Growing up on Gwynn’s Island in the 1950s had its charms. I was a bike ride or a few steps away from several beaches, afternoon football games, adventures in the woods, playing along the shore, and all of the fun things that come with being a youngster in a small coastal community. Because of my family connection, among those fun things for me were adventures at Callis Wharf.
A typical summer day for a boy would include wearing short pants, tennis shoes, and sometimes, a shirt. There were soft crabs to catch: we would use a dip net to scoop them up as they clung to the many wooden pilings that surrounded the docks. Fishing was done on the end of the dock facing Milford Haven. If you didn’t have a rod and reel, you could go into the grocery store that my family ran and buy a hook, a sinker, and some fishing line. You could tie one end of the line to one of the pilings in the absence of a fishing rod, and then throw the other end with the hook and sinker into the water. For bait, we woul...