My fond memories of Return Day in Sussex County

I've been enjoying Return Day in my native Sussex County since the early 1980s. I was fortunate enough to set up and sell my own wares, as many early vendors had done decades before, and I felt a strong connection with them. I could picture the women in their long flounced skirts and the men wearing tricornered hats and brass-buckled shoes tending kettles of steaming soup and dipping handmade beeswax candles. The ox was roasting on a spit in the background while a line of hungry revelers waited in line for the oxen sandwiches.

I was proud to be a native Sussex Countian and Delawarean with my original Milton 684 telephone exchange from the time when there were party lines. There were also people of opposing political parties flocking to Georgetown, the county seat, to ride together in carriages and bury the hatchet.

Return Day began in 1811, held on the Thursday following Election Day so voters could hear the election results read by the Town Crier. Communications were much more primitive then, and many had to travel in carriages and on horseback. Return Day still survives as a warm and bonding experience for all today. Even after this year's contentious election, I observed only civility and a coming together of the attendees.

Battle Robinson, a longtime Georgetown resident, hosts a get-together for friends at her historic house called The Judges every Return Day, going back many years. The house was built around 1809 and has been the home of many judges. Battle Robinson was herself a Family Court judge at one time. Her son, Robert Robinson, is now a Superior Court judge.

Her husband Robert Robinson's ancestors in fact kept a diary of long-ago Return Days, when women and children were advised to leave the town because of the revelers and merrymakers who would flood the streets of Georgetown. I, for one, would not have left. I believe that even then I would have enjoyed this event!

Battle Robinson has many interesting stories of happenings at past Return Days, when she sat along with her guests in front of her house to watch the parade. When a horse once acted up, David Buckson, a well-known Delaware politician, bravely walked over and quickly calmed the horse down, perhaps avoiding an overturned carriage.

Jim Brady, who served as press secretary under President Ronald Reagan and was shot in the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan, attended Battle's get-together and watched from her porch in his wheelchair. A young Joe Biden stepped out of his carriage and walked over to Battle's front porch to greet him!

Battle's daughter Dorothy would sit on the porch roof of the house with many of her young schoolmates. This year, many of those same friends traveled to Georgetown to visit Dorothy and relive their fond memories. They marveled at how they sat up there in the past.

Sitting and watching the parade myself, I've learned a few lessons. Rebecca Dodd, with her husband Ronnie Dodd, a past Town Crier, taught me many things. She was my first school principal when I was an art teacher in the Indian River School District. She, like Battle, was a grand and refined lady who had hosted many past Return Days. She was fondly remembered for making pear pound cake to accompany the often resplendent Smithfield ham, along with her pole bean succotash soup using beans from her garden.

I was vigorously waving my hand and calling out to the passing politicians in the parade. "Wave your palm back and forth and slowly sideways, like Miss America," Mrs. Dodd would advise. I remember her as principal of the Frankford Elementary School wearing her fabled mink-lined trench coat to school!

Elegance is always understated, said Coco Chanel, and Battle Robinson and Rebecca Dodd both exude that quality. They're both great ladies, and they deserve a place in the past and present of Return Day.