My wife Linda Molloy and I have done a great number of programs and book signings all over eastern North Carolina, and particularly our home Outer Banks, but one of our all-time favorite venues is the Island Convenience store in Rodanthe, very close to our home. We know them well and appreciate the Midgett/Caldwell family that owns and operates this very busy store. They are all so gracious and helpful.
Yes, we enjoy meeting all of the interesting folks that pass our table. However, at our recent signing there, we unexpectedly met several very, unusually interesting folks. All local.
The first was Manteo resident Robert Midgette. Most Outer Bankers know him as the long-time actor of the Lost Colony Outdoor Drama as he portrayed Chief Manteo for an incredible 26 seasons and was involved in other ways for 48 summers. That was all in addition to his 47 years with Dare County Schools as a teacher and coach.
Even more important to us was when he told us that he is the great-grandson of Life-Saving Service Keeper Patrick Etheridge. Keeper Etheridge is extremely famous in all national Coast Guard circles as the originator of the quote, “The Blue Book says we’ve got to go out and it doesn’t say a damn thing about having to come back.” That is briefly described in Chapter 11 of my book Shipwrecks of the Outer Banks: Dramatic Rescues and Fantastic Wrecks in the Graveyard of the Atlantic, Globe Pequot Press, 2020, but it is explored in great detail in Chapter 19 in my forthcoming sequel Shipwreck Rescues of the Outer Banks: Sensational Wrecks and Heroic Rescues by the United States Life-Saving Service, also from Globe Pequot Press, due in April 2025. Every of the thousands of Coast Guard personnel today or from the past knows that quote.
Robert traced the family lineage for us of all Etheridges and Midgetts from various Outer Banks towns and villages and also explained the development of the Midgett names with an “e” or a “y.” He was also highly complementary about my book and my work to save the 1898 Oregon Inlet Life-Saving Station No. 16.
Shortly thereafter, a couple came through the door beaming with big grins. The gentleman was holding a copy of my book that he obviously had bought earlier and wanted it signed. He told me how many times he had read it and how many people he had loaned it to. The excited couple were Ed and Kin Wards from Duck. Ed was retired Coast Guard who had an interesting career that included flying from Air Station Elizabeth City and being on ice patrol in a Coast Guard cutter among other assignments. Linda and I talked a good while with Ed and Kim and thoroughly enjoyed it.
These two Outer Banks encounters made our day!
Keeper James Presentations TM is a series of live programs presented by local historians, historical interpreters and performers Keeper JamesTM Charlet and Linda Molloy. Each program about the U.S. Life-Saving Service consists of vignettes of true, exciting, highly dramatic Outer Banks stories of ‘America’s Forgotten HeroesTM.’ For more information, see www.KeeperJames.com/programs.
