by Carol A. Muratore
Two little girls, sisters, have been patiently waiting and watching out across the Chesapeake Bay. And then, a big blue menhaden boat emerges on the horizon. Together, they run down to the shore at Fleeton Point waving like flapping seagulls at the returning boat. The boat is low; filled with fish. They know this boat and they know their daddy is on it. He toots the boat’s loud horn in recognition. He is Capt. James Earl Deihl or more fondly known to his fellow watermen as “Jimbo.”
These two young girls don’t yet understand what responsibility lies upon their father’s shoulders as a boat captain on such a large vessel with so many on board. They only know that their lazy days at the beach are done for now as they rush home to help their mom get dinner on the table. Jimbo’s daughters are Shauna and Sheila. They are Reedville natives coming of age during the 1970s. They graduated from Northumberland High School. Their ancestry is one in which the men in the family fished for a living.
Scenes similar to this played out all around the Northern Neck as….
