A half-mile away, at the marinas that have long replaced the seafood packing houses that once lined the harbor, burgeoning numbers of pleasure craft crowd the floating docks. In the last century, Rock Hall was a winter home for watermen who came from places like Smith and Deale islands in the southern bay. They would return home once crabs were running again. Other local foods also speak to the town's history, including the sweets at Durding's Store on Main Street. Kelley has a flair for making nostalgic desserts, like strawberry shortcake buried in an avalanche of whipped cream or a sweet bumbleberry pie.
Most folks prefer it warmed, with ice cream.
Mary Sue and Art Willis purchased the store a decade ago from Helen Durding. She helped us keep the store intact and had all the original furnishings, which date to the 1920s when the store was last redone. What you see is a gleaming chrome soda fountain, a marble countertop with the soft patina that comes from countless elbows propped over sundaes, bar stools with red vinyl seats and rows of pharmaceutical bottles. In a corner of the store is a gem, the shop's original wooden phone booth. The Willises were lucky enough to acquire it from a farmer who had stored it in his barn.