A Shock in Bethany

I sensed something was wrong. As I drove by early Sunday morning, I looked over at the Rhodes 5 & 10 on the main strip of Bethany Beach, Del., and didn’t see piles of newspapers out front. But I figured they’d moved them inside. After all, it was certainly understandable that the owners would want to give the sidewalk place of honor to the ubiquitous hermit crabs.

 

I parked a block away, and walked back to the 5 & 10 from which I’d gotten the morning papers for almost three decades of spending a week during the summer at Bethany, walked in and looked around. I began to suspect the truth. The proprietor sensed my disquiet. “Looking for newspapers?” he asked. “I sure am,” I responded. “Well, I’m sorry. We don’t carry them anymore. But if you go a mile up the road to Wawa, they’ll have them.”

 

I staggered out of the store, regained my composure, and drove off to Wawa and bought the papers. But it wasn’t the same.  For over two decades until the kids grew up, the Bauers and the Kristols shared a house for a week during the summer somewhere in North Bethany. Almost every morning, Gary or I (or the two of us) would drive into town and pick up, in addition to the occasional dozen donuts from the bakery, six or seven morning papers–the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the New York Post, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, USA Today, and sometimes–because, who knew? there might be something useful there too–the Baltimore Sun. We certainly weren’t the only D.C. vacationers whose idea of a vacation was to compulsively keep up with, or pretend to keep up with, the news. The Rhodes 5 & 10 was overflowing with papers in front. And now…the Internet has triumphed. Who these days reads print?

 

Of course, I’d already been online myself that morning, as had several other family members. And the truth is we didn’t really need the newspapers I bought at Wawa (In fact, nobody looked at them much the rest of the day). But still: “The old order changeth.” “Où sont les neiges d’antan?” And all that. 

 

On the other hand, it’s reassuring that the hermit crabs still seem to be going strong. (What is the point of those animals?)

 

And so are the minor league Delmarva Shorebirds going strong (or not so strong–they’re in last place). But there they were, taking on the West Virginia Power at Perdue Stadium in Salisbury last night. The South Atlantic League is division A, which means the play isn’t really close to major league quality, but the stadiums are small, the setting relaxed, and a good time had by all. At least the minor leagues haven’t been relegated to the dustbin of history.

 

For now.