Fast Times on the Rivers

The ripples continue to move outward from the center

    Little did I know the reverberations which would occur as a result of our choice for the May cover. Who painted it? Where can I get a print? How can I get in touch with the artist, were only a few of the responses.

A woman and her daughter stood in line at the pharmacy waiting to pick up her husband’s prescription. The daughter spied Chesapeake Style , picked it up, and began to comment to her Mom. Look at the Teen Style pages! Here’s a coupon for Nino’s! Other folks in the area picked up copies too.

They paid for the prescription and went home. Their copy of Chesapeake Style was placed on the kitchen counter.

Later, the woman came into the kitchen to see tears in the eyes of her stoic brother-in-law. What’s wrong, she asked the former, and now disabled, waterman?

There’s my boat on the cover. Pointing to one of the men, that’s me. And he proceeded to name each of the men in painting. That’s my cooler on the dock.

The marina no longer exists. Don McCauley doubtless painted the picture from a photo taken long ago. He told me, when we hung the painting in the library that the marina no longer exists. He doubted anyone would even remember it.

Who ever thought that a painting on the cover of Chesapeake Style would evoke such emotion from not only the waterman, but from so many others?

To learn more about Don McCauley, keep turning these pages.

Janet Abbott Fast