Most people have heard about Tangier Island, Virginia at some point ( the Island has been the subject of various articles now and again) but who could have guessed that Tangier would be the forcus of a national marketing campaign by ESPN ? ? Until now the biggest thing I knew about Tangier is this—it is sooooo small ! Only about a mile wide and two and a half miles long, Tangier Island stands literally in the middle of the stream, the mighty Chesapeake Bay stream, a mere speck on the horizon as you approach it. The approach being strictly by air or by boat because unless you are Johnny Weissmuller redux ( or Michael Phelps ), ain’t no other way to get there since there is no bridge and the nearest land is the Eastern Shore of Virginia, nearly fourteen miles away. This isolation is reflected in the Tangier “dialect” which is a bit of a throwback to Elizabethan English and sometimes can be a little hard to understand, especially the old-timers. ( True story— when we first moved to the Eastern Shore, my husband was having lunch at Paul’s Restaurant , gone now but not forgotten and people still reminisce about Ron and Gerry Crumb’s chocolate cream pies. A group of six older fellows were seated at the table next to him, talking animatedly. The conversation was floating around him and my husband, who is not particularly a language buff, was trying to figure out what language they were speaking. Curiosity finally got him, he leaned over and said ” Excuse me, but what country are you fellows from ? ” They all stared at him and one guy finally said ” Well, matey, what the heck country are YOU from ? ” And that was his introduction to Tangier- style pronunciation of our native tongue. )
Originally settled in the late 1700’s, the Island’s population has shrunk from about 1500 in the early 1900’s to under 600 today and that’s counting every man, woman, child and parakeet. Golf carts, bicycles and feet ( yes, actual walking from place to place on shank’s mare ) are the main forms of island transportation. One place visitors always want to stop at on Tangier Island is the Chesapeake House, a quaint B&B and excellent restaurant serving veritable feasts of crab cakes, crab soup, crab fritters, fried soft shell crabs, Virginia country ham, the best hot yeast rolls ever and other delicious home cooked, mouth-watering foods. Homemade pound cake with strawberries in season, yes, yes, yes. ( www.chesapeakehouse/tangier.com). And, of course, everything crab is so fresh it was probably still swimming around the night before because the seafood business is the main business on Tangier. So, if it’s crab and it’s from Tangier, it has got to be good.
It stands to reason that a person would definitely be ready for a little fun and entertainment after a busy day out on the boat, hauling crab pots in and out of the water, busheling up the catch or a long day in one of the myriad crab houses dotting the harbor, watching for the hard shell crabs to get ready to moult ( the “peelers” ) and then quickly scooping the just “busted-out soft shells” from the water before the new shell can harden, which is a fairly narrow window of time so paying attention is important. After work, it seems that a big part of that fun and entertainment is sports. According to the ESPN3 web page, Tangier has been named the “The Biggest* Sports Town In America” . *Per capita, of course ! Having fun themselves with that theme, ESPN3 just filmed a series of eight commercial spots on Tangier, each featuring various Island residents talking about and cheering for their favorite college football teams. ESPN’s ads, two of which are attached to this blog post , were filmed on Tangier over the course of a week . They are pretty funny ( just watch the crab races ) and down-home authentic, and are scheduled to be streamed on Monday Night Football. Great for ESPN, great for Tangier, a tiny island in the stream which has finally hit the big ESPN time ! Go, Tangier, go ! (And if you love the videos of Tangier and want information on buying real estate on Tangier Island, give Blue Heron Realty Co. a call– we can help you.)
Tags: Eastern Shore Virginia real estate, ESPN ads, Tangier Island Virginia, Tangier Island Virginia real estate