Delaware (From "The State I'm In" Series)
Posted: Monday, September 12, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
I decided to do a series of stories based on the 46 of the United States I’ve been in. I figured that would keep me busy for a while. I’ve got a million tales to tell about stuff that happened in Pennsylvania and Wyoming, since I’ve lived in both places. I’ve got a few on California, too. I have a vacation place and family there, and have spent a little time in the state over the past decade. I’ve driven cross-country at least a half dozen times, so I’ve got a bunch of stories about various places along the way. I figured I’d just start with Alabama and work my way through the alphabet.
I’ve been in Delaware dozens and dozens of times. My daughter went to college in D.C. You can’t get there from here without going through Delaware—well, on a roundabout route, maybe. The trip is a pain in the butt to begin with, so I certainly wasn’t going to make it any longer. When she was a Maryland State Trooper, she lived in Salisbury and then in Easton, Maryland. You can’t get to them from here without going through Delaware, either. Now she’s with the FBI and lives off I-95 in Virginia. You still have to go through Delaware to get there. Once, on my way to pick up my son at Fort Jackson, at Columbia, South Carolina, I wanted to see the Bay Bridge/Tunnel and intentionally went across Delmarva. It seems mighty far from Wilmington to Norfolk, but not much happened on route, at least not in Delaware.
So, what am I going to say about Delaware? I got stuck in a traffic jam at the toll booth on I-95—more than once. I got a flat tire in Wilmington, and was lucky enough to find a dirty, sleazy little garage right off the exit ramp that had a used tire that was different but would work. I got lost at Dover in the rain, once. There’s a pretty good all-you-can-eat joint along the highway somewhere between there and Maryland. I remember getting very frustrated, and finally angry, over all the traffic signals along Route 13. It’s certainly not a short cut. Southern Delaware is sort of scenic, but flat. You’re inspired to drive fast to get out of there, but usually, you can’t.
Delaware used to be part of Pennsylvania. Back in Billy Penn’s day, before he built Philadelphia, New Castle was the main port on the Delaware Bay. Fort Christina, named for the famous Swedish Queen, was the first settlement there. It’s called Wilmington now. Beginning in about 1638 the whole area was called New Sweden, and was their only successful colony in the New World. The Dutch soon conquered the area; but, in 1655, the English whipped the Dutch in a European war and took over their American colonies.
Finally, in 1681, King Charles II gave it all to William Penn. Lord Baltimore and Penn argued over who really owned the area that is now Delaware. The king finally decided for Penn. The locals didn’t like being subordinate to Pennsylvania Quakers, though, so Penn finally gave the three “lower counties,” New Castle, Kent and Sussex, their ‘freedom,’ and Delaware was born. The small border between the two states is an arc with a radius of about 12 miles centered on New Castle courthouse. It was established by Penn when he cut them loose. It is the only deliberately measured out, curved state border.
Of course, Delaware belonged to the Native American Indians first. The Lenni Lenape tribe inhabited the area for hundreds of years before Europeans came. In the early 1600’s, the Iroquois Confederation conquered the Lenape and were the true power in the area when the first ‘white’ settlers arrived. The river, the bay, the Lenni Lenape tribe themselves, and eventually the state assumed their familiar names from Thomas West, the 3rdBaron De La Warr, an English nobleman and the first colonial governor of Virginia.
At any rate, for as many times as I’ve been through there, I can’t think of a single interesting story to tell about Delaware. I’ll be crossing that 12 mile arc on I-95 again soon, when I go down to see my daughter in Virginia. It doesn’t take long, even at the normal speed limit, to zip through there. If I remember correctly, they only hit you with a toll when you’re driving north, so half the time, you don’t even have to slow down. I feel a little sad that I have so little to say about our First State. It doesn’t seem to have had much of an affect on my life--except by constantly being between where I am and where I’m going. I guess it's good that, at least I don’t have anything bad to say about Delaware (unless you count Joe Biden).
This Article has been viewed 271 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)What a fun topic for a series! Will enjoy taking a peek at the US through your eyes!Thanks- it'll be tough. What can I say about Minnesota?
Jack, I'm following up and beginning the tour with you.
Good work and good luck !Thanks for readign and commenting- it'll be a while till I get to Wyoming
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.