Arrgggh! Steady as she goes! Full Web page ahead!
Ahoy there, maties! Captain Crawdad at your service, ready to teach ye swabs about my hometown of Seaford on the York River in the southeastern portion of Virginia!
And if there be anybody here be searching for educational booty on that archrival Seaford of ours known as Seaford, Delaware, abandon ship at once -- or me hearties and I will personally escort you down the gangplank of our geographical indignation -- isn't that right, Polly, old girl?
Polly: Accck!!!
Polly Pipkins, Ladies and gentlemen, my veteran parrot sidekick. (Take a bow, Polly.)
But avast thar, ye lubbers, enough o' these peg-stompin' preliminaries: Batten your inquisitorial hatches on the following Seaford, Virginia, timeline, personally compiled by your old buddy, Capn' Crawdaddy III! ....with considerable editorial support from you, that is, Polly, on account of me grammar (so Polly tells me, anyway) "leaves a lot to be desired."
Polly: Acccck!!!!
Avast there, pencil beak: If I want your opinion, I'll ask for it! (Dang, tactless cockatoo, seconding my self-deprecating asseverations like that! This is the last time I buy a talking parrot at Wal-Mart!)
Seaford Timeline:
1607
SIZE="-1" FACE="Verdana"> Jamestown,
Virginia , settlement: First permanent European settlement
in the New World
1634
Charles River County established
1870
Public education begins in Virginia
1875
Corner Pine School opens: one-room school in Dandy
1889
Crab Neck P.O. opens -- no more trips to Yorktown
for mail -- William H. Hornsby Postmaster
1890
Opening of Yorktown School (aka Old York School House)
-- Grafton School opens (later moved to Hornsbyville Baptist Mission)
-- Poor House Lane/Farm Road School opens near today's St. Luke's
Methodist Church
1896
Benjamin Crockett becomes Postmaster
1899
Goodwin Neck School opens
1900
Ethelbert Crockett becomes Postmaster
1914
Clarence J. Slaight becomes Postmaster
1920
Seaford Elementary School opens off of Back Creek
Road between Parker and White's Lanes, 4-room, white-frame building
still standing today (2001)
1920
Gaston Wornom becomes Postmaster
1921
Hornsby Oil Company founded by J.W. Hornsby, Sr.
1922
Yorktown School on Ballard Street (red brick) replaces
two-room frame school near jail
1924
15 schools in York County: 5 for whites, 10 for blacks
1924 Smithville School physically relocated to Darbytown and renamed
Darby School
1928
Hornsby Oil Affiliated with American Oil Company
1928
Yorktown Elementary Opens
1930
Fishneck Elementary renamed Grafton School (date approximate)
1932
New Poquoson High opens -- where many white Seafordians
graduated high school until the opening of York High in 1954
1949
Merle Callis becomes Seaford Postmaster, serves until
1973
1945
County school bus use begins in earnest
1954
York
High School opens, first county high school for whites since
1929; most white Seafordian high-schoolers attended Williamsburg's
Mathew Whaley during this time (or Poquoson High or Morrison High,
today's Warwick High)
-- York High Principal Thomas Gillis
-- Frederick Douglass school opens, for black elementary students
(at rte. 60 and Penniman Road)
-- James Weldon Johnson opens for black students in grades 1 to
12, replacing York County Training School. (JWJ becomes the integrated
Yorktown Intermediate School in the sixties. That school later
is renamed Yorktown Middle School)
1960
York High Principal John H. Stevens until 1966
1962
Today's Seaford
Elementary School opens
1967
Tabb intermediate opens
-- Yorktown Elementary opens
-- County-wide school integration begins
1972
Tabb High opens
1976
Bruton High opens
1978
Darby School demolished
1982
Mount Vernon Elementary opens
2001
Brian Quass begins
an arguably delightful web site called the "Seaford, Virginia
Home Page"
Aye, maties. And now me parrot will play ye the Theme Song from Seaford, Virginia, entitled "Dance of the Oyster Shells," written by your old pal Crawdaddy.
Aye, and there be more comin' here tomorrow, matie, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 -- so don't touch that dial -- or rather don't touch that tiller, yes? Isn't that right, Polly?
Polly: Acccccck!
Aye, Polly, I couldn't-a said it better meself!
questions about Seaford?
FACE="Verdana"> E-mail
Brian and he'll
post the answers here
FACE="Verdana">What is the population?
I want to say
3,000. At least.
How's
the crime? High? Low? Is crab trap stealing the worst that happens?
I think the
crime's relatively low -- but I'm afraid worse does happen than
crab trap stealing. On the other hand, I've been a Seafordian
for 20+ years, and I've never been robbed or murdered once!
Is
there a lot of ethnic diversity or are most folks white? (I'm
not prejudiced, I'm just asking)
There's an
increasing amount of diversity though I think the current population
is largely caucasian.
How's
the weather usually? Is there ever snow?
Snowfall, alas,
is very limited in Seaford -- the average winter may see several
dustings and perhaps one rapidly melting multi-inch accumulation.
But there are exceptions: I recall a 70s winter during which
schools were closed for a whole week due to snow and the York
River was frozen over between Yorktown and Gloucester Point!
The more typical
weather phenomenon is the nor'easter and the occasional brush
with a hurricane. These storms rarely cause major damage, however,
as the town is separated from the ocean by the Chesapeake Bay.
But there are exceptions: I recall a 70s storm during which we
could paddle a canoe down Raymond Drive (much to the surprise
of the local ducks, who were like, "What's up with that???")
Would
we be better off considering living in Yorktown or one of the
surrounding towns?
What? And not
live in Seaford? Don't get me wrong, Yorktown's a wonderful place
to visit -- the guys and I used to bike up there every weekend
afternoon -- but you don't want to live in the midst of the tourists.
Besides, there's very little land left that hasn't been scarfed
up by the huge territorial appetite of the National Park Service.
There used to be some quaint little houses on Surrender Field
Road, for instance, houses that were minding their own business,
not bothering anybody, but the Park Service in its wisdom had
to tear them down. (sigh)
Does
Seaford have a McDonalds? A Wal-Mart? (NOT prerequisites!)
The closest
Wal-Mart is nary 15 miles away, Christine, while the closest
Mickey D's can't be but 7 miles distant. (But while we're on
the subject, why not eat at Steve and John's in nearby Denbigh
instead? Or at Bill's Seafood for that matter? That's where so
many of the local yokels eat these days.)
We
are looking to move to a "small town" type place, low
crime, friendly people, laid back style, reasonably priced homes,
good mix of people age-wise. Is Seaford for us?
Seaford is
a prime candidate for your relocation search. Besides, the town
has its own moving company that can no doubt effortlessly whisk
you from the Sunshine State to the Old Dominion in two snaps
of a crab's claw. Just contact
HREF="http://www.seafordtransfer.com/">Seaford Transfer
COLOR="#000000" SIZE="+1" FACE="Verdana">, and tell them Brian
sent ya.
Seaford
Database
