Year: 2000

Victorian Christmas Parlor Games

For much of this century the term Victorian, which literally describes things and events during Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837-1901 have always conjured up images of things prudish, repressed and old-fashioned. And although such associations have some basis in fact, they do not adequately describe the nature of this complex, paradoxical age, known as a… Read more »

From rum to subs: The Coast Guard in Cape May

It was the 1920s. Roaring, people called them. Crazy. The “bees knees.” And the United States was in deep conflict. The Eighteenth Amendment had just been passed — prohibiting the manufacture, sales and transportation of all alcohol. This new law was to counteract what some considered a “decline of morality.” Young people were bobbing hair… Read more »

Spirited Cape May: Do You Believe?

Having grown up in many areas of the country, and almost always living in houses at least a hundred years-old, I’ve had a fair share of “ghostly” experiences. Many, of course, can be written off as coincidence, and some as simple quirks. But there are a few that I, a mostly practical and skeptical person, cannot deny.

Spirited Cape May: More Than Meets the Eye

It’s been said Cape May is full of ghosts. Books have been written on the subject and there are even “ghost tours” to be taken. And, surely, one look at the town with its collection of 19th-century buildings could lead one to suspect there must be a few lingering souls lost in time, trying to make their way home.

At Mother Nature’s Mercy

There have been hundreds of hurricane watches and warnings throughout the centuries yet Cape Island has never felt the truth wrath of a full-fledged hurricane. Northeastern Atlantic coastal storms, however, locally known as ‘nor’easters’ have wreaked havoc on her coast for centuries. Above is South Cape May photographed around 1917.

VICTORIAN WEEK evolves into a ‘Big Deal’

In the summer of 1973 Bruce Minnix, founding member of the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC), Cape May’s leader in heritage and cultural tourism, was speaking to a group of reporters about the organization’s plans for the future. At the time, MAC was in the early stages of development and consisted only of volunteer… Read more »

Three Innkeepers’ Stories…

What if you had the nerve to follow your dream? Memories of sunny, sandy, carefree days stream back and suddenly you remember that wonderful couple who ran that lovely bed and breakfast you visited. Nice people, they were. And they looked so happy! Perhaps you could be, too.

Desalination: Cape May Leads the Northeastern U.S.

“Water, water, everywhere —nor any drop to drink…”* Cape May’s Desalination Plant’s no Albatross! *Apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his legendary poem “Ryme of the Ancient Mariner” There can be no debate, water is the sustenance of life. As the world’s population and demands increase, natural resources deplete. Today’s worldwide water crisis has forced… Read more »