Popcorn memories

I had received an email from my Aunt Naomi currently living in Bethany Beach, Delaware, indicating that she was sending me Fisher's popcorn. For those of you that don’t' know, Fisher's popcorn is an Ocean City, Maryland boardwalk staple. Just thinking of this popcorn triggered two Ocean City, Maryland stories that I wanted to share. When we were children, Grandmom and Pap Pap Schuhart would alternate having us down to their ocean city summer apartment near the Santa Maria Restaurant at 13th Street. Every evening we would tirelessly walk the boardwalk just enjoying the summer air and occasionally some Fisher's popcorn. Aunt Naomi and Aunt Ruth each had summer houses in Bethany and we would often go up to visit them and play in the lagoons behind their houses. Once during that week Pap Pap would take us crabbing at Snow Hill. We'd go early in the morning using chicken necks for bait and within the course of an hour or so we'd have caught an entire bushel of blue crabs. I can't even begin to imagine what a bushel of blue crabs would cost these days. But we would eat crabs for days and love their sweet, succulent flavor.

The other story is a little more serendipitous and involves our two blogmasters. Nancy, my one blogmaster, and Joan were planning on working at the ocean for the summer. Nancy has secured a job at a hardware store and Joan at some food place. Immediately after my graduation ceremony we piled Nancy and Joan's summer luggage into my brother's van, which for some reason included a huge array of shoes. On the way from Westminster, Maryland to Ocean City, we stopped in Catonsville to pick up Jim the other blogmaster and a friend of his, Diane. Diane was planning on working at a family taco stand at the very beginning of the boardwalk right by the bus station. Jim and I were only planning on spending a day or so, imagining a carefree weekend at the surf, celebrating the beginning of summer. We were intending to stay at Nancy and Joan's apartment. Nancy and Joan's landlords - affectionately called Doll Face and Laughing Boy - had other ideas in mind. They were not about to permit two people to spend one night without paying rent to them for the evening.

By this point, it was late evening and Diane offered to put us up at her family abode for the evening. Little did we realize this offer included breaking through the taco service window and stuffing Jim through in order to gain access to the family summer business. Diane's family arrived later in the evening and my most vivid recollection is of waking up in the morning on the floor surrounded by a summer's worth of taco supplies. The little bit of time we spent at the beach, the wind was blowing so strongly that we felt that we were getting dermabrasion treatments from the sand. All these years later we can't help but laugh when we think of that crazy weekend.