Ultimate Guide and Delaware Today Fail to Make Mention of Soul Food

Plus: A DuPont Family furniture debate at Winterthur and a thank you note.

On the Friends of Rockwood
Regarding “That’s What Friends Were For,” by Larry Nagengast (January 2014): In comparing the Bringhurst and Shipley furniture at the Rockwood Museum, the writer makes a statement that says, “if any,” in referring to the furniture of DuPont family members who lived at Winterthur, and “if any” of their furniture is at Winterthur. He needs to talk to personnel at Winterthur, such as Joyce Hill Stoner, Gregory Landrey, Rose Mary Krill and Maggie Lidz. He surely made a poorly educated guess by making such a statement. I was on a committee at Winterthur for 20 years. Mr. Nagengast will find that a number of such pieces exist on different floors. Adam Wm. Fisher, Ph.D., Smyrna

On the Ethnic Guide
I have just read the Dining Guide (February 2014) and Ultimate Guide (to Delaware) issues of your Delaware Today publication, with some concern. Noticeable by its absence from both publications concerning restaurants is any section on “soul food.” I believe there are more of them than some of the esoteric categories that are included. Several that come to mind are Walt’s Flavor Crisp and the Knotty Pine restaurants (and a couple of others whose names I can’t recall) in Wilmington; the New Castle Farmers Market in Bear; the Amish Farmers Market in Middletown; Mrs. Carter’s and Spence’s complex in Dover; Em-Ings in Milford and south of Shellville on U.S. 113; maybe the Wagon Wheel in Smyrna—certainly Helen’s Sausage House above Smyrna. There are also a number of roadside barbecue operations in the summer, especially on Del. 1, on the way to the beach, including the every Saturday during the summer VFW operation in Bethany Beach, near the Delaware National Guard training facility. There is also a small grocery store in a converted house on the main street (Del. 10) in Camden that makes an excellent barbecue behind the counter in the meat department that you have to know about and ask for. I think there is also a farmers market in Laurel. There are probably others that I don’t know about, but this is already more listings than several of the categories that you do include. One has to ask the question: Why has this category that represents such a significant percentage of Delaware’s population been ignored? Lowell Jacobs, Ocean View

Lesley Manor
Regarding “Minding Their Manor” by Eileen Smith Dallabrida, (December 2013): Thank you for publishing the wonderful article on our home. It is artfully written, and the images capture it in a way we don’t see. (Is that our house?) Most important, thank you for mentioning my late sister Dana. It was just 10 years ago that she passed, and the timing of your publication could not have been a more fitting tribute. Her passing was one of the events that brought my parents to Delaware. Darren Wright, New Castle

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Editor’s note: Nancy Schanes wrote us a letter objecting to the fact that we did not seek her permission to be mentioned in the story. We do not seek permission when we mention people in stories; however, Mrs. Schanes was invited by the writer to be part of a group interview, which she could not attend. 

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