Bill's Random Thoughts

Photographs - Cambridge and Dorchester County

2011-06-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

Victorian on Oakley Street

Christ Church Gargoyle

Christ Church Windows

Yacht and workboat on the Choptank River at the Malkus Bridge

Cruise Ship and workboat at the Malkus Bridge

Cambridge and Dorchester County - The Heart of the Awesome Eastern Shore

2011-06-07T10:56:00.000-07:00

There's no place like home, but I don't know too much about my new home. For the last year living with my daughter on the Choptank River in Cambridge, I've spent more time driving to work in Washington DC than I've spent on the porch.

Today, I started changing that. I joined the Chamber of Commerce and made some appointments to meet local leaders. I want to know the history and the characters like I know the backroads. For example, who built this beautiful, this graceful skipjack that the public can sail? The Nathan of Dorchester was built in 1994, one of only two left in Cambridge. There are a few dozen still sailing and working the Chesapeake Bay but there used to be hundreds, and the watermen's tales are stuff legend is made of.

The Choptank River here at Cambridge is almost two miles wide, and gets wider as it flows west toward the Chesapeake Bay. Entering Cambridge from the north across the Malkus Memorial Bridge, I always picture Key West or some other place on the ocean because the water stretches on forever. In fact, the Malkus Highway 50 Bridge is the second longest in Maryland, second only to the world-renowned Chesapeake Bay Bridge which is also part of Highway 50.

Another record Cambridge can claim is the second largest deepwater port in Maryland, after Baltimore. Not bad for second place!

At the Cambridge end of the Malkus Bridge, stop at the Dorchester County Visitor Center at Sailwinds Park. The friendly volunteers there will fix you up with advice and brochures to make sure you don't miss something really important. I'll tell you some of my favorites but they are just that - stuff I've happened on. Just like the Smithsonian, you could spend years in Cambridge and Dorchester County without seeing everything.

When you leave the Visitor Center, drive west on Maryland Avenue. Visit Ruark Boatworks, on the right, to see Cambridge's second skipjack. Then, cross the drawbridge, guarded by condos, that opens anytime a boat of any size or height wants to go through. Take a right at the first traffic light past the drawbridge and gaze on the Glory of the Lord. Christ Church is one of the most beautiful church buildings I've seen anywhere in the world. If the gargoyles don't spook you too badly, visit the cemetary where five Maryland Governors and a bunch of other folks are buried.

Facing Christ Church, continue right on the yellow brick road named High Street. According to local brochures, James Michener thought, while working on his book "Chesapeake", that High Street was one of the most beautiful streets in the country. Who am I to disagree with James Michener? Two or three of these 18th and 19th century homes are for sale right now so be careful which way you let your spouse look when you drive or walk the yellow brick road. High Street ends at the Choptank River with war memorials, a marina, the Nathan of Dorchester skipjack, and a view to die for. Walk on the water at the end of the street.

As you leave the end of High Street with the water behind you, turn right at the first intersection on Water Street. The marina is on your right, and you'll pass Oakley Street. Our condo is to the right at Oakley Beach, and the street ends at the river like all the streets in this part of town. Can you guess who Oakley Street is named for? You get a sucker if you guessed Annie Oakley! She lived here after she retired from the wild west show circuit, but still squeezed off a few crack shots from time to time.

Oakley Street contines as Hambrook Boulevard and then as Bellevue Avenue, always with the Choptank River on your right. Bellevue Avenue takes a sharp left at the Annie Oakley House and becomes Maple Avenue. Follow Maple Avenue for one block, take a right on Bay Heights Avenue for a block where it takes a sharp left and becomes Riverside Drive. All that street name changing and turning is worth it because you have now arrived, truly, at the Glory of the Lord. To your right is the Million Dollar View! If you are really blessed, you will time your arrival for the sunset. In my past, I wished for friends with big sailboats who would take me with them without the cost. Now, I just pray for a friend who owns one of these houses who will invite me to sit in their front yard, with a glass of wine, and glory in the view of the Mouth of the Choptank and the Chesapeake Bay. Are there really people who live this everyday?

Sunset or not, lunch time or dinner time, retrace your route to the yellow brick road and prepare to make a hard choice about food. Cambridge has dozens of fantastic places to eat, more than I've ever seen in such a small place. On the yellow brick High Street with the water at your back, Snapper's is off on a side street to the left beside a crab-picking place. Turn at the Bed-and-Breakfast. Eating on the deck or drinking at the outside Tiki Bar is another form of heaven. I could live on their frozen margaritas and fried clam strips.

If you miss the side street, continue on toward Christ Church on your right. Go a block past the church and take a left on Race Street. On the left in the first block is Popular Bistro, and on the left in the second block is Leaky Pete's. Just before a parking lot on the right is Jimmie & Sook's Raw Bar and Grill, and across the street is Canvasback. Back on Highway 50 heading to Ocean City, you'll find the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Resort and the famous Cambridge Diner. Come to Cambridge for a week and discover the other hundred awesome places to eat and drink. This is just a start.

Okay, if you are ready for some more sightseeing, let's go. On Highway 50 at the intersection of Walmart and the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Resort, also known as Maryland 16, follow the signs to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. Now, I love old houses, boats, churches, food, and drink, but I really, really, really love Blackwater! Eagles, ospreys, herons, egrets, swans, geese, ducks, and 28,000 acres of God's Best Watery Land just turn me on! I go every week and twice on Sunday. In fact, I would go even if I had never spotted the migrating Bigfoot of the Bird World, an American White Pelican which has a wingspan of up to 10 feet. Then I saw a huge turtle pulling itself through the mud toward water. Then....you get the idea. What an awesome place! On the drive and biking trail, watch for the sign warning you about endangered squirrels. Really!

Leaving Blackwater, watch for the future Harriet Tubman Center. There's already a Harriet Tubman Museum & Educational Center on Race Street in downtown Cambridge, and her birthplace is just east of Blackwater. Harriet Tubman helped free over 300 slaves via the Underground Railroad.

East of Blackwater are two of my favorite places. The Old Trinity Church, built around 1675, is the oldest Episcopal Church in continuous use in the United States, according to local brochures. Beyond Old Trinity Church on Highway 16 is Taylors Island and the Taylors Island Family Campground. The friendly folks and the wild domestic bunny rabbits will make you want to learn to catch rockfish and ride around in golfcarts and never leave.

Whew! What a first visit to God's Country! Next time, we'll try to figure out how somebody could cause a river crossing to be named Suicide Bridge when it's only a couple of feet above the water. It'll be painless, I promise. We'll eat so many famous crab balls we won't really care.

Ocracoke Magic

2010-08-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

Ocracoke Birds

2010-08-29T09:46:00.000-07:00

More from the front porch

2010-08-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

From the front porch, Cambridge Maryland

2010-08-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

Hooper's Island, Maryland

2010-08-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

On the way to Hooper's Island, Maryland

2010-08-29T09:23:00.000-07:00

On the way to Hoopers Island Maryland

2010-08-29T09:20:00.000-07:00

More Old Trinity

2010-08-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

Old Trinity Church 1671

2010-08-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Old Trinity Church in Woolford, Maryland, is considered to be the oldest house of worship in the nation which has remained in continuous use.

More Wye

2010-08-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Old Wye Episcopal Church, Maryland

2010-08-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

A Year Later

2010-03-31T17:59:00.000-07:00

Wow! Has it been a year since I added to this blog? I don't think it will be another year before I write again after tonight. Too much stuff is going down and I need to unload.

SLY is at the shop getting new tires and the windshield wiper motors replaced. Snow and ice covering my baby melted and pushed the windshield wipers down on the hood. That was not good. Everything is blooming in the Spring Celebration and I can't wait to get back to Greenbelt National Park.

But first - Mike and Mahlone returned from Spain yesterday and are coming to Annapolis for Easter. National Cathedral for the Easter Vigil and St. Anne's for Easter Sunday!

Shannon is moving to the Eastern Shore of Maryland in less than two weeks, and I'll split my time with Shannon in her new digs and Greenbelt. Shannon's lived in Illinois for twenty years and I can't wait to spend quality time with her whenever we want. She'll be an hour and a half from my work and Greenbelt. She starts her new job on April 12.

That same day, Clint starts a new job in DC. He's moving from Vegas to DC to be with Suzanne and all our lives move on. Suzanne really just wants to keep everything the same and add Clint to the mix. We'll see how that works. I hope they will be happy.

I vote for Marc for Bishop of Alabama, and he's just happy where he is in Tuscaloosa. Isaac's birthday is tomorrow and I mailed presents for Isaac and Eve yesterday that should arrive on time. Jennifer's graduating with her doctorate in two months and she's still worried on FaceBook about what to play for Easter. Real Christians will love anything you do, Jennifer.

Zach starts college in September in Nashville TN. The boy wants to be a recording engineer and Nashville has the best school and the best recording studios in the world. In due time, Zach Clark will be better known than T-Bone Burnette, a distant relative I'm sure.

Sugar is cleaning herself on my bed after eating. She's amazing for 18. She's too mean to brush so she has to be shaved every summer, and needs it early this year. Just waiting for the first of continually warm weather so she won't get sick with no hair.

AOL Radio is playing piano selections in honor of finding Elaine. Having lunch with Polly tomorrow and PK next week.

Ocracoke in July. I got the house on the water on Windmill Point again. Wonder who will share it with me?

After this disconnected dump, writing will return. Stay tuned.

Full Circle

2009-05-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in SLY (Small Land Yacht) in the Duncan Family Campground in Wayson's Corner, Maryland. Full Circle because Suzanne and I tent-camped here twenty years ago when we first looked for a place to live for her new job with the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington DC. For days, we had looked west of DC in Virginia. Everybody said live where there's access to Virginia Rail or Metro. Problem was nothing spoke to us in Virginia and it rained cats and dogs everyday we looked. MISERABLE!

Someone in Columbus, Mississippi, grew up in Galesville, Maryland, so we looked there. Great little community on the water but the elementary school had been closed. Mahlone, who was starting fourth grade, would have had to ride a school bus and we didn't want that.

It was still raining as we started looking for a place to live in Maryland. In fact, it rained so hard it knocked down our tent in the Duncan Family Campground. It's cloudy as I write this but no monsoon yet!

After looking from Virginia to Galesville, we finally drove toward Annapolis, in the driving rain. We knew we wanted to consider Annapolis because of a National Geographic article with a cover photograph of Main Street looking from Ego Alley toward St. Anne's Episcopal Church.

Somehow we circled around Annapolis and entered through Eastport. As we crossed the Spa Creek Bridge, the sun blazed out from behind the storm clouds and reflected off ten thousand sailboat masts and the gold dome of the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel. Suzanne and I both said, "My God, this is it! All we have to do is find a house." Annapolis was and is the most beautiful place I've ever seen.

We found a house on Prince George Avenue. Suzanne and Mahlone moved in, started work and school, and I commuted from Mississippi for six months. Suzanne finally told me to move to Annapolis even if I had to be a waiter. Mississippi had a new Governor, and I most likely would have lost my job as the first Manager of the Major Economic Impact Authority anyway. I got a contract with NASA that lasted ten years, so everything worked out OK.

Here I am back in the Duncan Family Campground. I got SLY the week before Mahlone's wedding. Suzanne went to Ocracoke for a week after the wedding. Our life is strange. Full Circle.

The Perfect Marriage of The Perfect Woman

2009-05-19T14:56:00.000-07:00

Mahlone married Mike three weeks ago. Her Mother had worked on details everyday for the past year. At least 99% of the excruciating details worked. Mahlone worked right along with her Mother and came to Annapolis most of the last 20 weekends to help plan and execute the details.

Bells were tied with ribbons, mason jars were wired to hang in trees, placecards were calligraphied (is that a word?), liquor was purchased, plates and glasses were rented, menus were agreed on, and one gay German farmer-florist was replaced after he doubled his price quote.

By the day of the wedding, I was bone-tired and feeling guilty because I had not really done anything.

Mahlone has always been the perfect person who grew up to be the perfect woman. As a child, she was sweet. As a teenager, she was sweet. As a student, she studied and worked hard. As a worker, she worked smart and hard.

Her intelligence, her beauty, and her sweetness continue to astound me. And now, she has the perfect husband.

Just look at her! I love her so much!

SLY & I (The 2nd Part)

2009-04-09T16:44:00.000-07:00

The adventure continues!

Tuesday, I took the Metro to Rockville and drove SLY back to Annapolis. Wednesday morning, my mechanic checked everything out and declared a go. Wednesday night, I drove SLY back to Rockville in commuter traffic on the DC Beltway. Not pretty, but we made it!

Bob and I signed all the paperwork and he faxed it to the credit union. I gave him Suzanne's check for the extra thousand, and as soon as the credit union deposits the money in Bob's account, I'll start the multi-step process to get the RV inspected, titled in Maryland, and a tag.

When all the official stuff is finally completed, SLY will be detailed and our life together really begins! I figure that will all happen about a week before Mahlone's wedding and I can show SLY off to all my family and friends coming to the wedding. They, as well as folks at Vocus, are sick of hearing about this damn RoadTrek dream of mine. May they all be big enough to be humble and thankful for me. Fantasies really do come true, sometimes!

For those really concerned, a RoadTrek is really a small land yacht. In the future, SLY will be my transportation, my house, my entertainment center, my vacation destination, and my safe place. My carbon footprint just diminished greatly!

In the physical space of an extended van, there's a queen-size bed, a bathroom with shower, a microwave, a sink, a refrigerator, a cooktop, a flatscreen TV with DVD player, a dynamite stereo, an eating area (really two eating areas), total self-sufficiency with sewer, hot water, furnace, air conditioner, and more without having to be hooked up in a campground. The generator recharges the batteries and runs everything. Oh, for the outback!

My main concern, at this point, is which storage area to use for my inflatable kayak.

Even Marty was not dismissive and said SLY would be the way to drive cross-country. That's saying something for Marty since he drove cross-country in a VW. Wonderful compliment!

Rab wants me to bring SLY to Boston. Eric wants to take SLY to a Pittsburg Steelers game with his father to tailgate. The entire female recruitment staff at Vocus cheered yesterday and yelled "great ride"! Oh SLY, you're better than a puppy, and you're not even mine yet. Why, oh why, couldn't I have been this popular in high school when I cared?

SLY & I

2009-04-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

Meet SLY (Small Land Yacht).

I've wanted a RoadTrek for years. My fantasy may come true this week.

Bob and I have been talking about this van recreational vehicle for months now. I decided to wait for the Annapolis house to sell to buy an RV. Bob offered to finance it, but he said his wife wasn't really comfortable. I decided to get a loan from the credit union and just do it. In the meantime, Bob bought his new RV and, with the pressure off to sell the RoadTrek, wanted a little more than I thought we agreed on. I decided to wait. Then, my wife wanted to pay the difference and end the search and agony.

The RoadTrek SLY goes to the mechanic Wednesday morning for a check-up. Assuming everything is OK, SLY and I should start our life together later this week. Who knows what adventures lie ahead?

John Steinbeck had "Travels With Charley" which helped us have a standard poodle for fourteen years. Maybe, just maybe, in a few days I'll have SLY.

Life Sucks!

2009-03-16T19:17:00.000-07:00

Life Sucks!

Last Friday, Mario called and left a message that he had been laid off. He'd been told earlier in the week and wanted me to know that he would not be there the next time I needed help.

Mario came up to me on the boat trip of the quarterly Vocus meeting because he had not seen anybody on the boat who had more gray hair than he did, and I did.

Mario was full of life and personable and helpful and warm. He was interested in everybody he met. His job was to host Webinars for PRWeb that Vocus had purchased in the last year or so.

Between drinks on the boat trip, Mario told me about PRWeb and I told him about my photography hopes and he told me how PRWeb could help meet my needs.

A week or so later, I started the process to announce my first ever photographic exhibit. I was concerned, I was nervous, I was scared, I didn't know how to do it. Mario showed me how. I can only speculate how many hundreds or thousands of folks Mario helped.

I was able to input the wording but the photographic images didn't nake sense to me, and Mario walked me step by step. The press release went around the world, and on the second day, my story on Annapolis Maryland was second only to a New York Times article. That's powerful!

Here's just one of the hundreds of sites where my press release showed up:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/08/prweb1239804.htm

Now Mario isn't there. It's not possible, but done. Life Sucks!

A Bad Love Story

2009-02-09T18:23:00.000-08:00

Suzanne and I live in small, separate but sorta equal, side-by side bamboo cages. They were pretty big when we married over 40 years ago.

The Vietnam War was on when I graduated from college, and Suzanne saved my butt by marrying me and getting pregnant. If I had gone to Vietnam and survived, I might have long gray hair and a beard and be riding a Harley. Wait, I do have long gray hair and a beard. Just no Hog and no drug problems except for red wine.

We started cranking in the walls of the cages about 35 years ago. I started working too long and traveling too much and not coming home as soon as I could have. Suzanne started being really angry and frustrated about that and really, really unsatisfied.

We tried being too friendly with other people and that cranked in the walls and lowered the ceilings of our cages. Before long, we couldn't stand up straight or stretch out to lie down and being so miserable made the cages even smaller.

All the time, we could see through the walls and imagine everybody else we could see outside our cages was happier and more successful and prettier and getting what they needed and wanted, while we languished on the rough floors of our cages and cried.

We tried living different places. Suzanne went back to law school. I took different jobs. All the while, the walls moved inward and downward.

Every once in a while, I'll open the door to Suzanne's cage and she's free to leave. Every once in a while, Suzanne will open the door to my cage and tell me I'm free to leave if I pay her forever. But we don't. At least, we haven't yet.

Now, in our 60's, maybe we can retire to adjoining rooms in a mental hospital, close to where our children live.

Thanksgiving On The Front Porch 2005

2009-02-09T14:06:00.001-08:00

Nobody lives here anymore. Suzanne and her brothers come for a weekend every two or three months. The rest of us get to be here once a year if we're lucky. I don't know how much longer that can last. Suzanne wants to keep the place forever. Her older brother wanted to sell the day their Father died and her younger brother goes back and forth.

This big ole house in Fort Valley, Georgia, contains the only roots Suzanne ever had outside of our marriage. Her Father, Col. Bob, was an Air Force pilot so the family moved every year or so. While Suzanne has romantic memories of "growing up in Europe", she didn't have any roots.

After a final overseas assignment in the Vietnam War, Col. Bob declined to train young pilots for what he had come to consider a useless war, and the Air Force put him in a desk job at Warner-Robbins. Not one to languish a slow professional death, Col. Bob bought this house and retired at fifty or so to fix it up.

For the next thirty-five years, Bob and Martha lived in this one big house in this one little town. Bob played golf every day and fished in Florida when he wanted to. Martha visited us in Columbus, Mississippi, and later in Annapolis, Maryland, for months out of every year.

Our kids spent long summers in this house, and we all had wonderful holidays and long weekends here. Finally, Suzanne had roots.

With four bedrooms, ten beds, several pull-out sofas, and a dozen sleeping bags, there's room for Suzanne and her brothers and the children and the grandchildren all at the same time. Then there's the wood burning stove and the kitchen table that can hold twenty. My God, this is heaven on earth.

Suzanne's Mother and Father died a few years ago, and the house lost it's heart. We don't all get there at the same time much anymore. But - that last Thanksgiving - now that was really something!

Isaac In Action 3

2009-01-10T15:38:00.000-08:00

Isaac In Action 2

2009-01-10T15:32:00.000-08:00

Isaac In Action 1

2009-01-10T15:27:00.000-08:00

The Many Faces of Eve 4

2009-01-10T15:17:00.000-08:00

The Many Faces of Eve 3

2009-01-10T15:11:00.000-08:00

The Many Faces of Eve 2

2009-01-10T15:06:00.000-08:00

The Many Faces of Eve 1

2009-01-10T15:02:00.000-08:00

Tishomingo State Park, Mississippi 3

2009-01-08T15:21:00.000-08:00

Tishomingo State Park, Mississippi 2

2009-01-08T15:19:00.000-08:00

Tishomingo State Park, Mississippi

2009-01-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

You're no Blu!

2009-01-08T14:46:00.000-08:00

Terry Harp, you're no Blu, but you are the new and improved version!

My family spent this New Year's at Tishomingo State Park in Mississippi. Thirty years ago, we spent every New Year's at Tishomingo State Park with five other families with all our children and dogs. This year, our children, grandchildren, and significant others made the trek.

Thirty years ago, we all lived in Columbus, Mississippi. Six families with children around the same age, we mostly lived on Southside and the kids mostly attended public schools when the private school was all the rage. We mostly lived in old houses with sidewalks, and went to the Episcopal Church. Every Sunday, we all went on a picnic together, or to the Cade's house to swim and drink beer. Every New Year's, we loaded whatever old cars we had that year and headed two hours up the road to Tishomingo State Park. This year, we came from Maryland, Illinois, Alabama, and Washington DC. Life used to be simpler.

Thirty years ago, Blu was the Park Ranger who drove an old beat-up pickup truck, brought us firewood, and took the children and dogs all over the Park in the back of his truck. Terry Harp took over as Park Ranger this past July. I'm not sure Blu could read and write. Terry probably has a master's degree in something. Both know how to take care of folks and make folks feel at home.

Thirty years ago, Blu was always waiting for us to arrive. This year, Terry was at the entrance gate when we got there after dark on New Year's Day and was on duty until 10 that night. Blu knew we wanted firewood and had it at each cabin when we arrived. Terry delivered the firewood as soon as he knew we wanted it at each cabin. Blu wore overalls. Terry had a spotless uniform on every day. Both were equally friendly and interested in who we are and where we came from.

Thirty years ago and this year, we hiked the trails, crossed and re-crossed the swinging bridge, cooked together, stared into the fire, and talked and talked and talked. We're talking about going back next year. Mahlone, our youngest daughter, is 28 and getting married in April. She was 10 days old the first time she went to Tishomingo State Park for New Year's. There are other family dynamics that make it tough to plan such a trip a year from now. But we did it this year and everybody came and it was fantastic!

Thanks, Tishomingo and Blu and Terry, for making our lives better and taking care of us.

A Letter to Jerry Lee Lewis

2008-12-28T13:21:00.000-08:00

A Christmas Letter to Jerry Lee Lewis
God Knows Where

Dear Jerry Lee,

I received the Oxford American Southern Music Issue #10 (OA #63) for Christmas. Your picture's on the cover and they selected "Hold On I'm Coming" for your song on the two CD offering. I've listened to it about a hundred times in the last three days.

Way back on page 160 there's a quote from you: "My only regret is that I've never sat in the audience and watched a Jerry Lee Lewis show."

Well, Killer, let me tell you how it is! Back in the olden days in the late 1950's, Columbus Mississippi had the City Auditorium for gospel quartets and wrestling and the annual Pilgrimage Pageant.

One magic night you came to town and I was there!

This being almost 2009 and all, some of my memory has faded. I'm not sure if you were the opening act or the main act or the only act. One thing's for sure - you are the only act I remember.

I was seated toward the back of the Auditorium when you came out on stage. Between the whistling and hollering and jumping up and down, I thought you had on a kid's rain slicker. Your blond pompadour and shiny yellow suit dazzled me and I whistled and hollered and jumped even more. Then you started singing.

And did you sing!

At the end you were sitting on top of the upright piano and playing/stomping with your shoes. I always worried how the Blackwood Brothers Quartet would be able to perform, next time they were in town, if you tore up the piano. Then I read the article in OA about you pulling into another town for another gig with a piano in a little trailer behind your Cadillac convertible. So maybe you were kicking your own piano in Columbus Mississippi that night.

So I hate that life being what it is kept you from watching your own performance. It was life changing for me. I wish you could have been on the stage and sitting with me at the same time. Now, that would have been way cool for both of us.

You said it best, "just think what a dull world this would be without a Jerry Lee Lewis in it."

Thank you, Jerry Lee, for being in my world! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Christmas Eve Davis Patty Let Me Sing "O Holy Night"

2008-12-14T14:50:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Eve Davis Patty Let Me Sing "O Holy Night"

People, Episcopalians and Baptists and Methodists and all the rest of us, came from miles around for St. Paul's Christmas Eve Midnight service in Columbus. People who weren't sure whether to kneel or stand or take communion came. It was the thing to do.

I grew up in First Baptist Church in Columbus and, after a college summer in the mountains of Vermont, joined the Episcopal Church. I had been a music major at Mississippi College in Clinton and was destined to be a Minister of Music in a Southern Baptist Church somewhere.

I'll never forget telling Dr. Woodson, the minister at First Baptist Church, that I was going to join the Episcopal Church. Dr. Woodson said, "Oh son, if you aren't finding what you need in the Baptist Church, try the Methodist Church but don't join that Episcopal Church!"

But, I did and a few years later ended up back in Columbus with a wife and two babies. We attended St. Paul's Episcopal Church pretty faithfully. I sang in the choir.

For decades, one of the highlights of St. Paul's Christmas Eve service was Davis Patty singing "Oh, Holy Night". Davis was a bachelor and a banker at Merchants and Farmers Bank. He attended the opera in New York City and gave elaborate dinner parties (somebody tried to eat a lace doily one night) and had a radio program on Sunday morning on one of the local stations. He even conducted church services in Macon when they didn't have a priest, but his real claim to fame for me was "Oh, Holy Night".

So, this one Christmas Eve I showed up at St. Paul's for the service and Davis couldn't talk. He whispered or wrote out (I'm foggy on how he communicated with me) that he couldn't do "Oh, Holy Night" and it was up to me to pull it off. If it had existed in those days, I would have responded "OMG!" But it didn't, and I'm pretty sure I thought "Thank You, Jesus!!!!!"

I'm not Davis Patty, and I never was, but I did the best I could that night and he said I did OK. I'm pretty sure it was better than the Christmas Eve service I did "Ave Maria" in Latin.

As in all good treasure hunts, it gets harder and harder. This is Version 3 of Where In Maryland In Annapolis.

2008-12-10T16:53:00.000-08:00

As before in Version 1 and 2, take your family and friends to downtown Annapolis to have fun and look for the exact location of these photographs. The first ten folks who email me at billburnette@ymail.com, with the exact geographic location of all four photographs will receive a free, signed, framed original photograph of your choice. Just let me know what you like, and I will come as close as possible. Everybody, after the first ten, gets bragging rights and the opportunity to purchase an original Bill Burnette photograph. So do it now, and get the free stuff!

Where In Maryland In Annapolis 2

2008-12-10T16:35:00.000-08:00

Same rules for the second edition of the Where In Maryland treasure hunt. Take your Mom and Dad, or significant other, to look for these exact locations in Annapolis, Maryland. The first 10 folks who email be at billburnette@ymail.com with the correct location of all four photographs will receive a free, framed, signed photograph of your choice. Everybody else, after the first ten, gets bragging rights and the ability to purchase a photograph from Annapolis photographer Bill Burnette. Just email me at the same address. Christmas is coming! A unique gift is priceless!

Volvo Race Around The World

2008-12-09T16:01:00.000-08:00

Damn It Josh, You Made Me Think

2008-11-23T18:08:00.000-08:00

On the Friday night after the Presidential Election, I was at work late waiting for Suzanne to get to New Carrollton Metro. Rab called from Boston to discuss a Michigan trip. The conversation turned to the election and my Mississippi roots and my blog about voting for Obama.

Somehow we talked about my black Standard Poodle that I bought for my family's protection over 30 years ago. Rab's Blackberry connection was not great and I talked louder than usual to compensate.

I told Rab the story of naming this beautiful dog Black Sambeau of Southside. Rab, being the normal Yankee, was amazed. I didn't understand.

Suzanne and I grew up on the story of Sambo, an Indian Prince who had to give his fine clothes and slippers to the tigers to keep from being eaten, and we read the story to our children over and over.

I didn't spell the dog's name and I didn't think anything about the conversation until Rab and I hung up. That's when Josh met me at the end of the cubicle aisle.

Josh said "I couldn't help overhearing your conversation, Bill". I apologized for speaking too loudly and explained the bad connection. Josh said "That's not what I'm talking about, Bill. You know that Sambo is an offensive term don't you?"

I really didn't know it was offensive and I don't think I had ever been confronted about a racial issue in my life. I lamely directed Josh to my blog about voting for Obama http://billburnette.blogspot.com/

All that weekend and since, I've thought about what Josh heard and thought about my attitude. The story of Sambo was not written to be offensive, or thought to be offensive when it was written. That came later and I missed the change.

Suzanne had a tradition in her family of naming all dogs Beau. There had been Beau and Red Beau and many others.

Our Standard Poodle was black and we lived in the part of Columbus, Mississippi, known as Southside. It seemed natural to name the dog Black Sambeau of Southside in his registration papers.

I'm a lover and not a fighter and I never try to offend anybody on purpose. So, Josh, I most likely today would not name a black dog Sambeau. Thirty years ago in Mississippi, it seemed natural to call a black dog Sambeau. Today, not so much. Thanks for telling me what you thought and felt.

South County Horse

2008-11-22T11:32:00.000-08:00

Black and White
Color
More Color

Horse in South County

2008-11-22T11:30:00.000-08:00

Black and White
Color
More Color

South County Weekend

2008-11-09T15:06:00.000-08:00

South County Saturday Morning

2008-11-08T15:19:00.000-08:00

Self-Portrait

2008-10-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

Annapolis in the Fog

2008-10-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

Smithsonian

2008-10-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Mahlone and Mike

2008-10-30T14:07:00.000-07:00

2008-10-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

Stormy Sunday Morning
St. Anne's Episcopal Church

The Statehouse

Annapolis, Maryland 2

2008-10-30T13:54:00.000-07:00

U.S. Naval Academy Chapel
The Maryland Inn
Main Street and the Chesapeake Bay

Athens, Georgia

2008-10-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

Ocracoke Island, North Carolina

2008-10-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

Barns of South County 2

2008-10-28T15:54:00.000-07:00

Barns of South County 1

2008-10-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

Horses of South County 2

2008-10-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

Horses of South County 1

2008-10-28T15:37:00.000-07:00

Annapolis, Maryland 1

2008-10-24T16:04:00.000-07:00

Stevens Hardware fronts Ego Alley in downtown Annapolis.
A full moon over the shoulder of an angel in St. Anne's Cemetery in Annapolis.
Fence, vines, and flowers on King George Street in Annapolis, just a block from the U.S. Naval Academy and St. John's College.

Weeping Angel, Columbus MS

2008-10-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

I'M FIXING TO VOTE FOR A BLACK MAN FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

2008-10-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

I was born white in Mississippi in 1943. Everything was segregated. There were black and white water fountains, black and white bathrooms, black and white waiting rooms, black and white everything.

My parents ran a country grocery store. Thank goodness we had black and white customers who traded with us, or we would have starved. Everybody had a credit book and charged their groceries. Most people paid the bill on payday, but some didn't.

Growing up, I went to white public schools. The children of most of my parents' customers went to black schools, if they went to school. It depended on seasonal crops and having enough money for the family to live.

My best friend for awhile was Lee, a black kid who lived across the road with his grandmother, Aunt Laura. Seems like every older balck person, who came in our store, had a nickname like Aunt Laura, Uncle Walter, Blind Willy, Rabbit, on and on. Just like the Mafia, but more affectionate and less threatening.

I never saw a Klansman that I was aware of. Maybe some of my best friends were Klansmen but I didn't know it.

Segregation endured for me in Mississippi until my sophomore year in college. I was a music major at Mississippi College in Clinton. I went home for the weekend before James Meredith was to integrate the University of Mississippi. My brother's-in-law unit of the Mississippi National Guard was activated and sent to Ole Miss. Federal Marshals and rednecks were everywhere.

On the drive back to school on Sunday night, Mississippi Highway Patrol cars with lights flashing and sirens screaming were heading from all over the State to Ole Miss. We detoured through downtown Jackson. Rumor had it that the Marshals were going to arrest the Governor for resisting the President's orders. Ross Barnett in Mississippi and George Wallace in Alabama were defiant. "Segregation Now, Segregation Forever!" they said. The rednecks had totally surrounded the Governor's Mansion, linking arms, and daring the Feds to try to get to Ross.

We continued on to Mississippi College and at midnight hoisted a Confederate flag up the main flagpole. God knows where we got one - we were music majors for goodness sake!

The next day, after riots and threats, Ross backed down according to prearrangement with the Kennedys, and official segregation ended in Mississippi. Integration, not so much.

That summer, I worked and hitchhiked in Vermont and Nantucket Island in New England. A few people put me out of their cars when they heard my accent, "Mississippi", and "Burnette" which sounded too much like "Barnett" in Southern.

Back at Mississippi College for my junior year, I stocked the apartment refrigerator with Budweiser after my summer in the liberal North. My roommate, after a hot summer in Oklahoma as a missionary to Native Americans, was appalled. We were both studying to be Ministers of Music in Southern Baptist churches.

With my new-found idea of fun and a crucial introduction by my appalled roommate's girlfriend, I dated the reigning Miss Jackson. I thought the relationship was serious until I returned from Christmas holiday to discover she was going back to her Army boyfriend. My heart was broken. I reassessed life and meaning, and decided I didn't really want to be a Minister of Music.

I changed schools from Mississippi College to University of Georgia, and majors from music to landscape architecture. I graduated in the midst of the Vietnam War, got married, and had a baby.

My first job was for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in Atlanta as an Urban Planner. For the first several months with HUD, I was also a Housing Intern along with a dozen other recent college graduates. Another Intern was a black guy who invited us all to join the NAACP. Less than five years after raising the Confederate flag above the Mississippi College campus, I was a card-carrying member of the NAACP.

Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis. His church in Atlanta was less than twenty blocks from the HUD building, and everybody expected riots.

I moved back to my hometown in Mississippi as City Planner. The Mayor and City Council I worked for were all white, but they appointed blacks to almost all of the Boards and Commissions.

After Medgar Evers was assassinated, his brother Charles came back home from Chicago to run for Governor. The Mayor sent me to a rally to represent the City. A Memphis newspaper reporter and I were the only white folks in the church. The candidate held up a newspaper with headlines stating he had been involved in prostitution and bootlegging in Chicago. He said it was all true, but that he was as good now as he was bad then. I had on my white leisure suit and presented Mr. Evers the key to the city. The Mayor told me later that he would not have done that. These days, the Mayor is black and political representation reflects population more fairly than in the past.

Later, as Manager of the Mississippi Major Economic Impact Authority, I lived in the northeastern corner of the State. The white population of Tishomingo County is probably 95% white, and one of the most respected men in the area was a Mississippi Highway Patrolman who was black. He took care of the teenagers, stopped the drunks crossing the state line from Tennessee and Alabama, escorted the Governor, and was loved by everybody.

After living in Maryland for most of the last twenty years, I've experienced a lot of change. My children are grown and my grandchildren are getting grown. My wife and I are getting a divorce after more than forty years. I plan to get a small RV and become a photographer. Change is just beginning.

I'm fixin' to vote for a black man for President of the United States of America because I think he will do the best job. I am America.