The Great Snapping Turtle Adventure
Page 10
You can find End of the World, too. But the post office is gone. So is the button factory, though it was there not too long ago. The church is there, and the graveyard. As for Hattie Harriston, well, you must look for yourself.
There are soft and hard shell crabs, jelly fish and heron. Snapping turtles will cross in front of you and muskrat can be seen skimming along in the ditches.
Lunch or dinner at Suicide Bridge is still a must, a lovely creek to watch as you eat. But Miss Ruby’s restaurant is gone, or maybe she’s moved to a more hidden spot. I hope she’s still serving her split pea soup somewhere, filled with smooth, spongy dumplings, and dishing up those lovely coconut cream pies.
As for ghost stories, you can find them everywhere on the Shore. Stories of Big Liz and a house where many lights flicker off suddenly when you walk up the drive. The headless dog howls on Black Dog Alley and on Buck Town Road. John Truitt once saw a white figure drifting toward him. The figure suddenly disappeared when he put his car lights on, reappearing just as quickly when he turned them off.
Maryland’s Eastern Shore, it’s a magic sort of place to visit, but go with gentle ways. Don’t trample her lovely reeds. Instead, listen to her soft songs. And when you leave, please leave her as you found her. Leave her as she has been for hundreds of years: a world of mystery and majesty, where oysters hide, blue fins scurry, and proud Canada geese take wing across the great, gray Chesapeake Bay.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SUSAN YARUTA-YOUNG’S roots in Maryland soil are deep. In 1634 her ancestor, Richard Nevitt, sailed into St. Mary’s on the Ark and Dove expedition. The family moved to the Eastern Shore, and Susan’s mom, Louise Truitt, grew up on a dairy farm known as Money Make in Trappe. Susan lived on a small farm in Baltimore County until 1996 when she and her husband, Luther Young, moved their family to Downeast Maine. A published poet and short story crafter, Susan was a Maryland State Arts Council Poet in the Schools from 1974–1996, often conducting workshops in the Eastern Shore counties of Talbot, Dorchester, and Wicomico. She is a pastor who enjoys writing for all ages in all genres.