This past week, I was at the Corbin Memorial Library in Somerset County for a talk called “Stories Worth Repeating from Crisfield.” Over ten years ago, I wrapped up extensive fieldwork in the waterman’s town, digging up archival materials and interviewing sources. Those days down there talking to people, paging through newspapers, and digging around the courthouse records in Princess Anne were some of the most fascinating that I have done. So, when the library called to ask if I could do a program, I decided to share some of the quirky, offbeat, and obscure narratives I collected, along with my methods.
It wasn’t going to be your standard Chamber of Commerce lecture. Here is how I explained it to the large audience: There are many ways to explore our rich past in small towns, but I often use a non-traditional technique to examine community history. When I arrive in a town as a stranger, seeking out stories that create a unique sense of place, I am apt to decide I need a police officer right away. It is not because there’s some trouble brewing, and mind you, I’m not looking for your average 20-something beat officer. No, I need someone special, say an 80-year-old who has worked our small towns’ streets and back alleys day and night for at least a generation. When these old-style lawmen weren’t busy taking care of wayward types and carting drunks off to jail, they kept an eye on everything on their beat.
This technique, which I have honed over my decades of rummaging around small towns, provides me with some of the most fascinating historical insights and stories one could hope to unearth. You get a cop’s eye view of the day-in and day-out goings-on from someone who knew their beat and their town as no one else could. This makes my stories much richer and more complete.
Chief Carmine
When I first went to Crisfield to gather information, my first stop was the city hall. While talking to the clerk to see if I could find some leads, she mentioned Jesse W. Carmine, an 82-year-old working as an inspector in the public works department. The lady suggested I talk to him since he was an employee of the city for almost half a century, most of it as a police officer. By the way, he had also served as the chief, she added.
That sounded like a great lead to me, so they called him on the radio. It wasn’t too long before the city public works truck pulled up with Mr. Carmine behind the wheel. After explaining my purpose, we talked for a good bit. Chief Carmine, in such a fascinating and informative way, took me back to a time when policing was far different in Maryland and this watermen’s town.
His stories were about the passage of nearly 50 years while prowling the night, chasing speeders, corralling troublemakers, and putting jailbirds behind bars as the long arm of the law in a tough Chesapeake Bay Town. The patrolman started in the old days long before they were SWAT teams, crisis negotiators, computers, CSI, female officers, or for that matter patrol cars and two-way radios. After we finished talking, we hopped into the city truck for an informative tour of Crisfield, a place that he knew so very well, having grown up there in the decades before World War II.
Crisfield Stores
I was so fortunate to have met Mr. Carmine and had the opportunity to learn so much about a different time and place. And I was pleased to repeat some of the stories he and others shared. These were stories worth repeating as the audience appeared to thoroughly enjoy this approach that sure wasn’t your standard Chamber of Commerce talk.
