What the heck happens in Delaware?

[jellyblue]

@Ms Boods

I went to Ursuline for high school, and have two degrees from the UD (history/music for my BA and a post-doctorate certification in Museum Studies). I teach at the UD now.

I was away from Delaware for a long time, but I like being back.

tarragon918 – I remember being in Delaware one summer when I was little and playing on Pea Patch Island in and around the old prison; I worked for a little while for DNREC when I was getting my museum studies degree (before I went to work for the British Museum), and the island was part of our jurisdiction.

I went to Ursuline, too! Just grade school, though. And UofD undergrad. Also, my grandparents were into doing re-enactments in the summer at Pea Patch Island too. There was a big picnic, it was kind of fun. I still remember all those dungeons ::shudder::

[Napier]

The river and state are named for Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr.

[Ms_Boods]

@Zog_10

So correct me if I’m wrong…but wasn’t Hammerjacks in Baltimore? Or did you mean the Stone Balloon in Newark?

Z

Hammerjacks is in Baltimore; the Stone Balloon is only so much rubble being sold by the owner as memorabilia, and they’re putting up condos on the lot where it stood.

End of the Stone Balloon .

jellyblue – I did a couple years’ time at the junior school as well. We used to have to run the perimeter of the the reservoir for phys ed class. (the high school is at the corner of Franklin and Pennsylvania Ave; all of the buildings inside the Franklin/Pennsylvania/Van Buren/reservoir boundaries belong to the school, being the high school, convent, and junior school.)

eta clarify about the SB’s owner; the money is going to the Delaware Historical Society, I believe.

[Hal_Briston]

@Zog_10

So correct me if I’m wrong…but wasn’t Hammerjacks in Baltimore? Or did you mean the Stone Balloon in Newark?

You’re quite right – Hammerjacks is in Baltimore. Ignore that entire second paragraph. My only excuse is this cold medicine that is making me kinda loopy.

[Cartooniverse]

@Mr Bus Guy

You call Valerie Bertinelli “Not terribly impressive”?

You never see her at the same parties as Clark Kent. I’m just sayin’…

I grew up in Philly. Oh lawdy I do love me some Scrapple. The DelMarVa peninsula is truly weird- they should be their own state. I’ll play devil’s advocate here for a second and say that if I was living in a tiny municipality that had to suffer the endless pollution and traffic nightmares that come with being the Aoritc Valve of the Northeast Corridor’s bloodflow, I’d charge a shitload in tolls too. The real impact of living near I-95 cannot be underestimated and it’s a sin that locals should suffer with no monies coming in from taxes for the cost impact to the local healthcare system.

To me, the problem is that northern Delaware is just like southern PA. Southern Delaware is just like northern Maryland, which is a lot like suburban Virginia in a way that reminds you of the outskirts of Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Detroit.

Cartooniverse

[The_Mad_Hermit]

Chickens.

Millions and millions of chickens, in nice neat pens and buildings. I understand Perdue deals with many of them. You can tell you’re in southern Delaware by the smell.

I used to live in New Castle; along 40/301 there are miles of hotels, and at least a few years ago there were hookers everywhere.

George Thorogood is regarded as a diety there too.

Adding- I’ve stood at the spot where the Mason Dixon line starts and the big semicircle border ends; it’s in the parking lot of a post office.

[Cartooniverse]

I know George Thorogood is a slender fellow but I doubt that they see him as a diety there. A Deity maybe…

I thought the Mason Dixon line ran through the northern-most Waffle House one can find, which is just off an exit in southern Delaware.

[jayjay]

@Cartooniverse

I thought the Mason Dixon line ran through the northern-most Waffle House one can find, which is just off an exit in southern Delaware.

I can’t really tell if you’re serious or joking, but there are more northerly Waffle Houses than that…

[scotandrsn]

Two pages and no one’s mentioned the classic Candid Camera stunt where they posted a barricade and a uniformed “officer” on a major road on the state border telling drivers that Delaware was closed?

From this timeline:

1965: On May 21, a “Delaware Closed Today” sign is posted at a barricade on the Delaware-Pennsylvania line on Ebright Road. “The people of Delaware are doing something about the population explosion,” explains “Candid Camera.” One motorist asks if he can wait at the barricade until someone leaves, so he can come into the state.

And from here:

Traffic cones on the highway slowly funnel cars into one lane. Up ahead, at the Delaware border, the first sign of trouble is a police car parked on the shoulder. Then the driver sees it: a sign with big black letters reading CLOSED right next to the “Welcome to the State of Delaware” sign. A man in uniform, clipboard in hand, walks slowly toward the car.

        “What’s going on here, officer?” the driver asks, rolling down the window.

        “I’m sorry sir, but the State of Delaware is temporarily closed,” the officer replies, pointing to the sign.

        “Closed?”

        “Yes sir. I’m afraid so,” he says, emphasizing the sign again.
        The driver stares incredulously at the sign, at the officer, and then back at the sign. “For how long?” He asks after a pregnant pause.

        “We’re not sure. A few hours. Maybe more. Could you come back?”

        “Come back? What do you mean ‘come back’? I’ve got family in there!” he says, trying not to let his voice betray frustration.

        “I’m sorry sir, but the State is closed,” the officer repeats in a measured bureaucratic tone polished by years of patient practice. The verbal volleys continue until the “officer,” also known as Alan Funt, creator of the original TV reality show (which catches unsuspecting individuals in compromising situations), finally says, “Smile, you’re on Candid Camera!”

[2gigch1]

Punkin Chunkin!

[Cartooniverse]

@jayjay

I can’t really tell if you’re serious or joking, but there are more northerly Waffle Houses than that…

I was actually being serious. If there are more northerly located ones, please enlighten me? I have found some on Rt. 81 just below the Penna line into VA, but none so far east on I-95 besides the one I mentioned.

God, I lurve me some Waffle House…

[Neptunian_Slug]

@Cartooniverse

I was actually being serious. If there are more northerly located ones, please enlighten me? I have found some on Rt. 81 just below the Penna line into VA, but none so far east on I-95 besides the one I mentioned.

God, I lurve me some Waffle House…

Are you sticking to the I-95 corridor?

There are Waffle Houses as far north as Scranton and Cleveland according to their website. I have been to the WH in Columbus, which I would think is further north than Delaware.

[Cartooniverse]

-Twitch- Scranton???. Wow.

Now if only they’d replace the IHOP in Jenkintown down the hill from West Street with a Waffle House, why all would be right with the world.

[jayjay]

@Cartooniverse

I was actually being serious. If there are more northerly located ones, please enlighten me? I have found some on Rt. 81 just below the Penna line into VA, but none so far east on I-95 besides the one I mentioned.

God, I lurve me some Waffle House…

There are easily 4 or 5 Waffle Houses right here in Amish Country (York/Dauphin/Lancaster counties)

[TheLoadedDog]

DATELINE: Sydney Australia, 1985

My class was told to do a homework assignment on a US state. Any US state. What the teacher didn’t realise was that the same week, National Geographic carried a cover story on Delaware. In the days before the internet and home printing, these glossy photos and concise text were a godsend to homework-doing teenagers. So pretty much EVERY kid in the class turned in an assignment on Delaware.

Thirty or so pubescent Aussie kids wandering the streets of an antipodean city as little experts on Delaware. Very, very surreal.