The next time you walk into a grocery store it may very well have been owned by the Diamonds and you will literally step into history.

Frank Defilippo deserves credit for inspiring this post.  

 

In my harangue about the New Deal I cited One from One Leaves Two, a poem by Ogden Nash, which satirized the absurdity of the New Deal’s centralized planning.  Frank mentioned to me that Nash was a Baltimorean, and actually lived in the Village of Cross Keys, where my daughter’s pediatrician practices. Nash lived at a couple of places in the Guilford area before moving to Cross Keys where he lived until his death in 1971. 

 

Nash tried living in New York for a brief spell, but soon returned to Charm City saying “"I could not love New York. Had I not loved Balti-more.” 

 

Growing up in the DC suburbs of Maryland we were taught that Edgar Allan Poe and HL Menken called Baltimore home. However, after perusing the Baltimore Literary Heritage Project website, I was absolutely stunned at the literary heavyweights, who called Baltimore home at one time or another. Here are a few names on the list:

 

 

Stein was famous for her quip about the city of Oakland saying “there is no there, there.”

 

During a Monday Night Football game featuring the Oakland Raiders, Jerry Rice made a spectacular touchdown reception, prompting then MNF analyst Dennis Miller to say “Gertrude there is a there, there!” I bet our own Tony Giro didn’t know that one!

One famous writer not on the list, but should be is Whittaker Chambers. Chambers may be more famous for his unmasking of Soviet spy Alger Hiss, however his autobiography Witness is one of the great works of American literature. Hiss lived on both Mt. Royal and St. Paul streets. When he broke with communism he lived in a safe house with his family on Old Court Rd. In addition to Witness, Chambers was an editor for TIME and National Review he even translated Bambi into English from the original German.  

 

Say what you will about Chambers, he did prove F. Scott Fitzgerald wrong; there are second acts in American life.

 

PS I would also argue, very strongly, that David Simon belongs on the list as well.

At a ceremony beginning at 10 am on Saturday April 26 at the Inner Harbor, the United States Seagoing Marine Association (USSMA) will present a commemorative plaque honoring all the United States Marines who served on board the USS Constellation. Constellation is the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy. It was not however, the first ship to bear that name. Built in Baltimore and launched in September 1797, a smaller frigate named Constellation in honor of the constellation of stars on the American flag saw duty in battle against the French and against the British in 1812. Builders laid the keel for the new USS Constellation in 1853. She entered active service in 1854. From 1859-1861, Constellation served as the flagship of the African squadron, which operated anti-slavery patrols off the coast of Africa. 

 

Constellation capturing the slave ship Cora

In 1808, the United States banned the importation of slaves and considered slave traders to be engaged in acts of piracy. The US Navy ran interdiction operations off the coast of Africa to halt the flow of slaves into the western hemisphere. In April 1859, the Constellation was designated flagship of the African squadron, which patrolled the mouth of the Congo River.  From1859-1861 under the command of Flag Officer William Inman, Constellation captured three slave ships.

 

During the Civil War, the Constellation protected Union shipping from Confederate raiders and served blockade duty. After the war, she operated as a receiving ship, delivered relief supplies to help Irish famine victims, served as a training vessel for the United States Naval Academy, until arriving at her final berth at the Inner Harbor here in Baltimore. You can read more about Constellation’s anti-slavery mission here and her Civil War service here and here.

 

Constellation at her final berth

Throughout Constellation’s history, there has been one constant. She always sailed with a detachment of United States Marines. In fact, Marines, since the genesis of our nation, have always served on American naval vessels. One thing left out of HBO’s phenomenal miniseries John Adams was that Adams was instrumental in the birth of the United States Marine Corps. Adams led the Maritime Commission Meetings in Philadelphia, which in turn led to the November 10, 1775 resolution of the Continental Congress:

 

 

This resolution marked the birth of the United States Marine Corps., and its first duty. Marines enforced discipline aboard ship, led sailors in combat, commanded boarding and landing parties, and provided musket fire from on high during close-quarter ship-to-ship combat. Constellation had her own band of leathernecks. Captain Isaac T. Doughty led the Constellation’s Marine detachment during her anti-slavery patrols. 

 

Capt. Isaac T. Doughty USMC

Marines served as crewmembers on US Navy vessels from 1775 until 1998 when the Marine Corps. disbanded Marine detachments to navy ships. The USSMA serves as an organization to help commemorate historical events from 223 years of service and preserve the bonds of among sea going Marines across the country. 

 

Joe Rumenap is one “Salty Seadog”—the name the seagoing Marines are sometimes called—who will be there on Saturday. Joe is a Baltimore native and the local contact for the USSMA. Born and bred in Brooklyn Park, Joe enlisted in the Marines in 1943. He served on the aircraft carrier USS Langley and saw most of the major battles in the Pacific. Joe is a Purple Heart recipient. Off the coast of Okinawa, he severely injured his hand when a bomb from a Japanese kamikaze hit Langley’s focsile, where Joe was manning one of its anti-aircraft guns. 

 

There is not enough space in this post to give Joe and his experiences proper justice. I will do that later. However, if you are down by the Inner Harbor on Saturday morning stop by the ceremony, look for Joe he has some great stories to tell. 

 

Shirley Reynolds is a Wyman Park institution. Many parents who have lived on Beech Ave. have made the weekly, in my case daily, pilgrimage to Mrs. Shirley’s house for a gumdrop and a visit. The trip down the block is part of my two-year old daughter’s daily routine. I can barely get her out of the car seat after we arrive home from daycare, before she is scrambling to Shirley’s porch.  

 

A visit to Shirley’s house is a glimpse into Baltimore’s rich history.

 

Shirley has spent nearly her whole life in Baltimore, most of it in Wyman Park. Wyman Park is a narrow swath of the city that spans east to west from Tudor Arms Ave. and Beech Ave. to Keswick Rd., and bordered by 33^rd St. on the south and West 40^th St. to the north. 

 

After time spent in Pasadena and Hamilton, Shirley and her family settled into a house on Chestnut Ave. in Hampden. Ask her about her childhood and she will tell you about winters spent skating on a frozen tadpole pond in what is now the neighborhood dog park for Wyman Park residents and taking the #25 streetcar to the pool at Druid Hill Park, Roosevelt Park, and Meadowbrook on hot summer days. 

 

Shirley also owned the original Frazier’s on the Avenue. Only back then, Frazier’s wasn’t on the 36^th Ave. The original Frazier’s was a row house on 33^rd and Elm. She owned it for eight years.  Shirley’s good friends are the owner’s of Frazier’s current incarnation. When Shirley owned Frazier’s it wasn’t a hangout for Hampden hipsters. Frazier’s was the place where, during Mardi Gras, its patron’s attire would put the campiest Hon girls to shame. Shirley would put together country and western themed parties complete with cowboy hats, chaps, and a real horse! Men would don tuxedos and women corsages for Frazier’s prom night parties. 

 

Shirley settled into her current home on the corner of Craycombe and Beech in 1965. Shirley’s basement with its ping-pong tables and parties was the prime destination for neighborhood friends of her three children Brian, Bobby and Carol. After the older residents of Wyman Park moved away because their children had grown and moved out themselves, there was a period about ten years where there were no children.  However, as Baltimore’s cheap housing prices lured younger families to Wyman Park in the late 1990s and early years of this decade, children came back and the tradition started anew. We call it the Beech Ave. Baby Boom. In fact, Shirley became the unofficial grandmother to two girls who moved into the row house adjacent to her. She does the same for my daughter (pictured with Shirley above). The ping-pong table is gone, but the tradition lives on today, as the toddlers and preschooler’s flock to Shirley’s house. I asked her if the neighborhood changed much over the years, she said, “It was the same as it is now,” a “friendly neighborhood.”

 

Last spring, Shirley turned 80 last year and to celebrate her three children threw a surprise birthday party for her. After a nice Sunday brunch, Shirley returned to a house filled with family friends, plenty of children, and a Charm City Cakes’ replica of her sitting in the rocking chair on the porch of her row house.  Ace of Cakes featured the party in the episode, Tattoos and Traditions.