My parents were the original developers of the community of Long Beach which started in 1936. All of their money was tied up in land at the beginning and our home with its big front porch did triple duty as residence, community recreation center and real estate office. So I can honestly say I was born into the business ‘way back when. I still live there in spite of Hurricane Hazel massively changing the shoreline back in the mid 50′s and having to move it back on the lot after a fire in ’96.
Long Beach is located on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay (the side with hills) about midway between Chespeake Beach and Solomons Island. It is still one of my favorite places in the world – which is good since, as I mentioned before, I still live here!
My parents started paying me a salary back when I was only 12 years old but the work had begun long before that! All 3 of us daughters helped with the weekly summer cottage vacation rentals, the boat rentals and running Flag Harbor Marina which my father opened in 1950. I’m pleased to say that I’m friends with several folks who have been here even longer than I have, and I’m one of the original baby-boomers. My goal for this blog is to share not only Long Beach’s history but Calvert County’s as well. The hospital I was born in is now the County Sheriff’s Office but that kind of adds more flavor to the story. My county, my community and my career have all changed greatly over the years. Visit my blog frequently to share my journey and your thoughts!
December 1, 2009 at 5:11 am |
I too grew up in Long Beach; Michele is my sister. And while the hospital where she was born in now the County Sheriff’s Office, I take pride in the fact that I can say my elementary school is now a museum. I’d like to think it’s because I attended there but in reality I think it’s just because Solomons is a great location for a Marine Museum.
December 1, 2009 at 3:26 pm |
This is going to be a really interesting site for Calvert County ‘oletimers. Hope you will be able to share photos from the past. I would love to see the salt water pool at the harbor again.
December 1, 2009 at 4:08 pm |
No I have no idea if this is added to your blog but here goes.
As you know as kids we never refered to a home or cottage by an address, always by the name of the individuals who lived there. The Rockhill’s phone number was 308J and friends here in the city could not believe one picked up the phone and gave an operator a phone number. One of Pat’s job’s was the fuel dock and the “gang” spend many a summer afternoon hanging around that dock.
I learned to swim in the harbor…or let’s put it this way I just jumped in and paddled myself back. More memories to come.
December 1, 2009 at 7:26 pm |
Oh, the memories of being a “summer girl” and spending summers growing up at Long Beach. I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything.
December 1, 2009 at 8:02 pm |
This is terrific Mieke! Ahhh, the salt water pool, I remember it well, especially the day I almost drowned in it! My mother signed me up for swimming lessons but the first “lesson” didn’t go quite the way I thought it would.
December 1, 2009 at 9:17 pm |
I was a Governors Run kid since the early 50′s. Although we were a couple of miles from Long Beach, thanks to Capt. Parks Store, the kids from that part of Calvert County socialized almost daily. And many a day I would walk from the Run to Long Beach looking for sharks teeth. I remember the 50′s vintage red Buick convertible Pat would drive around. What a car! My wife and I have been returning to the Run each September for the last 7 years and enjoy meeting up with many of the kids I grew up with. The stories we remember…… Email me anytime to reminisce.
December 1, 2009 at 9:56 pm |
Sadly MY elementary school is now a parking lot next to what used to be the Calvert County Junior Senior High School, now known as Calvert Middle School. Both of my sisters attended Solomons Elementary but my entire primary education was at Prince Frederick Elementary. No kindegarten for us then, either! My dad devised the method of making a big hole in the wide sandy beach on the north side of Flag Harbor so that the salt water filtered through the sand naturally. (My dad was a very innovative thinker – much more on him later!) It was tested every week by the Health Dept like all public pools were. In spite of that, it did have some iffy nicknames; Polio Pond and The Scunge Pit are two I can remember. The Red Cross gave swimming lessons there, too. Before that the only place to take them was at the Chesapeake Beach Amusement Park pool. The drive took almost an hour then because the roads were so twisty-turny!
December 1, 2009 at 10:07 pm |
What delightful stories! As Long Beach newcomers, we can agree that it is one of the special places on earth – a wild beach, terrific water, pleasant climate, quiet neighborhood, and best of all – very friendly neighbors. We treasure the time we are able to spend at our cottage.
December 1, 2009 at 10:25 pm |
I remember that swimming pool at the Chesapeake Beach Amusement Park. We lived on the Bay, for cripes sake, so I have no idea why my mother decided I needed to learn to swim in that ultra-chlorinated pool an hour away from home. And it was COLD!!!!! To this day I remember getting out of that pool with blue lips and the freezing shivers.
Our own salt water pool at the beach was so creepy and wonderful. Murky so you couldn’t see anything (perfect for people pulling you under from below the surface) but the water temperature was perfect. On a blazingly hot sunny day hanging out in the water in the shade under the diving dock/platform was the perfect place to be.
December 1, 2009 at 11:24 pm |
Golly! I got there late in the game – in high school (the “new” HS on Dares Beach Road). On weekends we would build a bonfire at Long Beach, sip some beer, and sing along with a guitar guy. I remember sandy blankets and bellowing our little hearts out!
OMG, the bellowing: “If I Had a Haam-murrrr,” “There Wer-er Three Brothers in Merry Scot Lannd. In Merry Scot Lannd there were Three. And they did cast lots which of the-hem would goho, would goho, would gooo…ah-and turn robber all on the salt sea’.
And on and on into the night. Moonrise; moonset; too much beer — apparently never enough bellowing. (or was that just me?)
We would probably have to have 7 or 8 permits to assemble like that today. Do they have a permit for bellowing?
December 1, 2009 at 11:55 pm |
We love it here. We are not “old timers”. Been here 9 years now and have never been to Ocean City. No reason when you live in paradise.
December 3, 2009 at 1:22 pm |
One of my earliest memories is playing on the beach on the north side of “The Office” in front of the bath-house. There was a pipe coming up out of the sand with a “T” on it out of which came the bestest, coldest, toothachi-est water ever. The bath-house had to be moved to the wider north side of Flag Harbor after Hazel voraciously ate up the shoreline. Before Hazel hit, there was a concrete sidewalk between the house and the Bay (which I consider the front), an 8′ to 10′ strip of grass, a wooden seawall then about a 25′ to 30′ sandy beach in front of that. Just south of the office was the playground. I think it was either Isabelle or Ernesto that took out the very last of the concrete bases that supported the various equipment. Let’s see if I get the order right: the monkey bars were first (basically chin-up bars at 3 different heights), next were the swings, the teeter-totters, the merry-go ’round, the jungle gym and another set of monkey bars. Long Beach is still a great place to grow up!
December 3, 2009 at 7:00 pm |
I am from Pa.I first came to Calvert County in 1980.I loved it.Then I moved to San Diego for 7 years.When we left there we came to live in Long Beach for 8 years.After a divorce my family talked us into moving up here to Pa.What a BIG mistake. I ended up with a major back surgery and complications from that and disabled.Then two years ago I had a fight with cancer.Thank Goodness I only needed the surgery and no chemo.So far I have been ok.Well,Recently my daughter and I started a childcare here, I help and do all the papers for her.We are so trying to save and come back to Calvert county. Michele is so great.She sends me pictures of the sunrise and sunset plus I get online to the Long Beach & Calvert Beach civic associations and calvert county,plus other sites almost everyday to keep updated on the news in the area.We miss it so much.Seeing the pictures keeps my hopes alive to come home to Calvert county. I have traveled all over but the place I love the most is Calvert County Maryland. If you’d like to add to my picture list that Mike sends me you can send them to gp44mom@yahoo.com. Hope to see you all soon.Looking foreward to that day.
December 9, 2009 at 8:01 pm |
My father, Malcolm Rockhill, was a very innovative man. In 1947 Flag Harbor Marina was dredged with the spoil deposited on the south beach area. That policy continues today although it’s now called “beach renourishment.” The Army Corps of Engineers has called it probably the best wind-protected harbor on the Western Shore of the Bay. Daddy picked that site very well. The jetties were built by the same company that set the seawall around Reagan National Airport. Flag Harbor was their next job. Huge stones were brought in by barge and set with a crane. The job was finished in 1950 when Flag Harbor was officially opened. It was a far cry from the yacht haven it has become. It was a quiet little cove with piers that ringed the basin fashioned from rough-cut lumber and pine poles to tie up to which were great for catching the blue crabs that lurked there. Quite an evolution from 1947. I’ll bet my Daddy would be pleased!
December 10, 2009 at 12:14 am |
Ah yes, the swimming pool or as it would be called these days a salt water pond.
I seem to remember my swimming lesson was in the bay some time around when I was three I think it’s kind of fuzzy? My Dad rowed me out a ways and said swim to shore so by the time I made my first visit to the pool one summer the poor lifeguard said I needed to show him I could swim, well being a bit of a devil at the time I jumped off the wooden diving platform and instead of coming up like he was expecting I swam underwater to the other end of the pool.
I think my sister mentioned that the visibility was very bad in that pool so by the time I popped up at the other end that lifeguard was sure upset. Oh well it seems that was only the first of many times I’ve been thrown out of a pool.
Also I fondly remember my first shooting lesson in dump but dang if I can remember which one of my sisters was there as I was about the same age (3) when my dad let me have my first firearms experience.
Ah yes those were interesting times,