King Tide - Volume 3 - Winter 2025

King Tide’s Winter Issue issue leans hard into memory, tradition, and how the Eastern Shore’s past keeps shaping its present. It opens with an article by Linda Cicoira by reclaiming Virginia’s role in the nation’s first Thanksgiving, highlighting the 1619 observance at Berkeley Hundred and the long-overlooked historical record that predates Plymouth by more than a year. That story is paired with a richly imagined “Virginia’s First Thanksgiving” menu, a Tidewater-inspired dining experience that reinterprets what that early feast might have looked like using oysters, venison, wild turkey, persimmons, and small beer.

From there, the magazine turns to the ways people and goods have always moved across and along the water. A feature by Charlie Russell on steamboats and railroads traces the evolution from sail to steam to steel, showing how wharves, steamboats, ferries, and finally the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel reshaped life, commerce, and connection on the Eastern Shore. Another historical piece by Grayson Chesser dives deep into the Cobb family of Cobb Island, weaving together shipwrecks, lifesaving, decoy carving, barrier-island resort life, and ultimately the slow erasure of the island itself under the forces of storms and angry seas.

Several stories celebrate living traditions that still define what it means to be from here. “The Lights on Hall” profiles a grassroots Christmas lights display on a small Onancock street that grew from one determined family into a whole-block tradition without committees, grants, or tourism dollars—just neighbors, extension cords, and joy. “Slow Risers” and “Hog Killin” both honor old-school forms of hunting and foodways: rail hunting in flooded marshes and the communal ritual of winter hog butchering. Both pieces stress how those experiences shape identity, humility, and a deep respect for the cost of being alive.

The issue also looks at how newer practices are taking root in old soil. A feature on regenerative farming at Salt + Arrow Farms in Northampton County shows a young family using rotational grazing and mixed livestock to rebuild soil while raising their children close to the land and their faith. A reflective essay on November by C.L. Marshall ties together woods, marsh, game, and changing seasons as a reminder to slow down and pay attention. Layered throughout are local business spotlights, Eastern Shore Bingo, holiday events, coloring pages, and a loving ode to old-style salty Virginia ham—making the magazine feel like a blend of history book, community bulletin, and front-porch storytelling session for and about the Eastern Shore.

A special feature is a coloring section for the kids, featuring local holiday scenes.

Pick up a copy and enjoy discovering many aspects of Eastern Shore culture at many local area businesses.