Your membership in the St. Mary’s Historical Society (previous Buzzyblog post) will get you a subscription to their quarterly “Chronicles of St. Mary’s.” That alone is worth joining because in “The Chronicles” you will find excellent articles and photographs featuring the history of the County. (You also get access to the 70 years of back issues.) This from the Historical Society’s website:
For example, the current Summer edition of “The Chronicles” features a great article by my friend Jason Babcock discussing old movie theaters in the County. Check out Jason’s following entry on Massey’s “You Know You’re From St. Mary’s” FB page. (To read additional comments from folks, click on the link below the photo.)
Another excellent article in the Spring edition of “The Chronicles” was written by my friend Pat Woodburn who discusses the origins and evolution of radio stations in St. Mary’s. Pat notes that it was Jack Daugherty who established the first radio station WPTX in 1953. Here is “The Chronicles” front page with a photo of Jack interviewing Bobby Kennedy.
Also in that article, Pat discusses a well known local DJ known as Guy Willey whose non-DJ name was Ed Lenaway. It is a fascinating story of how Lenaway and his wife Rita came to St. Mary’s and became a part of the local community.
Pat notes in the article how he met two of the Lenaway children Gaby and Dennis at Buzzy’s Country Store last year. Gaby then followed up by providing him with several photos and additional information on her father and his role in the development of radio business in St. Mary’s. It is a great story and I’m not just saying that because Buzzy’s is mentioned in it!
(As another example of small world stories/coincidences, the Lenaway family lived and grew up in my Piney Point neighborhood two doors up from where I now reside. In addition, Pat has an old Little League score book that shows Dennis Lenaway batting leadoff for the Piney Point Red Sox when they played the Ridge Orioles with Pat pitching!)
Back to the present, there is a pretty cool Strawberry Moon out tonight that you may want to take a gander at. The following tune always runs thru my mind whenever I read or hear something about a moon worth checking out. One hit wonders, The Capris recorded it in 1958 and three years later it went to Number 3 on the Billboard charts.