bizSearchBarefootin'
Dennis Forney has been a journalist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972 and has been writing his Barefootin’ column for The Whale and then the Cape Gazette for more than 30 years. Contact Dennis at dnf@capegazette.com.
Recent Posts by Dennis Forney
Barefootin'
On civil unions, jazz, ships and 800,000 bricks
By Dennis Forney - May 18Sussex County Clerk of the Peace George Parish said his office has issued more than 125 licenses for civil unions involving gay and lesbian ...
- Barefootin'
The bell tolls, and a community judges a fallen judge
By Dennis Forney - May 11Judge Jack Henriksen, a Lewes resident and Family Court judge for nearly 12 years, has been in hot water for the past several months during an ...
Barefootin'
The tragic tale of another resident named Lewes Delaware
By Dennis Forney - May 04Regular readers of this column know I’m fascinated by the number of men whose parents chose their first name as Lewes and their middle name as ...
Barefootin'
Art, science and a Schroeder mural at Fort Miles
By Dennis Forney - Apr 27The buzz acronym in education these days is STEM. It stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, and the general belief across the ...
Barefootin'
Sweet spring breezes carry Gloria’s love to the Mitchells
By Dennis Forney - Apr 20Gloria Holland enchanted the elements Tuesday night this week when she took to the old upright piano in the Henlopen Grange Hall at Quakertown and ...
Barefootin'
Springtime and the curves of a well-built vessel
By Dennis Forney - Apr 13A couple of weeks back, as I was leaving Irish Eyes in Lewes after a Rotary meeting, my eyes landed on an interesting commercial fishing vessel ...
Barefootin'
It’s Easter weekend here and Semana Santa in Spain
By Dennis Forney - Apr 06The whole country of Spain is celebrating Semana Santa this week, leading up to Good Friday and Easter weekend. In planning a trip to Spain to see ...
Barefootin'
Big Mike, first responders, and Spain in Sussex
By Dennis Forney - Mar 30Big Mike Donovan stands out in a crowd. At six feet seven, curly hair cascading past his shoulders and the bulk to match, it would be difficult ...
Barefootin'
Cape park cabins coming; slumping snow fence exiting
By Dennis Forney - Mar 23Each year brings improvements and upgrades to our state parks, and this year is no exception. In addition to usual maintenance and sprucing up, ...
Barefootin'
New Lewes library plans open many possibilities
By Dennis Forney - Mar 16Lewes Public Library’s Board of Commissioners issued a statement recently making it clear they have chosen a site in Lewes for construction of a ...
Barefootin'
American College Delaware seeking eastern Sussex campus
By Dennis Forney - Mar 09Malcolm Forbes once called Don Ross an educational entrepreneur. Ross wasn’t quite sure how to take Forbes’s description, but now he wears it as ...
Barefootin'
Mary Flood and the reverential snow geese
By Dennis Forney - Mar 02I drove north last Saturday morning for an early funeral service honoring the life of Mary Flood, who died suddenly a few days before. Mary and ...
Barefootin'
Stuck for a child’s name? How about Lewes Delaware?
By Dennis Forney - Feb 24Cemeteries throughout Delaware’s Cape Region serve as history parks for those who take the time to wander through the tombstones and pause here ...
Barefootin'
Preschool spotlight brightening; inside roadside signs
By Dennis Forney - Feb 17Cape Superintendent Kevin Carson stopped by the office a few weeks ago following an invitation from our editorial board. “A picture of the Cape ...
Barefootin'
Bradley house unplugged; scrapple goes chipotle
By Dennis Forney - Feb 10The Lewes house of convicted child rapist Earl Bradley stands along Savannah Road a few blocks away from where I live. Early morning walks take me ...
Barefootin'
Communing with Native Americans on last day of the season
By Dennis Forney - Feb 03We hunted and gathered last weekend and felt kinship with Native Americans of long ago. Albert the marsh guide, a hunting partner of many years, ...
Barefootin'
More on wildlife: coyotes, seals, shad, herring, stripers
By Dennis Forney - Jan 27Sue Towers lives on Lewes Beach. After reading last week’s column, which mentions coyotes, she knows she hasn’t been imagining things. “I am a ...
Barefootin'
Deer hunters wondering about howling coyotes
By Dennis Forney - Jan 20In the predawn hours of rainy days, like Tuesday this week, quiet and pitch darkness reign in the pine forests of Cape Henlopen State Park. ...
Barefootin'
Intersection needs help; Beebe gets gas; more on birds
By Dennis Forney - Jan 13In recent weeks, two more cars flew through the stop sign at the end of Orchard Road, where it Ts with New Road southeast of Lewes. They plowed ...
Barefootin'
Birdy weather continues; Markell’s special book club
By Dennis Forney - Jan 06It’s not just people who are enjoying a much milder winter this year compared to the last few. The mild temperatures also mean more birds are ...
Barefootin'
Gilbert Holt knew service, smiles brighten the world
By Dennis Forney - Dec 30After leaving the Tuesday funeral for Gilbert Holt, I passed through Five Points behind a large truck. Its back door, in large letters, proclaimed:...
Barefootin'
Birds, otters, seals, oysters and the Mariners’ Tree
By Dennis Forney - Dec 23A rainy day doesn’t seem the right time to bring up droughty conditions. But how else am I going to explain the fact that all the red berries fell ...
Barefootin'
Delaware’s medical marijuana plans trucking along
By Dennis Forney - Dec 16By this time next year, Sussex County could see the opening of a so-called compassion center for the sale of marijuana for medical use. Tom May, ...
Barefootin'
Panama Canal expansion: more ships on the Delaware?
By Dennis Forney - Dec 09Observers expect the Panama Canal widening project to be complete in 2014. What will that mean for shipping traffic on the Delaware River and for ...
Barefootin'
Delawareans enjoy their low-digit and vanity tags
By Dennis Forney - Dec 02Delaware people like their license tags. They like their vanity tags - like the NTESTIN tag I saw the other day on the car of a local gastroenterol...
Barefootin'
Thanksgiving, Paul Hudson, Hokey Pokey and Judy Roberts
By Dennis Forney - Nov 29It’s hard to imagine a more fitting way for the coast to move into the Thanksgiving week than with ABC’s airing of the “Extreme Makeover” show on ...
Barefootin'
A soaking rain, graffiti, waterfowl and the X Games
By Dennis Forney - Nov 18Wednesday’s rain started in the morning and kept up through most of the day. On Peterkins Road, between Springfield Crossroads and Stockley, I ...
Barefootin'
Lewes bridge work a nice piece of holiday stimulus
By Dennis Forney - Nov 11The frequent lane closures and occasional total closure of the drawbridge in downtown Lewes has created inconveniences that should come to an end ...
Barefootin'
Indian River Inlet: transforming from industrial to park
By Dennis Forney - Nov 04Indian River Inlet, with the constant din of sea gulls calling, ocean waves pounding, winds blowing and the steady comings and goings of surfers ...
Barefootin'
Natural gas lines are now snaking their way into Lewes
By Dennis Forney - Oct 28Before this year is out, Chesapeake Utilities expects to have its new natural gas lines, feeding Beebe Medical Center and SPI Pharma, charged and ...
Barefootin'
Rocktober: Trap Pond, freaky jazz and Sea Witch
By Dennis Forney - Oct 21The month’s weather has been fabulous. We had some rain this week; the leaves are starting to change. Soaked, the leaves fall easily when the ...
Barefootin'
Cold fronts blowing in snow geese, surfers and jazz
By Dennis Forney - Oct 14The cold front that blew through two weekends back and brought sunny days, cool nights and dropped our humidity also brought the first waves of ...
Barefootin'
Delaware Wildlands celebrates 50 years of conservation
By Dennis Forney - Oct 07“In 1936 a large-scale ditching project attempted to reclaim more of the unburned swampland for farming by digging a 20-foot wide canal to divert ...
Barefootin'
Dilemma: How to sell your house and protect its history
By Dennis Forney - Sep 30Bayard and Nancy Allmond went before the Lewes Historic Preservation Commission recently with an unusual request. Unlike most of the people who ...
Barefootin'
Cape should be a shelter; Schwartzkopf makes it happen
Sep 23Cape Henlopen High School will open as an emergency shelter if another hurricane forces coastal residents to evacuate their homes. Local Rep. Pete ...
Barefootin'
Persimmons, sassafras and record year for waterfowl
By Dennis Forney - Sep 16In an overgrown meadow just inside the cultivated edge around the Wolfe House on Wolfe Neck Road, one of the area's tallest and healthiest ...
Barefootin'
Costigan and Taggart works: pathways to other worlds
By Dennis Forney - Sep 09Other languages have words for certain feelings or concepts that our own English language hasn’t yet distilled into a single word. Schadenfreude, ...
Barefootin'
Hurricanes, blood pressure, wasps and Nic-O-Wiki-Boli
By Dennis Forney - Sep 02Last Thursday evening, as Hurricane Irene was lumbering up the East Coast, Beebe Medical Center’s Debra Ostrander fit blood pressure cuffs on the ...
Barefootin'
Sussex County’s finances are very strong, so why no AAA rating?
By Dennis Forney - Aug 26Dave Baker will soon be leaving his position as administrator for Sussex County. As soon as he has had a chance to help the county’s new administra...
Barefootin'
Cicada love songs sing of late summer’s hot days
By Dennis Forney - Aug 23When Hazel Brittingham points out the long, loud, staccato song of cicadas to her grandchildren, she tells them: “It’s going to be hot tomorrow.” ...
Barefootin'
Peak of summer brings hot days and great questions
By Dennis Forney - Aug 16With summer at its absolute peak, and the big puffy clouds of August hovering over our ripe days, there are more opportunities to harvest some of ...
Barefootin'
Rehoboth’s Boardwalk is great, but not that great!
By Dennis Forney - Aug 06Rehoboth Beach Patrol Capt. Kent Buckson showered off at the edge of the Boardwalk last Saturday morning, 15 minutes or so before the guards ...
Barefootin'
Hot sweet corn, tiki bars, Del Tech’s crystal ball
By Dennis Forney - Jul 29Dottie Purcell, of Lloyd’s Market in Lewes, said she overheard her son-in-law Lenny Pollitt talking to Mark Freeman last week when Freeman was ...
- Barefootin'
In Rehoboth’s mayor race, what do the signs really mean?
By Dennis Forney - Jul 26Standard campaign signs usually involve bright colors, a candidate’s name and the office being sought. Occasionally, as in this year’s mayoral ...
Barefootin'
Getting a powerful leader's ear is easy - if you’re a pest
By Dennis Forney - Jul 21Pete Schwartzkopf, 14th district representative and majority leader in Delaware’s House of Representatives, learned this week that when a bug ...
Barefootin'
Collecting trail data for a rapidly growing Sussex
By Dennis Forney - Jul 14Drew Chura and his grandmother, Gerry Lotrich, spent Sunday morning of the July Fourth weekend polling users along the Junction and Breakwater ...
Barefootin'
Rehoboth Beach, sweet corn and Delaware’s blessed finances
By Dennis Forney - Jul 06“Good. Very good.” That’s how Rehoboth Beach City Manager Greg Ferrese describes the start of the Rehoboth Beach season as the city heads toward ...
Barefootin'
Blind hatred; respect for trees; WPA's lasting legacy
By Dennis Forney - Jun 30"Ain't no time to hate; barely time to wait." - Uncle John's Band, Grateful Dead, on a tombstone in Bethel Methodist Cemetery, Lewes.I want to ...
Barefootin'
Allen’s poultry bankruptcy rippling through Sussex County
By Dennis Forney - Jun 21After months of informal speculation, news broke last week that Allen Family Foods, one of a handful of Sussex County poultry processing companies,...
Barefootin'
A ceremonial burning would be good for the community
By Dennis Forney - Jun 12Sometimes – most of the time with patience – answers arise by themselves. This week, the week of the Earl Bradley trial, a grandmother of one of ...
Barefootin'
Laughter and cussing in a busy Nassau canvas shop
By Dennis Forney - Jun 09Bob Smith sits behind a heavy-duty sewing machine with bobbins as big as footballs. He watches carefully while feeding a folded piece of stiff ...
Barefootin'
Memorial Day, civic virtue, Bradley effect and home buying
By Dennis Forney - May 28Before Memorial Day was Memorial Day, and the associated weekend kicked off the traditional summer season at the beach, the holiday was known as ...
Barefootin'
State, Inland Bays group mark new route around Massey's
By Dennis Forney - May 26Boaters who think twice about picking their way through Massey's Ditch to get back and forth between Rehoboth and Indian River bays now have a ...
Barefootin'
The $150,000 turbine question: to sue or not to sue?
By Dennis Forney - May 14How upset or concerned is the small coalition of Lewes residents that has taken exception to the University of Delaware’s wind turbine? Led by ...
Barefootin'
Cape state park is alive with hawks, trails and disc golf
By Dennis Forney - May 11Anyone who has a nose sensitive to pollen is hoping and praying that the hard rain on Wednesday this week knocked out the last of the green clouds ...
Barefootin'
What do surfers and pine pollen have in common?
By Dennis Forney - Apr 30A strong south wind blew up the Boardwalk Wednesday and overnight into Thursday this week. In sailing talk, the gusts that bent the trees in the ...
- Barefootin'
UD's Harker: energy; AG Biden: sex crimes; SPCA's Moore: dogs
By Dennis Forney - Apr 23High-flying grain prices might put smiles on the faces of Sussex County grain farmers but $7 corn and $11 beans are putting a strain on Delmarva ...
Barefootin'
Lewes communists, bumper stickers and seeds of freedom
By Dennis Forney - Apr 16A car passed the other day with a bumper sticker asking "When did we stop calling liberals communists?" I didn't think about it again until a ...
Barefootin'
Bill Lee: Welcoming the challenges at Beebe
By Dennis Forney - Apr 14In retirement, your office can be a bench on the Boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach. But retirement and a Boardwalk office don’t mean you aren’t busy. ...
Barefootin'
Dancing with a black man at a Carolina gas station
Apr 07Becky just shook her head when I climbed back into the truck. “What were you doing out there?” “The brother and I were dancing,” I said. She ...
Barefootin'
Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and the first amendment
Mar 26On a side street in downtown Savannah, just a few blocks from ground zero for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, we passed Bradley’s fix-it garage with ...
- Barefootin'
Wisdom, shrimp and palms on Low Country islands
Mar 19If you love the marshes, creeks, bays and guts of the Great Marsh and Inland Bays, you would be thunderstruck in the South Carolina Low Country. ...
Barefootin'
Celebrating work and the new Village Soup community
Mar 14I rode my bicycle into Henlopen Acres recently and stopped by Rehoboth Art League to take a look at the members’ show in the main Corkran Gallery. ...
Ospreys are back and surfing exhibit is coming
Mar 10The ospreys are coming through early this year. Capt. Speed Lackhove called Tuesday afternoon, the first day of March, to say he had spotted the ...
Looking forward to weekend bus service in the resort
Feb 25A quick shout-out to DelDOT: please make it clearer on your website and schedules that bus service in Sussex County is only in operation Monday ...
