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AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler

Judging by the number of moms out to dinner on the Saturday evening before Mother’s Day, the annual holiday is as popular as ever. This observation was borne out on Sunday with many moms spotted in the crowd during the second of the Friends of Anne Arundel County Trails annual spring concerts at Hatton-Regester Green off the Baltimore Annapolis Trail.

Approaching the Green from the north, we heard the music before we spotted a sizeable number of people spread out across the hillside in front of the Green’s new stage enjoying the music of the popular duo Sparks and McCoy. Having brought their own lawn chairs and/or blankets, the crowd not only occupied the lawn below the Trail but was also spotted across it at the top of the hill.

Friends of Anne Arundel County Trails’ president Lauren Allen, who introduced Edward Sparks and Steve McCoy, told us the pair was chosen to appear in the organization’s 2026 concert series because they were a crowd favorite having been the featured artists 10 times over the years.

Surrounded by an impressive array of instruments including some beautiful acoustic guitars, a keyboard and a harmonica, Sparks & McCoy performed a program of classic rock.

Rain had been predicted for Sunday but Sparks and McCoy opted to press on with the performance anyway – especially since it was being held on Mother’s Day. We noticed several families that were very happy they did since they brought their Mother’s Day celebrations with them to the concert, picnic-style.

As it happened, rain held off through most of the concert scheduled to run from 4-6 pm but, with 15 minutes to go, raindrops began to fall and concert-goers reluctantly scattered.

Before leaving, we caught up again with Lauren Allen who told us the Friends were really pleased with the new stage constructed to replace Regester-Green’s 30-year-old pavilion which had fallen into disrepair. Used thus far, by the Seth Mitchell Band and Sparks and McCoy the stage is roomier, more conveniently set-up and seems better acoustically.

Allen reminded us that three concerts remain to be performed in the Spring Concert Series The concerts are free to the public and are scheduled to take place over the remainder of May. They include:

Sunday, May 17th – Guitarist/vocalist and bagpipe player Jeff Herbert

Sunday, May 24th – Ginger & the Other Dave with Ginger Hildebrand on guitar, violin and vocals and Dave Nolte on guitar.

Sunday, May 31st – Carribean-influenced Guava Jelly with their lead singer/songwriter Bridgette Michaels on guitar, Mike Edillon on bass and Dawn Madak supplying rhythm and vocals.

The concert series will resume in the fall with an additional five concerts. For updates on the spring concerts or information on those scheduled for autumn, visit Anne Arundel County Trails | The Friends of AACo Trails.

Earleigh Heights Volunteer Fire Company Spring Craft Fair this Saturday

Early Heights Volunteer Fire Company is hosting a Spring Craft Fair this Saturday, May 16 from 10 am till 2 pm. According to Fire Chief Dave Crawford, 60 local vendors of all types will be participating across the grounds and inside the firehouse. The event is being held to raise money in support of the volunteer fire company’s construction of a new firehouse. In addition to artisan crafts and decor from vendors, there will be a variety of foods available for cash purchase.

For information, visit Earleigh Heights VFC.

Corks for a Cause to be held June 3rd at Homestead Gardens in Severna Park

Always one of Spring’s most fabulous fundraisers, the Corks for a Cause event benefitting the Baltimore-Washington Medical Center Foundation and NEXTGEN healthcare will be held at Homestead Gardens Severna Park on Wednesday, June 3rd from 6 to 8 pm.

Hosted by Homestead Gardens and Fishpaws MarketPlace, the event will feature excellent wines plus foods from some of the area’s finest purveyors, an impressive Silent Auction and Live Music.

Katherine’s Light Foundation Music Festival at Severna Park Taphouse on June 13th

We have news from founders Robin and Larry Sells that tickets are now available for this year’s Katherine’s Light Foundation Music Festival at the Severna Park Taphouse on Saturday, June 13th. The annual festival honoring the memory of Robin’s daughter Katherine Mueller is a fundraiser for the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation (NET cancer took Katherine’s life) and three other cancer-related charities. The music event is entirely a volunteer effort and every penny raised is given away. Thus far, the foundation has donated an astounding $210,000 to the aforementioned charities.

We’ve luckily had a preview from Larry of the performers being featured at the 2026 KLF Music Festival. Included are the Lost and Found Trio Band, George Evans, Honey Sol, TMI, Ray Paice, Billy Z and more. The festival headliner is Nashville recording artist MIGGS.

Miggs (Rangel) appeared at the event for the first time last year and was so popular with the crowd that he was a shoo-in for this year’s top billing.

According to Sells, a silent raffle and live auction are planned for the festival as well as a 50-50 and there are more surprises to come. For information, visit the website www.katherineslight.org. Tickets and sponsorships can be found there.

The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center. From health-defense to self-defense, Jing Ying provides fitness with a purpose for the whole family!

and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.

AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler

By the time I arrived shortly after noon, the Greater Severna Park Chamber of Commerce’s “Spring Local Fun Festival” was well underway. Row upon row of vendor tents could be seen from the crowded parking lots surrounding the event. I’d learned from Chamber CEO Liz League that an amazing total of 79 small businesses and organizations were participating in this year’s festival. She was also pleased that the event had drawn nine Gold Sponsors.

Drawn by the sight of all those tents and a continuous stream of music from the Harbor City Music Company Show Chorus and Bach to Rock Music School guitarist Em and deejay Max Smith, a sizeable crowd of families, dedicated shoppers and weekend day-trippers had already formed.

Entering the event from the far end, I was welcomed to Health & Wellness Row by Lore Goldstein and Krista Hernandez from the Chamber’s Wellness Business Connections Group. Lore is with Stop Stretching. Krista has taken a break from her company Felix Wellness as she and her husband are transitioning from active-duty life to civilian life and moving.

Businesses in the section of the festival dedicated to wellness ran the gamut from Griswold Home Care and the Women’s Clinic to GYMGUYS Annapolis.

Directly across from Health & Wellness Row was a section I dubbed Education Row with businesses and institutions like St. Martin’s in-the-Field Episcopal School, Mathnasium, the Play Street Museum, and The Learning Center among others.

There we visited the St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal School booth overseen by Shop Local festival veteran Kira Dickson who is the school’s Director of Admissions. With its mix of information, games, giveaways and treats, the booth is always a popular stop. Dickson is seen below with St. Martin’s student Lola Westholm.

Spying the Flying Kiwi Ice Cream truck, I detoured around the front side of the tents to get a better look. We noted a good-sized line forming there made up primarily of families with children.

Continuing across the parking lot, I noticed the ASPCA Mobile Pet Unit drawing numerous families with children who loved looking in the glass windows at pets available for adoption. They also had fun petting the child-friendly pup held by a volunteer.

Just around the bend from the mobile pet unit, we found veteran festival participant Woofies of Annapolis, a pet sitting, dog walking and grooming service with Cindy Dedios at the helm. The Woofies booth is always popular with children and adults with pets. Dedios’ mix of information, advice, and lollipops works like a charm.

Circling back to the tents a little after 1 pm, I observed that the rows were becoming increasingly crowded with shoppers – especially those at the center of the event where the Franklin’s Toys and SERVPRO tents were located.

Having already completed their martial arts demonstration and performed their famed Lion Dance for the crowds, Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu & Tai Chi owners Billy and Nancy Greer and their students were free to mind the tent, tout their upcoming summer camp, chat with friends and watch demonstrations by others.

We soon joined the Greers who were chatting with Katherine’s Light Foundation, LLC founder Larry Sells about the upcoming Katherine’s Light All-Day Music Festival taking place June 13th at the Severna Park Taphouse. Nancy Greer also clued me in to the fact that “winners” from the recent Children’s Business Fair organized by the Maryland Curiosity Lab of Acton School and the Chamber had been invited to participate in the Spring Local Fun Festival. We found four of those winners two rows away.

We first visited Hand Crafters who won for their wonderfully ornamental seashells they decoupaged with images from fairytales and nature. We next moved on to the Paper Garden booth where winner Jobie Schinnamon and her sister Charlotte chatted with us about the recycled papers she makes and the Fairy Wands she created to add interest to floral bouquets or houseplants.

We next visited a third winner – Bakery of Bottany’s Clay Wise who was accompanied to the Spring Local Fun Festival by his green-eyed cat in a cat carrier next to the cat grass. Clay does all the baking and some of the growing for the business he started with partner William Price.

Our timing was a bit off and we missed meeting the fourth winner, Colossus Cookie Company’s Kiriakos Katsikides whose cookies were selling like hotcakes and, according to the Greers who’d bought some, were delicious.

We’d earlier passed the KWON’S TAEKWONDO booth where several black belt students waited with Master Kwon while counting the minutes until time for their performance.

When the time finally came, the girls’ demonstration was powerful as they delivered the precise punches and kicks the Korean martial arts discipline is known for.

Moving on after watching the demonstration, I visited a row of tents featuring companies like Bayrise Builders and Park Modern Realty among others, convincing me that the construction industry is doing well.

I finally came to the final row and discovered that the entire Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services family came out to support the Spring Local Fun Festival. In fact, the company was one of nine Gold Sponsors for the event. Not only were owners Winsome Brown and sister Danielle Morgan Brown on hand but brother Tony Clarke was there as well along with staffers Mia and Micayla Alexander. Winsome Brown also introduced me to Lisa Knoll who recently joined the staff as Community Liaison.

Saving one of the best for next to last, we visited the table of Side Street Framers and Gift Gallery where daughter Jessica Chroniger was pinch-hitting for her mother Dawn Wilson.

Last in the row was yet another Shop Local event veteran Jody Buck whose Key Group real estate business has really taken off over the last few years. Shoppers absolutely loved Buck’s wonderful shopping bags with a choice of destinations to love as part of the design.

With 79 vendor tents, there was no way we could visit them all, but we hope we’ve given you a little taste. The event was the biggest and one of the best of the Chamber’s Shop Local events. We can only wonder if the next one, scheduled for October, will eclipse it. To see more, visit Home – Greater Severna Park and Arnold Chamber of Commerce.

The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center. From health-defense to self-defense, Jing Ying provides fitness with a purpose for the whole family!

and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.

AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler

On Saturday, April 25, the Friends of The Rising Sun Inn held another of its popular teas in the dining room of the historic farmhouse in Crownsville built in 1753. Billed “Spilling the Tea” with author Mary K. Tilghman, the event was something of a twist on the organization’s traditional teas.

We found the author looking every bit the proper lady one might expect to find as a character in one of her historical fiction or modern romance novels. Wearing a stylish dress and jacket, Tilghman added interest by topping off her ensemble with a pale pink “fascinator”. She could be heard explaining to sisters Brigid and Gina Truitt and friend Cindy Myers exactly what a fascinator was.

Having served as a farmhouse, a tavern, a post office, stagecoach stop, public meeting place, and tax collector’s stop over its 273-year history, The Rising Sun Inn had fallen into a state of disrepair by the 20th century. Richard “Bo” Williams, the final private owner of the property, gifted it to the Anne Arundel Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1916 on condition that it be preserved and maintained as a historical site or museum. The women took out a loan of $5,000 to start the restoration (equivalent to about $150,000 today) and had to figure out a way to pay for it. So, through the 1920’s, ’30’s and ’40’s, they operated a Tea Room until the onset of World War II.

Aware that “having tea at The Rising Sun Inn” in Crownsville had been a favored pastime for three decades, The Friends of Rising Sun Inn decided to bring the formal teas back in recent years.

Addressing the guests as Saturday’s event began, Friends Treasurer and NSDAR Regent Kris Jenkins noted that the service was slightly different from the Inn’s traditional teas.

“Our trays look a little different today as we’re serving a simpler ‘Elevensies’ tea with tea and sweets,” she said. “We’re trying to serve some of the things Mary will be discussing from her latest book ‘Love Letters & Gingerbread, An Annapolis Christmas’ like sweet rolls, fruit cake, German stollen, and tea cakes.”

Jenkins later revealed that the Friends had been looking for a different approach to teas. They had done numerous Tea and Tours and Tea and Trivia events over the years before hitting on the idea of combining a Tavern Talk and book signing and doing “Spilling the Tea” with authors.

“It would be similar to ‘spilling the beans’ with the writers revealing some of the methods they use for creating characters, plots or settings for their books,” she said. “As Mary K. Tilghman has been here before when two of her other books were released, we thought she would be ideal for our first “Spilling The Tea” event.

As tea got underway, we spoke to a few of the guests including mother and daughter duo Lauren and Nancy Strong.

Lauren noted that they were attending a tea at The Rising Sun Inn for the first time and enjoying themselves very much. Nancy added that they planned to come back soon for one of the docent-led tours of the house and grounds.

Before moving on to other guests, I stopped by a table set up for a book signing that contained a number of books written by Tilghman including “Divided Loyalties”, “Inn by the Lake”, “Fearless Summer”, “Step Into the Sunlight”, “Born on the Opposite Side of the Boardwalk”, “The Last Gift”, and her latest, “Love Letters & Gingerbread, An Annapolis Christmas”.

At a table near the front of the dining room, I found Mary Dushel, Leona Puglia, Adele Balefeld and Rachel Sullivan in lively conversation. Mary Dushel told us she and Mary Tilghman went to school together at Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn.

Bearing in mind that the United States is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, I took a moment to speak with docent Sharon Beard who is also a docent at the Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis. She and I agreed that the Severn Cross Roads area of Crownsville has preserved quite a bit of its history dating back to the 1700’s. In addition to The Rising Sun Inn, there is Historic Baldwin Hall and the schoolhouse behind it, the Baldwin family home Bunker Hill, the Anne Arundel County Free School dating back to 1723 and St. Paul’s Anglican Chapel built in 1861 with a cemetery that is much older.

Before long, it was time for author Mary K. Tilghman to take the podium and begin “Spilling The Tea” about her career as an author. A graduate of University of Maryland, Baltimore County, with a Masters degree in English, Tilghman has been a reporter and editor of local newspapers, a freelance magazine writer, a travel writer, and travel blogger. As previously mentioned, she’s written six novels – a few of which she would read passages from while spilling the tea.

Tilghman’s talk would give a glimpse into the processes involved in writing books that are based on history. She noted that before you can begin writing a novel, you need to come up with a setting for the story. For historical fiction works, for example, she would rely on communities or towns she was already familiar with. Her research would include visiting homes or buildings that still exist and are preserved as they were in the past.

“I needed to come up with names for the characters in each book, starting with my first novel which involved five characters, the author said before reading a passage introducing them. “Names were important and, in some cases, I borrowed the names of family members.”

To further illustrate her point, she read passages authored by Charles Dickens referencing the naming of orphan Oliver Twist in the book by the same title. She added that her favorite Dickens character name was Uriah Heap from the Dicken’s novel “David Copperfield”.

“Curious about how modern-day writers came up with names for their characters, I asked some of my author friends,” Tilghman said.

“Their answers were wide-ranging and sometimes surprising. Some authors chose not to use the names of people they knew. Others admit to picking names from obituaries. One writer adopted a name she overheard while standing in line at her bank. Another writer famously asked for name suggestions on TikTok and said she got 78,000 views.”

Generally, the names Tilghman chooses are people she knows, first seeking their approval. If they are public figures, however, their names are already widely known, and she doesn’t feel a need to ask. She pointed out that names do have to match the era in which a book is set.

The novelist ended her talk by asking the audience for name suggestions. One suggestion was the name Beulah which seems to have fallen out of use in the distant past.

Before leaving The Rising Sun Inn, we caught up again with Kris Jenkins who was taking delivery of plants native to Maryland that would have been on the grounds surrounding the farmhouse as it appeared during the colonial era.

Jenkins assured us that the Inn has many events planned in conjunction with America’s 250th Anniversary including a Liberty Tree dedication ceremony and reception to be attended by four DAR chapters and an array of public officials on June 3. For tea aficionados, another Victorian BirthdayTea will be held on May 16. To follow upcoming events, visit The Rising Sun Inn Crownsville, Maryland – Home.

Spring Local FUN FESTIVAL this Saturday, May 2 at Park Plaza

The Greater Severna Park & Arnold Chamber of Commerce invites the public to join them for the annual Spring Local FUN FESTIVAL this Saturday, May 2 at Park Plaza from 11 till 2:30 pm. A total of 71 businesses and community organizations will be represented as vendors. Health & Wellness, Food, Entertainment, Shopping, Music and more. For more information, visit Home – Greater Severna Park and Arnold Chamber of Commerce

The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center. From health-defense to self-defense, Jing Ying provides fitness with a purpose for the whole family!

and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.

AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler

Known far and wide for their bountiful U-Pick Strawberry Fields, Chase’s Produce owners Marge and Bob Chase were delighted when April’s warmer than usual temperatures brought their strawberry plants into full bloom. Fields full of beautiful white blossoms with bright yellow centers shimmered in the afternoon sun on Monday, April 20th. But, on Monday night disaster struck as the Chases watched the thermometer fall into the 30’s by midnight. By morning, it had dipped to a freezing 30 degrees.

Too upset in the morning to even look at the crop, Bob went off on the tractor to mow a distant field. However, Margie Chase went off to the nearest field for a look. As she feared, the freeze harmed a majority of blossoms meaning the plants would need to rebloom.

By the time I met her at the produce stand for a prearranged interview about the planting, raising, and marketing of strawberries, Chase decided to check out other fields and invited me to ride along with her in their Gator farm vehicle. We took off across the farm and headed uphill, coming to a stop next to a field of strawberry plants in rows that stretched far into the distance.

At first glance, the plants before us appeared to be in bloom. However, after leaving the Gator and lowering a section of electric fence used to keep out the deer, Chase glanced down the rows in disbelief.

“We were overjoyed last week when the temperature rose into the eighties and our strawberry plants went into full bloom early,” she said. “We actually thought we’d be able to start selling strawberries the first full week of May. But last night’s freeze really hurt them, so they’ll now have to rebloom. Waiting for them to rebloom and ripen will delay us from opening by a couple of weeks. Our sales volume will be down as the quantity of berries will be less and our season will be somewhat shortened.”

Bending down, she cradled a cluster of the white blossoms in her hand.

“If you look at these blooms, you’ll see two of these with a pretty yellow center while the other two have brown centers meaning we’ve lost them,” Chase added. “This other bloom was starting to make a berry but it, too, is turning brown and is lost.”

We noticed that, now and then, blooms closer to the ground seemed unharmed and would likely produce fruit but there just wouldn’t be enough of it to offer customers. As we walked the field, Chase began explaining the complicated art of growing strawberries to me.

At the end of each strawberry season, Bob Chase will plow the berry plants under and plant a cover crop – generally of a Sorghum-Sudangrass mix which grows six feet in six weeks and puts a lot of nutrients back into the clay soil in the beds.

The beds are replanted over an irrigation system in the autumn after the produce stand closes for the season on either black or white plastic. Bob uses a piece of equipment known as a Water Wheel Transplanter that pokes holes in the plastic into which one or two employees (or sometimes Margie) riding behind insert a strawberry plant.

As soon as the transplants are in, electric fencing goes up to protect the plants from deer. The irrigation system beneath the rows assures the plants have enough water to get off to a good start. (Strawberries love water from beneath the ground but do not like overhead water which causes them to disintegrate or mold.) Then, with cool temperatures coming, cotton row covers are anchored over the plants with sandbags which keep winds from harming the plants and warm the soil beneath them between 5 and 8 degrees.

The row covers gathered beneath the produce stand came off only weeks ago and have yet to be permanently stored.

Jumping back into the Gator, Chase drove us further up the hill toward additional strawberry fields. The beds we next approached were covered with white plastic. The difference between white and black plastic is that white stays cooler and slows the berries down a bit while the black heats up faster so the berries are typically a week ahead of those grown under white.

“All of the strawberry plants you see in our earlier blooming beds are a variety known as Flavorfest that were bred at Beltsville Research Center. As always, we bought plants from two suppliers to assure we’d get a good result,” said Chase. “As you can see, plants in the lower part of the beds here that came from one of the suppliers did not do as well. They may have been adversely affected by a fungicide used to fend off a disease called Neopestalotiopsis (Neo-P).”

Moving further up the hill to another bed of Flavorfest berries planted in black plastic, we spotted Bob Chase in a distant field “bushhogging” a cover crop of rye before plowing it under for the second in a succession of sweet corn plantings he started earlier in the week.

Sweet corn is the crop for which Chase’s Produce is best known and customers come from as far away as Washington, D.C. to buy it. (The same is true for the strawberries.)

Looking over another field of strawberries ruined by the frost, we noticed some of the Sorghum Sudangrass mix still standing beyond it. Chase began to enlighten me about how the U-Pick strawberries system works.

Whichever employee is tending the produce stand will send customers up the hill to whichever field Chase is working in. She’ll give each person a red flag and assign them a row to pick in. She asks them to place the flag in the ground at the place they start to pick. That way, she’ll know where to place the next customer as she works her way down each row. Depending on weather conditions and the amount of ripe strawberries available, the Chases try to have a 9 am opening and a 2 pm in the afternoon close. They also try to schedule a couple of evenings to be open from 4 to 7 pm or 5 to 7 pm as some people like to bring their children after school.

Weekends are the greatest challenge when Chase’s Produce gets hit hard with customers. They generally need to limit weekend customers to one day – either Saturday or Sunday because they wouldn’t have the volume of berries to handle back-to-back customers two full days in a row. For information, people can follow their website at Chase’s Produce – Fruits and Vegetables, Fresh Produce or page at Facebook or call 410/798-1580 where they have updates.

Heading back down the hill we came to the closest strawberry field to the produce stand in which the Chases are growing a later variety of strawberry known as Malwinas which bloom and ripen in early June. Consequently, there were no blossoms to freeze and the plants look very healthy. The Malwinas should extend strawberry picking season by two or three weeks.

Work on the crop does not stop. The plants initially must receive fertilization through the irrigation system, spraying must be done to kill weeds and because additional weeds spring up in any punctured areas of the plastic, the beds must be hand weeded as well. Hopefully, the Flavorfest strawberry plants will fully recover and U-Pick strawberry season will get underway in mid-May.

Meanwhile, sweet corn plantings will occur every five days and squash, zuchinni, pepper, cucumber and ochra plants are being started in trays for transplanting in a couple of weeks. the stand will fully open for business at the beginning of July. Keep your eyes on the Chase’s Produce website for exact times and dates.

A reminder: “Spilling the Tea with author Mary K. Tilghman at Rising Sun Inn April 25th

The Friends of The Rising Sun Inn invites the public to its Tavern Talk & Tea event: Spilling The Tea with author Mary K. Tilghman at 1 pm on Saturday, April 25th. An Elevenses Tea with tea and sweets in the beautiful surroundings of the historic Crownsville Inn while the author discusses her book “Love Letters & Gingerbread, An Annapolis Christmas”. For details visit Spilling the Tea with Author Mary Tilghman.

Another reminder: Park Books will host a Founding Mother’s Tea on May 2nd

Park Books will be welcoming NYT Bestselling Authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie for a “Mother’s Day Tea” celebrating their newest release, A Founding Mother: A Novel of Abigail Adams on Saturday, May 2nd from 3 to 5 pm. Enjoy afternoon tea with scones, cookies, and other treats. Tickets are $32 per person and include a copy of the book. For details, visit “A Founding Mother’s” Day Tea with NYT Bestselling Authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie | Facebook.

The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center. From health-defense to self-defense, Jing Ying provides fitness with a purpose for the whole family!

and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.

AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler

Acton Academy Maryland Curiosity Lab founders Roman and Jenny Hardgrave launched their school’s unique Children’s Business Fair four years ago in Arnold. The event kicked off with twenty-four child-owned business entries but, by 2026, with 64 entries, the event had outgrown its original site at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. Needing much more space, they partnered with the Greater Severna Park & Arnold Chamber of Commerce to relocate the 5th Annual Children’s Business Fair from its original site to Park Plaza. Bolstered by additional publicity and support from the Chamber and 11 community sponsors and the new site’s easy public access and parking, the event drew larger crowds than ever before.

Having heard good things about the Children’s Business Fair from Chamber CEO Liz League and others, we decided to check it out this year. As can be seen from the opening photo, the fair was crowded with tents and ever so busy, but we dove right in. The first child-owned business we stopped by was homeschooler Zoey Sowles’ “Have A Date” booth – a business based on chocolate covered dates.

Zoey’s booth was very professionally laid out with a printed menu complete with product photos. The first two menu items Snicker’s Dates and Coconut Joy Dates were sold out. However, there were still S’mores Dates as well as Cake in a Cup, Strawberry Shortcake, Cookies and Cream and Lemonade to be had.

Curious, we asked Zoey how she came to start her business.

“I came up with the idea to start a company three years ago and was looking for a product to market when I stumbled across making chocolate-covered dates. They tasted pretty good, so I began playing with different flavors. Then I heard about The Children’s Business Fair and thought ‘I could sell my dates there’. I began selling them at the fair three years ago and have continued ever since.”

Just across from Zoey’s booth, we met Just That Bro Bros’ Ira and Henry Olsen. The brothers had a great sales pitch and an abundance of handmade products to market. Their products included Garden Cups of Chocolate Pudding, Oreos and Gummy Worms, Potholders, Design Your Own Logo Stamps to block print on a shirt, and other items including custom art drawn by one of the bros.

Moving down the row, we came to Maryland Curiosity Lab student Jobie Schinnamon’s business Paper Garden which recycles paper and other items into viable products to sell. The flowers with which her tent was decorated were made from coffee filters. However, the regular and seed papers she was selling were created by her using a tried-and-true recycling method.

‘I create new paper from recycled paper by ripping it, putting it in a bin and adding water,” said Jobie. “I’ll let it sit for a day. Then I blend it in a blender to make it smooth, scoop the mixture onto screens on my deck to drain the water out and let the product dry. Today, I’m also selling flowers I made from unused coffee filters – a way of upcycling. I loved the idea of creating a business and felt participating in the fair was cool…and it was a way to earn extra money.”

Across from the Paper Garden, Duffy’s Dogs was running full tilt with young entrepreneur Duffy minding the grill and selling hot dogs, chili dogs and lemonade.

The Shell Sisters Claire and Margo Schieffer have been decoupaging art onto different sizes of seashells for quite a while and decided they should bring them to the Children’s Business Fair this year. Some are based on characters from fairy tales.

On our way to the next booth, we bumped into Blended Essentials manager Danielle Bowen and Anne Arundel County Council member Amanda Fiedler who were volunteering as judges. Both carried sheets with lists of entries for the age group they were assigned.

Fiedler, a judge for the fourth year, explained that awards would be given to entrants in each of three age groups for categories including most original business idea, highest business potential, and best presentation. Winners would receive $50 and a certificate.

A few minutes later, we stopped by The Bakery of Botany tent where we found middle school student and business co-owner Clay Wise. We also found Bowen there. Though The Bakery of Botany was not one of the entrants she was assigned to judge, she’d ducked into the tent to sneak at peak at the baked products.

“I’m one-half of The Bakery of Botany with my partner William Price who’s not here at the moment,” said Clay Wise. “I’ve done all the baking while William grew cat grass, succulents and transplants for sunflowers, nasturtiums, cucumbers, tomatoes and strawberries from seeds in biodegradable pots.”

We eventually ran into event founders Jenny and Roman Hardgrave who told us that the Children’s Business Fair organized by Acton Academy’s Maryland Curiosity Lab was not the only one. The fairs were taking place across the nation which is fitting as our country is celebrating its 250th anniversary. Roman went on to explain how the school happened to partner with the Greater Severna Park Chamber of Commerce and relocate the event to Park Plaza.

“From the beginning of the Children’s Business Fair on the parking lot at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, we had support from Chamber CEO Liz League who volunteered as a judge all four years. We also were sponsored from the very beginning by Chamber members Nancy and Billy Greer’s Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu & Tai Chi.

So, as we outgrew our original site on the parking lot at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, it seemed only natural to partner with the Chamber and move the event to Park Plaza. It’s worked out wonderfully as we’ve acquired support from 11 sponsors ranging from Art Farm Studios, and Broadneck Pharmacy to Mathnasium, LogoZone, Macaroni Kid, Naptown Scoop and The Severna Park Voice among others.”

Even though The Sweet Studio’s owner Sakina Ziot was completely sold out of bracelets, she was still selling cookies and Squeeze The Day lemonade. She was also wearing one of the inspiring blue t-shirts created by an Acton School student that many participants were wearing. It bore the slogan “The best way to predict the future is to create it by Abraham Lincoln”.

Back-to-back with The Sweet Studios’ tent was the CPD Handcrafts tent run by friends Callie Kinahan and Phoenix Loman. Their crafts ran from scrunchies and bracelets to pet rocks.

With 64 entrants and 90 children participating, we couldn’t visit them each one. However, we couldn’t resist focusing last on Willow”s Vegan Bakery. Fairly professional in her approach, owner Willow Stinchcomb had her own business cards, shirt, Facebook page, email address and an attention-getting pretzel headdress.

Willow said she has had a business of her own since she was six years old.

As the Children’s Business Fair of Severna Park wound to a close at 4 pm, there was great excitement as the judges rendered their decisions and Roman Hardgrove was about to step to the microphone and announce the award winners. Parents had their smartphones at the ready as winners from three age groups proudly stepped forward to receive their certificates.

One can hope that these ambitious and inventive youngsters will find the business climate in the State of Maryland less challenging than it is currently for entrepreneurs as they reach adulthood. For more information on the Maryland Curiosity Lab and 2027 Children’s business Fair, visit Maryland Curiosity Lab.

Tavern Talk & Tea with author Mary K. Tilghman at Rising Sun Inn on April 25th

The Friends of The Rising Sun Inn invites the public to its Tavern Talk & Tea event: Spilling The Tea with author Mary K. Tilghman at 1 pm on Saturday, April 25th. Enjoy an Elevenses Tea with tea and sweets in the beautiful surroundings of the historic Crownsville Inn while the author discusses her book “Love Letters & Gingerbread, An Annapolis Christmas”. There will be a question-and-answer period and book signing following Tilghman’s lecture The sweets served will include some of those mentioned in her book.

Tickets are $38.00 dollars per person or $68 for two people and must be purchased in advance by visiting Spilling the Tea with Author Mary Tilghman.

The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center. From health-defense to self-defense, Jing Ying provides fitness with a purpose for the whole family!

and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.

AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler

For those of us who love to garden, Spring couldn’t come soon enough. We’d been itching to get outside and spruce up our porches, lawns and gardens with plants and flowers. Was it any wonder that warm sunny weather on the day before Easter inspired us to head for local garden centers.

Truth be told, I’d already looked for some heirloom seeds I wanted to try this year in the garden sections of several stores but hadn’t been able to find them. Thus, I headed for AA Co. Farm, Lawn & Garden Center in Pasadena – long my favorite source for seeds, bulbs, transplants, flowerpots, soil amendments and other products. I had no idea I’d find the garden center parking lot packed with cars.

Entering the garden, I immediately spotted customers pulling wagonloads of plants. (Little wagons were handily placed for shoppers’ use just outside the garden fences.) Customers were later seen at the checkout window of the garden center’s picturesque red garden shed (seen in the opening photo).

There were multitudes of plants to choose from and, as you might imagine, Easter flowers ready for gifting were flying off the shelves. The outdoor checkout window was consistently busy.

Inside Anne Arundel Co. Farm Lawn and Garden Center there were so many clients that owner Cory Stephens was working the counter along with employee Kelly Neet.

At the opposite end of the counter from Stephens, we briefly spoke with Neet and asked her if the center was always so busy.

“In the Spring, it’s just crazy here. It’s so busy and we love it,” Neet said. “When the sun is out, like today, everyone feels that little inspiration to get out there and garden. You might have noticed that we’re also having lots of families with kids coming in to see the peeps.”

Families with children also seemed to enjoy the garden center’s outdoor Rocking Bird and Vintage Car and Truck Model display.

Our time at the garden center just flew by so we got down to business and looked for our much sought after packets of garden seeds among the Livingston displays. Along with others, I found packets for Mustard Greens, Pak Choi (a leaf type Chinese cabbage), Cress and hard-to-find Impatiens and promptly purchased them from Neet.

Back outside, I checked out a nice selection of herbs, an extensive range of vegetable transplants and a number of old-fashioned but popular plants like rhubarb. I also found, behind the red shed, various sized plastic flowerpots for a very reasonable price.

Before leaving, I caught up with Cory Stephens and observed that the garden center was as busy as I’ve ever seen it.

“We’re happy to see a little sunshine,” Stephens said. “We’ve had a cold start this spring. It was so cold and wet throughout March that people were slow getting started with planting and weren’t coming in. The bad weather also made it hard for us to get our ducks in a row so we were a little bit behind the 8-ball. But today has been great.”

Stephens also had some interesting news to share.

“We’re entered in a best-garden center competition for Fox Business News,” he said. “Our presentation was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes. When something turns out greater than you imagined it, it’s wonderful so we’re excited. Fox will announce the finalists on October 13th after which the voting will begin.”

We’ll keep you updated.

A reminder: Children’s Business Fair of Severna Park this Saturday, April 11th

The Maryland Curiosity Lab and the Greater Severna Park and Arnold Chamber of Commerce for Commerce are partnering for the 4th Annual Children’s Business Fair at Park Plaza this Saturday, April 11 from 1 pm to 4 pm. The Fair will be hosting 64 child-run businesses. There will be music by Bach to Rock and other surprises. The Fair is free for anyone to attend.

The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center. From health-defense to self-defense, Jing Ying provides fitness with a purpose for the whole family!

and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.

AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler

Though long aware of the Eastport Oyster Boys, I was surprised to learn the well-known Chesapeake folk music group was performing a concert at Maryland Hall in Annapolis on March 22nd celebrating their 30th Anniversary.

Curious about the group’s beginnings in 1996 and its evolution through the years, I met with Eastport Oyster Boys co-founder Jefferson Holland at Davis’ Pub in Eastport. Since we met on the first actual day of spring, the restaurant was as busy as could be and everybody that walked by seemed to know Holland and his beautiful black rescue retriever Millie.

Holland has been known to reinvent himself from time to time. Some people will have met him as a young, enthusiastic media representative for the Annapolis Boat Shows in the 1980’s. Others may have caught one of his performances as a musician and storyteller in the late ’80’s and ’90’s. From 2000 through 2014, they might have known him as the Director of the Annapolis Maritime Museum and Park. For a few years afterward, he was Riverkeeper for the West and Rhodes Rivers. Through it all, he has nurtured his love for writing songs, poetry and books.

Originally a co-founder of the musical group Crab Alley in the 1980’s, Holland partnered with Kevin Brooks in 1996 to found “Them Eastport Oyster Boys”. Asked how and why the pair chose such an unusual name, Holland responded that they simply wanted something that stood out. Because McNasby’s Oyster Company (now home to the Annapolis Maritime Museum) and the oyster industry were a mainstay of their town of Eastport for more than a century, the name was a natural.

He noted that people never did know what to make of the name – a name that has subsequently been mispronounced in five different countries and on two continents.

“Our Eastport Oyster Boys performances started out with just Kevin and I performing on the schooner ‘Woodwind’. That was a lot of fun and our audience of passengers could see that our material was drawn from all around us. You could say it lent us an air of authenticity,” said Holland.

They occasionally performed on other craft like the deadrise workboat, “Miss Lonesome” seen below, that was built by Perry Rogers in Shady Side in 1923. 

Brooks and Holland wrote all of the songs themselves. They’d started out thinking they would rediscover some of the songs watermen would have been singing 100 years ago and bring them back to life. But, after years of research, they didn’t find a single one.

“It turned out that, if the waterman would have been singing anything, it would have been out of the Methodist hymn book,” Holland said. “There were only a couple of Chesapeake Bay oriented songs in existence. So, we made up our own. The idea was to write about the boats, people, places and events that made our area special. We came up with songs like ‘Back Creek Bay’ which we wrote in 1981.”

The duo decided early on that they never wanted to perform in bars, so they did festivals, concerts and events. They would appear each year at an event called “Eastport ‘A Rockin'” and people would come up to them mentioning that they played trumpet or some other instrument and asking if they could play with them. After a while, the group grew. It is seen below during an appearance at the Boatyard Bar & Grill in the late 1990’s.

Eventually, the group compacted.

“I actually left the The Eastport Oyster Boys in 2011,” Holland said. “By 2011, I was director of the Annapolis Maritime Museum and we were involved in ongoing reconstruction from the effects of Hurricane Isabel. Nowadays, joining Kevin Brooks on banjo are Andy Fegley on trumpet, Tom Guay on guitar, and Mike Lang on keyboards. I’ll still make guest appearances three times a year though the group’s emphasis has changed from our original mix of stories, tall tales and poetry that fit so well with our appearances on the schooner.”

Holland joined the group onstage at Maryland Hall for the “Shuck It Tour” 30th Anniversary concert which he said went very well.

Named Poet Laureate of the City of Annapolis for 2024 through 2026 by former Mayor Gavin Buckley, Jefferson Holland is doing what he’s always wanted to do – creating and presenting a combination of poems, stories and songs, all with the theme of Annapolis, the Chesapeake Bay, people, boats and dogs. He relishes his appearances in the role several times a month.

In addition to a weekly column he writes for The Capital newspaper, he’s authored a book called “Walk Around Arundel: 52 Places to Hike with Your Dog (and Other Best Friends)” from New Bay Books. He’s recently written a new song called “That’s My Maryland” that you can listen to on YouTube on a channel by the same name.

Circling back for a moment to talk about the Eastport Oyster Boys, it occurred to me that Jeff Holland and his wife Louise are longtime Eastport residents. Thus, I thought him the perfect person to ask about the changing nature of the town.

“Yes, the town has changed. It’s become Yupified,” he said. “This very restaurant where we’re sitting, Davis’ Pub, used to be the neighborhood black bar. The original owner was a waterman who liked serving fellow watermen. I used to come here when it was a great local hangout and most of Eastport’s black families lived along this very street.”

“Following the Civil War, the Eastport/Annapolis area was one of few places in an otherwise segregated society where white and black families lived side-by-side. But, starting in the 1970’s with the advent of the Annapolis Boat Shows, people became aware of Eastport as a desirable location and things began to change. People came here because they love it but, by doing so, they ruined it for those already here.”

Holland notes that the town has fortunately preserved some of the older buildings associated with the oyster industry. He thinks aquaculture may bring the industry back to some extent but not remotely like it used to be.

“Though some of the town’s traditions seem to survive like the annual Eastport Sock Burnings celebrating the Spring equinox and beginning of the boating season, the biggest change to the community known by many as the ‘Maritime Republic of Eastport’ is gentrification.”

Those who would like to learn more about Jefferson Holland’s work may check out his website at Home.

Children’s Business Fair of Severna Park on April 11th

The Maryland Curiosity Lab is partnering with the Greater Severna Park and Arnold Chamber of Commerce for Commerce for the 4th Annual Children’s Business Fair taking place at Park Plaza on Saturday, April 11 from 1 pm to 4 pm. According to Chamber CEO Liz League, The Fair will be hosting 64 child-run businesses. There will be music by Bach to Rock and a few other surprises. The Fair is free for anyone to attend.

The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center. From health-defense to self-defense, Jing Ying provides fitness with a purpose for the whole family!

and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.

AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler

Having noted that the State of Maryland has a number of significant events planned to celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary, I thought it would be fun to meet with town historian F. Scott Jay to chat about Severna Park’s past, present and future. Sunlight filtered through the window as Jay reflected that few obvious traces of Severna Park’s beginnings remain because landmarks that were once beacons of the 118-year-old town have been obscured or overtaken by successive waves of residential and commercial construction.

With easily recognizable “traces” of the town’s early history now largely invisible, I asked Jay what he thinks about the state of current day Severna Park.

“I’m normally an optimist,” he said. “But intense overdevelopment has destroyed so much of what was attractive about our area. Every postage stamp of land is being built on, and the community is becoming too much like Baltimore City. I actually believe the area is becoming less appealing. Yet, I know of two young families hoping to move out of an apartment and move here where they grew up but the cost of houses is too prohibitive.”

We were both aware that Severna Park was but one part of the larger community of “Boone” when formed in 1906. The rustic town endured until June 16, 1925 when its address officially became Severna Park.

“But Boone’s origins date to the 1600’s with a 26,000-acre land grant from King Charles I to George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore,” Jay said. “By the 1700’s, the Lords Baltimore had conveyed the acreage in the form of three grants. Norman’s Fancy, Randall’s Purchase and Hopkins’ Addition would form the nucleus of Boone.”

He added that the Randall’s Purchase parcel providing the core was sold in 1721 to John Earnshaw and shortly thereafter to John Worthington.

In 1725 the parcel was sold to Richard and Hester Linstid (Linstead) and called Randall’s Range.

“The couple had a notorious reputation and perished in 1750, leaving their 10-year-old son, John, and 13-year-old daughter Elizabeth destitute,” Jay said. “John served in bondage to a weaver until he was 21, but owned Randall’s Range and paid taxes on it from 1759 to 1771 and again in 1774. It was likely John who built the still existing Linstid/Linstead farmhouse in 1758.”

Joseph McCubbin purchased the land in 1774, transferring it to daughter Dorcas, and her husband, William Hammond, in 1806. They apparently acquired the adjoining grants and renamed the property Cedar Neck.

Linstid’s son, John Linstid, Jr. repurchased the 227-acre property in 1817. Two years later, Linstid Jr.’s son George inherited it. At George’s death, in 1856, the working farm was divided into three 91.5 acre lots for his three children, one of which went to Elizabeth Linstid Boone, wife of farm owner Thomas Boone. In 1852, the Boones opened the Boone School at the present site of Severna Park Elementary School. In 1853, as part of the Boone homestead, they built the lovely antebellum house seen below that today is part of the Severn School campus.

Necessities could be bought at Boones Store, built and operated by Tom Boone. The Boones also sold a strip of land to the Annapolis & Baltimore Short Line Railroad in 1896 and by 1906, Boone Station opened and the community’s name, Boone, became official. Commerce boomed with the building of stores like Grotsky’s and Boros. That same year Severn Realty Company purchased the former Boone family properties, subdivided them and sold them as vacation homes. Lawyer Oscar L. Hatton created the Severna Company to administer them and named the development Severna Park.

In 1925, the Post Office officially adopted the name Severna Park and the town of Boone faded into history.

It is an amazing coincidence that Scott Jay has lived in two historic Severna Park houses. The first – his boyhood home at the corner of Riggs Avenue and Evergreen Road opposite Severn School – was built by George Boone in 1856. Jay’s father purchased it in 1940 from Severna Park founder Oscar Hatton. (The lot still exists but, sadly, the charming home was torn down a few years ago and replaced by two new houses.)

The second historic Severna Park home Jay and wife Donna owned (from 1985 till 2001) and extensively renovated was the Linstead farmhouse. The house changed through the years under various owners including the Riggs brothers who purchased it in 1906. However, at the time the Jays bought it, it was in bad shape – particularly the floors which had to be completely replaced.

“When having guests for dinner while living there, we’d sit around the dining room table and imagine what sort of topics might have been discussed there more than 200 years ago,” Jay said. “The Revolutionary War was bound to have been a topic.”

“It was also fun to speculate what it would have been like to be a guest when Francis and Harry Riggs owned the Linstead property. The Riggs brothers were fraternal twins who were wealthy and politically influential Baltimore businessmen and loved to party. They entertained lavishly and Maryland governors, including Governor Albert Ritchie, were there often.”

“On a more serious note, what remains from the earliest days of the community are cemeteries including the African American graveyard at Carpenter’s Hill and the one behind Linstead house where Linstids are buried. It was sobering to realize some of them died in our bedroom.”

While 18th and 19th century traces are pretty much confined to what remains of Linstid and Boone properties, a few early 20th century buildings remain. In 1913, a new railroad which also housed the Post Office was built at Boone that was later renamed the Severna Park Railroad Station. The building still exists and is home to the Severna Park Model Railroad Club.

Celebrating its 96th anniversary this year, Goska’s Liquors was opened as a general store in the 1920’s by the Kleiss family and sold to brothers Walter and Alex Goska in 1930. The family business was taken over from their father Walter by brothers Kevin and Michael Sosnoski in 1995. Below is the business as it appeared in the 1930’s,

Built in the 1920’s opposite the Severna Park Train Station is one of Olde Severna Park’s newest businesses, The Sugar Shoppe owned and operated by Jamie Denton and business partner Eloise Patton.

The building was briefly a grocery store but was known, for more than a decade, as Doc Codd’s pharmacy. In 1944, following the death of Dr. Francis Codd, it became Cliff Dawson’s variety store featuring liquor sales, a soda fountain and a slot machine. In 1952, Dawson’s relocated and the building became home to the Antique Marketplace. In the spring of 2021, MaryAnn and Cam Neal took over the retail space and opened The Red Apron Shoppe.

Asked what he thinks about the future, Jay echoed the opinion of others that many of the houses being constructed are not well-built, are overcrowded and won’t necessarily attract future homebuyers. Severna Park’s business climate seems okay for the present but it’s very difficult to open a new business here so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Celebrate 250 years of American History in Maryland

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, SAIL250 Maryland and Airshow Baltimore will take place from June 24th thru 30th. The family-friendly weeklong event will welcome international tall ships, US Navy and Coast Guard vessels, the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, and other aviation performers for an air show over Baltimore Harbor. There is much more. To check out events happening in Baltimore, Annapolis and elsewhere, visit America’s 250th Celebration in Maryland Events | VisitMaryland.org.

The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center. From health-defense to self-defense, Jing Ying provides fitness with a purpose for the whole family!

and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.

AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler

Chatting with a friend who mentioned a great new museum he discovered while hiking the waterfront in Eastport, I was curious when he showed me a photo captured on his smartphone similar to the one below. The facade was a familiar one. One I’d seen in the past but with a difference. The iconic McNasby Oyster Co. sign on the building in the photo now bore the words “Home of the Annapolis Maritime Museum” and apparently had for a number of years. I vaguely recalled hearing that the business had closed for good and been sold but, an infrequent visitor to Eastport, I was unaware the building had become a museum. I decided to journey to Eastport and see for myself.

Learning that the Annapolis Maritime Museum Campus is located at 723 Second Street, I found it easily and nabbed a parking place in the same block. Approaching the museum from a slight distance, I was pleased by the building’s exterior with its maritime-themed artwork, boardwalks and piers.

Drawn by a handsome sign by the entrance, I stepped inside and walked to the counter where I was welcomed by Volunteer Educator Dianne Rosso.

Brimming with interesting information and helpful suggestions, Rosso pointed out that there was an interesting movie I could watch in a gallery behind her or I could explore the exhibit spaces first.

The first exhibit was surprising as it featured a weapon. During the Oyster Wars that followed the American Civil War in the 1860’s-1870’s, when Maryland and Virginia watermen fought over oyster bed areas of the Chesapeake Bay, the Maryland Oyster Police equipped their vessels with weapons including Civil War era cannons like the one seen here. The oysters were so prized they were considered “White Gold”.

Opposite the display, we found an exhibit featuring Oyster Harvesting Tools of the Trade along with models of boats adapted for oystering like skipjacks , skipjack pushboats, buyboats, sharpies or dredges.

Behind them, against the far wall was one of the most impressive exhibits. Beneath a case featuring an NOAA buoy for monitoring water in the Chesapeake Bay were two small wire oyster cages filled with shells representing the small number of oysters available for harvesting from that spot in 2010. In contrast, to the right of the display were wire cages of shells piled high atop one another along the wall representing the number of oysters harvested from the same spot in the 1870’s.

Groups like the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance, and the Oyster Recovery Partnership in coordination with the Severn River Association, the Magothy River Association and the Arundel Rivers Federation have led recovery efforts planting billions of spat on shell and building sanctuary reefs. The replanted oysters appear to be healthy and the population is now on the rise.

There were so many interesting exhibits we can’t mention them all but we particularly liked those dedicated to the workings of the McNasby Oyster Company.

Founded in 1886 by William McNasby Sr., the company began as a single storefront on Compromise Street in Eastport but grew until it became necessary to expand to the packing plant on 723 Second Street – the same building that is now home to the Annapolis Maritime Museum. By 1904, William Joseph, Sr. was joined in the business by William Joseph McNasby, Jr. and the company became very successful with growing demand for McNasby’s oysters across the continental U.S.

The packing plant operated for nearly a century. Below is an exhibit illustrating what shuckers’ stations were like. Once separated from the shells by hand with Shucker’s Knives, the oysters were placed in Shucker’s Buckets like those seen below filled with crushed ice, then passed on for packing and shipping.

When full, buckets of shucked oysters were rinsed, culled and graded and passed on to the packing room like the one pictured below and prepared for shipping or delivery. Note the Pearl Oyster labels on the pint and quart-sized cans. McNasby’s oysters were named after William Joseph McNasby, Jr.’s wife Pearl who was active in the business.

I also took advantage of the opportunity to visit the gallery where an exhibit called “Black Joy is an act of resistance” was presented along with a film called “Blacks On The Chesapeake” which featured and was narrated by the late Vincent O. Leggett, founder and president of the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation.

Both the film and the exhibit explored the rich history of life along the water’s edge and also delved into the beach resorts owned by the Carr family where African Americans, who were not allowed access to white-owned beaches could escape for a week or weekend of entertainment. The only beaches of their kind, they not only drew African Americans from across Maryland but also from other mid-Atlantic states. Carr’s Beach drew legendary black entertainers including Chuck Berry whose appearance drew an audience of 70,000 people.

There was also an interesting film from the Maritime Museum about the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

Lastly, on the recommendation of Diane Rosso, we journeyed out onto the boardwalk and piers surrounding the museum which provided a view of the waters of Back Creek. We loved the panels of artwork along the rails depicting important moments in time that could have been seen from point of land on which the Annapolis Maritime Museum sits.

My favorites were the first panel featuring Native Americans in a dugout canoe watching Captain John Smith sail into Back Creek on his voyage of exploration in 1608 and the second and third panels seen below picturing the Providence settlement on the Severn River in 1672 and The Annapolis Tea Party in 1774.

The Annapolis Maritime Museum also maintains The Annapolis Maritime Park Campus at 7300 Edgewood Road and offers heritage cruises on its historic skipjack Wilma Lee. The museum offers many education programs for students and is the location for many popular events. To learn more about the museum and park, visit their excellent website The Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park | Annapolis, Maryland.

Eastport Oyster Boys 30th Anniversary Reunion Show at Maryland Hall this Sunday

Speaking of Eastport, we learned that the Eastport Oyster Boys 30th Anniversary “Shuck It Tour” is being held this Sunday, March 22 at Maryland Hall at 4 pm. The concert benefits the Annapolis Musicians Fund for Musicians. Tickets are available at marylandhall.org.

The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center. From health-defense to self-defense, Jing Ying provides fitness with a purpose for the whole family!

and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.

AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler

New to being an author and signing copies of her first book, “Reinvent Yourself After 50”, Melissa Wittke is thoroughly enjoying the experience.

Curious about the title of the book and the line beneath it which urges “Reinvent your Body, Mind, and Spirit And Become the Woman God Created You to Be”, I immediately asked Wittke what inspired her to write it.

“One of the key things I wanted to impart is that there is no expiration date on your purpose or your dreams though the world may tell you otherwise,” she said. “I wanted to make people approaching their 50’s or 60’s aware that what they are going through is not so much a midlife crisis as a midlife reawakening and can be a beautiful transition.”

Turning 61 this September, and having gone through that transition, Wittke feels she’s opened a new world of possibilities and opportunities for herself. She hopes sharing knowledge she’s gained through the book can guide other women through what, for many, is a challenging time.

“It’s information I wish I’d had,” she says. “There are negative stereotypes for people that reach a certain age that I don’t buy into. But there is a choice. Women, in particular, are very hard on themselves especially when it comes to their bodies. While raising the children and caring for their families, their bodies were last on their list. They were so busy taking care of everyone else that they put themselves last. Now, however, they’ll have time to improve their health, their bodies and their spirit and to reassess what they really want to do with their lives. I like to help them see that this can be a beautiful time for them.”

To that end, the author has partnered with Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi co-owner Billy Greer, to start the online platform, Younger Body and Mind – A healthy mind in a healthy body. As you can see from the photo below, the platform has an abundance of classes and instructional videos with exercises anyone can learn to do.

The exercises are primarily based on Tai Chi and Qigong, with and without weights. However, the website encourages all forms of exercise as does Whittke.

“I do some sort of workout every day. As a Type A personality with a lot going on, I need that balance. I’m a runner, I lift weights, I swim, I do Yoga, I do Kung Fu or Tai Chi. Whatever feels good,” she says.

For two decades, Wittke has been a familiar face in the Greater Severna Park area. A technology consultant who is a senior program manager for the University of Maryland Medical Center, she’s currently working on an AI system for the hospital system which she finds exciting. She also is involved with several companies she and her husband own. Physically active, she’s a runner who frequently uses one or more of the Anne Arundel County Trails. But she’s best known, perhaps, for her longtime association with Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu & Tai Chi.

“I began there 14 years ago as a white sash student just like everyone else,” Wittke said. Seven years later, I earned my black sash.”

During those seven years and the years that followed, she assisted with or was involved as an instructor in numerous activities, programs and workshops. She’s seen below in 2024 with Kung Fu and Tai Chi participant Nikki Lee. The pair were assisting Jing Ying’s martial arts expert Billy Greer with the school’s Self-Defense Workshop for Women and Teens by demonstrating for workshop participants the series of escape techniques taught by Greer; then joining the participants in practicing them over and over.

Incidentally, Wittke will be helping with Jing Ying Institute’s upcoming Self-Defense Workshop for Women & Teen Girls that is being held this Sunday, March 15 from 2 till 4 pm. For information, see Self-Defense Workshop for Women & Teen Girls (Fundraiser) | Facebook.

In 2025, thirteen years after earning her black sash, Wittke was honored to be part of a Bai Shi ceremony where she was formally accepted as a 13th generation disciple of Chen style TaiJi under Shifu Billy Greer.

Melissa Wittke truly enjoys and intends to continue writing. In fact, she’s currently working on two follow-on books – “Reinvent Your Marriage” and “Reinvent Adult Parenting” based, to some extent, on her own experiences.

To obtain a copy of “Reinvent Yourself After 50”, visit Shop Now – Younger Body and Mind or search for it on Amazon.

AAUW hosted ERA NOW event at Market House in Annapolis

We received a tip and the wonderful photos seen below from AAUW/AA Co publicity chair Mary McGrath about an event the chapter co-hosted on March 4th.

The League of Women Voters and the Annapolis Association of University Women hosted a Support ERA NOW event at the Market House in downtown Annapolis on March 4th.

As a part of Women’s History Month, the Driving the Vote for Equality National Tour came to Annapolis in the form of a restored 1914 Saxon roadster called The Golden Flyer Two according to McGrath. It was the same type of car driven by ERA women on their ten-thousand-mile nationwide tour to gain support for the ERA. She added that it was fun seeing women wearing the sort of clothes worn by the suffragists.

After the Market House events, attendees gathered at Old Fox Books for a talk by author Jeryl Schriever who, with husband Alex Huppe, owns and restored the car.

The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center. From health-defense to self-defense, Jing Ying provides fitness with a purpose for the whole family!

and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.