One Drunk Redneck

"People are very adaptable to change. They come and go in their pursuit of stability for their families and for greener pastures. The footprints they leave behind - abandoned businesses, overgrown gardens, vacant homes, and, yes, tombstones - are stories of hopes and dreams manifested, but never told...lived, but long forgotten" The quote is from an article I wrote over a year ago titled, The Feeling That No English Word Describes . The Portuguese have a word for the feeling. Saudade (/souˈdädə/). It's the empty, melancholic yearning for yesteryear when times were carefree and food tasted better. It's that feeling you get when you see the skeletal remains of an old home and wonder who lived there during the home's heyday. It's the feeling I get when I see the 1870 Church in Fairmount, MD with its granite block foundation from Port Deposit. The Church is a reminder of how the farmers and watermen put Delmarva on the map.  A memorial on ...

If you drive to Crisfield, MD, you'll miss Upper Fairmount and the watermen towns of Rumbly and Frenchtown.  You'll pass through Marion Station, but don't blink.  You'll miss it.  Crisfield is hanging on, but will probably be under water in another thirty years. Back in the day, like 150 years ago, these towns boomed.  In fact, Crisfield was the second largest city in Maryland right behind Baltimore.  The prosperous watermen and farmers built strong communities and big buildings.  One such building in Upper Fairmount, the Methodist Church built in 1870, is for sale and in need of rehab. The parsonage to the left we currently own and are fixing.  We want to add the Church and kitchen to the right to the project mix. The two drunk rednecks remaining of the five want to buy the Church and begin a planned twenty year rehab project.  Yes, there's that much work to save the landmark.  Oh, it could be done faster, but money is the limiting f...

Estimated read time: 6 minutes Four years ago, Jay L. Newcomb lost his seat on the County Council to Dan B. Satterfield.  The real question I should be asking is "Did anyone notice much less care?" Ok, I'm being facetious.  Maybe the County Council doesn't have much to brag about because we have a failed technology park outside of the Bucktown Airport and a medical plaza being built to attract less-than-living-wage national chains.  To add salt to the wounds, rumors are the national chains won't hire locals for the positions of responsibility (read higher pay) because local talent is unreliable (read some city folk want to move to the country.) Despite the failures and rumors, we are still tasked with electing new commissioners.  If the talk among long time county residents holds any truth, we have to decide who should join the Old Boys Club called the County Council, a club designed to fatten the members' private bank accounts and not much else. One...

Estimated read time: 9 minutes Primary elections are right around the corner - June 26th.  As a voter, you have been given the position of Human Resources Hiring Manager and tasked with the job of reviewing each candidate's qualifications. The simple way to decide whom to vote for is to look at the letter following the candidate's name.  While that may be the simplest method to weed through the candidates, it's not the most reliable.  Think about how many jobs a Human Resources Manager rejected you for because they didn't see the letters BS, MS, or PhD after your name.  Do you think the candidate with one of those sets of letters after their name was more qualified than you?  If not, why would you think a D or an R after a candidate's name automatically qualifies them for the position they are running for? You can also ignore the list of qualifications that includes such nonsense as born and raised on the Eastern Shore, go to Church every Sunday, and want...

Estimated read time: 14 minutes I watched Stephen King's 11.22.63 miniseries with the only other drunk redneck remaining, Keith.   Ok, quick review for readers who may not have seen the show.   It was ok and entertaining for me.   Keith loved it.   He thought it was a beautiful love story with a supernatural/sci fi element and he'd watch it again.   I thought Stephen King saw the movie, The Butterfly Effect and wrote 11.22.63 as his interpretation of the phenomenon.   Now back to my story. At the beginning of the movie, a character, who had traveled back to 1960, says to the main character of the story that the food back then tasted better than it does today.   Keith turned to me and said, "See?   I told you the food was better back when I was a kid." The food did taste better when we were kids, didn't it?   The thought may have triggered an emotion in you that no English word describes.   It's a nostalgic, almost ...

In a previous post , I stated we need jury selection reform.  The process, as is, treats every prospective juror as a criminal before the prospective juror has even balked at serving.  The initial summons is sent with ample warning that failure to comply could result in fines and possible jail time.  Just how receptive should our government people expect a prospective juror to be when right off the bat they are sternly warning and threatening the prospective juror with fines and jail time?  And since the summons is sent regular mail, how can the government people threaten a prospective juror with fines and jail time when they don't even know the prospective juror received the summons? Business 101: don't threaten a customer with the first contact.  Offer them options.  That is a lesson almost every government employee didn't pay attention to in their Business 101 class. Since the days when our Founding Fathers wrote our Constitution, society has changed...

In this modern day world of technology where we are inundated daily with everything that is wrong and bad in this country... In this modern day world of politics where presidential candidates vow to "make America great again" or "stronger together" as if we're not great, but are weak... In this modern day world of business where the almighty dollar is more important than principles and doing what's right... I come across this stand that defiantly boasts how honest we are and how great we are.  Prices for the produce are posted and plastic bags are provided so you don't walk off with the small baskets.  You bag your produce and leave the money in the money box.  The rusted old money box is testament to the many years this honor system of selling produce has worked for the farmer.  If only we all could focus on this business model and celebrate what it really says about us. Posted by Five Drunk Rednecks

The world is emptier today.  The night before last, our friend, Brian, died.  Apologies for the bluntness, but the usual euphemisms - moved on, passed away, went to the Great Fishing Grounds in the sky - all lessen the impact his sudden passing has had on everyone who knew him, including two of your other Drunk Rednecks, Mark and Keith. Did I say "other Drunk Rednecks?" Yes.  Although Brian would probably deny he had much of anything to do with anything on this site, he contributed more than he realized - especially on all of our articles on the watermen .  You see, Brian was born and raised as a waterman and lived his entire life as a waterman.  He would have been forty-five next month, but in his short life, he knew more about the Bay and what made it tick than any text book, college educated marine scientist, or bureaucrat in Annapolis could pretend to know. Keith and I met Brian almost nine years ago when we bought a house and moved to...