I've moved...

I've moved

Two blogs were too much to keep up with. Since I am no longer focusing on my hometown, I am posting all photos on my old site. Visit me at Crisfield Blog, but don't let the title fool you. I will be posting both old and new photos, including photos, when I have time to scan the negatives, from my time as a photojournalist.

Oakland, Maryland train station

Oakland, Maryland Train Station

Oakland, Maryland prom night

Oakland, Md Prom Night

During my travels from one assignment to another I have often run into weddings, Sweet Sixteen parties, and other non-news events that begged one or two photos. As a news photographer, I have covered my share of proms and graduations, but I have never crashed a prom. In my early days of training, oh, so many years ago, my god-teacher said, "Never do weddings. Anyone can do a wedding, but only a few can do what it takes to please photo editors." I never broke that rule, but I got my share of fun photos on the run. Here are a few photos I snapped in Oakland, Maryland. I had gone to the train station to get some photos and ran into these dazzling prom-goers, and could not resist shooting around the proud parents.

Two Coast Guard Ships that pass in the night

Chincoteague Coast Guard

OK, it's not night, but still...

Chincoteague Coast Guard and Auxiliary

Old Motels and Memories

Old motels

Every summer, our family would take to the roads, staying in motels across the country. Blinking neon signs with names like Memory Lane Motel, Paradise Motel, Sea Shell Motel, beckoned travelers. In the old days amenities didn't matter - TV's that got three channels, if that, sometimes with a little snow thrown in at no extra charge, lumpy mattresses, pillows as thin as pancakes, rooms that smelled like mildew or sweet earthen dirt, depending on what part of the country you were in, and always cigarette smoke.

 

When passing motels today, my mind goes back to the days before chain-motels moved in.  I rush down roads littered with old motels of my mind, some kept up in Americana fashion, some gone to the dark side, many mere ghostly memories of a time when family vacations heralded true adventure, no Internet to give away the gems of the road,  - big cars, cheap gas - prosperity laid out on a silver platter for anyone who wanted to work. Families sang songs in two-toned cars and woody station wagons, counted cows, and kids read Highlights magazine in the back seats while moms read Reader's Digest and dads fumbled with the knobs on the radios - Yellow Rose of Texas, P.S. I love You.

The old motels are rapidly disappearing. The sights of the old-style lay your head on my pancake pillow neon lights will soon be nothing more that memories, a sad passing of a time when all people wanted were little white houses with picture windows where they could display bottles of colored water and delicate summer vacation trinkets made of china and wood.

Remembrance at the Vietnam Memorial

Remembrance at the Vietnam Memorial

Woody's Beach BBQ

Woody's Beach BBQ