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.

Election reflections: Long lines, write-ins,...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Sussex County voters cast about 130,000 ballots in the 2020 general election Nov. 3. That was...

People’s Memorial Park, its history, and campaign signs

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Faith United Methodist Church Pastor Marjorie Belmont-Burns wrote a letter to the editor recently...

Two books: ‘Five Days’ and ‘The Black and the Blue’

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Earlier this year, before the coronavirus pandemic took hold, Bill Collick stopped by the Cape...

Prettyman’s work ensures New Road history won’t be...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Several recently published books with local connections have made their way to my desk over the...

Delayed 220,000-mile overland journey steers into...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
“The best-laid plans of mice and men go...

Street theater, Prime Hook visitors, Sussex COVID-19...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
A block away from downtown Lewes, a recent Sunday afternoon. The setting for this street theater is...

Delaware State Police seeing fewer trooper applicants

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
I’ve spoken frequently with Rep. Steve Smyk and Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf in recent weeks. Both are...

Photojournalist recounts protest used as front for...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
“Peaceful marches with hundreds of thousands of people have an effect. But the smaller,...

Chicken salad fuels Carper’s ceaseless campaigning

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Delaware’s senior senator, U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, reminisced recently about campaigning a few...

Turtles, mushrooms, clematis, cicadas, vanishing...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
I now pause this programming - and attention to COVID-19 - for station identification. You are...

September brings hunting and election seasons to...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
September brings the return of hunting seasons to Delaware. Longbow and crossbow hunters took to...

Cultural, political, corona impressions from upstate...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Becky and I spent most of August on a boat in upstate New York, checking out that state’s extensive...

Happiness and sadness have forged the man Joe Biden is

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
No man is an island,/ Entire of itself./ Each is a piece of the continent,/ A part of the main...

Meditation, halos, entropy, art and your happy place

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
A lock tender in Oswego, New York, on the south shore of Lake Ontario, asked where we were headed...

Traversing Erie Canal, considering guns in...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
We’re boating westward on the Erie Canal, passing and stopping occasionally in the towns and cities...

Heading to upstate New York, halos and guns on my mind

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Becky and I are heading off to upstate New York this week. Trailering Nellie Peach to Albany,...

Carter training for 25-mile prone paddle to benefit...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Gung-ho. That’s Marine Corps veteran Mark Carter’s attitude about the Grove Park canal dock project...

Steve Smyk, ‘public safety activist,’ reflects on...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
I sat down with Steve Smyk last week for a wide-ranging, three-hour interview. He let me know at...

Swabbed my mouth, awaiting results, keeping fingers...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
I rode my bicycle from Lewes to Epworth United Methodist Church last Thursday, July 2, on the...

Fishing for flounder and considering the menhaden...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Ralph, Raym and I fished for flounder near DB buoy off Indian River Inlet this week. We caught a...

Fall’s big question; Sussex Academy’s big K-5 numbers

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Will Delaware schools open their campuses this fall? Other than staying healthy in this time of...

Northeasterlies easing, winds of change building as...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
A persistent northeast wind blew steadily across the coastal region this week bringing several days...

Dry spell accommodates western Sussex historic house...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
A dry spell settled over Sussex during the past few weeks. Young, non-irrigated corn tightened its...

Rare, unexpected convergence between Washington and...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
A group of young, diverse and passionate protesters took to the Bandstand and the steps of City...

Real estate pivoting: shockingly bad to shockingly good

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Real estate is big business in Sussex County. In addition to the generational changes that come...

Odd political moment in a beach storm that became a...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
The Storm the Beach rally organized by the Reopen Delaware organization last Saturday, May 16,...

Trails, trails and more trails – how grateful can we...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Black-and-white cows grazing in a meadow of mustardy flowers. World War II cannons aimed,...

Coronavirus has spawned lots of love and kindness

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
A wonderful lot of love has been creating an almost perceptible glow around Beebe’s main campus in...

COVID-19 not cramping Sussex alcohol, non-alcohol...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
During these days of corona – starting to feel endless – essential business has become a lightning-...

Beebe’s irony: Fewer COVID-19 patients may pinch...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
With the coronavirus crisis bearing down on Beebe Healthcare, what started clearly as a strong...

Whale’s tail, buzzard eggs, pollen and, of course,...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
There’s no escaping corona talk these days. Unfortunately, it has darkly colored every aspect of...

Lawmakers and pilots: Cutting red tape and moving ships

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Coy Johnson called Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf this week. Coy owns and operates the Anchorage Motel on...

Placing an order for a coronavirus/positivity vaccine

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
AT LEAST WE’RE BEING KIND - The state or the ferry folks posted an electronic sign this week near...

Focusing on simplicity to tame the corona craziness

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
In the midst of the changing season, ospreys returning to their nests, daffodils and tulips...

Regarding treated wastewater: no to zero-sum, yes to...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
I’ve taken a break from wastewater issues for the past few weeks while focusing on the less-...

Mild winters raise concerns for Delaware peach farmers

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Mild winters can make Delaware peach farmers nervous. Warmer days – especially those in the 70s –...

Shifting sands at cape reveal century-old shipwreck

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Cape Region artist Abraxas Hudson once told me during a sketching class that bold is genius...

More coyote buzz; eagles, openings, closings, Porgy...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Last week’s column focusing on coyotes in the area generated buzz. Most interesting to me was a...

Local wildlife panorama now includes deer-killing...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Bald eagles nesting, herons developing rookeries, early ospreys scouting for nests and coyotes...

New bald eagle family doesn’t mind Five Points chaos

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
A pair of promiscuous bald eagles has taken up residence at the epicenter of Cape Region traffic...

Artesian building regional network to reclaim Sussex...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Artesian Resources, a Delaware company that treats and provides water, is taking on tremendous...

Reasons why duck, goose numbers are down this year

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
This falls into the category where any attempt at humor – as long as it isn’t hurtful to others –...

Offshore wind farms, high-tech buoys: global meeting...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
For boaters coming in and out of Roosevelt Inlet in Lewes, it’s tough to miss the research buoy...

New Year’s Day hike discovery: Rehoboth’s chimney...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
It started as a New Year’s Day hike from our house on School Lane in Lewes. That hike of 8.9 miles...

‘Under a spreading chestnut tree,’ but whither the...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
“Under a spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands; the smith, a mighty man is he,...

More information on possible icebreaker gray seals

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Monday morning a week ago. Ralph called early. “Have you been outside?” “No.” “Well, go take a look...

Coughing, sore throat, congested? Forget antibiotics...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
“It’s not the cough that carries you off; it’s the coffin they carry you off in.” -...

Active winter ahead along with seals and foxes

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Look for a large and active winter in the months ahead. The season officially begins with the...

It’s the most wonderful, and dangerous, time of the...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
The highway traffic fatality sign along Route 1 near Delaware State Police Troop 7 told a grim...

Beebe nearing new chief; quality, safety focus...

Dennis Forney
4 years ago
Beebe Healthcare has narrowed its search for a new chief executive officer to three candidates. In...

Delaware deer population healthy, trending slightly...

Dennis Forney
5 years ago
Hunters take at least half of the deer killed each year in Delaware during the November shotgun...

Thousands of tulips and building permits; declining...

Dennis Forney
5 years ago
It’s snowing outside on this mid-November Tuesday afternoon as this is being written. Crazy weather...

Deer in our neighborhoods, sorghum in our fields

Dennis Forney
5 years ago
Richard and Peggy Martin keep me up to date with Lewes Beach wild animal news as viewed from their...

DelDOT presents data to back up Route 16 contention

Dennis Forney
5 years ago
It’s possible to drive from Maine to Five Points and encounter only one stoplight. The most...

A strong 2019 corn crop and the latest on hemp

Dennis Forney
5 years ago
Yellow gold. That’s what I think of when I drive past Sussex County cornfields with green and red...

The latest in the City of Lewes-Public Works dispute...

Dennis Forney
5 years ago
SUMMARY: Lewes Board of Public Works vs. City of Lewes - Former BPW President Wendell Alfred says...

Connecting international and local dots with Brip...

Dennis Forney
5 years ago
At 99 and making 100, Irenee duPont Jr. undoubtedly has more primary knowledge stored in his brain...

Lewes utility dispute spinning out of control

Dennis Forney
5 years ago
It was all meant to be amicable. Short, sweet and decisive. But now it appears that the hoped-for...

Cape Henlopen School District turned 50 this year

Dennis Forney
5 years ago
Hazel Brittingham, my go-to Lewes history source for more than 40 years, doesn’t see well these...

Facing demolition, Rehoboth Public School yielding...

Dennis Forney
5 years ago
Rehoboth Public School has a date with a wrecking crew before the year is out. In the decades that...