Friends of Portsmouth Island

Just across Ocracoke Inlet lies Portsmouth Island, a magical place with wide, undeveloped beaches and a village stranded in the last century. It has been almost 40 years since the last permanent residents moved away from Portsmouth. Today the island is administered by the Cape Lookout National Seashore.

Portsmouth Island US Life Saving Station:

Click on photo to view a larger image.)

Still standing in Portsmouth Village, on the north end of the island, are the Methodist church, the schoolhouse, the post office, the US Life Saving Station, and a handful of once private dwellings.

Portsmouth Island Schoolhouse:

(Click on photo to view a larger image.)

In cooperation with the National Park Service, Friends of Portsmouth Island, a non-governmental non-profit organization, is dedicated to keeping the memory and legacy of Portsmouth islanders alive.

FPI’s spring meeting will be held Saturday, May 21 at 10 a.m. on Ocracoke at the NCCAT building (the former US Coast Guard Station). Events will include the following:

*Pat Kenney, Cape Lookout National Seashore's new Superintendent, will be introduced.

*There will be a report on the restoration of Henry Pigott's House, and memories of Henry from Rudy & Donald Austin.

Henry Pigott's House:

(Click on photo to view a larger image.)

*Penny Akahloun will talk about her recent discovery that her grandfather was a survivor of the sailing vessel “Vera Cruz” which wrecked at Portsmouth nearly a century ago.

*Jack Saylor, Beaufort artist, will share his plans for a series of Portsmouth paintings.

*FPI will be serving lunch on the porch to all who attend.

*After lunch there will be a boat trip to Portsmouth Island (there is a fee for this activity).

*Tours of the Ocracoke Working Waterman's Exhibit will be arranged.

Come out to the meeting to support the work of the Friends of Portsmouth Island, and to learn about the exciting projects being undertaken to protect and preserve this unique Outer Banks village.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111.htm.

Ocracoke Alive!

Calling all artists, musicians, actors, and assorted creative islanders! An old organization with a new name (formerly the Ocracoke Players...now Ocracoke Alive) has been revived. Originally conceived as a theater group (their productions included, "Oklahoma," "The Sound of Music," several melodramas, and our very own "A Tale of Blackbeard"), Ocracoke Alive will now take under its wing the OcraFolk Festival and the OcraFolk School, two highly successful endeavors.

As a newly reorganized venture Ocracoke Alive looks forward to wider community outreach...and the participation of more local artists, musicians, and other folks involved with the arts. Future projects may include art exhibits, workshops, community performances, plays, musicals, and festivals.

Ocracoke Alive's inaugural meeting is scheduled for 7:30 tonight at the Community Center. Come on out to learn more, to share your hopes and dreams for a more vibrant artistic presence on Ocracoke, and to get involved. Everyone is heartily invited. Snacks will be provided...along with videos and slide shows celebrating some early productions of the Ocracoke Players.

This is also your opportunity to learn about the Ocracoke Alive Logo Contest. The winner will receive an award of $250. Members & Non-members, islanders & mainlanders are all invited to submit designs. More information will be available soon at Ocracoke Alive's new web site: http://www.ocracokealive.org.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news.htm.

Ferries Again

Many of our readers know about the continuing battle re. proposed ferry tolls at Hatteras Inlet. If not, here is my post from March of this year:

http://villagecraftsmen.blogspot.com/2011/03/ferries.html

Below is a blog briefly explaining the latest developments:

http://www.bluenc.com/ocracoke-ferry-toll-monster-brought-back-life%3F

And following is a link to a Facebook site dedicated to maintaining free access to Ocracoke Island for residents and visitors alike:

http://www.facebook.com/NOTOLL

For a more detailed discussion of this issue, click on this link:

http://saynotoocracoketolls.blogspot.com/

There is still work to be done. Please make your voice heard.

Island Connections

Peter Vankevich, Ocracoke Island home owner and one-time year-around resident, sent me the following link. I thought our readers would enjoy reading about this visit to Ocracoke Island by a school teacher from North Haven, Maine, one of fourteen unbridged islands in Penobscot Bay.

http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Island-Connections/14320/

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111.htm.

Satisfaction

Yesterday morning Rob & I departed from the dock in his boat just after 10 o'clock. We didn't go very far...just out into Pamlico Sound a ways...before we anchored and jumped overboard with our clam rakes. In an hour we had collected about 150 clams.

Back home I opened a dozen and a half larger quahogs. In the afternoon I made deviled clams, using an old island recipe. Friends came over at 6 with fried fish, rice, and beans. We opened a bottle of red wine. Dinner, as usual, was informal...we didn't even bother to get out dishes as we savored the clams. Of course, we needed dishes for the fish, rice, and beans.

After we had "run ashore" we repaired to the pizer. There we relaxed on rockers, steps, and the porch swing as we shared stories, news of the day, and thoughts about life. Lachlan, Gretchen, and Nicholas ran around & played in the yard and under the house until it got dark.

It was a simple day of gathering food, cooking, and visiting with family & friends...all in all a very satisfying way to spend a springtime Saturday on Ocracoke Island.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111.htm.

100,000 Dollars!

Just in case you haven't heard -- Charles Temple walked away from the Jeopardy Teachers Tournament last night as the $100,000 winner. The crowd at Gaffer's pub erupted in wild celebration. It just so happened that the Ocracoke School prom was also last night. Everyone was bussed over to the pub from the prom to watch the contest. The principal even crowned the prom king and queen during a Jeopardy commercial break. What an exciting two weeks this has been. Congratulations, Charles!

Charles being congratulated by yours truly:

Click on photo to view a larger image.

Blogger

Blogger was shut down for a while for maintenance...thus no post this morning. And somehow yesterday's post and comments have disappeared. I don't know what happened.

Just a quick note this afternoon -- The annual British Cemetery Ceremony at 11 a.m. was impressive, as usual, and the ocean has been spectacular lately...gently rolling waves, a few dolphins, and water the color of the Caribbean. It is simply wonderful to be alive and to experience this magnificent world.

Tune in the Jeopardy tonight! We are all impressed with Charles' performance no matter what the final outcome.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111,htm.

Update & Story

Congratulations are in order for Charles. His performance last night was stellar!

I heard an interesting story about last night's show. You may have noticed that Charles let out a significant sigh immediately after he clinched the contest with his answer to Final Jeopardy. It seems the producers cut 20 minutes from the tape while the judges debated Charles' answer. He wrote "What is Dr. Zivago?" The correct spelling is "Zhivago." Charles' relief with the judges' decision was deserved. For the lack of an "h" he might have lost last night's competition.

Keep watching! Charles will be competing tonight and tomorrow night. Third place is guaranteed $25,000; second place, $50,000; and first place, $100,000. Charles and Jeopardy, as you might imagine, are the talk of the village!

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news.htm.

Charles

As most of our readers know, Charles Temple, our high school English teacher (that's right...he is our one and only high school English teacher) is a semi-finalist on Jeopardy's very first Tournament of Teachers.

Last week Charles bested his competition, scoring more than $20,000 (these are actually points, not dollars...my understanding is that tournament contestants' winnings are computed differently). Tonight he battles two of the other high scorers for a chance at the grand prize.

Tune in this evening and follow Charles' progress along with the rest of Ocracoke village. We are all cheering him on.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is the history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111.htm.

OPS Spring Membership Meeting

Tonight at 6 o'clock members and friends of Ocracoke Preservation Society will gather at the Community Center for our Spring Membership Meeting and Potluck Dinner. After dinner and a brief business meeting several islanders will share stories. James Barrie Gaskill and Rex O'Neal will tell the hilarious story about when they carried fresh Ocracoke oysters on the plane to Las Vegas. I will tell about the 1861 wreck of the Black Squall, the sailing vessel that was carrying a circus and menagerie of wild animals.

If you are on the island be sure to come on out, fill your plate with delicious home cooked dishes, enjoy the stories, and support OPS. You'll be glad you did.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111.htm.

A Tangled Web

A few days ago Joyce Spencer and her two daughters, Joy & Roberta, stopped by the house for a visit. You may remember Joyce from my February 11 post (http://villagecraftsmen.blogspot.com/2011/02/tilmon-elizabeth-oneal.html) about the new grave marker for our great-grandparents.

In the course of our conversation Joyce mentioned "Aunt Dark," a relative she had heard about, but whom she couldn't remember.

Here is what I discovered: "Aunt Dark" was Dorcas Williams Spencer Gaskins (b. 1858), Joyce's husband's great aunt. But she was also Joyce's second cousin, twice removed. There was another "Dark," (Dorcas Scarborough Williams, 1833-1921), who was Joyce's first cousin, three times removed. To further complicate matters, there was another Dorcas ("Dart"), 1893-1915 , Joyce's fifth cousin, twice removed. And that doesn't count Dorcas Williams Spencer (1805-1877), Joyce's great, great, great aunt, and her husband's great-great grandmother. There were other Dorcases on Ocracoke...but my head is spinning.

In the course of making elaborate genealogical charts on multiple sheets of paper taped together I was struck again by how entangled the old Ocracoke families are. Joyce is my secound cousin (through our O'Neal grandmothers)...but she is also my fourth cousin (through our Williams great grandfathers). Her children are my second cousins, once removed...but also my fourth cousins, twice removed through our common Howard ancestor.

I was reminded that my direct Ocracoke ancestors were also intermarried. I am my own sixth cousin through the Williams line...and my own sixth cousin, once removed, through the Howard line!

Thank goodness for the US Coast Guard (which, during WWII, brought off-island men to the island who married local girls), and work for island men in Philadelphia (where, in the early twentieth century, they married women of immigrant descent)!

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111.htm.

Mainland Fire

Smoke hangs over Ocracoke village this evening as an uncontrolled forest fire rages in mainland Dare County. You can read more here: http://hamptonroads.com/2011/05/nc-fire-scorches-7000-acres-alligator-river-refuge.

A 10 mile section of route 264 on the mainland is closed because of smoke and fire. Travelers are advised to be prepared for smoke and detours.

Clam Chowder

I haven't been clamming yet this season (though I have heard about folks gathering a mess recently). But I did cook a big pot of clam chowder yesterday afternoon. I had two ziplock bags of frozen clams in the freezer. I opened the clams, chopped them up, added a half dozen potatoes, a very large onion, and fried salt pork...and cooked them for a couple of hours.

Amy, David, & Lachlan came over for supper. After dessert Amy & David talked about their day around the kitchen table. Lachlan and I sat on the pizer watching the day slip into night. We told stories, shared jokes (what kind of a dog does a scientist like best?...A lab), laughed, and watched our new neighbors move into the rental house across the lane.

Such a nice way to spend the early evening on a lovely springtime day in May.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111.htm.

Sand Dollars

My latest New Yorker magazine has an advertisement on the inside back cover from an "asset management" company. The photo shows a casually dressed, obviously affluent woman of indeterminate (but retirement) age, walking on the beach with her dog.

On the right hand side of the page are four dashes arranged in a column. Beside the lowest one are the words "earn dollars." Above that are "save dollars." Next come "invest dollars." Finally, at the top, we see "sand dollars."

Presumably, if we follow the advice of the asset management company, we can work hard, invest wisely, and retire "comfortably." Then we can stroll beaches looking for sand dollars.

When I saw the ad I immediately thought of the many excursions I took with Mr. Walter O'Neal in his jeep looking for sand dollars in the 1960s and 1970s. I was in my twenties. I decided then to enjoy life, even while earning a living and raising a family. I may not have as much retirement income as the woman in the advertisement (oh, I know she is just a paid model), but I have had a full and rewarding life living in this tight-knit community, surrounded by ocean, sound and sand dollars. And I didn't have to wait forty years to walk along the beach whenever I wanted to.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111.htm.

Soft Shells

Wednesday afternoon I was riding my bike around the village, and stopped to visit my old friend Wayne. He has an elaborate soft shell crab operation in his large outbuilding. It is quite impressive...with a dozen huge trays filled with recirculating and aerated seawater. Several hundred crabs were swimming about in the various trays as Wayne reached his gloved hand in to inspect them.

As soon as the "peelers" begin to shed he separates them to prevent the others from attacking and killing them. It is fascinating to watch the "busters" as they slowly emerge from their old hard shell. Finally, Wayne has what he is looking for...a soft shell crab. These he sells to local restaurants and residents.

As we chatted by the trays Wayne explained the life cycle of the blue crab...it's three year life span, mating, spawning, and travels from Ocracoke Inlet into the ocean, and back again. I wondered aloud how he had learned so much. Without missing a beat, Wayne shot back, "I played hooky a lot."

Consider ordering a soft shell crab sandwich on your next visit to a local restaurant. With the claws and paddles sticking out from between the bun, they look bizarre, but as O'cockers say, they're good some!

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111.htm.

Tonight's the Night!

At the risk of overdoing these Jeopardy announcements, I just wanted to remind our readers one more time that Ocracoke's high school English teacher, Charles Temple, will be competing tonight in the TV game show's very first tournament of teachers.

To watch a short video of Charles on Jeopardy's web site click the following link, then click "Play Video" under Charles' photo: http://www.jeopardy.com/minisites/teachers-tournament/contestantvideos/

Go, Charles!

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111.htm.

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Decisions can be so difficult when you live on Ocracoke. This past Sunday afternoon I had planned to mess about with my skiff. It's not in the water yet, but I was looking forward to repairing the bow, painting the floor boards, and varnishing the spoked wheel my dad made many years ago.

That's when Rob called to ask me if I'd like to go with him to take his new teaching sailboat out into Pamlico Sound.

I figured my boat repairs could wait.

For more than two hours we sailed lazily down the ferry channel...then back home to Silver Lake. As you might be able to determine by looking at the photos below (click on either one to view a larger image), it was a totally relaxing afternoon.





Thanks to Ruth and Ken who just happened to be going by in their motorboat for the pictures.

You can learn more about Capt. Rob's new sailing school here: http://schoonerwindfall.blogspot.com/2011/03/come-to-ocracoke-and-learn-to-sail.html.

Out latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111.htm.

Girl Scouts Walk for MS

On Saturday two Ocracoke Girl Scout troops traveled to Greenville, NC to participate in Walk MS, sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. MS is an autoimmune disease that attacks the brain and spinal cord. At least three Ocracoke residents, including one 18 year old girl, have been diagnosed with MS. The walk helped raise funds for research leading to better medicines, and, we hope, someday a cure.

To date the Ocracoke Girl Scouts have raised more than $3,000.00. Donations in the name of island girl scouts are being accepted until June 1. To donate click on the link below, then click on an individual girl's name...then click on the "donate" button:

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?pg=team&fr_id=16163&team_id=247243.

You can also donate by clicking on the following link:

http://www.nationalmssociety.org/chapters/nct/donate/index.aspx.

Many thanks to our local girl scout troops for their superb fundraising efforts!

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news42111.htm.

Jeopardy

Just a reminder: Today begins a two week battle of teachers' brains on the popular TV game show, Jeopardy. Ocracokers have a special interest in this contest because Charles Temple, our high school English teacher will be competing.

Even though Charles is not scheduled to appear on the show until Thursday, I thought our readers might want to follow the program all week (and perhaps next week as well).

You can read more about this tournament here: http://www.jeopardy.com/news/teacherstournament.php.

Charles has been tight-lipped about the outcome (the tournament was taped weeks ago, and he was sworn to secrecy by the producers), but we are all impressed with his wide range of sometimes useless knowledge, so we think he did OK!

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111.htm.

The Distemper

In February islander Kathy Ballance came down with a severe wintertime bug that had been circulating throughout the village. Fever, sore throat, coughing, and fatigue laid folks low for weeks at a time…and lingered for months.

Kathy called the Health Clinic and described her condition using an old-time island expression. “Jamie,” she told the receptionist, “I need to make an appointment. I’ve got the Distemper.”

Jamie is from the mainland of Hyde County and had never heard anyone refer to a bad cold as “the Distemper.” Curious, Jamie did some research to see if humans could really get distemper. When Kathy heard about Jamie searching the Internet re. the Distemper she thought it was hilarious. Kathy found it doubly funny that the doctor prescribed the same antibiotics that her son's dog was getting!

Just one more example of Ocracoke Islanders’ unique and quirky vocabulary!

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a history of the Ocracoke Preservation Society. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news042111.htm.