by Tony Russo
This week, Happy Hour comes to you from the porch of the Atlantic Hotel in Berlin where we arranged to interview representatives of both the Ocean City and Berlin Chambers of Commerce at the end of what was a really big week in both towns. Todd DeHart, my co-host, arranged to have Melanie Purcell from the Ocean City Chamber but called at the last minute to say it looked as if she wasn’t going to make it. I, ever the enthusiastic podcaster, had already taken my place at the bar in Drummers’ Cafe, and was enjoying a Lucky 7 porter from Evolution Brewery and chatting with Olive Mawyer from the Berlin Chamber, so I pressed her into pinch hitting for Melanie who ended up being able to make it after all. Both were good sports about the double booking and agreed to share the microphone as we went through the weeks events. Todd, ever wary of the potential volatility associated with putting two such enthusiastic personalities next to one another, suggested we take the show outside and we found ourselves in particularly close quarters without rocking chairs nearly touching around one of the hotel’s small porch tables. [Cue the first bar of Dueling Banjos] As it turned out, even though it was a lot of fun for Todd and I to try and pit them against one another they insisted on being complimentary and complementary to one another. We talked Dew Tour for awhile, with Melanie sharing some behind the scenes tidbits about how Ocean City brought all of its charisma to bear in wooing the Dew Tour from Virginia Beach, which, let’s face it, is kind of the poor man’s Seaside Heights. Try as we might with digs such as that, neither Melanie nor Olive was into abusing our beach destination to the south, not that Todd ever got tired of baiting. Bayside, we talked about the Berlin Little League’s victory in the state all star tournament and what it meant for a little bit of regional pride. In addition to the sponsorship of this and its sister paper, Ocean City Today, lots of businesses and individuals are coming out to help the team raise the $10,000 it needs to travel to Rhode Island for the 10 and under championship. It’s the first time in at least 50 years that the Berlin Little League has gone this far and, as we transitioned to the news portion of the podcast, we talked about how the Town of Berlin had just appropriated $2,000 toward the team’s travel fund.
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