OCEAN PINES—
Ocean Pines as a new community was an adventure land for swimming, biking, skateboarding and exploring the surrounding woodlands to the small band of children who first came to the area, including Tom and Dan O’Hare who grew up in the Pines. They shared a few of their memories with us in interviews on July 25 and 30.

As many of the Pines’ earliest residents with children tended to do, their family purchased lots near other families, on Crows Nest Lane near White Horse Park.  As Dan recalled, only about 12 children lived in the Pines year-round when the community first developed. “Almost of them were centered in that spot,” he said. “Our block actually had a bunch of kids.”

Tom, now 39, was two and Dan, now 37, was the first baby born to Ocean   Pines’   year-round   parents. Their parents are Sharyn  and  Matt O’Hare.

The new community was safe and tight knit, giving the youngsters the freedom to spend their early years on pursuits only limited by their  own imaginations. “We were very safe,” Dan said. “We spent every day out of the house.” To hear the accounts from Tom and Dan’s childhood in Ocean Pines was more Mark Twain than modern helicopter parents could conceive without an anxiety attack, or three.

According to Dan and Tom, the children’s   days   were   spent   hacking through the woods with $5 machetes purchased at a local flea market, picking blackberries and lilacs that surrounded some of the old farmhouses nearby, building forts  “all over the woods for no good reason,” playing lots of basketball, tramping through the nearby marshes and getting as dirty as possible, heading to the boat dock and taking a raft or small boat out for the day, or separating into teams to play kickball.

Tom said he learned how to spot and grab soft-shell crabs off the pilings at the boat piers by watching older children do it.

There was a lot of wildlife to chase down and examine, like lizards, turtles, snakes, raccoons, opossums and osprey, according to Dan, although he

said, “We almost never saw a deer.” The children always had dogs in tow, and while there were plenty of feral cats in the area, he did not recall seeing foxes. But with that many children out searching for them, one would suspect no self-respecting fox could live up to their reputation for being “sly” if they allowed themselves to be spotted.

Then there was that bit of family lore: the unfortunate campfire caper. As Tom recalled, it  went  like  this: Some friends built a small campfire to toast s’mores and hot dogs, only to have the police show up, having spot- ted  the  smoke  and  put  an  end  to things. Unscathed, the children went on with other pursuits with the incident seemingly behind them— no harm, no foul. That was until their parents were sitting in a routine community meeting later that year listening to a routine incident report when the officer gave the report of an “arson” incident involving a group of 9 and 10 year olds.

They were busted; what’s more, little brother Dan had been there in the mix with the s’mores and hot dogs, Tom chuckled.

Dan told of the time he was walking by the lagoon by the boat docks with his babysitter when he stepped into a hole where yellow jacket wasps had built a  hive.  He said the babysitter rushed him to safety, but not before he had  been  stung  15  times  and  the babysitter 25 times.

So on it went, each outing ending with a parent’s call for the children to come home covered with  the  mud, leaves, grime or briars from the day’s activities, for baths, dinner and bed.

To listen to the brothers, it seems remarkable they survived childhood. But it was clear those early years left a lot of fun memories for the two. “You never know how great you have it until you move somewhere else,” Tom said, adding “I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.”

Dan said he was not a nostalgic type, but also said that Ocean Pines “was a great place to grow up.” He added that he was grateful that “I never chopped my leg off.”

Both have long since moved away to attend college and explored Europe before settling in New York City where they now reside. Tom is a freelance casting director for film, television and commercials, and Dan is married to a writer and produces advertisements. Both Dan and his wife work for MTV.

Dan returns home for visits. He and his wife purchased a small farm in Salisbury, a retreat from their busy lives and the stresses and annoyances of Times Square. Tom said he visits once during the summer and on Thanksgiving to see his mom and friends.

Asked to summarize life as a child in Ocean Pines, Dan said in the first years of the Pines there were no organized activities.

“We used to just go fishing,” he said. “We would just get together and play ball.”

He said of  the  area,  “There  was nothing but green and sand and forest, all around.”