WEEKEND RECIPE
‘Impossibly Easy Coconut Pie’ Is the Best!
July 12, 2014
At the Wave’s request, longtime Monroe Avenue residents Dolores and Stefanie Somers are sharing a recipe known as “Impossibly Easy Coconut Pie.” Dolores says the recipe was popularized by Bisquick, but no matter — it really is the best coconut pie ever!
Impossibly Easy Coconut Pie
2 cups milk
¾ cup sugar
½ cup Bisquick
¼ cup butter or margarine, softened
4 eggs
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 cup coconut flakes
Lightly grease pie pan.
Mix all ingredients except coconut flakes in blender or food processor.
Stir in coconut flakes.
Pour into pie pan and bake 50-55 minutes at 350 degrees.
No need for a pie crust — the pie forms its own crust!
Washington Post Discovers Eastern Shore (Again)
Washington Post photographer Jay Westcott captured this image of Custis Pond in Savage Neck Dunes Natural Area Preserve — near Cape Charles but missed by most tourists and more than a few residents.
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
June 30, 2014
In August 2012 the Washington Post sent travel writer Becky Krystal to the Eastern Shore, where she discovered then newly opened Hotel Cape Charles, as well as Brown Dog Ice Cream, and gushed over both of them. Two years later the Post has discovered the Eastern Shore all over again, this time through the person of Andrea Sachs, who appears not to have read the yellowed clippings of her colleague’s story.
Ms. Sachs’ upbeat account in this past weekend’s Post will no doubt bring even more tourists our way – especially those looking for something new and different. She writes:
Travelers familiar with the extrovert to the north, Maryland’s Eastern Shore, will be surprised by Virginia’s subdued and understated character. Maryland is the lazy man’s summer retreat: Simply follow the dancing crabs to your stretch of sand or pot of seafood. Virginia’s section is more mysterious and challenging. You have to work for your water views, your beaches and your summer requisites.
That’s the first hint that this travel story will be different. The second comes when Sachs, overnighting at the Exmore Holiday Inn, asks a question. As she tells it:
On the drive to my Exmore hotel, I’d passed a sign for Silver Beach, imagining a sparkling strand with sand spun of the precious metal. When I asked a Holiday Inn employee for information about it, she had none. Instead, she directed me north to Chincoteague (done it, and didn’t want to repeat it) or south to Cape Charles (on the itinerary).
Imagine – a travel writer who purposely skips Chincoteague! Instead, Sachs highlights the following: [Read more…]
ORAL HISTORY
Randolph, Tazewell, and Bay Avenue Houses
Mr. E.P. Dryden operated a grocery store on Mason Avenue when he built this residence in 1912 on the corner of Bay and Tazewell. The house was recently magnificently restored by a Richmond family.
June 16, 2014
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Cape Charles Historical Society has for more than a decade been recording oral histories of the area’s earlier days. A grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities enabled 15 interviews to be transcribed, and the Historical Society has made this one available for readers of the Wave. All the transcriptions may be read at the Cape Charles Museum.)
1990 Interview of Virginia Fitzhugh conducted by Virginia Savage
PART THREE
VIRGINIA SAVAGE: Let’s talk about Randolph Avenue. You lived in the Wilkins house. Now that was the Wilkins that built what is now the Methodist Parsonage. And the other Wilkins was Elliott’s grandfather. And then he built both of those houses. The Eleanor Lowe house I believe is next and Mr. Jack Scott built that for her. Do you remember when that was being built?
VIRGINIA FITZHUGH: No. Eleanor was older than me, and I don’t remember. You know, Virginia, back in those days you didn’t roam around town like the kids do today. You just went so far and that was it. You just had your group of friends. He built that and the one next to that is that bungalow and that was built by Sterling, a man named Sterling.
I think a Miss Sterling lived in that when I came here.
No, a Mrs. George Guy. She was a caretaker.
What did the Sterlings do?
Well, you know where Lee Sterling lives. Well, that house was on the corner where the Post Office is now. That house has been moved and turned around and that was the Sterling house.
This is the house across Tazewell Avenue and one from the corner from the Presbyterian Church that you’re talking about. The great big house and they moved it back. There was an explosion in the late ‘60s and it burned. A new house has been built, very close in type to the old houses. Lee Sterling worked at Colonial Store.
That’s right. That’s where the Sterlings lived. I think some of that property still belongs to the Sterling girls, Josephine and I think her sister. [Read more…]
Tall Ships Festival Saturday; Day Sails Start Thursday
Strolling entertainers Carol & Malcolm serenade at last year’s Tall Ships Cape Charles Festival
By JOAN PRESCOTT
June 9, 2014
Avast me hearties!! Get your pirate gear on and head on down to Cape Charles Town Harbor June 14 and 15 for the third annual Tall Ships At Cape Charles Festival. This year’s festival will be the best yet, so come early (gates open at 9 a.m. and close at 5 p.m.). With so many fun things for the whole family folks will want to spend a day or the entire weekend.
Mix and mingle with real pirates and the costumed crews of three historic tall ships, Privateer Lynx, Schooner Serenity, and Kalmar Nyckel. Tour the decks. Take a day, sunset or pirate cruise on the Chesapeake Bay.
Hear the cannon roar when the ships return fire from a troupe of shore-based pirates, The Moody Crewe, representing the Golden Age of Piracy (1680-1730), who will hold free land-based kids’ pirate schools on Saturday and Sunday and a pirate costume parade and contest Saturday at noon.
Take a pirate sail aboard one of the tall ships. The Schooner Serenity is offering Captain Mayhem Pirate Adventure Sails three times daily on Saturday and Sunday. Kalmar Nyckel will host Pirate sails with Pirate tales, scavenger hunts, and the raising of the Jolly Roger. All three tall ships have afternoon or evening sunset cruises both days. In advance of the festival, the Kalmar Nyckel and Lynx are both offering three-hour day sails and private company or group charters Thursday and Friday, June 12 and 13. The Kalmar Nyckel will also host educational tours for school groups on Thursday from 9:30 – noon. Reservations are recommended; visit www.tallshipscapecharles.com for times and to book your cruise. [Read more…]
ESSO Buys Neuter-Scooter, Needs Donations
Sunset cruise on the Miss Jennifer earned funds for Neuter Scooter.
By SANDY MAYER
June 8, 2014
ESSO — Eastern Shore Spay Organization — was formed last November with the mission to prevent cruelty to animals and reduce the overpopulation of animals on the lower Eastern Shore through inexpensive spay/neuter services. ESSO currently provides spay/neuter services in Cape Charles for 26-30 animals every other month, but there is a very long waiting list.
In order to help more residents and animals, the organization recently purchased a Neuter Scooter van from the Virginia Beach SPCA at a price of $40,000, which now must be paid through grants and fundraisers. Nonprofit status has been applied for, which will enable ESSO to apply for grants and accept tax deductible donations. [Read more…]
Chuckletown Productions Opens in ‘Hotel Cape Chuck’
Charlene Dix and Laurie Klingle, creators of Chuckletown Productions unique mementos (Wave photo)
By SARAH GOLIBART
Cape Charles Wave
May 29, 2014
What is Chuckletown Productions? Everyone seemed to be asking this question before the store’s grand opening the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend.
What is Chuckletown’s mission? Create cool stuff. Walking into Charlene Dix and Laurie Klingle’s shop on Mason Avenue you can see they created plenty of cool stuff. And I don’t mean created as a loose term — Charlene and Laurie came up with nearly all of the designs sold on their items.
“Every other design here comes out of our heads. All of the ideas and layouts and little phrases and such are Chuckletown Designs,” explained Laurie. When asked about the essence of Chuckeltown, employee Staige Goffigon answered, “It’s really cool how they came up with the sayings on all the t-shirts and everything themselves. Everything is really original and casual.” [Read more…]
ORAL HISTORY
1933 Hurricane, Rowing to the Post Office
Cape Charles Post Office in 1933, the year it opened and the year of the hurricanes. (Kirk C. Mariner Collection)
May 27, 2014
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Cape Charles Historical Society has for more than a decade been recording oral histories of the area’s earlier days. A grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities enabled 15 interviews to be transcribed, and the Historical Society has made this one available for readers of the Wave. All the transcriptions may be read at the Cape Charles Museum.)
1990 Interview of Virginia Fitzhugh conducted by Virginia Savage
PART TWO
VIRGINIA SAVAGE: I am talking to Virginia Fitzhugh, who was born and raised in Cape Charles. Virginia, Who was May Beth’s mother and father?
Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. They had the drugstore down on Front Street where Jack MacMath later had a drugstore. Mallory Taylor, that was her mother and father. She was much older than me. She would have been in her hundreds.
The house next to the Miller house, coming east, was built by Mr. Wilkins and that’s Elliott Wilkins’ grandfather?
Yes. He was Tucker Wilkins’ father. Old Man Wilkins lived there and Mandy Tate, because we rented from them. I lived where Joe Restein lived for five or six years [1 Randolph Ave]. After we were married. We wanted to buy it, but Old Man Wilkins wouldn’t sell it to us.
Now let’s come down this side of the street and that side, too. There was another Wilkins built that house and the next house, the Leatherburys were living in it when I came over here. And then Ray Hickman bought it, and Bonny owns that now. Did Leatherburys build that house, do you know?
Yes.
Cross over the street, and the house that you are talking about, Joe Restein’s, the Aubrey Nottinghams lived there before that. Now take me back in that house.
We lived there. Now, who lived there in the beginning, I can’t say.
Now, somewhere along the line Edna Bounds’ mother lived there because Edna told me her mother built that house. Elliott said no way.
No, ma’am. Elliott’s grandfather built that house. He built that house, the house next door to it. Ruth Kerr lived in it. And when we wanted to buy that from Mr. Wilkins, he said that he had made a house for each one of his children. And he was leaving the houses to his children. And what they did after he passed away, that was up to them. But that was the only legacy that he had to leave to them. So this house was to go to one of his children and the one next door and, of course, the one they lived in.
We lived there for five or six years, and I guess we would have kept on living there if it hadn’t been that Daddy died. And Mother, she didn’t know how to do one thing, so we had to move back in with Mother. But we did want to buy that house real bad, because we had done a lot of things to it. We loved the beach and where it was. We lived there when the first hurricane came. We went to bed that night and we thought it was a Nor’easter. We slept like babies! And slept through it. Edie Jean was small and they were in a room facing the beach and they had twin beds in there. And I always went in to look at them before I went downstairs to get breakfast. And I looked out the window and I said, “Everybody get up quick! We’re in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay!” See that’s when the water went all the way up to the Post Office. And there was a man named Sterling and he rowed a rowboat from his house right up to the Post Office. [Read more…]
Summer Recreation Programs at Town Civic Center
May 27, 2014
Cape Charles Recreation Department Summer Programs will take place at the Town Civic Center (the old library), 500 Tazewell Avenue, unless otherwise noted. For more information call Recreation Director Jen Lewis at 757-331-3259 x18.
