Tangier community embraces outsiders with ‘mud between their toes’

MUD BETWEEN THEIR TOES

Tangier’s ‘Come‘eres’ work to fit in to a tight-knit community Nick Bonadies Staff Writer

Andy Langley originally moved to Tangier with his wife. a Tangier native, to serve as the town police officer.

here is one convenient feature of living on an island with less than 500 people: Everybody knows you.

Photocopied fliers dot lampposts, the walls of buildings on street corners and bulletin boards in thoroughfares like Lorraine’s: an open house at Jason and Jackies, a shower for Mindy and David's new baby. These announcements have no need of an address – everyone knows, after all, where Jason and Jackie live - and no need of an RSVP, as everyone knows who Jason and Jackie are, and Jason and Jackie know everybody and would be happy to welcome any and all of them into their home.

Not just owing to a small population or a small island, the singularly tight-knit Tangier community has also, for the most part, lived on the island together their entire lives.

A word exists in Tangier slang to denote the rare non-native islander – “Come’eres,” for one who “came here.” Maureen Gott and her husband, Jim, are recent come’eres – New Jersey natives who have run Tangier’s Bayview Inn since last fall. They intend to live the rest of their lives here, Maureen says without hesitation – the community of Tangier has accepted them with open arms since their formal introduction at a town meeting.

“Everyone knows that we’re not from here,” Maureen says, “Because of the accent.”

She recalled some weeks ago when a house burned down and an elderly woman was killed. The island banded together immediately to help the family, she said – someone walked around door to door and people gave money.

She says the only thing she really misses from the mainland is “a real good pizza.” The Gotts son, David, who is 24, will inherit the bed and breakfast from his parents.

Debra Howard, originally from Miami, currently oversees the Tangier Island Museum as the island’s Artist-in-Residence, and mentions her own lack of accent as sticking out in Tangier society.

“I try to go to town meetings and things to fight for the floodwall, but ... I rarely get up and speak because I don’t have the accent and no one wants to hear me,” she said. Her preference lies

Twith leaving most of the talking to Tangier’s Mayor, James “Ooker” Eskndse – she calls him “the ultimate Tangierman.“ “He’s a great face for the island because he’s a nice looking man ... very charismatic.” In addition to her work in the museum and as an independent artist, Howard took on the project of building a public library in a tiny shack in the museum’s backyard. She named it the Muddy Toes Library – after the Tangier folk wisdom that any visitor who gets the island’s mud between their toes falls in love with Tangier and is destined to return. The miniature screen-doored library, with a porch just a few feet from the bay, is filled with books donated and swapped out by islanders whenever they feel the urge. “The place works on karma,” Howard said, shelving a stack of Danielle Steele under “Fiction”. Andy Langley, another come’ere, moved to Tangier from Louisiana after meeting his wife, a Tangier native, in the military. He was originally offered a job as the police officer on Tangier by the mayor at the time. But due to a lack of much action to oversee – in his words, “too much not going on” – he changed careers to the tug boating business. After being hurt on the job, Langley says, the Tangier community helped out around the house so his wife could help him recover. They made meals and looked after his children. When Langley’s father died in a blizzard that crippled the East Coast in 2001, he asked the pastor if his family could sit in the island’s church while the funeral took place on the mainland. The family trudged through the snow to the church, and Langley told his children stories about his father. The pastor had gotten the word out, however – 60 people came out in the snow–storm to listen to the stories about a man they’d never met. “They didn’t have to, but they did. Because it’s in here,” Langley said, pointing to his heart. “And that’s what Tangier’s all about.” “We help each other out, not because we have to, because we want to,” he said. “Truly, it’s what humans are supposed to do – we’re supposed to look out for each other.” R Jim and Maureen Gott are recent Tangier ’Come‘ eres ’ . Maureen says the only thing she misses from the mainland is “a real good pizza.”