DQ opening means spring is around the corner

It’s the first week of March, and after what feels like an extended winter season, it’s nice to see signs of spring. Local schools have begun practices for spring sports. There’s the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Milton and the beginning of daylight savings time this Sunday. A couple of weekends from now, The Starboard in Dewey Beach will be hosting its annual opening party over St. Patrick’s Day weekend. There are daffodils and other early spring flowers beginning to add their bright colors to the landscape. Soon enough, forsythia blooms will be bursting.

However, for me, the local event that signals spring’s inevitable return is the annual reopening of Dairy Queen in Lewes. When my wife and I first started dating, she worked in downtown Lewes, near Beebe Healthcare. The day Dairy Queen opened was a big day for her and her coworkers. It meant they’d made it through another winter; warmer days and more sun would be soon to follow. They’d head down after work and eat their sundaes in the Lewes Beach parking lot.

I was curious if others have the same spring-is-on-the-way feelings about the Lewes eatery. 

Manager Anna York laughed when I asked her. The day the store opens, she said, there are some older folks who come in and get their usual orders.

“There are so many regulars. Everyone gets so happy when we open for the season,” said York, a 24-year-old Georgetown native who’s worked at the restaurant for years.

Through various owners, the DQ in Lewes has been open since the early 1950s.

“Customers who’ve been coming here a long time say they can remember when the DQ was just a little shack,” said York.

It’s not just the customers who look forward to reopening, as the employees do too.

“People love that it’s a family-run business. The owners treat us well, and it’s a tight-knit group,” said York.

Nobody likes getting their picture taken while eating

My last column featured the photo of a dead sturgeon I came across on The Point in Cape Henlopen State Park, so I thought I’d include a photo of a live animal this time around.

This week, we’ve got a pileated woodpecker. I heard it pecking away and, to my surprise, I was able to locate it immediately. More often than not, I’ll hear a woodpecker doing its thing, and while I can locate the general area, it can be difficult to pinpoint because it’s too high in the tree, and branches are shielding my view. This one was on the lowest branch, so it was easy.

Looking to get an action shot, I pulled my cellphone from my pants pocket like a cowboy in a duel, but by the time I had the phone up and was ready to shoot – at most a couple of seconds – the bird had stopped pecking. The bird was now on top of the branch with a “too slow for me” look about it. It did, however, remain in place long enough for a photo of it posing in the afternoon sun, highlighting the edges of its red crest and the tip of its beak. Photo taken, the woodpecker flew off to another tree and I had to be on my way.

According allaboutbirds.org, a website run by the Cornell University’s Ornithology Lab, pileated woodpeckers are territorial, so I’ll be on the lookout for another action shot opportunity, but I can appreciate what the bird was thinking – nobody likes getting their picture taken while they're eating.

Joke of the Week

The family and I went to Goshen United Methodist Church in Milton for its pancake dinner on Shrove Tuesday. We’re not members of the church, but we do live nearby, and the church’s sign on the corner of Mulberry and Federal streets was inviting all, so we took them up on their offer. The food was good and they were happy to see a family show up – especially one that doesn’t attend services. The husband of the pastor took the opportunity to make the pitch on why we should attend the church. He broke the ice with a joke. Here it is. As always, send jokes to cflood@capegazette.com.

Q: What do you call a priest who becomes a lawyer?

A: A father-in-law.