I took a day trip Wednesday, Aug. 31, three years to the day of the Minds/Mythinformed conference in a casino in Philadelphia, where the event had to be moved from Pitman NJ because it was thought to be a far-right conference. It was not; you could say libertarian, more or less. In a few months the pandemic would come, and well, he we are now.
I took the usual route of Bay Bridge to 404 (held up 45 minutes by a wreck eastbound near the Severn with two cars slammed into the concrete inner barrier), the veered north to the town of Ridgely, MD and then Greensboro, MD, near the Delaware line (yes, I visited the NC city in December 2017). By the way, people change lanes on the Bay Bridge, and they are not supposed to.
Tuesday, one day before my little trip, there was a tragic event in Columbus, Ohio where police entering an apartment show an unarmed black man who was apparently not the person of interest, and who had only a second of warning. Story in CNN by Amanda Musa, Dakin Andone and Michelle Watson, 'Body camera video shows a Columbus, Ohio, police officer fatally shooting an unarmed 20-year-old Black man'. This story is developing.
On September 15, 2018 a young black man named (ironically) Anton Black died at the hands of police while held down, an incident that seems to foreshadow George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. One of the policemen (in charge) apparently had a questionable reputation from an earlier job in Dover DE but was still hired. The towns of Ridgely, Greensboro (5 miles apart) and Centreville (maybe 20 miles away on US 301, which I have driven through various times on the way north) had to contribute to civil settlements, but there were no criminal actions against police.
The Ridgely railroad park is cute. As I drove there, I happened to pass a house where a sheriff was visiting a homeowner, maybe serving papers.
I made three videos. The descriptions give news references.
First, in Ridgeley.
Second, near the boadslip along the Choptank river near the incident.
Third, a “video short” of the same, not as easy to embed, link.
Fourth, short film. 17 min from 2020 by Spy Newspapers of Maryland, Did this Black Life Matter? The Case of Anton Black with Glynis Kazanjian
Police bodycam from incident Ch 13 Baltimore
Later, I drove to Milford, and then down Rt. 1 to Rehoboth Beach.
In a manner similar to Provincetown for New England, and Fire Island for New York, Rehoboth has the reputation as the “gay beach” for Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia (which, by the way, is not another borough of NYC). Actually, as you drive south on Rt 1, you see an interesting bridge and a state park, and then Bethany Beach (which was founded originally as a religious retreat, and was my first introduction to the beach in 1947) and then Ocean City, with its condo buildings north of the boardwalk. “We” and a another family shared an apartment there (the Sea Mists) one week every June for my entire childhood (although cut short in 1950 when I came down with the measles).
By the way, if you go north of Rehoboth, you come to Lewes, which is interesting, and the car ferry across the sound to southern New Jersey and Cape May, which I have done twice. Go up the coast and you come to Atlantic City, which has never impressed me.
Actually Rehoboth is very mixed, with gay men preferring the area a mile south of city center, around ‘Queen” St, near the end of the boardwalk.
I stopped at the new instance of “Freddies Beach Bar”, well known for its location near Crystal City in Arlington VA. From the bar name, the Rehoboth location sounds appropriate (only about three blocks from the Boardwalk). The new location is larger, and Freddie has copied the same branded pastel rainbow décor and doll toys that he has in Arlington. How did he have all this custom made? Certainly décor adds to (trademarked) “brand” of any “chain” of restaurants or bars. There are others, like “JR’s” in various cities, with the largest I’ve seen being in Dallas (of course), not DC. I wonder if Pitcher’s could do this in other cities (given that the Washington Nationals tanked this year, post-pandemic and more severely damaged than any other MLB team). For example, Target Field in Minneapolis is just a few blocks away from the bar strip (The Gay 90s, the Saloon). It’s easy for me to imagine a Pitcher’s around Hennepin or Block E. Warning: I lived in Minneapolis 1997-2003, literally at the end of the Skyway, in the Churchill. Some of the best years of my life
Video of Freddie's in Rehoboth Beach DE by Dolly Wood
Fox5DC video of Freddie's (Arlington) at National Landing, I went at the wrong time for this one.
Originally posted Aug. 31, 2022 by John W Boushka)