THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511170920
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
Native Americans made the first hunting decoys out of cattails, twisted and tied into duck and geese shapes.
School children can learn about these earliest decoys and try their hand at tying one at special school programs at the new Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum at the de Witt Cottage on the Oceanfront. They'll learn the fascinating story of archaeologists who found a basketful of reed decoys in a cave in Nevada that indicated decoys were made thousands of years ago, said Robert B. Harvey, museum director.
Programs for school children aren't the only educational programs at the museum, home of the Back Bay Wildfowl Guild. Although it just opened this fall, the museum is hopping with activity now.
Beginning Saturday, your children can learn a little bit about ancient decoys even if they don't have the opportunity to visit on a school field trip. A drop-in craft activity for families who visit the museum will take place from noon to 4 p.m. every Saturday until Christmas. For a 50-cent supply fee, kids can make a Christmas tree ornament in the style of Native American decoys and learn a little about the history in the process.
If you visit the museum between 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays, you can watch volunteer boat builder Pat Daniels construct a Back Bay sharpie in the boat building shed out behind the museum. The little wooden boat was traditionally poled or sometimes sailed by hunters in the early part of the century on Back Bay.
The boat is called a sharpie because it is ``sharp'' or pointed at both ends. A boat with two bows was easier for a hunter to maneuver in Back Bay marsh grasses. He could pole into the marsh, the pointed bow separating the marsh grasses as he moved forward, and then move to the other end and pole back out again in the same way.
After the first of the year, you'll also be able to watch model boat building demonstrations on Wednesday afternoons. Modelers will build and talk about other work boats traditionally used by hunters and fishermen on the Chesapeake Bay, Back Bay, and Currituck Sound in North Carolina.
Decoy carving, a truly local craft form, is demonstrated on an ongoing basis also. A whole group of Wildfowl Guild carvers often come in on Saturday mornings and whittle away while answering visitors' questions. Wildfowl Guild volunteers, Bill Payne and Bill DeLoatch, carve regularly for visitors, Payne on Saturdays and DeLoatch on Thursdays, both from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
In a first for the museum, DeLoatch, who has taught carving classes in the Virginia Beach and Norfolk recreation departments, will offer a carving class for beginners, starting Nov. 30. The 10-week course will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursdays and the cost is $60 plus $20 for supplies. You'll need your own carving knife, but don't buy one before the first class, DeLoatch advises.
Instead of waterfowl, he starts beginners off with songbirds. By the end of the class, participants will have carved a chickadee, wren and catbird. ``That's the easiest to start with,'' DeLoatch said. ``Beginners can do it and they turn out beautifully.''
If you go on to take other classes with DeLoatch, you'll end up learning such things as how to paint your birds or how to make a habitat and stand for your creations.
Working from patterns and using measuring aids, it's hard to go wrong he said. ``Anybody can do it. ``You don't have to be talented. ``It'll soothe your nerves,'' DeLoatch went on. ``You can sit down and forget you're here.''
To find out more about programs for school children or to register for the decoy carving class, call Harvey at 437-8432. Or just take the kids by for a visit on a Saturday morning, let them make an ornament and introduce them to this new bright light among all the bright lights at the Oceanfront this season.
P.S. HOLIDAY LIGHTS AT THE BEACH are turned on for the first time at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Drive directly onto the Boardwalk at 8th Street and see the marine theme lights that decorate the Oceanfront all the way to 37th Street. The fee is $7 per car. Call 491-SUNN to find out more.
THE PLIGHT OF small migratory birds because of habitat loss in North and South America is the topic of the Virginia Beach Audubon Society meeting at 7:30 p.m Monday at Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church on Laskin Road. Peter Stangle, president of the Fairfax Audubon Society, will speak.
DONATE TO THE NATURE CONSERVANCY at Wild Birds Unlimited at Hilltop and receive a Wild Birds Unlimited discount coupon in the same amount through December. This way you can help nature afar and in your own backyard, too. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address: mbarrow(AT)infi.net. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Bill DeLoatch, who has taught carving classes in Virginia Beach and
Norfolk recreation centers, will offer a carving class for
beginners, starting Nov. 30 at the Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage
Museum. ``Anybody can do it. You don't have to be talented,''
DeLoatch says. ``It'll soothe your nerves. You can sit down and
forget you're here.''
by CNB