During a recent pleasant afternoon conversation with cousin Blanche our conversation turned to dentists. Like so many other people, Blanche dreads going to the dentist. She told me she grips the arms of the chair so tightly that her dentist has been known to ask her if he is hurting her.

I was curious. "When did you first visit a dentist?" I asked her. She told me she was about fifteen years old.

"I suppose you went to Little Washington. Is that right?"

"No," Blanche said. "A dentist came to Ocracoke, and set up his equipment in his rental cottage. He was young. I think he had just recently graduated from dental school."

"What kind of a drill did he use," I asked.

"Oh, he had a foot powered, treadle drill," she answered.

"Of course, there was no Novocaine," I commented, knowing full well that was the case.

It wasn't difficult to understand Blanche's fear of dentists.

Blanche then proceeded to tell me that her mother, Elizabeth Ballance Howard (1885 - 1970) had two gold teeth. She, too, had her dental work performed on the island by a Dr. Gallagher, who came to the island each summer for several years around the turn of the twentieth century. He, too, brought all of his equipment with him, and treated islanders as he was able.

Sometimes I get nostalgic thinking about "the way Ocracoke used to be," but then I think how fortunate I am to have access to modern dental care!

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of the unique "Ocracoke Greeting." You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news022113.htm. 

When nineteenth century life savers arrived at the scene of a wreck one of their first jobs was to fire a projectile attached to a "shot line" to the stricken vessel. Once the shot line was retrieved by the sailors on board, it was hauled to the ship. On shore the keeper of the life saving station would have attached the "whip line," the "tail block," and a "tally board" to the shot line. The tally board instructed the shipwrecked crew how to secure the block and whip line to the ship. Next, the life savers rigged the sand anchor, the hawser, and the breeches buoy and proceeded with the rescue of the vessel's crew.

This link will take you to a photo of a USLSS tally board:

http://www.lighthouselens.com/items/images/263/pic1.jpg

The tally board had instruction in French on one side, and instructions in English on the other side:

"(L'autre cote.) Make the tail of this block fast to the lower mast well up. If masts are gone then to the best place you can find. Cast off shot line, see that the rope in the block runs free & show signal to the shore.

"(Other Side) Fouettez la poulie le plus haut possible sur le bas mat, ou a l'enndroit le plus favorable si les bas mats sont perdus. Detachez le ligne, voyez que la corde coure facilment dans la poulie, et faites signal au rivage."

The following web site has excellent photos of the life saving apparatus along with explanations of how it was used: 

 http://beachbum.homestead.com/life-savingstations/equipment/breechesbuoyrescue.html#anchor_162

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of the unique "Ocracoke Greeting." You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news022113.htm. 

I was visiting Blanche several days ago, and the conversation turned to popular songs of the late nineteenth century, many of which were very sad. She remembered her father, Stacey Howard (1885-1968) singing one of his favorites, I'll Take you Home Again, Kathleen, written in 1875 by Thomas P. Westendorf. Although Westendorf was an American songwriter, the song quickly became thought of as a beloved Irish ballad.

Without any prompting Blanche recited the words for me:

I'll take you home again, Kathleen
Across the ocean wild and wide
To where your heart has ever been
Since you were first my bonnie bride.
The roses all have left your cheek.
I've watched them fade away and die
Your voice is sad when e'er you speak
And tears bedim your loving eyes.
Oh! I will take you back, Kathleen
To where your heart will feel no pain
And when the fields are fresh and green
I'll take you to your home again!

I know you love me, Kathleen, dear
Your heart was ever fond and true.
I always feel when you are near
That life holds nothing, dear, but you.
The smiles that once you gave to me
I scarcely ever see them now
Though many, many times I see
A dark'ning shadow on your brow.

To that dear home beyond the sea
My Kathleen shall again return.
And when thy old friends welcome thee
Thy loving heart will cease to yearn.
Where laughs the little silver stream
Beside your mother's humble cot
And brightest rays of sunshine gleam
There all your grief will be forgot.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of the unique "Ocracoke Greeting." You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news022113.htm. 

About a mile and a half north of the Pony Pen there is an old dune structure called Scrag Cedar Hills. In years past a distinctive stand of scrawny, wind-and-weather twisted cedars grew there.

"Scrag" is a word dating from the mid-sixteenth century meaning the lean end of a neck of mutton or veal. It also came to mean a rawboned or scrawny person or animal. Outer Bankers used the word to describe trees that were gnarled and twisted because of their constant assault by wind and salt spray. 



  











Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of the unique"Ocracoke Greeting." You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news022113.htm.

You may have read about the species of French catfish that lurks at the edge of the river and captures pigeons. If not, here is a YouTube video about this amazing adaptation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZwPG_x6QEk.

A couple of years ago I was walking on the Hammock Hills Nature Trail (across the highway from the NPS campground). On the boardwalk over Island Creek I noticed a blue heron feeding along the shoreline. Then I noticed a nutria (Ocracokers call this critter a Russian Rat), an invasive, herbivorous, semi-aquatic rodent, creeping up behind the heron. While I watched, the nutria jumped up, lunged at the heron, and almost grabbed it by the leg!

Photo by Peleg 












Nutria are herbivores (they feed on grass and other plants). What was it doing attacking a heron? I will probably never know. Will wonders never cease?

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of the unique"Ocracoke Greeting." You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news022113.htm.

Although I have lived on Ocracoke for more than 40 years and my father was born here, as a child I only spent summers on the island. My father, like so many islanders, had moved up north to work on dredges and tug boats on the Delaware River. Several days ago, in a conversation with neighbors, I was reminded of the following story.

Every morning two friends and I would walk two miles to our high school. In the fall of the year we would stroll through the showroom of a new car dealership to inspect the latest models. In 1960 we were amazed to see a record player installed under the dashboard of a Plymouth Fury (that's the year with the huge tail fins!).

After school I was excited to tell my father and twenty-six year old brother about this fantastic accessory. They both explained to me that I had to be mistaken. A record player would never work in a car. The needle arm would bounce around and slide across the record with every tiny bump in the road. Even though I had seen the record player with my own eyes, I accepted their word of authority.

Next morning, on the way to school I told my friends that there could not possibly be a record player in the Plymouth, and I explained why. We must have been mistaken, I insisted, but they protested. So we walked through the showroom again. This is what we saw:


So that's when I learned to trust evidence, and not blind authority, not even my own father and older brother...although they were definitely smarter than the automotive engineers! Record players in cars really were not such a great idea.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of the unique "Ocracoke Greeting." You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news022113.htm. 

Hatteras Inlet ferries are again operating, now using an alternate route until dredging of the primary channel is completed. To read a recent NCDOT news release, including present schedule, click on the following link:

https://apps.ncdot.gov/newsreleases/details.aspx?r=7787

Below is the Ferry Division's home page:

http://www.ncdot.gov/ferry/

Two years ago in January we had a sizable snowstorm and Dave Frum came by the house on his cross country skis. A couple of weeks later Lachlan decided he wanted skis, so he made a pair from scrap lumber in my shed.

Lachlan on Homemade Skis, 2011

















Last weekend Amy & David took Lachlan snow skiing in Canada. Lachlan called very excited. He progressed from the Bunny Slope to Blue Square slopes in just one day. He was proud of his achievements.

Lachlan Snow Skiing, 2013

















What are we going to do now? No hills; no snow. I guess surfing will be next.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of the unique "Ocracoke Greeting." You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news022113.htm.

Half a century ago Ocracoke men often greeted each other in a manner that would seem quite peculiar today, although it was nothing more than an old tradition with historic, even ancient, roots. You can read about it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news022113.htm.

The schooner Lillie F. Schmidt stranded on Ocracoke beach at 6 a.m., March 9, 1893, about 10 miles from the Life Saving Station at Hatteras Inlet. According to the official report, "The  ship was reported to the keeper at 11 a.m. by two citizens of Ocracoke. The weather was smoky with strong winds, flood tide, sea very high."

Excerpts from Keeper James W. Howard's report:

"...keeper called out crew and also employed [Wheeler Howard and Mathias Ballance, the two citizens who had reported the wreck] to help as the distance was so long and laborious."

"...left station fifteen minutes to eleven with mules, two sets of gear [weighing more than 1000 pounds, in a two-wheeled cart] and arrived to schooner 2:30 p.m."

"...got the gear in working order bringing them all [seven sailors] ashore in buoy [the "breeches buoy" was a pair of canvas pants attached to a life ring that was conveyed to the ship by pulleys and ropes shot to the stranded vessel from a brass cannon] by 4 trips the men of wrecked schr [schooner] were so worn out could not get them to station -- sent them up to the settlement and had them cared for the distance was so great that they could not travel."

"...left wreck at 5:30 p.m. arriving at station 8:30 p.m."

"...no patrol that night up til 12 [midnight] men was so tired and worn out after walking over twenty miles I thought theys ought to rest."

P.C. Vaneilder, Captain of the Lillie F. Schmidt, wrote to "Mr. Kimble, Supr. of LSS":  "I desire to express my thanks to Capt. J.W. Howard and crew for their prompt service in landing myself and crew safely from vessel and attending our needs."

It was all in a day's work for the members of the United States Life Saving Service!

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of windmills on Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news012113.htm.

Chapter III of Earl O'Neal's book, Wild Ponies of Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, is devoted to an account of the island's mid-1950s Mounted Boy Scout Troop 290.

The troop was the vision of Marvin Howard, the boys' first scoutmaster. The former scouts are now in their 60s, but they all remember Marvin fondly for his commitment to the youth of Ocracoke, and his untiring dedication to his scouts.

Ocracoke Mounted Boy Scout Troop 290













(Photo courtesy of the Outer Banks History Center. Marvin Howard is second from left.)

Earl retells the following story from Rudy Austin, one of the original scouts:

"[Rudy] and a couple of the other scouts went by Scout Master Marvin Howard's home on Howard Street. Marvin always went in the shed and took off his dirty clothes and shoes before he went into his home, which apparently he had done. When the boys showed up, in a typical Ocracoke style, his wife Leevella came to the door and said, 'Marvin can't come out and play; he's gonna have his supper.'"

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of windmills on Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news012113.htm.

Waters surrounding Ocracoke are alive with creatures great & small, and common and exotic. The seahorse is one of those fish both small and exotic.

Photo by Jonathan Zander
For more info click here


















 Yes, the seahorse is a true fish, a close relative of pipefish, though it swims upright, and exhibits other peculiarities. Seahorses spend much of their lives clinging to seaweed and eel grass with their tails, and the female deposits her eggs (one thousand or more) in a male's brood pouch, where they are inseminated. The fertilized eggs develop in the pouch, then hatch in about a month.

I have seen seahorses swimming languidly in the shallow waters of Silver Lake harbor, near the Community Square. And beachcombers occasionally find them washed up with the tide on the ocean beach.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of windmills on Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news012113.htm.

Sailors have enjoyed rum for centuries. Pirates mixed it with water and sugar, and sometimes with nutmeg. In 1740 Vice Admiral Edward Vernon of the British Royal Navy introduced a mixture of rum, water, weak beer, and lemon or lime juice to his recruits. Two servings were issued each day. Adding rum helped make the ship's stagnant water more palatable, and diluting the rum was intended to reduce intoxication.

Admiral Vernon was accustomed to wearing a coat made of grogram (a coarse fabric of silk and wool), and sailors nicknamed him Old Grog. His drink soon acquired the name as well. Today, "grog" refers to a variety of alcoholic beverages, not all of which contain rum. 

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of windmills on Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news012113.htm.

Daniel Tolson was a prosperous antebellum Ocracoke merchant. In 1855 Tolson, just shy of 40 years old, was appointed postmaster. He served until 1866, at a weekly salary of $9.17. In 1857 he was half owner of the the five year old, 55' long schooner, Patron. Daniel Tolson purchased a relatively large tract of land on Ocracoke, and at one time owned 22 slaves.

Daniel Tolson's grave is located in one of more than eighty small cemeteries on the island. His may be the most difficult to get to. I learned of his grave site many years ago, and decided to walk to it again several days ago.

I parked my car, and walked ten minutes through a small section of woodland. At the edge of a clearing I stepped into the underbrush. Pushing my way past a stand of live oaks, yaupons, and myrtles, I stood on the outer rim of a wet bog. I sloshed through and up a small incline to a ridge.

Brambles, briars, and low branches conspired with dead trees, downed branches, and thorns to obstruct my path. After five minutes of struggle and effort I spied the marble headstone.

A Glimpse of Daniel Tolson's Marker




















 I stepped into the clearing. There it stood:

Sacred to the Memory ofDaniel TolsonBorn Dec. 23, 1816Departed this LifeApr. 21, 1879I Know That My Redeemer Liveth
Daniel Tolson (1816 - 1879)













I snapped a few more photos before I turned back to walk home.

A View of the Surrounding Woods

















The Nearby WetlandsI've promised several people that I would not reveal the location of Daniel Tolson's grave site in order to protect the surrounding property and environment. So please don't ask. But I hope you can enjoy the photos and the mystery.
Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of windmills on Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news012113.htm.

I really shouldn't share this photo. But I will. The party invitation said, "Wear something fun & funky, pretty & pink, or red & racy." This is what I came up with (I actually rode my bike to the party!):


















It definitely wasn't pretty & pink. But you be the judge -- would you call it "fun & funky" or "red & racy"?

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of windmills on Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news012113.htm.

They say "Virginia is for Lovers." But I think Ocracoke is for lovers.

Lovers of beauty
Lovers of community
Lovers of nature
Lovers of family, friends, & sweethearts
Lovers of life

Happy Valentine's Day to all of our readers!

If you spend more than a few days on Ocracoke you will soon discover there are more than 80 cemeteries on the island, most of them individual family plots. This number does not count the graves of Indians, pirates, shipwrecked sailors...and others buried in the dunes, in unmarked graves scattered around the village, and on shoreside land that has washed away over the years.

Cemetery on Howard Street













 It is not unusual for visitors to inquire about the many small children who died in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The photo above shows the graves of two thirds of my great-grandparents' children. Although there are only four headstones, closer examination of the cemetery reveals that there is a different inscription on each side of the markers. Eight children are buried here. Notice the two footstones for each headstone.

These eight of my great-grandparents' twelve children died between 1865 and 1884. The youngest was one month old; the oldest was six years old. How tragic it must have been to loose so many children!

I am researching and preparing an Ocracoke Newsletter article about Ocracoke mortality for publication sometime later this year. As grim a subject as this is, it is part of the history of this tiny isolated community where residents sometimes endured unspeakable hardship and tragedy...and yet managed to endure and prevail.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of windmills on Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news012113.htm.

Ocracoke Island is not just fishing, sunbathing, and swimming. It is also music, delicious dinners, water sports, storytelling, history, community, and much more. Sometimes visitors forget about our soundside attractions. Here are a few photos I took a few days ago.















































 Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of windmills on Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news012113.htm.

I recently started a new book, The Great Hunger, Ireland 1845-1849, by Cecil Woodham-Smith.

On page 24 I read this re. the pre-famine Irish peasants:

"Dancing was the universal diversion, and Lord George Hill, who owned property in Donegal, has left an account of removing a cabin with dancing and fiddling. 'The custom on such occasions is for the person who has the work to be done to hire a fiddler, upon which engagement all the neighbours joyously assemble and carry in an incredibly short time the stones and timber upon their backs to the new site; men, women and children alternately dancing and working while daylight lasts, at the termination of which they adjourn to some dwelling where they finish the night, often prolonging the dance to dawn of day.'"

Dancing has been an important part of island social life since the very first Irish, English, and Scottish settlers arrived on Ocracoke. Over the last half century rock & roll dancing has mostly supplanted traditional Ocracoke Island square dancing (a type of "big circle" dance).

Traditional Ocracoke Square Dance, 2012












But the old style dance, which was once popular throughout coastal Carolina, still survives only on Ocracoke. Ocracoke Alive, local non-profit cultural, artistic, educational, and environmental organization, will be sponsoring several dances in upcoming months. Look for more information soon. 

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of windmills on Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news012113.htm.

If you haven't read yesterday's post about a riddle my father used to recite, you might want to take a look at it now. Below is a version of the riddle that I believe comes closer to being the original:

Twelve pears hanging high,
Twelve knights passing by,
Each took a pear,
And left eleven hanging there.
How could that be?

I discovered a query seeking the solution to this riddle in an interesting 19th century compendium of newspapers and journals entitled Notes and Queries, A Medium of Intercommunication For Literary Men, General Readers, Etc.  The relevant London newspaper in the volume is dated Saturday December, 3 1887.

A respondent named Ellen I. Delevingne provided the correct solution: "The answer is that the [knight's] name was 'Each.'" She then adds, "I always thought it a most unsatisfactory solution."

I concurred until I read one of the other remarks: "The 'twelve knights' must have been Spenser’s 'doucepere,' F.Q.,’ iii. 10, 31. The name has reference to the 'twelve peers' of France, but the context shows that there was only one of him."
The respondent is referring to Edmund Spencer's (ca. 1552-1599) The Faerie Queen, book 3, Canto 10, stanza 31: "Big looking like a doughty Doucepere," 
Spencer's doucepere (fr. OF doze pers, doze per, lit., twelve peers) is "an illustrious noble; specif: one of the twelve peers of Charlemagne." So my guess is that this was a literary riddle that came out of the British Isles during the Victorian period, was originally a pun on the "twelve peers" ("twelve pears"), and included a nod to Spencer's "Doucepere" (just one of the twelve knights).

Maybe the original version of the riddle actually went something like this:

Twelve pears hanging high,
Twelve peers passing by,
Twelve peers took a pear,
 And left eleven hanging there.

How could that be? The solution: Twelve peers (Doucepere) was the name of one of the peers.
When the riddle was passed down in the colonies (including Ocracoke), "twelve" sometimes became "ten," and the literary reference (and the accompanying pun) was lost...resulting in "Each," not "Doucepere," becoming the name of the single knight, and the riddle becoming, as Ms. Delevingne remarks, "most unsatisfactory."
Perhaps there was more to this riddle than I ever imagined as a child. Maybe the "riddle" of the riddle has been solved!

 Hey, at least I found this all quite interesting, even if most of our readers are rolling their eyes.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of windmills on Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news012113.htm.