog eat dog down there under the water. You know how it goes: Tiny fish are gobbled up by small fish, which in turn make a meal for medium fish, which end up in the jaws of larger fish and so on up the line to the big sharks.

It can’t be much fun being a fish unless one is the biggest of them all — and even then there are humans, pollution, hooks, nets and propellers to contend with. Maybe we’re not so bad off.

Dec. 18: With Wildlife, Finders-Keepers Can Become Weepers
for high jinks;
Confession time: hopefully that statue of limitations has long passed and the real perpetrator is long in the grave …

I faced losing one of the best jobs in the country in a most embarrassing way: possession of an endangered species. The Sun would have a new outdoor editor. In addition, I faced a big fine, possible prison …

Enough said for this year. You’ll remeet Burton on Jan. 8, 1998.

to the top

1997 in Review

People You’ve Met
EPA’s man on the Bay Bill Matuszeski, interviewed by Bill Lambrecht on Jan. 23:
“We’ve really reached the point where the easy stuff has been done. People are going to have to start thinking about different ways of living. We cannot save the Bay and allow everybody to live on a five-acre ranchette with a stream running through it. It ain’t gonna happen…”

Annapolis African American historian Philip Brown, Sonia Linebaugh on Feb. 27
“I grew up in a colored neighborhood,” says Brown, who was born in 1909. “As a little fellow, I saw white people at the store and later worked there for my father. But that was business. We were born into that and accepted it just as people accept their economic level. The older we got, the more fixed it was …”

Plucky ballerina Heidi Menocal, on April 3, in Kimbra Cutlip’s “Dance of Life”
A year ago, Heidi and John Menocal were traveling through a looking glass world, seeking their way back to normal life.
Heidi, dancer and teacher with the Ballet Theatre of Annapolis for over 12 years, was one of 740 young people in our area to suffer a stroke in 1995 or ‘96…

Outgoing Annapolis Symphony conductor Gisele Ben-Dor, interviewed by Sandra Martin on April 10:
“There is an audience out there, especially for music with meaning that reassures people they’re living in a civilized world…”

Alternative energy wizard Jim Caldwell, interviewed by Bill Lambrecht on April 17 on new sources of energy:
“If we don’t stimulate alternative sources of energy — like solar, wind and photovoltaic — we’re going to be right back in trouble. The key if we want to clean the air and get lower rates is to get new investment in alternative technologies…”

Citizen Carrie of Shady Side, interviewed by M.L. Faunce, on June 5:
Matthews has spent the better part of her life in motion, progressing with the times or stepping ahead of them. She was always a doer, from her early years in Fork union, Va., to her education in Washington D.C., to her many years in the rural community of Shady Side, Md., as midwife, nurse, foster parent and business woman …

Underwater archaeologist Donald Shomette, about to explore Commodore Barney’s flotilla beneath the dark and silty waters of the Patuxent River, on June 26, in Sandra Martin’s interview:
“You can’t see much. The Bay is filling with sediment rather rapidly. Archaeology in the Bay until recently you could call archaeology by Braille because visibility is pretty poor. On the other hand, because of the siltation, many sites get buried and preserved…

Pavel Strasil, interviewed on July 31 by Bill Lambrecht:
Pavel Strasil sailed back to Deale from the Caribbean in June. minus an engine. Alone. It wasn’t as tricky as his escape from the Czech KBG 13 years ago…

Chuck Shepherd, the man behind “News of the weird,” on Aug. 7
Shepherd’s column started as a hobby, a diversion from the stress of working and living in Washington. Before he discovered that syndicated wierdness could be a way of life, Shepherd practiced criminal law, worked in the administration of President Jimmy Carter and taught at the George Washington School of Business…
Each and every item in his weekly column is true.

Calvert County’s wildest rocker, nationally ranked guitarist and family man Bill Kirchen, interviewed by Sandra Martin on Sept. 11:
“There’s a whole lot of things I ain’t done, but I ain’t never had too much fun…”

Chesapeake Country’s garlic king Pat Piper, profiled by Bill Lambrecht on Oct. 23
“You always wonder when you put it in the ground who will have the more interesting journey in the coming months, the garlic or the grower. This is a real Zen thing…”

Slave-stealer Patty Cannon “The Wicked Witch of the Eastern Shore,” discovered by Bob Hall on Oct. 30:
With the help of her son-in-law, “Killer” Joe Johnson, Patty headed a notorious reverse underground railroad between 1800 and 1829, kidnapping free blacks, escaped slaves and persons who could be sold into slavery regardless of age, gender or ethnic origin.

“Chesapeake Country’s Three Scrooges,” encountered on Dec. 11 by Carol Glover
“Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint…”
— Charles Dickens

Creatures You’ve Encountered
A female bald eagle, dead atop a utility pole, in Carol Glover’s Feb. 13 “Broomes Island Eagle Mystery”:
“We’ve found snakes, raccoons and fish hawks on top of poles before,” said Russ Griffith, the SMECO crewman called to my house that dark December night. “But never before an eagle…”

Llamas and their little cousins, alpacas, in Feb. 20’s “Loco for Llamas,” by Bill Lambrecht
When people talk of a population boom along the Chesapeake, they’re usually referring to a movement of families from metropolitan Washington. These days, they might be speaking of a different sort of Bayward migration, this one originating in the mountains of South America…

Chessie, on March 27, in Bill Burton’s “Chessie Lives!”
I fervently hope, dear readers, you won’t think I’ve been devouring too many martinis with my olives, or that at my age I’m beginning to imagine things, or tell fibs or, worst of all, that I’m a publicity seeker.
But I have a confession to make.
I saw Chessie.

In “We Are Not Alone,” on July 10 by Stacy Allen:
Whales, dolphins, manatees, sea turtles are among the strange and wonderful creatures with whom we share Chesapeake waters. They need our awareness and sometimes our help…

Things You’ve Discovered
Barter, with Sandra Martin, on Jan. 30, when you were likely still short on cash:
In its five-year history, Creative Barter Network has sent Douglas Pohlman, of Clipper Carpet Cleaning, on vacation to Aruba and the Bahamas — for 94 percent less money than his ready-cash neighbors paid for the same accommodations…

That’s a snippet of the services, goods and luxuries enjoyed cash-free by the 300-plus regional members of the network…

One of Southern Maryland’s surviving tobacco barns, with Sandra Martin, on March 6, for the opening of 1997’s March tobacco market
For two hours the chant of “80 give me 80 … 80 … give me 85 …” rose as buyers from five tobacco companies congregated over the heavy burdens. Men who know just about everything there is to know about tobacco, the buyers seemed to have stepped from the canvas of an old master…

Animal Acupuncture and other “Creature Comforts” with Sandra Martin on May 29
Now that the search for relief has raised holistic healing to new heights of acceptance, some animal lovers are saying “heal me, heal my dog…”

101 Movies, in Doc Shereikis’ “Great Paper Chase,” March 13:
There are 101 movie titles embedded in this story of passion and violence. Find them all and send us your answers. We’ll draw five names to win a pair of tickets to your local cinema…

“The Rhythms of Kayaking,” with Bill Lambrecht on May 15
The Chesapeake region may lack sea lion colonies and blue-footed boobies. But it has plenty of wildlife and beauty of its own,” explain Andrea Nolan and Mike Savario, whose kayak journeys include “a portion of the Patuxent shaped by the tides of the ocean, creating a unique and precious ecosystem. Wild rive and cattails bufffer the river…

How or recognize “The Perfect Crabcake,” with Sandra Martin, on August 14
Start with a pound of crabmeat, body or — better still — backfin or jumbo lump…

The Annapolis Opera, explored by Valerie James on Nov. 13
The audience falls under the spell of the beauty of the sets, the elegance of the costumes and the power of the performance. Voices of the singers fill the hall, wrapping around each member of the audience… What the audience sees is an experience that opera fans call the ultimate art. What they don’t see is everything it takes to bring this performance to life…

The Anne Arundel Community College Orchestra, introduced by writer-cellist Barbara Miller on Dec. 4:
By day, most of these musicians wear other guises. On Thursday evenings, they emerge from their other lives to play…

to the top

to the top

Last Words on the Naming of Ships
Dear New Bay Times:
I can't believe that Mr. Burton called the battleships West Virginia and Maryland carriers or the Arizona a cruiser (Dec. 11-17). World War II naming practices usually reserved state names for battleships and city names for CAs and CLs. CVs were named for famous battles (Ticonderoga, Bunker Hill, and Lexington), ideals (Intrepid, Independence, and Enterprise), or fierce animals (Boxer, Wasp, and Hornet), although some signers of the Declaration of Independence were honored ( Franklin, Hancock and Bonhomme Richard). No carriers were sunk at Pearl Harbor.
— Andras O. Schneider, Port Republic

Department of Corrections
Burton Walks the Plank
Egads, the U.S. Navy might come and reclaim this red-faced former sailor's honorable discharge, issued in 1946. Though I was land-based (Pacific Theater) in underwater demolition for the SeaBees, I should know my warships and how they're named, which I do, though reader Bill R. of Dunkirk — he didn't leave a last name— (and now Andras Schneider of Port Republic) justifiably think otherwise.

I made the mistake of writing aircraft carriers were named after states, and I knew better. In editing for reasons of space, I moved some sentences around and last week's column ended up that way. It should have said carriers were named after battles such as the Coral Sea, the main topic last week. Another was the Bennington, for the Battle of Bennington in which the Green Mountain Boys of my home county in Vermont rallied a rag-tag army to intercept much-needed supplies for the British at Saratoga, the turning point of the Revolution. (History attributes the Battle of Saratoga as the turning point of that war, but Vermonters claim it was Bennington because, had the Redcoats gotten their supplies, they would have prevailed at Saratoga.)

Battleships are named for states, cruisers for cities, destroyers for people; it's all in the old Bluejackets Manual. Sorry, for the goof, Bill R., and I understand you called on your birthday, Dec. 15, which also happened to be mine. I hope I didn't ruin your special day. Happy belated birthday, and please don't think SeaBees don't know what's going on on the brine — or that this one doesn't want to walk the plank.

— BB, USN, long "retired"

Special thanks to all who wrote in 1997:
James R. Bauernschmidt • Aaron F. Beiler • Nicol Bevins • Kevin Bissell • D.C. Bourne • Loretta & Doug Breen • Sharon Brewer • Mrs. J. Hanson Briscoe • Clarence S. Britt • Howard W. Burnett • Colin J. Bruce • Judy Carney • Peter Chapman • F.L. Collins • Peg & Bill Cosgrove • Edward S. Crawford • Casey A. Cummings • Mavis & George Daly • George Dattore • Naomi E. Dennis • Elizabeth Detwiler • Jack DeVaughn • Steven R. Eastaugh • Roger Ethier • Linda Farrington • Tom Friendly • Melanie Futrell • Terry Galloway • Bernard Gannon • Tom Gill • San Ginder • Vernon Gingell • Parris Glendening • Pat Goss • Grace-Ann Gray • Jack Greer • John R. Griffin • Lyman Dean Hall • Connie Harold • Lynne Hayes • Kimberly Herd • Johnnie Hines Jr. • James. A. Hoage • Bob Holum • Chris Homan • Martha E. Joseph • Dawn Kane • I. Kindle • Joyce Kirchner • Wm. Michael Kitzmiller • Ed Ladley • Richard H. Lange • Paul Lanham • Jay Lounsbury • Ed Lowman • M.E. Martin • Carrie B. Matthews • Barbara Miller • Gene Miller • John Douglas Parran • Bill Papian • Shari Lynn Pippen • John & Raye Price • Edward J. Przybyla • Bill Purvis • Bill R. • Audrey Scharmen • Andras O. Schneider • Mary Searing • Betty-Carol Sellen • Michael Shay • Glorious Shenton • Sally Shivnan • David Snellen • Bobby Sturgell • Cindy Catterton Uthus • Thea Warner • Gaye Williams • Raj Williams • Kathleen Wilson • Walter L. Wilt • Ann Wolfe • Franklin S. Yates

to the top

1997: New Bay Times’ Year in Review: Reflections
1997 began auspiciously, with the inauguration of Bill Clinton as our nation’s 42nd president and D.C. insider M.L. Faunce’s reflection (Jan. 16) on the long and egalitarian history of the phrase, “My Fellow Americans”:

“The phrase symbolizes an aspect unique to our democratic form of government: the president is indeed one of us. ”

As the year unfolded, we met many fellow Americans and citizens of Chesapeake Country.

In February, Pat Piper introduced us to Jane, who had sailed into Herrington Harbour South at Rosehaven and made a community of friends before continuing her solo voyage to Florida, where, we read with shared sorrow, her life’s journey ended.

“That was the third lesson we learned from Jane: We don’t remember years as much as we remember moments.”

On May 8, Mother’s Day, we met Hattie Taylor Nick, a Shady Side midwife who died nearly 50 years ago …

“‘Like many midwives, Hattie couldn’t read or write. She had to rely on her memory,’” near-contemporary Carrie Matthews, 87, told writer and local historian M.L. Faunce.

Now Nick and her times are part of our memories.

Like Jane, our travels near and far sparked our reflections. On April 3, our thoughts turned to the Marlborough Hunt Club Races, a festive day of steeplechases run annually on the Roedown Farm in Southern Anne Arundel County.

“Even if all your horses ran second to last, all were winners. At least for the day of the Roedown Races. Southern Marylanders live like kings and queens.”

Sometimes, we reflected, it takes losing yourself to get back on track.

On May 15, horsewoman Aloysia Hamalainen’s journey on her horse D’Orsaz lost the way in a dark and threatening woods:

“I unclenched my fingers from the reins and stroked his neck. I lay my palms on the pommel of the saddle. As the sky turned purple, he found the main path.”

Audrey Scharmen reflected on another kind of loss on May 22, when she was left behind by Hale-Bopp, “the quintessential comet, the wanderer of the century … a great pulsating phosphorescent cone-jelly, another iridescent flower of the Chesapeake night.”

When seasons turned again on Sept. 25, M.L. Faunce felt something had been found rather than lost: “When warm day sand cool nights converge here in the fall, those heavenly vapors come rolling in or little cat feet, like a gift …”

As for plucky, 75-year-old Jane, “who sailed her catamaran into Herring Bay,” boats were the magic carpet through which we encountered many of our dreams. On April 24, Ned Killeen reflected on a single boat shared, over the years, by three dreamers.

“Wandering around Port Annapolis a few months ago, I never found the friend’s boat I was seeking. Instead, I spotted on own old boat …

Another sailor, Pat Piper, found every eye on him and every voice raised in laughter in his magic carpet ride. Called “Sailfishing,” it appeared on August 7:

“Because the breeze was gentle and because the fishing pole down below hadn’t been used for more than a year, I followed the logic that has consistently gotten me into trouble: It seemed like a good idea at the time …”

Power boaters are no more immune to dreams, as Audrey Scharmen reflected on Oct. 9, in an essay called “For the Love of an Old Boat”:

“She is a Criscraft Commander 32 with a Fiberglas hull her captain declares is the same design as the gunboats that patrolled the Mekong Delta in ‘68. The year she was launched; the year he spent in ‘Nam.

“He is still in pretty good escape, but she languished dockside, despondent, not really wanting to go anywhere or do anything …”

1997 ended auspiciously, as well, with Bob Holum disguised as “Uncle Bob” to recall the good old days when “Christmas then, as now, was might special — but took forever to get here.”

Yes, 1997 has been a year full of reflection, worth remembering.

to the top

Bill Burton’s Year in Review

Bill Burton at his best is like amber: rich with treasures suspended in time. For some those treasures are his encyclopedic knowledge of fishing and hunting not only here on Chesapeake Bay but throughout the nation. Others read him to learn the history of Chesapeake Country and Chesapeake characters. His value for still others is the way he tells a story. And not a few, of course, read him to get mad.

Here are some of our favorites from Bill Burton’s 50th year in journalism—

Jan. 9: Burton’s Backyard Count
for the significance of the small:
My annual Christmas count at the six feeder, the bird bath and the rest of the east lawn turned up only six species, 23 birds in all … but I checked off 18 squirrel sightings, seven at one time.

By the way: Do squirrels have a game plan in their harvest? Or is it that they just figure if they bury enough nuts here and there, they will have enough around? Seems to me the recovery rate is not near what it could be if bushytails were more organized and efficient …

Feb. 6: White Perch: The Cold Bay’s Answer to Shmoos
for spring’s earliest report:
Yellow perch are stirring in some waters of the Eastern Shore. Then there’s the old Chesapeake standby: the white perch. Their late winter/early spring run usually follows yellow perch …

In Eastern Shore fish fries, the “regulars” reach first for the perch. The flesh is white, firm and sweet.

March 6: Where’s the Forest
for a look back in time:
This writer goes back to the Great Depression, when the only motorized aspect of wood chopping was the circular saw that cut the eight-foot lengths of cord wood into pieces small enough to fit into the kitchen range and the hot-air furnace. All other aspects were handled by musclepower …

Ah, the two-man saw operation was a sight to behold. What rhythm in motion and in sound …

April 3: Burton’s Beard
for its New England economy:
What with raising, educating and marrying off six kids in addition to being one who can’t resist expensive tobacco, fancy briar pipes and the latest in fishing tackle, I confess I haven’t saved much in 70 plus years on planet Earth.

Yet the other morning as I looked into the mirror, I realized I had saved something.

What I have saved is at least 110,000 minutes, which computes to about 1,850 hours. At minimum fast-food outlet wage scales, that figures out to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $9.500.

May be the Good Lord will credit me those 1,850 hours in the bank of life. I consider those extra 77 days my due, because of all in the process I’ve saved the environment …

You see, 31 years ago this week, I gave up shaving for good.

May 15: Mother’s Day in the Wild
for its unsentimental wisdom:
There is much to notice in this delightful season when the biggest changes of the year take place.

There is the fox intent on goose eggs in a Baltimore County meadow. Grasses are not yet high enough to secret the mission of the persistent sly red fox from my view — or that of the two Canada geese tending a nest close to the shore of a small pond.

Nature’s way is curious though well founded.

May 22: In Memory of Earl Ashenfelter
for the sense of the man:
I wonder which came first: Earl Ashenfelter or that six-mile stretch of the Susquehanna River from Lapidum to Conowingo Dam.

They were intertwined for more than 60 years, that boulder-littered, tumbling wash of beautiful water and the man who fish it so successfully that he became a legend in his own time.

He knew every rock and rockfish of his stretch of river. He could call the strikes before the fish hit …

July 17: Come with Me to Crisfield, Where the Fish Always Bite
for hope and characters
As the dog days of summer melt me, my thoughts turn to Crisfield on the lower Eastern Shore. There, in midsummer, the fish always bite.

I can understand bewilderment about Crisfield.

When I first traveled there to fish 40 years ago, my first boat carried a most unusual gaff; another had no fishing rods. On the third trip, once we reached the fishing grounds, the skipper jumped from the wheel, sprawled flat with an ear to the deck and croaked like a springtime bullfrog …

August 14: Hard Times on the Pocomoke
for the quiet:
Let me tell you about my river. Forget about Pfiesteria piscicida and its ugly implications. Think of primitive beauty, coffee-colored waters in snake-like configuration, a tide that can be swift as the wind, old cypress stumps, many kinds of fish and, on its banks, two state parks each appealing to its own kind of camper.

No where in the mid-Atlantic is there a better opportunity to get away from it all than on the dark waters said to be stained by the roots of the cypress. One can go for miles with no signs of civilization in a path that wends through a thick, swampy forest.

Nothing moves save for the tide and perhaps an osprey circling far above, waiting to spy a fish before making its nose dive. Occasionally, the tranquillity is broken by a bass splashing the surface in chase of a minnow or bug. Sometimes the boat of a fisherman, the canoe of a nature-watcher or perhaps a river barge reminds one that there is human life on the river …

Oct. 30: Remembering James Michener
for first-hand experience:
Several years after Chesapeake was published, the author called me at the Baltimore Evening Sun to say it was about time that we went fishing on the Chesapeake together, as we had previously said we would when fish were running and our schedules allowed.

He said he needed a day off, nothing to do but sit on a boat and relax. He was then 75. I was in my mid-50s, still young enough to think that someone his age wouldn’t be up to an early start, the long boat ride, hours of trolling and the long return. Through experience and age, I have learned otherwise — and that day on the water with the U.S.’s top writer of his time had much to do with my learning.

Nov. 13: Ode to a Small Fish
for whimsy in realism:
It’s dog eat dog down there under the water. You know how it goes: Tiny fish are gobbled up by small fish, which in turn make a meal for medium fish, which end up in the jaws of larger fish and so on up the line to the big sharks.

It can’t be much fun being a fish unless one is the biggest of them all — and even then there are humans, pollution, hooks, nets and propellers to contend with. Maybe we’re not so bad off.

Dec. 18: With Wildlife, Finders-Keepers Can Become Weepers
for high jinks;
Confession time: hopefully that statue of limitations has long passed and the real perpetrator is long in the grave …

I faced losing one of the best jobs in the country in a most embarrassing way: possession of an endangered species. The Sun would have a new outdoor editor. In addition, I faced a big fine, possible prison …

Enough said for this year. You’ll remeet Burton on Jan. 8, 1998.

to the top

1997 in Review

People You’ve Met
EPA’s man on the Bay Bill Matuszeski, interviewed by Bill Lambrecht on Jan. 23:
“We’ve really reached the point where the easy stuff has been done. People are going to have to start thinking about different ways of living. We cannot save the Bay and allow everybody to live on a five-acre ranchette with a stream running through it. It ain’t gonna happen…”

Annapolis African American historian Philip Brown, Sonia Linebaugh on Feb. 27
“I grew up in a colored neighborhood,” says Brown, who was born in 1909. “As a little fellow, I saw white people at the store and later worked there for my father. But that was business. We were born into that and accepted it just as people accept their economic level. The older we got, the more fixed it was…”

Plucky ballerina Heidi Menocal, on April 3, in Kimbra Cutlip’s “Dance of Life”
A year ago, Heidi and John Menocal were traveling through a looking glass world, seeking their way back to normal life.

Heidi, dancer and teacher with the Ballet Theatre of Annapolis for over 12 years, was one of 740 young people in our area to suffer a stroke in 1995 or ‘96…

Outgoing Annapolis Symphony conductor Gisele Ben-Dor, interviewed by Sandra Martin on April 10:
“There is an audience out there, especially for music with meaning that reassures people they’re living in a civilized world…”

Alternative energy wizard Jim Caldwell, interviewed by Bill Lambrecht on April 17 on new sources of energy:
“If we don’t stimulate alternative sources of energy — like solar, wind and photovoltaic — we’re going to be right back in trouble. The key if we want to clean the air and get lower rates is to get new investment in alternative technologies…”

Citizen Carrie of Shady Side, interviewed by M.L. Faunce, on June 5:
Matthews has spent the better part of her life in motion, progressing with the times or stepping ahead of them. She was always a doer, from her early years in Fork union, Va., to her education in Washington D.C., to her many years in the rural community of Shady Side, Md., as midwife, nurse, foster parent and business woman…

Underwater archaeologist Donald Shomette, about to explore Commodore Barney’s flotilla beneath the dark and silty waters of the Patuxent River, on June 26, in Sandra Martin’s interview:
“You can’t see much. The Bay is filling with sediment rather rapidly. Archaeology in the Bay until recently you could call archaeology by Braille because visibility is pretty poor. On the other hand, because of the siltation, many sites get buried and preserved…

Pavel Strasil, interviewed on July 31 by Bill Lambrecht:
Pavel Strasil sailed back to Deale from the Caribbean in June. minus an engine. Alone. It wasn’t as tricky as his escape from the Czech KBG 13 years ago…

Chuck Shepherd, the man behind “News of the weird,” on Aug. 7
Shepherd’s column started as a hobby, a diversion from the stress of working and living in Washington. Before he discovered that syndicated wierdness could be a way of life, Shepherd practiced criminal law, worked in the administration of President Jimmy Carter and taught at the George Washington School of Business…

Each and every item in his weekly column is true.

Calvert County’s wildest rocker, nationally ranked guitarist and family man Bill Kirchen, interviewed by Sandra Martin on Sept. 11:
“There’s a whole lot of things I ain’t done, but I ain’t never had too much fun…”

Chesapeake Country’s garlic king Pat Piper, profiled by Bill Lambrecht on Oct. 23
“You always wonder when you put it in the ground who will have the more interesting journey in the coming months, the garlic or the grower. This is a real Zen thing…”

Slave-stealer Patty Cannon “The Wicked Witch of the Eastern Shore,” discovered by Bob Hall on Oct. 30:
With the help of her son-in-law, “Killer” Joe Johnson, Patty headed a notorious reverse underground railroad between 1800 and 1829, kidnapping free blacks, escaped slaves and persons who could be sold into slavery regardless of age, gender or ethnic origin.

“Chesapeake Country’s Three Scrooges,” encountered on Dec. 11 by Carol Glover
“Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint…”
— Charles Dickens

Creatures You’ve Encountered
A female bald eagle, dead atop a utility pole, in Carol Glover’s Feb. 13 “Broomes Island Eagle Mystery”:
“We’ve found snakes, raccoons and fish hawks on top of poles before,” said Russ Griffith, the SMECO crewman called to my house that dark December night. “But never before an eagle…”

Llamas and their little cousins, alpacas, in Feb. 20’s “Loco for Llamas,” by Bill Lambrecht
When people talk of a population boom along the Chesapeake, they’re usually referring to a movement of families from metropolitan Washington. These days, they might be speaking of a different sort of Bayward migration, this one originating in the mountains of South America …

Chessie, on March 27, in Bill Burton’s “Chessie Lives!”
I fervently hope, dear readers, you won’t think I’ve been devouring too many martinis with my olives, or that at my age I’m beginning to imagine things, or tell fibs or, worst of all, that I’m a publicity seeker.

But I have a confession to make.

I saw Chessie.

In “We Are Not Alone,” on July 10 by Stacy Allen:
Whales, dolphins, manatees, sea turtles are among the strange and wonderful creatures with whom we share Chesapeake waters. They need our awareness and sometimes our help…

Things You’ve Discovered
Barter, with Sandra Martin, on Jan. 30, when you were likely still short on cash:
In its five-year history, Creative Barter Network has sent Douglas Pohlman, of Clipper Carpet Cleaning, on vacation to Aruba and the Bahamas — for 94 percent less money than his ready-cash neighbors paid for the same accommodations…

That’s a snippet of the services, goods and luxuries enjoyed cash-free by the 300-plus regional members of the network…

One of Southern Maryland’s surviving tobacco barns, with Sandra Martin, on March 6, for the opening of 1997’s March tobacco market
For two hours the chant of “80 give me 80 … 80 … give me 85 …” rose as buyers from five tobacco companies congregated over the heavy burdens. Men who know just about everything there is to know about tobacco, the buyers seemed to have stepped from the canvas of an old master…

Animal Acupuncture and other “Creature Comforts” with Sandra Martin on May 29
Now that the search for relief has raised holistic healing to new heights of acceptance, some animal lovers are saying “heal me, heal my dog…”

101 Movies, in Doc Shereikis’ “Great Paper Chase,” March 13:
There are 101 movie titles embedded in this story of passion and violence. Find them all and send us your answers. We’ll draw five names to win a pair of tickets to your local cinema…

“The Rhythms of Kayaking,” with Bill Lambrecht on May 15
The Chesapeake region may lack sea lion colonies and blue-footed boobies. But it has plenty of wildlife and beauty of its own,” explain Andrea Nolan and Mike Savario, whose kayak journeys include “a portion of the Patuxent shaped by the tides of the ocean, creating a unique and precious ecosystem. Wild rive and cattails bufffer the river…

How or recognize “The Perfect Crabcake,” with Sandra Martin, on August 14
Start with a pound of crabmeat, body or — better still — backfin or jumbo lump…

The Annapolis Opera, explored by Valerie James on Nov. 13
The audience falls under the spell of the beauty of the sets, the elegance of the costumes and the power of the performance. Voices of the singers fill the hall, wrapping around each member of the audience … What the audience sees is an experience that opera fans call the ultimate art. What they don’t see is everything it takes to bring this performance to life …

The Anne Arundel Community College Orchestra, introduced by writer-cellist Barbara Miller on Dec. 4:
By day, most of these musicians wear other guises. On Thursday evenings, they emerge from their other lives to play…

to the top