Betty's Critters - & History Views

   The long strip of barrier island was known as Assateague to the Jincoteague Indian tribe for generations.  It had been used for hunting and fishing purposes for as far back as the tribal sagas told stories of the past.  Then Englishman Thomas Fenwick bought the long strip of land from the Native Americans, and gave it his own surname - Fenwick Island.  (But the Virginians still called the long barrier peninsula Assateague; and since the northern part of this peninsula was marsh, and had to be crossed by boat, they also tagged on Island to the end of the name.)  Fenwick ran his stock on Fenwick - horses, cattle, sheep, swine, etc., and the livestock was generally rounded up annually for culling, selling, and slaughter.  He also rented the land to other livestock owners to augment his income.  A few hardy families moved onto Fenwick near 1800.    Fishing was a way of life on Fenwick/Assateague, but the only way to get the boats out to s...

   With Henri threatening New England, it might be time to look at the 1933 Chesapeake-Potomac hurricane that created Assateague Island as we know it today.  On August 21, early in the morning, the Weather Bureau issued storm warnings from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to Boston, Massachusetts; and a few hours later extended them south to Southport, North Carolina.  The storm became a category 4 hurricane, according to today's scale, landing in northeastern North Carolina.  The eye of the hurricane crossed over Norfolk, for the first time since 1821, and weakened to a tropical storm just south of Washington, DC.  The storm then curved to the north, going across Pennsylvania and New York.  As it left New York and entered the Atlantic again, it became an extratropical storm, and moved across the Atlantic provinces of Canada before dying out on August 28.    Widespread damage to the tune of over $40 million ($850 million today) was caused, and a...

   Just for the heck of it, I decided to look into the 1956 Pony Penning; it was the first I attended.  I was born on 9 June that year, and Mom took me to see the Pony Swim and Penning.  Our family was stationed at Oceana NAS, but Mom spent the week with her father on Peterson Street.  Pony Penning was on Wednesday, 25 July; the Auction on the 26th; and the return Swim on the 27th of July.  My older sister, then 6 1/2, stayed with Pop-Pop on Peterson Street, but the call of the ponies lured Mom, as they always had.  I was in her arms for the Swim, and then she carried me back to the Carnival Grounds.  Getting there, she had to use the restroom.  She saw Walt Clark, whom she went to school with, sitting on his horse, and asked him to hold me while she visited the facilities.  So the first time I was ever on a horse was at the CVFC Carnival Grounds, in the arms of Walt Clark.  I wasn't told that until I was 30.    Anyway, in...