Greg Bassett: What do you like about our community?

The first weekly newspaper I ever read was the old Maryland Coast Press, published down in Ocean City by an excellent editor named Dick Lohmeyer.

One of the best features in each week’s edition was something called “Things I Like.” I loved the column. Lohmeyer merely used the column entries as fillers, or content designed to be flexible in filling out pages with troublesome gaps, but they were terrific.

Here are “Things I Like” in Salisbury and Wicomico County.

• The lights of the Vienna Bridge in the fog.
• Sunsets from the Wetipquin Bridge.
• Walking the beach at the end of Clara Road at low tide.
• Listening to Earl and Matt at the Red Roost.
• The dollar bills with their messages on the walls at the Red Roost.
• Snow sledding on the hill at the Elks.
• Watching the prairie dogs at the zoo.
• The City Park Bandstand.
• The bike trails at Henry Parker Sports Complex.
• Seeing the glowing red lights at night atop the many aerial antennas around Salisbury.
• The City Park fountain at night.
• That area on East Market Street where there are five man-holes in the middle of the street.
• From a distance, watching the men work on the ship exteriors at Chesapeake Shipbuilding.
• Seeing Salisbury City Police officers testing out their patrol car lights before a shift.
• Being the last car under the gate when the Mill Street Bridge rises for a barge.
• The view from atop One Plaza East.
• The bends in Riverside Drive.
• The words Tony Tank.
• Having so many auto dealers lined up on North Salisbury Boulevard.
• The spit of sand that extends invisibly into the river at Roaring Point.
• The fact that you can’t really see the water from Waterview.
• English’s Fried Chicken.
• Seeing people crowded around Rita’s on a summer evening.
• Everything that happens at Pony League Park.
• Remembering the beach at Leonard’s Mill Pond.
• Remembering the over-water rope swing behind Parson’s Cemetery on Johnson’s Pond.
• Remembering the smell of bread baking at the Sunbeam Plant off North Division Street.
• Remembering Sen. Joe Long’s and Mayor Paul Martin’s laughs.
• The fact that no one ever really makes fun of Pittsville’s or Fruitland’s or Bivalve’s town names.
• Remembering the WJDY ad that played before movies at the Boulevard Theater.
• The word Wango.
• Pondering if Sixty Foot Road was supposed to be 60 feet long or 60 feet wide.
• Finding an arrowhead.
• Polar Bar doughnuts.
• Wandering around Barb’s Gift and Hallmark.
• Watching little kids stare at the fish in the aquarium at Lombardi’s.
• Chocolate-nut sundaes at the Junior Board.
• Racing my car to the top of the downtown parking garage.
• Watching the big helicopters land at the hospital like it’s all no big deal.
• That Salisbury has a fire horn instead of a fire siren.
• That no one thinks it’s funny that the Overhead Bridge is called the Overhead Bridge.
• Seeing a Piedmont Dash 8 heading north and knowing the schedule well enough to see that it’s on time.
• The old bank vault sitting open at the Chamber of Commerce building.
• Seeing Herman Perdue -- years ago -- with his feet on his desk, talking on the phone, at 212 East Main St.
• The Shores & Bradford Barber Shop.
• Carroll Street.

I have a million more, of course.

Now I’d like to know what you like. Email your likes to me at gbassett@newszap.com and I’ll print as many as I can.

Greg Bassett is editor and general manager of the Salisbury Independent.