I am posting a letter from Jim McMillan

Hi Debbie, I just found the White Crystal Beach Reunion site Friday (3/27/09). My parents bought the the first house on the left on the main road, a white ranch, coming into WCB Manor in August 1954. My four brothers and I (Bill, John, Richard, David and Jim McMillan) carry the magical memories of that time to this day. In fact, my oldest brother Bill now owns the cottage. We had a 14 foot boat, which is in a picture on the website, from 1955 through 1958. I was mesmerized by outboard motors, knew all the makes and models and could tell them by their sound. But it wasn't to last. That last year my father and mother went out for a boat ride and were capsized by an 8-10 foot wake put out by an English freighter, the "Coventry", coming down the Elk River at 20 knots!!!! Thankfully they weren't hurt and somebody pulled them out of the water and towed the swamped boat into shore. Dad went up to Chesapeake City and reported it to the Coast Guard. Word came back later that the captain was fined $1,000, but in retrospect it seems like a pilot would have been on board. He took the motor, a 1952 (or 4) Mercury Mark 20, up to Ralphs on 213 to get fixed but never picked it up. The boat sat weathering in the back yard for 15 years before before we all stopped pretending it would get in the water again. Since then, four of us brothers have had several boats each the but thay all have been fiberglass. But now I understand my Dad's perspective: the two happiest days in a man's life are the day he buys a boat and the day he sells it. We spent many a summer down there through the 1960's and I lived in the cottage with my first wife during my last semester at the University of Delaware from September to December in 1970. I spent the next five years in the Navy and enjoyed a few visits since 1976 on. My young children enjoyed a beautiful October day down there on the beach in 1989 when my parents were still able to enjoy the cottage but the all buildings were gone and sadly, now, so are they. I hurts that it all those memories only live in my heart now: the old 1948 Dodge, Sheriff Shultz, the owner Mr. Sewell?, Twinny, Hazel, Sam, Gladys, Bill (the parking guard), endless nickles for pinball, dimes for the crane and rolling rubber balls in the poker game to win a "bronze" saddled horse; paying Bruce my dime (1960's) to knock down those milk bottles. (Oh and the paper lady). I remember two pennylodeons in the arcade during 1954-55; you'd stick a penny in, look through cast aluminum "goggles" with thick magnifying lenses and turn the the crank to flip the image cards for 5 seconds. Going to Twin pipes fishing for carp with my brother John. The old fleet of 10 foot white rental boats with their black stenciled numbers which I saw swamp more than once due to overloading. It seems like some guy would always rent one, clamp on a 1-1/2hp Elgin and stuff 8 people in it putt around at a half know with 3 inches of freeboard. I think someone drowned right next to the pier when one sunk once. Jimmy Nuss who is on the list was our next door neighbor. His mother Polly taught us how to play Canasta in the late 1950's and we all would wile away many an afternoon playing. On a sad note, my brother David and I were driving back from Cecil County Dragoway in our red 1964 Falcon fastback on a late Saturday night in 1964 and came upon a terrible near headon collison that killed two young men Rt 213 between Chesapeake City and the Bohemia River Bridge. All of a sudden those wheel standing Super Stock Dodge hemi's didn't seem so glorious anymore and looking at a dead young man in one of the wrecks, a black 1963 Falcon, I didn't feel invulnerable in ours anymore. The other car was a 1962 red Chevy Impala convertible. We were kind of in shock and felt helpless at the scene. I've never seen anything so tragic since and for years afterwards I would look for that burnt spot on the curve in the road and remember that terrible night. I guess part of the impression was based on all the hotrodding I saw on those country roads late at night (I still had 2 months until I got my license). On a much happier note, I hung out with a really nice and fun guy, Alvin Crowl, and his cousins Linda and Patty in the late 60's and enjoyed some time with them on his grandfather's boat "trying" to Ski. There is much more to write about but not tonight (whoops, this morning). I loved seeing the old pictures and I hope others send in more pictures. I'll try to find and send more pictures. I've attached a picture my mother took of all of us on the beach in1954 and one I took 53 years later looking across the bay on October 21, 2007. Regards, Jim McMillan