Dela-where? A Former Delawarean Says There’s a Lot to Love
- Feb 5
- 3 min read
My bedroom wall constantly transformed throughout my childhood. During that time, my mom helped me hang up everything from Elsa posters to stick-figure drawings that I sloppily created with a dried-out yellow marker. She was most eager to sift through our messy drawers for thumb tacks, though, when she saw me unrolling a map of Delaware, the state she was born and raised in. Today, I’ll be asking her to share what makes Delaware so bedroom-wall-worthy.
The following interview has been edited and condensed.
Many people joke that Delaware isn’t a real place. How would you respond to that?
Okay people, it’s the first state! If you kids know nothing else, you should know that. It’s the first state and it’s kind of the forgotten state in a lot of ways. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because it’s small or you don’t hear a lot about it, but it’s a real place.
I heard that your first job was at an amusement park on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk called Funland. Was it fun, as the name suggests?
It was fun, but it also wasn’t as fun as you might think. We worked the games and rides, and a lot of the rides were for really little kids. That was a pain because kids would start screaming during the rides and their parents would tell us to stop the ride. It was a little challenging when Laureen [her sister] and I worked the merry go round because we had to walk the opposite way while it was moving to collect the tickets. The haunted house could also be hard because we had to wait for these giant cars to come out of some double doors and physically stop them with our legs. I got bruised up from that. It was one of those jobs that looked way more fun than it actually was.
Every time we order Papa John’s pizza, you sigh and say, “I wish there was Grotto in the south.” Can you explain what Grotto pizza is?
People, let me tell you, the food in the north is amazing. Grotto pizza is like no other pizza that I have ever tasted, and trust me when I say that I have tasted a lot of pizza. There’s talk that it’s because the cheese is cheddar mixed with mozzarella. I think there’s something they do differently with the cheese that makes it so amazingly good and unique. Now I want Grotto pizza. It’s greasy, but who cares?
Are there any other northern food shops you would like to reminisce about?
I miss all the mom-and-pop shops, like the delis and sub shops. There were a lot of mom-and-pop restaurants in Delaware that served homemade Italian food. Nashville is mostly made up of franchises. The places here don’t have the charm that the shops in Delaware have. I will admit, though, Coco’s Italian Market does a good job because it’s a family-owned place. It’s not a cookie-cutter franchise.
Why did you move to Tennessee?
I moved here, like a bazillion other people, to sing. I still sing, but I’m not famous or anything, obviously. I came here to try to “make it” in the music business. I was going to move back to Delaware because I realized that Tennessee wasn’t the place for me, but then I met my husband, so things changed.
What do you miss about Delaware?
Probably the beach. My family was like an hour away from it, so we would just get up and say “okay, we’re going to the beach today.” It was nice to have such easy access to it. Besides that, I miss living in a small state. Nashville is so crowded. There are so many people and so much traffic. Delaware isn’t like that; it doesn’t have all of that chaos.
I’ve heard that there is a strong sense of community in Delaware because of how small the state is. Do you think that’s true?
People in the north are extremely friendly. They’ll greet you as you walk by, and they’re genuine. It’s not like they’re going to be nice to your face and then talk behind your back. People tend to think that northerners are mean. That’s a myth. It’s been my experience that people in the north are actually friendlier than people in the south.
Okay, I need your advice really quick. If I go to a gift shop in Delaware, should I buy one of those engraved wooden surfboards with my name on it or a keychain that says “the first state?”
Why can’t you get both? If I had to choose, though, I’d probably get the keychain that says “the first state.” It’s more specific. Nobody else can say that they’re the first state.
