Barefootin'

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. He blogs at www.capegazette.com/blogs/dennisforney. Contact Dennis at dennisforney@capegazette.com.

Cape Henlopen Food Basket: no reason for anyone to...

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Anyone who doubts the generosity of the local community, or the productivity of this nation, need...

Lost tree, lost ring, thunder, rain and lightning

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
It didn't exactly blow like hell, but the storm that jumped on the Cape Region last Friday morning...

Three new books: poetry, golf stories, and utopia vs...

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
It's time for another column about books that have recently made their way to my desk. Ya Te Veo...

A short but exciting history of fireworks in Lewes

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
The first real public display of fireworks in Lewes came in April 1813. That's when the British...

Improbably sad tale of a stricken deer on the inner...

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Carol Ann Pala and Peter McLean have a home in Cape Shores in Lewes. That location puts them a...

Outfall one more step in improving Rehoboth Bay

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
By former Mayor Sam Cooper's reckoning, Rehoboth Beach has been discharging treated wastewater from...

Weather, scarce employees affecting start of ‘18 season

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
After watching summer seasons come and go here for 45 years, I tend to trust my gut. This one feels...

Pickleball popularity creating demand for more venues

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
On Memorial Day this week, more than 40 people showed up to play pickleball on the indoor tennis...

Nation’s Summer Capital ready for Summer 2018 kickoff

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Employees for Delaware's largest summer resort - also known as The Nation's Summer Capital - work...

Wind, weather make slow going on churchyard wall

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Fishermen and Dana Cooper agree on at least one thing. The winter we've just been through and the...

Merry month of May off to a vigorous start

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
May is always one of the busiest months of the year. The news staff is going every which way to...

Beebe reports best fiscal year in 100-year history

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Beebe Healthcare experienced its best year ever in its 100-year history for the 12-month period...

School safety: Cape balancing mental health,...

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
For Cape Henlopen School District Superintendent Bob Fulton, safety in our local schools involves a...

River pilots eyeing more container ships, worrisome...

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Tariffs on imported steel products, a new container ship port north of Wilmington, and a...

Coast Guard to honor pilot crew for January blizzard...

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
The blizzard that bore down on the Delaware coast Jan. 4 is little more than a memory now. But for...

The bittersweet closure of an acid rain monitoring site

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
I called Joe Scudlark last week to talk about ospreys and we ended up talking about acid rain. The...

Ospreys are back and other waterfront news

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Right on cue, with the arrival of spring, the ospreys have returned from their winters down south,...

Improving economy bringing boaters back to inlet marina

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Looking for signs of an improving economy? Check out the state's marina area on the north side of...

Anguilla: an island climbing back slowly from Irma

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Here along the Delaware coast we know the importance of tourism to our economy. If, at the height...

Presenting the legendary Milton Sticky Buns recipe

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
I started this column 40 couple years ago so I could write about whatever I wanted. Barefootin'...

Nation’s most prominent diver built notable Lewes...

6 years ago
In 1899, at age 52, Capt. Charles W. “Diver” Johnston contracted with a business partner - William...

Outbreaks of warm February weather: blame the jet...

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
This week felt a whole lot like last February when we had summertime temperatures confusing...

A swing through the south; goodbye to Sue Raley

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
We took a swing through the south last week. Visited friends on the Rappahannock River in Virginia...

Look at a recent crop of books from local writers

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Four books by local authors have crossed my desk over the past several months. They cover a wide...

Lewes’ signals upgraded, but what about history?

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
A friend called the other day ranting about the new traffic signal array at the Savannah Road and...

Demolition, trees in Rehoboth; loss of Lewes cottonwood

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
A reader wrote recently about the high number of demolitions in Rehoboth Beach. He decried the loss...

A few more thoughts on the loss of Capt. Ted’s Indian

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
So, Indian didn't break her suction. That's what sank her. The pride of Capt. Ted Moulinier's...

Sussex cotton, seismic testing in Lewes, Cupboard...

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Sussex County farmers are often touted as growing more broiler chickens than any other county's...

Oops, not the Cupboard; and CJ vs. the wineberries

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Jimmy Marshall and I crossed paths at the Weis Market in Lewes on New Year's Day. "That house you...

Permit for Corner Cupboard demolition caps record...

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
A demolition crew is scheduled to move onto Rehoboth's Park Avenue next week to take down one of...

Mistletoe, holly and hooray for the winter solstice

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
"Visits should be short, like a winter's day." - Old Farmer's Almanac We drove into Lewes...

Dogfish’s SeaQuench riding tide of Millennials’...

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Dogfish Head debuted its SeaQuench Ale in 2016 when it first opened its doors to Chesapeake and...

Jack Concannon: Always shooting to be the best

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Jack Concannon looks down the barrels of shotguns and muzzleloaders pointed directly at him. What...

Snow geese perplexing; Canada goose numbers strong

Dennis Forney
6 years ago
Wildlife artist Richard Clifton watches the comings and goings of waterfowl carefully. His studio...

Hunting: Delaware’s most important deer management tool

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Chuck Workman and Mark Workman, brothers, till thousands of acres of Sussex County farmland in the...

Manufacturing 101 and a bright Sussex County future

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
In the back corner of a parking lot at Woodbridge Middle School in Bridgeville stands a tall,...

Groundhogs, osage oranges, acorns - winter’s on its way

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Did you ever see a skinny groundhog? Not me. They're always furry and fat, low-slung and move...

Replenishment, outfall ramping up Lewes maritime...

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Maritime industrial activity in the Roosevelt Inlet area of Lewes has amped up big time in the last...

Dying pine trees: sea level rise or pine beetles?

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Several months ago, I asked Evelyn Maurmeyer if she could show me proof in our area of sea level...

Public art: a binding force for good in society

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Outdoor public art offers an opportunity for communities to put their best foot forward. Things...

Politics, history factor in Steele’s gun shop business

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Presidential politics can affect local businesses in many broad ways as part of the entire national...

Chester Brittingham’s fateful bequest to Groome Church

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Four times a year, members of Groome United Methodist Church in Lewes place flowers on a gravestone...

With thousands of deliveries, Dr. Killeen understood...

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Dr. Vinny Killeen brought somewhere around 20,000 babies into this life during 29 years of...

A celebration fire created a walking dune in Michigan

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Becky and I pedaled 1,100 miles across Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan to...

Slim Carson, grass shrimp and perch from the Broadkill

7 years ago
Becky and I have been pedaling, hosteling, hoteling, camping and eating away from home for a month...

South Haven, Michigan looks very familiar

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
South Haven, Michigan sits along the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan. It has beaches, looks...

Liberal lessons from Oberlin and Frank Shapiro

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
OBERLIN - Becky and I pedaled into this north central Ohio town last Monday. Our arrival put us 604...

Final vacation flings as summer’s conclusion nears

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Children in Pennsylvania go back to school next week. In Maryland, schools won't open this year...

More on white ibis spreading north; cycling to Michigan

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
I wrote recently about seeing a flock of white ibis along Delaware's coast, a southern bird I hadn'...

In the 1920s, duPont dynamite helped drain Lake Gerar

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Recent rains brought out a hatch of mosquitoes that buzzed and bit their way into many people's...

Celtic to Classical concerts will be mind-expanding...

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Music and family are the life of Sheridan Seyfried and his wife, Ya-Jhu Yang. They're practically...

Peak of summer, the year’s flood tide, livin’ is easy

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
High summer. The fullness of the season. Crepe myrtles screaming with color. Cantaloupes, peaches,...

Local authors produce bumper crop of books

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
When thinking about the human condition, one defining characteristic always comes to my mind. We...

High-flying homers, juiced baseballs and climatologists

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
We played sandlot baseball one day about 55 years ago in a field over in Chestertown. When we tired...

Fireworks, Sons of Liberty, Big Brother and dry,...

7 years ago
As twilight eased into night on July Fourth, lots of people waited, wondering whether there would...

Campgrounds are big business for Delaware parks

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Americans invented national parks for the world. States followed with state parks for a population...

Their 1969 GTO Judge very special for the Dunbars

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
Uncle Sam called up Navy reservist Bob Dunbar to active duty for a trip to Vietnam in July 1969. He...

Back to the cows, the budget and demolition

7 years ago
Last week's column focused on Ed and Toby Fleming's herd of Polled Hereford beef cattle on Gills...

Fleming bringing Polled Herefords back to Lewes

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
In the late 1700s, herdsmen in the Herefordshire region of England began perfecting a strain of...

May 2017 was gloomier than your average May

Dennis Forney
7 years ago
It’s not your imagination. May 2017 was definitely grayer and rainier than in average years. As of...