If you are 20 years old and a native of Gloucester County or Mathews County, many of the things you grew up with, landmarks that shouted "Gloucester" and "Mathews" or ways of life that identified our heritage, have disappeared.

Think about it.

The Kenney Building at Botetourt Elementary School. The Lee-Jackson Elementary School that stood on the site of the new courthouse in Mathews.

The crab dredging boats pounding out to the Chesapeake Bay in the frigid dark mornings of December, January and February. The men hand-tonging for oysters in York River and Milford Haven. The power boats patent-tonging for the same in local waters.

And most recently, the pound nets, gone or nearly so.

These were the things we grew up with.

If you are a newcomer to these counties, you are making every effort to learn about the place you now call home. You have sampled every seafood restaurant, eating oysters and clams and shrimp and fish. Ask where this came from. Many rest...