An Island Out of Time: A Memoir of Smith Island in the ChesapeakeAlthough Smith Island lies only nine miles off the Maryland mainland, its five hundred inhabitants live much as their ancestors did three hundred years ago. They are exquisitely attuned to the habits of blue crab, oyster, and waterfowl. And they know that on any given day their lives literally depend on which way the wind is blowing.Tom Horton spent three years living among Smith Island's watermen and their families and has emerged with this marvelously intimate portrait of a deeply traditional community and its vanishing way of life. Whether he is following the crab harvest or attending a service at the local church, eavesdropping on bawdy kitchen-table gossip or chronicling the islanders' disputes with seafood inspectors, Horton tells his stories with wonderful specificity even as he considers what they can teach us about living within nature and at a healthy distance from the rest of the world. |
Contents
The Greatest Poets | 3 |
The Essentials | 19 |
Terrapin Men | 27 |
Copyright | |
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aboard ain't Baltimore bay's began blue crab blue heron bottom bushels called captain catch cats channel Chesapeake Bay Chesapeake Bay Foundation Christmas church comin crab pots crabbers crabmeat Creek Crisfield Delmarva Peninsula dredge dredge boat ducks Dwight Ewell feet ferry fish goin gone grass hard Holland Island Island Belle jimmy crabs kids knew lady land light living look mainland marsh Mary Ada Maryland miles morning moved nearly never night once oyster rocks oysters pick progger Rhodes Point scrape seafood seemed shallow shanty shed shell skiff Smith Island soft crabs striped bass summer Sunday talk Tangier Island Tangier Sound tell terrapins there's thing thought tide told Tom Horton took town trap Tyler Tylerton Virginia watermen week whole wind winter women