I’ve heard it said that “nobody listens to the radio anymore”. Well, recently I was listening and the DJ related a news story stating that maps are coming back into style. Really! Younger generations have discovered them and sales are up. (This message brought to you by Maps, the American Map Board, and your Map Checkoff.) And so, here I sit with my nifty street map of Caroline County. My attention is especially drawn to the names in smaller type: so many stories they have to tell! I suppose a book may have been written to explain them every one, and wouldn’t it be a sad state of affairs if I lived my whole life and never read it? As it is, I can only sit here and stare, romantic notions in my head of what once might have been.

Growing up, I considered myself a Prestonian though I have only lived a couple of my years within its city limits. In school I joked that I was actually from “North Linchester” but I was the only one to laugh. (Nothing new with that.) When I moved on to Colonel Richardson I delighted in a rivalry with the Federalsburgers, constantly running down their town. That all seems childish now, and not just because I happen to live in “the Burg” myself these days. How did Federalsburg grow to become the second largest town in the county? A good map can clue you in nearly as well as a history book: it happens to be the farthest up the Marshyhope that you can get in any kind of real boat. In the horse and buggy days, when a trip to the county seat was an all-day affair, waterways were as good as today’s interstates. That modest creek was a gateway to the world, and one not available to the likes of Opossum Hill, Downes or Melville Crossroads. When the folks from the railroad planned out a route from the main line in Seaford, Delaware, to run down to Cambridge, they drew the line through Federalsburg. Shipping built the town and sustains it yet. If Chicago is America’s Second City, Federalsburg is Caroline’s.

While most of the county is connected with the Choptank (or its tributary, the Tuckahoe) down here we have a river of our own. The railroad? My map tells me it would have been easier to run it through Finchville, home today to a blinking light…and not much else. But the only rail service in our county still runs strong, the Maryland & Delaware housing its corporate headquarters in our train station.

Federalsburg “made it” but what of the others? My grandfather used to speak of someone who lived “over near Bureau”. There was something about that name that always intrigued me, but I always felt uneasy when Pop-Pop mentioned it. See, I had no idea, absolutely no idea, where he was referring to. I suppose I can be forgiven: have you ever seen a sign welcoming you to that metropolis? Oh, sure, Thomas Town warrants a sign, and I never had to scratch my head and wonder “where am I?” while passing through Baltimore Corner. But public works saved their money and left us in the dark as we ventured past Concord or Nichols. I have to wonder, do the folks in Union Corner or Downes even know they live in such a place? Have you ever heard someone say they live in Agner, Ober’s Corner or Cleaves Fork? Once, I suppose, each had a country store or two, with one sporting a post office in the corner. A church, a little tomato cannery, maybe? Many had some sort of mill. The map and my imagination conspire to paint a picture of each village in its heyday. Did each look a bit like “Little House on the Prairie”? Did they each have a Nellie Oleson?

Federalsburg celebrates its bicentennial this year, something I greet with somber thought. Why so? I was alive and well for our nation’s 200th birthday but remember nothing. True, I don’t recall much at all from what was my fourth year on God’s green earth. I can imagine what that Independence Day must have been like; in particular I can envision what was on television that July 4th. I picture a three hour special, hosted by Bob Hope. John Wayne came on wearing a nice suit, saying something about the flag. Ann-Margret wore something red, white, blue and intriguing. Bob and Ann probably did a skit where he was George Washington and she was Martha. They cut away to Nashville for a song by Johnny Cash. At quarter to eleven, as seen from the Goodyear blimp, a military band played “The Stars and Stripes Forever” like they’d never played it before, while fireworks ignite above. See, I can picture the whole show, thus saving the time of ever having to watch it! The downside is that, in a few hours, it was all over and the calendar turned to July 5th. Here’s to keeping your celebration going, Federalsburg. You may not garner your own TV special, but you’re more than just a dot on the map!