by Tom Chillemi –
Urbanna native and lifelong resident Larry Chowning has been selected to be grand marshal of the 25th Urbanna Hometown Christmas Parade set for 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3. “There has never been a time when we called him that he wouldn’t help us,” said Parade Chairman Lois Jean Brooks of the Middlesex Volunteer Fire Department Auxiliary. “All we have to do is call him.”
Brooks noted that Chowning has written several books. He’s been a reporter for the Southside Sentinel for more than 40 years.
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Chowning thanked Brooks, the auxiliary and the town for naming him grand marshal of the annual “hometown” Christmas parade. “Urbanna is my hometown, and has been my home my entire life and home to at least five generations of my family,” Chowning said. “It has been a pleasure over the years while working as a reporter at the Southside Sentinel covering the parade and events surrounding it. Christmas in Urbanna would not be so special without it!”
With this year being the “silver” anniversary of the parade, Brooks is suggesting Urbanna merchants hang or display silver bells to commemorate the 25th parade.
It’s not too late to enter the parade.
Due to COVID-19 concerns, food will not be available at the Urbanna firehouse, as it has been in the past. Santa will not be visiting with children in the firehouse.
“John Boy”
Years ago, an Urbanna resident compared Chowning to “John Boy” of the TV series “The Waltons,” who was portrayed as a writer, telling stories of life on Walton Mountain.
Like John Boy, Chowning wrote about the times when he was growing up in Urbanna. He captured the stories from the older folks and put them on paper. His 11th book, “Chesapeake Bay Deck Boats,” was released by Arcadia Publishing of Charleston, S.C., in April.
It’s been said that Chowning’s style evokes a nostalgia for days of yore — times that are gone. But thanks to his writing those days are not forgotten. “This is a hound dog,” former longtime Sentinel Editor Tom Hardin remarked one day after reading a particularly poignant ending to a Chowning story. The phrase stuck. “Hound dog” denotes a mournful howl of a baying hound dog, looking for something it lost. In the halls of the Sentinel building the sound of “Baa-o-o-o-o” was a compliment to Chowning that he had again revived the past with his words.
Chowning has written extensively about the ways of watermen through five books on the Chesapeake Bay. Chowning’s 1990 book, “Harvesting the Chesapeake: Tools and Traditions,” preserved in print the ways of watermen, documenting how to splice rope, make a corn husk broom, mend a net and much more. It was followed by “Chesapeake Legacy: Tools & Traditions.”
Chowning’s other books, which he sells, include “Barcat Skipper: Tales of a Tangier Island Waterman,” “Soldiers at the Doorstep: Civil War Lore,” “Chesapeake Bay Buyboats; Deadrise and Cross-Planked,” and “Signatures In Time: A Living History of Middlesex County, Virginia.”
Chowning has penned four historical books for Arcadia Publishing’s series “Images of America,” that include books on Middlesex County, Urbanna, Deltaville and “Chesapeake Bay Deck Boats,” which brings his total book count to 11.
“Marsh rabbit”
His experiences add authenticity to his writing. For a time, Chowning tried harvesting from the water. He fished for eels and trapped muskrats in marshes. He’s written a story for the Sentinel about how to cook muskrat as told by an old-timer who said a more appetizing name for this delicacy is “marsh rabbit.”
Chowning is at ease talking with folks who live close to the land and water, and speaking to groups including museum patrons, history buffs and historical organizations in Virginia and Maryland. He was picked to exhibit on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the National Folklife Festival.
Chowning is a storyteller. On a trolley tour during the Urbanna Founders Day Celebration, Chowning wowed the audience with his casual and humorous style.
His list of accomplishments is long and one story could not cover them all. But remember this: no one in Middlesex County knows more about its history than Larry S. Chowning. His office is a treasure trove of historic documents and photos that he has acquired in his 50 years of digging into the past.
Early days
Chowning’s writing goes back to at least 1965. As a 15-year-old aspiring writer, he was a “stringer” for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which paid him a nickel a word. He covered the Middlesex County Board of Supervisors, which in those days was composed of three men and the meetings were in Urbanna.
Even then Chowning knew how to capture the essence of a story. At one meeting, a supervisor called someone “a dirty rotten skunk” and Chowning quoted him.
When Chowning went to the next board meeting, the sheriff was waiting for him and, at the direction of the supervisors, the wide-eyed fledgling teen reporter was removed and banned from future meetings. Those were the days of “smoke-filled back rooms” and before Virginia adopted the Freedom of Information Act.
National Fisherman magazine
A field editor for the trade publication National Fisherman magazine since 1980, Chowning is known and respected by those who make a living from the water. He continues to travel the region finding stories to further catalog the ever-changing ways that people make a living from the Chesapeake Bay.
Community
Chowning has served several two-year terms on the Urbanna Town Council, starting in the late 1970s. His current string of council terms started in 2017 and he is serving now on the council. He was the recipient of the Pride of Middlesex award by the Middlesex Rotary Club. He was also grand marshal of the Urbanna Oyster Festival parade in 2017 and has also served as captain of the festival.
He served on the Urbanna Oyster Festival Foundation Board. Chowning and John England founded Education Day, which is offered annually as part of the Urbanna Oyster Festival, then guided it for eight more years. Its mission is to bring an understanding of the Chesapeake Bay ecology, history, heritage and future to students and the public.
Family
Chowning and his wife, Dee Chowning, who enjoys gardening, live in Urbanna in the two-story, wood frame home his great-grandfather built. They are members of Urbanna United Methodist Church. They have been married for 49 years and have three children, Damon, Peyton and Hannah, and six grandchildren.
