Letters to the Editor
We welcome your opinions and letters – with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 •
E-mail them to [email protected]. or submit your letters on line, click here
Sustain Your Community by Buying Locally
Dear Bay Weekly:
Thanks to you and your staff for the excellent work on Buy-Local week [Vol. xvi. No. 29; July 17]. You covered all the important messages!
Sustainable communities include a strong connection between farmer and consumer, and we certainly aren’t there yet. This year’s tomato scare is just one more example of the importance of reliable local markets, as opposed to unidentifiable food sources often thousands of miles from home.
Quoting Wendell Berry, “As you shorten the distance between the consumer and producer, you increase the consumer’s power to know and influence the quality of food.”
–Gregory A. Bowen, Prince Frederick
Editor’s note: Bowen is Calvert County’s director of Planning and Zoning.
Bay Weekly on the Move
Dear Bay Weekly:
We were in Maine last month and brought Bay Weekly to share with friends who moved from Maryland to Maine. We took this photo at the entrance to the Outward Bound Maine base in Wheeler Bay, where Brian is a part-time sea program instructor.
Brian is kneeling below the sign. Karen is holding the newspaper, and Peter Jones of Annapolis is standing to the right.
Thanks for continuing to provide us with a high quality alternative newspaper.
–Brian and Karen Czarnowski, Galesville
Learning Who Was Where
Dear Bay Weekly:
I was doing some research involving the 1920 and 1930 census, which are both “indexed” for Maryland. This means you can search for a specific name and get, online, a copy of the page from the enumerators’ book. Because the enumerator went from house to house in an area, you get a look at the whole neighborhood.
When I could not get a hit on Bowell Revell, which was the name I knew the general store owner by, I searched Revell with no first name. I got a hit on James B. Revell, who was the right person based on his wife’s name and some of the children’s names that I could recall.
This opened up the residents all along Fairhaven Road, including wives’ names and children’s names. (The enumerator was Mr. Nutwell, who lived nearby.)
Other than satisfying my curiosity, I wondered who might find a use for this information about communities along the Bay and you came to mind.
My public library card number gets me into the database free. I think other libraries will do the same.
–Paul McDonald, Montgomery County
