Now more people leave the island to go to work and come back in the evening. Once, if you went to the grocery store, it was a project because you had to stop and talk to everyone. Two of Yates s three children remained on the island to raise their own families. She remembers how some of the parents tried hard to get a playground for the children but wound up settling for what the island had to offer naturally. Children here fish, crab and boat, Yates said.
Kids here learn about the water.
Basically, Cobb Island means peace and quiet for everybody, adults and kids. A good place to cool out, is how the area was described by Floretta D. McKenzie, a former superintendent of D.C. public schools who is now an education consultant. McKenzie s brick hideaway is on Neale Sound, too, but as everyone in the area knows, it s hard to tell where the island ends and the neighborhood on the Sound begins. McKenzie has owned her year-round retreat since 1983, after she fell in love with the area while visiting friends. It s not ostentatious or too built-up, said McKenzie, whose house backs up to the wetlands.