Folks from the Cap’n’s Hometown, Piney Point

Barge in Piney Point hollow testing torpedoes.

Message from the Cap’n is a compilation of fishing advice, waterman and weather insights, Chesapeake lore, and ordinary malarkey from the folks who keep their feet wet in the Potomac and St. Mary’s rivers.

The Cap’n

Let me tell you a story of my hometown, Piney Point, Maryland.

My vivid early memories feature formations of fighter planes filling the sky during the years in the early 1940s. The Torpedo Station was operating at full capacity supporting the World War II effort at that time. The facility was closed in 1954, and the property was sold for use as a marina. It is now the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training (bought in 1968).

There were number of enlisted service member houses on both sides of Route 249 and officers’ houses along the Potomac River waterfront. A lot of the workers from the Torpedo testing facility stayed in Piney Point and helped form a nucleus of the community. I can remember a sign on a lot next to the green park that listed houses for sale for $7,500 each. I am sure that one could have bought all 10 houses abutting Route 249 for $50,000.

There was also a park where we us kids used to play baseball and sometimes rolled happily in the grass. Now the park is filled with houses in its entirety.

Now let me tell you about several of our local residents.

Bernard Bradburn collected trash in the community and had a collection pile just north of his house. He did many things to make a living, One was delivering ice throughout the neighborhood. He also sold bootleg whiskey along with others. Everybody sold it: hotels, mailman, milkman, livery man, and the community stores.

Bernard’s neighbor was ” Norfolk Joe,” a middle-aged Black gentleman with a wooden leg, a patch over one eye, and a dog named “Puppy Dog Jack.”

Norfolk Joe raised hogs behind his house and fed them stuff from Bernard’s trash pile. And I continue the story below:

Norfolk Joe

• Nevitt Johnson was his name
• He has only his parents to blame
• With one eye, a wooden leg and his Puppy Dog Jack,
• He would go about his daily track.
  **
  Always checked Bernard’s garbage pile for food spill,
• Of cabbage and greens to add to his swill.
• Stinky and fermented but the hogs didn’t mind,
• Because it was good food for their kind.
  ***
• To make swill is easy enough,
• Add water to a barrel with the leaves and stuff.
• After a few days of sunshine,
• Some of it would curdle and some would brine.
  ****
• The hogs loved it
• they chopped and chewed every bit
• Oink, oinking at the trough
• Then finding the straw to sleep it off
  *****
• Perry Robinson’s tavern was across the street
• With Roy selling the number’s that couldn’t be beat.
• He went there every day
• In hopes that a winning was on its way.
  ******
• Waverly, Bookie, and Pudding joined him there
• To get Gallo Port and drink it without care.
• All were content to sit under the tree
• Discussing and cussing about the things that be.

Till next time, remember “It’s Our Bay, Let’s Pass It On.”

To learn about tours and trips into the Chesapeake, keep in touch with Fins + Claws on Facebook. Catch up on the Message from the Cap’n Member Page. Please visit Cap’n Jack’s lore and share with your social media sites. Or reach him at [email protected] or 240-434-1385.