Comments on: ORAL HISTORY: Lloyd Kellam Recalls Growing Up in Cape Charles (Pt. 1)

By: Brian Barban

Brian Barban — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 15:21:49 +0000

My Dad, Stanley “Siegle” Barban, used to tell stories of Big John Half. I wish I could remember those stories. Maybe with continued participation in comments we’ll learn more. I am living in my childhood reading all of these stories. I can’t wait to look and see what may be in here tomorrow. Thanks Mr. Kellam!

By: Randall Parks

Randall Parks — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 13:11:29 +0000

While growing up in Northampton county I heard various stories and legends of local personalities from my uncles and grandfather. One of those legends was about a man named John Haff (Half?) who was known as “the human tugboat of Cape Charles harbor”. Has anyone else heard this same legend and is any part of it true?

By: Anne Cherrix Wilson

Anne Cherrix Wilson — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 23:14:35 +0000

I enjoyed your remarks, Lloyd. Thank you so much. I was born in Cape Charles in 1927 and lived there until I went to Nursing School in 1945 in Newport News. Rode the steamer to Old Point many times when I came home to see my Mother. In 2005, I moved back to the Eastern Shore from California, and settled in Chincoteague, where I had a lot of cousins. Now I am living in Las Vegas, Nevada, and enjoying the mild weather very much. Have been in contact with Bill Powell through FaceBook. Remember the stores and doctors you mentioned. Also remember playing cops and robbers on roller skates and falling over Coulbron Fitzhugh and cutting my chin. Still have that scar! Henry Lambertson and Joe Restein were part of that game. Graduated from CCHS in 1944 and I remember Dorothy Kellam in my class. Have never forgotten all of my teachers’ names. Met Mr. Neville while I was on the Eastern Shore and told him about a trio of singers — Dick Neville, Shorty Holland, and my father, Vernon Cherrix. Please continue to share!

By: Joyce Moore

Joyce Moore — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 15:05:30 +0000

I enjoyed reading Lloyd Kellam’s oral history of Cape Charles. My Mother’s father was Abe Moore who had a fish market there. He used to push a peddler’s cart, also. Great memories.

By: Harry Warren III

Harry Warren III — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 02:27:47 +0000

My thanks to Lloyd Kellam and Wayne Robinson for their memories of my grandfather, Henry Warren. Although my dad told me about his father’s store, and all the different things he sold there, I mistakenly thought it was one store up until a few years ago when I learned that his business had been in three different locations on Front Street over the years.

From what I can gather, it began as the Cape Charles Grocery Co. two doors down from Wilson’s somewhere around 1910, then by 1930 it moved a few more doors down toward the beach, next to the Cape Charles Bakery, and it was known as Warren’s Snack Bar (and pool hall?). Then in 1940 he moved a few more doors closer to the beach, to a slender white brick building with a circular window in top and a Pure gasoline sign & gas pump in front of it, and I think it was called Warren’s Restaurant (and sporting goods? and pool hall?).

In the 1970’s that building was located between the ABC store and Disharoon’s, — uh, I forget what Disharoon’s business was! I think Henry’s building is now Blue Heron Realty. I guess by the 1950s business began slowing down, and Henry was in his 70s. He probably kept the store open primarily as a place to go to be away from his wife, sad to say. I hardly knew him, I was only 5 years old when he died in 1966.

Thanks again for the stories of early Cape Charles!

By: Allison Mills Duncan

Allison Mills Duncan — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 22:35:18 +0000

Lloyd, I think my sister Kay was in your class at Cape Charles High School. I loved your memories and even though I don’t remember some of the stores you talked about I heard about them from my parents, Allison and Elizabeth Mills. Those of us fortunate enough to have grown up in Cape Charles have wonderful memories. As we get close to Thanksgiving I think about the ritual high school football games that were played on Thanksgiving Day. Everyone went to those games and supported the schools.

Allison Mills Duncan
Melbourne Beach, Fl

By: Russ Chambers

Russ Chambers — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 16:27:59 +0000

Wonderful Lloyd. I hope you will make more of the oral history episodes. There is so much to tell about Cape Charles. Many of the names you mentioned were before my time, but I still remember hearing about them.

By: John Hickman

John Hickman — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 16:06:13 +0000

Thank you Mr. Kellam and Cape Charles Wave for printing this in your newspaper. This is but one reason the fate of our old school means so much to so many who don’t normaly sound off in a public forum. It’s our history and it’s worthy of fighting for. Mr. Kellam’s story here may not mention the old school but those who have a connection can see the where I’m going with this.
It’s where we come from, our history; it runs through our veins. I would love to read more of this here on the wave.

Who knows, maybe more of these stories could shed light on some who don’t understand what all this means to those who have real ties here; who don’t understand what all the fuss is about.

Again, thank you Mr. Kellam and CCW, please give us more.To all Cape Charles School Alumnus, it’s past due the time we sound off on this.

We all know where the front door is. We can all answer that! Without even having to think about it.

By: Wayne Robinson

Wayne Robinson — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 13:12:18 +0000

I recall as a youngster in the late ’50s taking a couple of quarts of milk on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays to a store on the west end of Mason Avenue that Mr. Henry Warren occupied. He would be there each time we came but there was very little merchandise in the store to sell. My father told me that the business was defunct but he still opened it every day as he had in the past. One day my dad went in there and he was sitting in a rocking chair (as he was most days) in the middle of the store with a pistol in his lap. He told my dad that he was shooting rats. As I remember him he was quite a character in his later years.

By: Joe Vaccaro

Joe Vaccaro — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 10:34:08 +0000

Great snippet of Cape Charles history!

I’d like to see more printed in the CCW.

Thanks.