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Chesapeake,

My wife turned me on to this incredible book and told me to read it. She rarely does this so I took her advice and started reading James Michener’s Chesapeake. Yes, I agreed that it was a little long, but I believe this should be required reading for all students in American History. So much I never knew about the area I grew up. I was raised in the marsh & bays of South Jersey, before it got ruined, and this book took me back to my childhood haunts. The Chesapeake is awash in history and the characters seem to walk among you, like they never left.

Though we live in Oregon now, the chapters in Chesapeake are the chapters of America. I never knew just how close we came to losing our independence, if it wasn’t for the incredible stamina and courage that exists in the waves and pines of these unsung heroes of the American Revolution.

Of course, as in every history there are shameful events that occur with little thought to the those who suffered the most. But Chesapeake offers that mental review of what it really means to be human, and the risks that people took,  to find the moral center.

I grew up in Brigantine Bays of South Jersey with all its Nor’easters (But we called it Northeasters in spite of where Nor’easters came from?) with all its legends of Batstoe, Jersey Devil and the spooky Pine Barrens where we use to scare the girls with reviews of the headless horseman and sharks in the shallow bays that no ever saw.

I can on and on with the passion of place and the courage in the Barrens. People of the Chesapeake even have the same accent spoken in down east jersey. I hope that I will get the chance to show my family where America really began.

Hey,  keep it good for the rest of us.

Harry Penders

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