"Seventh District" Abell by grandmaR

It's not true that a passport or visa is required to visit St. Mary's 7th District, contrary to legend,

Collage of the road in the 7th District in the fal

but it takes a Visa, Mastercard American Express or cash for a trip to the end of Morris Point Road in Abell." according to a Southern Maryland Weekend article in October 2001.

Abell is a family name in St. Mary's County and the community named after them has a zip code of 20606 and a pupulation of 427.

This 427 people all know each other and have their own sub-dialect.

The term Seventh District" refers to election districts. According to the St. Mary's County web page: Constables, justices of the peace, road supervisors, road inspectors, election officers, assessors, and tax collectors were some of the county officials chosen for each district. County commissioner representation, voter registration, and jury selection represent countians' participation in county government within the election-district framework. Election districts determine the location of polling places, and votes are cast and tabulated by district. In 1798, St. Marys had only 3 election districts. But by 1856, there were six election districs.

In 1876 an act was passed creating the seventh election district. This district was formed by dividing the fourth election district as follows:

… beginning at the crossing of St. Clements Bay Run, by the stage road, and running thence with said stage road towards Chaptico until it reaches the north-east end or corner of 'Neales' Lot' on said stage road, thence by a direct line to the head waters of Bramly Creek thence by the waters of the Wicomico and Potomac Rivers and St. Clement's Bay to the beginning including the several islands contiguous to the last described waters … so much of the fourth election district as is not included within the aforesaid lines, shall continue to be known as the fourth election district… voting place in the fourth district Chaptico … in the seventh district at or near Milestown.

House and Garage photographed from a speeding car

In the fall of 1973, we were going to have to move to St. Mary's County for Bob to go to the Test Pilot School at NAS Patuxent River. We had four children and 6 cars and a house trailer sized garage, so we needed a larger house. There were 3 houses which might do. One was the house we bought in Leonardtown which had 6 bedrooms and one bathroom (all in deplorable shape), a story and a half summer kitchen and a two car garage that was leaning on a tree. One was over in Hollywood MD, and had 4 bedrooms and a central air and vacuum system, but just a carport and it was right between 2 highways with no fenced yard for my youngest who was 2.5

This was the third one of them. It was a two bedroom house with a separate dining room and family room and had a carport. It also had the white cinderblock building which was a garage which had space for two school buses (including a full length grease pit) with an extension for a pick-up truck. It also had its own gasoline pumps.

But not only was it WAY out in the sticks and would have necessitated a 45 minute drive to the base, but we would have had to turn the dining room and family room into bedrooms, and made the carport into a family room immediately before we moved it. So while Bob coveted the garage, we picked our current house.