Garden Parties
- Details
- Written by Kris Legates
Look closely, and you’ll discover a blooming trend of backyard botanical showplaces
By Bill Newcott
Illustration by Carolyn Watson
From the October 2022 issue
“Welcome to Florida,” says Gary Smith, ushering me along the winding brick walkway that meanders from his driveway to the front door of his house.
Indeed, instead of Milton, this could just as easily be Miami. The walk is lined with pointy needle palms and shrimp plants (Justicia brandegeeana to those in the know), with their curly, pink, crustacean-like flowers. And reaching tall above them, swaying in the morning breeze, stand two windmill palm trees, the kind just about every home in Orlando has out front but, in these parts, are as rare as manatees.
Queens of Hearts
- Details
- Written by Kris Legates
Rehoboth audiences are expressing their love for drag performers. (The feeling is mutual.)
By Jeanne Shook
Photograph by Butch Comegys
From the September 2022 issue
For renowned Rehoboth drag queen Roxy Overbrooke, it all began ahead of a New Year’s Eve “celebrity” costume party almost 20 years ago. “I could not figure out a male celebrity I wanted to be,” recalls Charles Bounds (aka Roxy). At the urging of a friend, he decided to dress as a female and ended up decked out as Billie Holiday. Already a singer at weddings and private events, Bounds sang a few numbers at the party, and a drag star was born.
The Rehoboth-area resident began performing drag as a side hustle, maintaining two other jobs in retail and hospitality in order to fund a growing wardrobe, a necessity that comes with the territory. “Just about everything I wear is custom made. … It’s very expensive,” he notes.
When all three jobs became too taxing and “drag was making me happy,” being Roxy became a full-time gig. You can find her four to five nights a week as the Blue Moon’s resident queen. In addition to performing, she serves as hostess and selects the evening’s lineup of performers. Unlike most drag queens, who lip sync, Roxy does her own singing, which she showcases at the Blue Moon’s drag shows and at her weekly cabaret there (a solo perfor-mance each Thursday billed as “A Night With Roxy”).
Up the Creeks
- Details
- Written by Kris Legates
Glimpses of the area’s pristine past line our inland waterways
By Bill Newcott
Photograph by Kim Johnson
From the September 2022 issue
The shorelines of Love Creek are drawing closer to my kayaking companions and me, like a green curtain being pulled across a watery stage. We left the last flock of laughing gulls wheeling over the creek a good half-mile back, their cacophony now absorbed by the broad-leafed trees hanging over our heads.
I make a sharp turn — nearly too sharp for my 9-foot kayak — and spot a large log lying across the stream.