A number of years ago, Chestertown started a First Friday tradition. Local businesses and organizations stay open two or three hours later on the first Friday of each month, usually until 7 or 8 pm. The tradition has blossomed into a wonderful evening of music, wine and cheese and other snacks at local shops, open galleries, and special displays, lectures, and dramatic presentations. This past First Friday, June 2, featured a talk on the history of ice cream at the Historical Society, a showcase of musical talent at Bill Drazga’s Music Life store, the display of a beautifully restored log canoe originally built on Tilghman Island in 1894, an exhibition opening at RiverArts, and a pair of One Minute Plays at the Garfield. All in all, a vivid reminder of what makes Chestertown so wonderful. And the weather was perfect – temps in the low 70s with a light breeze!
RiverArts’ new exhibit has a wonderful display of members’ interpretation of the theme “The Journey”. The main room has pieces in multiple mediums – from digital art to watercolors to oils. The second room is devoted to a retrospective of artist Sihnja An Whiteley, who has been painting and teaching in Chestertown since 1985.
Sihnja An Whiteley grew up and attended college in Korea where she earned her Batchelor’s and Master’s degrees in European history. She also studied painting and calligraphy while in Korea. After moving to America, she studied art history and studio arts at Washington College.
Her heart has always been in the arts. According to the notice on her exhibit at RiverArts, “her paintings are a synthesis of East and West; discipline of the East; freedom and individuality of the West.”
For some time now, the Historical Society of Kent County has held a well-attended series of First Friday talks and presentations. This month the society had a double feature! The windows of the Bordley Center on High Street had a display on boats of the river and the bay. On the street just outside the building was a 52 foot-long restored log canoe, the Mary Julia Hall. Built in 1894, it has been beautifully restored by Jim of Kent County. It is now sea-worthy and Jim will enthusiastically show you pictures of it under sail. It is for sale, Jim says, at the right price. But now he is looking for crew. The canoe can carry at least ten, he said.
While people admired the boat outside, inside the Bordley Center, Bayly Ellen Janson-La Palme spoke on the history of ice cream in Chestertown. Making ice cream, she said, was a relatively simple process. But it was hard work. You had to crank a handle continuously and your arms would get tired quickly. So people naturally liked to go out for their ice cream where someone else worked that handle. Over time, the process became mechanized and ice cream plants opened where gallons were made and shipped to stores and restaurants. Thus making ice cream changed from from a labor-intensive enterprise done in the home or on-site at a restaurant to a capital-intensive one in a factory setting.
The first recorded ice cream saloon in Chestertown was started in 1846 by Philip Jones, an African-American who owned an oyster restaurant on Queen Street. Ladies were served in a separate room from the men. In the twentieth century, the Gill brothers ran an ice cream plant from 1920 to 1953. Their ice cream was sold in stores from Cecil County to Delaware. Until the late 1940s, you could even get home-delivery. In addition to their factory, the Gil Brothers soda and ice cream parlor – in what is now Play It Again Sam’s – was a fixture for teens and families during the hot summers.
The Historical Society has published a booklet by Janson-La Palme titled “Ice Cream versus Hot Weather: Ice Cream Sales and Manufacturing in Chestertown”, available at the Bordley Center for a suggested donation of $5.00.
Topping the evening off, was a preview of “Hey, Wait a Minute” at the Garfield Center for the Arts. “Hey, Wait a Minute” is a series of five short “one-minute” plays. (Well, some of them do come in at two or three minutes.) These mini-plays will run before each showing of the “Short Attention Span Theatre” over three weekends, June 23 – July 9. On this First Friday, you could get a peek at two of the plays, The entire series of five will be played in the theater lobby while audience members wait for the show to start.
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