Glass Lovers Celebrate Unique Art Form

CAPE CHARLES WAVE

January 27, 2013

“Sea Glass and All Things Glass,” an exhibition featuring artists, vendors, and experts, filled the Firehouse yesterday. From top, participants with a passion for glass included Town Mayor Dora Sullivan, who organized the event; bottle expert Ray Lewis, and Richard LaMotte, author of Pure Sea Glass, who lectured on the histories and mysteries of sea glass.

At left is a sea glass necklace featuring a very rare thick teal in sterling silver, crafted by Gertraud Fendler, who also provided the three bottom photos.

EPIPHANY PARTY:
New Pink Flamingos Benefit Library, Fire House

Special to the Cape Charles Wave

January 23, 2013

This year’s Epiphany Party raised $4,279 for the Friends of the Cape Charles Memorial Library to use toward renovating the new building.

The 150 attendees also contributed $310 toward renovations at the Cape Charles Fire House. Shane Hayward passed the “boot” to raise an additional $460 for the operation of the Volunteer Fire Company.

The Epiphany Party is held the first Saturday after the Epiphany (January 6). The next party will be January 11, 2014, and everyone is invited.

Chili is traditionally served, and guests are asked to bring an appetizer or a dessert to share and a gift to be auctioned off.

The annual Epiphany Party began 23 years ago in the home of Rick Bowmaster. A handful of people attended the first event, each bringing what was lovingly described as “their least favorite Christmas gift.” The gifts were auctioned off with the proceeds going to specific need.

This community tradition continues today, but the event has become so large that it is now held in the Fire House.

Each year the money raised is donated to a local organization or person in need of help.

Many auction items return year after year, and the signature gift is a pair of plastic pink flamingos. [Read more…]

OLDIE BUT GOODIE:
Chesapeake Bay Magazine on ‘Becoming Cape Charles’

EDITOR’S NOTE: Quite a few publications have reported the charms of little Cape Charles, and the WAVE reprints the stories when possible. They tend to be one-dimensional, Disneyland-like depictions, but everyone enjoys reading about themselves. Wendy Mitman Clarke’s story below, published last year in Chesapeake Bay Magazine, is refreshingly different: she accurately portrays the “real” Cape Charles. Many of our readers may not have seen it, and the rest may enjoy reading the story again, which Chesapeake Bay Magazine has graciously allowed the WAVE to reprint. 

By WENDY MITMAN CLARKE
Chesapeake Bay Magazine

Cape Charles was not on the itinerary. But we had committed that most typical of sailing mistakes; we made a plan based on an assumption. In this case, we had planned to anchor behind the concrete ships off Kiptopeke on Virginia’s lower Eastern Shore after a 29-hour passage from Cape Lookout, N.C. It was the end of our month-long, 2,750-nautical-mile journey from Panama to the Chesapeake, and we were ready to drop the hook in Bay water and toast success. The assumption was that this anchorage was the same as it had always been, a good spot to shelter for a night from a strong seabreeze and potential thunderstorms. We hadn’t figured on a field of spring crab pots so thick it looked like someone had shaken loose a truckload of Skittles on the water. Anchoring was out of the question.

We were losing light, and we were tired. Cape Charles was only a few miles north up the Cherrystone Channel. Maybe we could anchor in a tiny spot near the harbor entrance where we had once anchored our former boat, Luna. It was far from ideal (and possibly illegal, since Osprey is much bigger than Luna and we might have to swing slightly into the channel), but it might work. As we approached the entrance, I glanced east into the harbor and saw something that made me grab the binoculars. We motored in for a closer look. Sure enough, where last I had seen only a crumbling industrial bulkhead, there was a set of brand new floating docks. It took us about two seconds to slide Osprey along one of the T-heads and secure her for the night.

I went looking for anyone who might know how to find the harbormaster and came upon two folks from a small sailboat that had also just tied up. “We passed him on our way in; he was in a skiff heading out,” the woman told me. “He said just go ahead and take whatever slip we liked and he’d see us in the morning.” She asked if I knew where to grab some dinner. Sunday night in Cape Charles, a week before the high summer tourism launch of Memorial Day Weekend? Not likely, I thought. Last time I was here, the only place open on Sunday night was the Burger King, miles away out on Route 13. But I asked a fellow off a fishing trawler called Captain Ed out of Kitty Hawk, N.C., tied up nearby. “Oh yeah!” he said enthusiastically. “Kelly’s Pub, right there on the main street. You can see it from here. Try their buffalo burger, it’s awesome.” [Read more…]

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6 Months of WAVES — And Counting!

January 1, 2013

Happy New Year — or Happy One-Half Year, in the case of the Cape Charles Wave. Your hometown online newspaper is now six months old.

The Wave came about because two longtime journalists — one an old hand on the Eastern Shore, the other a newcomer — agreed that Cape Charles needed its own newspaper. In the days of print journalism, that would not have been practical for such a small town, but with the Internet it was doable.

And although the staff makeup has changed since July 1, we’ve been making WAVES for 26 weeks now.

The Google Analytics chart above tells the story, with each of the 26 dots representing one week’s readership. By August, we were humming along at close to 2,500 reads per week. After a lull, readership jumped in November, and after another lull, made the biggest gains in December.

Since only about 1,000 people live in Cape Charles, a lot of our readers obviously live out of town. In fact, about one fourth of them don’t even live in Virginia. And even among in-state readers, the majority reside outside Cape Charles town limits.

Whether tourists, or former residents, or future come-heres, it appears that a lot of out-of-towners are keeping up with the local news.

The purpose of the Wave is to serve as an electronic medium to spread news, events, and discussion about the Cape Charles area. As we begin a new year, the Wave wants to thank our “heroes” — the folks who have recognized the mission of the Wave and in one way or another have helped it to succeed.

In alphabetical order (by first name), our 2012 Wave heroes are:

— Audrey Nottingham, whose pictures and story of the Nativity scenes at Pfeiffer Riding Stables  gave us a wonderful Christmas present — not just for the report, but because Audrey fulfilled our highest hopes for the Wave: citizen journalists writing about and photographing a local event and publishing it in the Wave;

— Barbara Brown, for sharing her nice article and picture for publication;

— Bruce Lindeman, who writes eloquently, intimately, and regularly of his adopted part-time village and its denizens he knows so well;

— Deborah Bender, for commenting early and often on the Old School cause dear to her heart;

— Don Riley, the Wave’s “Man about Town,” who tips us off whenever he spots something that doesn’t look right, or smells fishy;

— Donna Bozza, for featuring the Wave on her Facebook page way back in July — our first big break! — and for her ESO and other arts publicity;

— Mayor Dora Sullivan, for reading the Wave every day and even sending in a comment or two, in contrast to the one or two Town Council members who refuse to read us (they say); [Read more…]

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Jim & Jenni Potts Win 1st Place in Holiday Home Contest

December 25, 2012

1 Comment

David & Andrea Price Take 2nd Place in Holiday Contest

December 24, 2012

1 Comment

Abrahamians Win 3rd Place in Christmas House Decoration

December 23, 2012

Live Animal Nativity Opens at Pfeiffer Riding Stables

By AUDREY NOTTINGHAM
Special to the Cape Charles Wave

December 15, 2012

Driving up to the Christmas gala at Pfeiffer Riding Stables, the first thing we noticed were the candles, hundreds of them, lining the drive. We were directed to the field to park and told to head to the Merry Christmas sign. Music could be heard and the house was lit up in celebration.

The live animal nativity is more than just that. They offered pony rides, barrel rides, and hay rides all with the intent of being fun and teaching the word of God.

They reminded us that behind bargain hunting for gifts and Christmas parties there is a deeper meaning to this holiday, something that in the hustle and bustle we had lost sight of.

Here are some pictures I took while I was there last night: [Read more…]

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