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| Davis' Pub - Eastport, Annapolis |
Davis’
pub in Eastport, Annapolis reminds me of what the Bohemian Flats must have been
like on the West Bank of Minneapolis back in the ‘40s.The pub has been around
since the ‘40s and their clientele hasn’t changed much since then. There are
the usual neighborhood relics, a few old watermen, the hangers-on and now the
ever-present tourists drawn by concierges and travel blogs.
Like
the watermen of old, Davis’ pub remains stuck in the past. Its walls are adorned
with fading photographs of tall ships, wooden boats, log canoes and skipjacks. Across
the street the intoxicating smell of seaweed, salt air and brine mix with the
fresh varnish on a yacht anchored there.
It
was all coming back to me. The inner harbor of Baltimore before Freddy Gray’s
shadow darkened its shoreline. My job in Owings Mills, our home in Reisterstown
and weekend jaunts up to Westminster and around the state.
Many
of my changes started there. From 1972 through 1977, I sold programming during
the day, rode out West at night and toe-stepped the Chesapeake on weekends. Our
family started there and real estate first began to pique my curiosity. It was
a most audacious start to something great…the rest of my life.
This
time around Sharon and I were only in town for a day or two before amtraking it
up to New York City and several plays there. My return to Maryland brought back
a lot of great memories.
Back
then I had long harbored great fantasies of sailing the bay. A boat ride on our
friend’s runabout brought back a rush of old mental images. The air is clearer
on the water and there is a nautical language reserved for the fleet of foot
and strong of stomach. My friend spoke of new moons and dark skies. He waxed on
philosophically about the Orionids, the Leonids, North Taurids and Geminids;
all meteor showers reserved for his patch of moonlit sky.
The
houses seemed to have gotten bigger and the sea lanes more crowded since our
last visit. But the inlets and bays were still nature’s nurseries. The
Chesapeake Bay supports more than 2700 species of plants and animals, including
348 species of finfish and 173 species of shellfish. Approximately 284,000
acres of the Chesapeake Bay are tidal wetlands.
The
Bay and its tidal tributaries have 11,684 miles of shoreline, more than the
entire United States West Coast. Estuarine science and research is relatively
young. Only in the last several decades has there been a good understanding of
estuaries and fisheries.
Back
in the seventies MCPB (Maryland Center for Public Broadcast) was one of the
best public television stations in the country. It was my Camelot for almost
five years.
My
job selling programming was a precursor to my own business ventures born
several years later. Our home was the first of a number of real estate
investments. Two western novels were written, edited and then shelved for
almost forty years before my new career as a writer took off. It was in
Maryland where I attempted the JFK Fifty Mile Race but only got twenty-four
miles before hypothermia brought me down. That failure propelled me to a
lifetime of running.
Our
G.M. was a brilliant yet incredibly personable leader. He had an enormous
influence on my fantasies of becoming a writer.
It’s
come full circle now. Sailing the Chesapeake, revisiting old friends through
the MCPB Facebook page and writing as my new moniker to carry. I’d like to
believe it all began there when a young sprout came up from Tennessee to test
the waters of fledgling television, tip-toed the bays and inlets and drew in the
fresh ocean breezes.
It
was nice to be home again…if only in my imagination.
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