Under New Management

Sundae Horn

Amy Howard and Mary Ellen Piland have big plans for the OPS Museum.

The David Williams House, a.k.a., the OPS Museum
The David Williams House, a.k.a., the OPS Museum

Amy accepted the position of OPS Administrator on August 17th, and Mary Ellen was hired as administrative assistant shortly afterward.

“I do whatever Amy tells me to do. I’m at her bidding,” Mary Ellen said, with her characteristic grin.

Actually, Amy explained, “We work together. We like each other’s ideas about what to do in the museum with exhibits, and about programs like Porch Talks and stuff for kids.”

Amy manages the gift shop, which includes recruiting, training, and scheduling volunteers to work the counter. (They can always use more! Wouldn’t you like to spend a few hours a week with these ladies?)

The OPS gift shop. Lots of new items!
The OPS gift shop. Lots of new items!

She’s also the shop’s buyer, and has already added new merchandise, focusing on local craftsmen and Ocracoke-themed items. There are decoys carved by Eddie O’Neal and Daniel O’Neal, and other handcarved items by Len Skinner. She arranged for the gift shop’s OPS mugs to come with a free cup of coffee from Ocracoke Coffee Company.  Local baskets and magnets and tea towels are now for sale, along with a few news items from off the island. Best of all are the knitted finger puppets that Amy loves.

“They were the first thing I ordered when I got the job,” Amy said. “Take a picture of the finger puppets." 

Finger puppets!
Finger puppets!

Mary Ellen, who recently retired from teaching at Ocracoke School, works the shop counter, updates the website, and keeps the museum’s media presence current on Facebook. She recently posted photos of a group of Coca-Cola employees visiting the museum, and young shoppers trying out the finger puppets. (To read more about Mary Ellen and her teaching career, click here.)

But what Amy and Mary Ellen do most is encourage each other’s creativity.

From brainstorming about fundraising – stay tuned for A Night at the Museum party plans – to finding new ways to honor their volunteers and thank them with something fun, (Incentive to volunteer! You know you want to!) Amy and Mary Ellen have boundless energy and new ideas to improve OPS for visitors and residents.

On October 29th, they're hosting "A Halloween Night at the Museum," a free event for kids of all ages. Amy will tell some Ocracoke ghost stories, and there'll be holiday treats to eat. Wear your costume!

Amy and Mary Ellen have plans to add more kid-friendly exhibits and activities both inside and out. Next season they’ll offer scavenger hunts for kids. Young visitors will get a list of items to find in the museum and/or community – and there’ll be a prize if they complete it.

Winter is the time for big projects. The museum will close for the season after Thanksgiving, and then Amy and Mary Ellen will start working on new exhibits for the spring. One will be on Ocracoke’s hurricane history. Amy’s collecting artifacts and photos from historic and recent hurricanes, including photos of the boards at the Hurricane House where the inhabitants jotted notes on the walls during the ’44 storm. The exhibit will show the historic, cultural, and physical impact that storms have had over the years.

"Our wish list is for any photos or stories people can find that are from the storm of 1899, 1933 or 1944. Those will be the storms our exhibit is based around, but we would love to have photos from some of the more recent hurricanes as well…. Gloria, Dennis & Floyd, Isabel, Alex or any of the others," she said.

Another new exhibit will focus one of the old island families, past and present. Amy and Mary Ellen are excited about this project that will include four generations of one family living on Ocracoke.

Their goal is to get more Ocracoke residents into the museum and aware of its programs and resources.

“OPS needs the old history, but if we focus only on the past, then the younger generation doesn’t feel connected,” Amy said. “The farther away from our own history that things get, the less they mean to us.”

Although Amy’s family has been on Ocracoke for ten generations, she says even she has a hard time relating to the past unless she can make a connection to the present.

“I can’t remember a lot of the oldtimers,” she said. “So I can’t relate personally to their stories. People lose interest in the old stories because they don’t think they’re relevant. So we need to show how the past affects who we are today. It made us who we are. 

Amy can trace her family history back William Howard, who settled on the island (and owned the whole thing!) in 1759. Her grandfather, Lawton Howard, grew up at a time when many men left Ocracoke to find work up north. He moved to Philadelphia and married there, and raised two boys (one was Amy’s dad, Philip), and then retired on the island. In 1970, Philip brought his then-wife Julia Howard and their young son to Ocracoke so they could all sell macramé, crafts, and sketches out of a teepee in his parents’ back yard. (Oh, the 70’s!) From such humble beginnings was the Village Craftsmen born.

Amy was born in May of 1972, not on Ocracoke, but in Maryland where her mother’s family lived. She says she got to the island “as soon as I could!” That was six weeks later. Amy slept in her bassinet while Philip and Lawton built the Village Craftsmen building. She and her older brother, Stefen, grew up living behind and above the shop and being generally underfoot all the time.

Amy attended Ocracoke School, with some time off to spend a year in Maryland with her maternal grandfather, and another year as an exchange student in Germany.

She graduated from Ocracoke School in 1990, in the top ten of her class. (There were ten students.) She had some tough competition for rank – Ocracoke Current’s Jenny Scarborough was Amy’s classmate.

After high school Amy traveled across the country with her former math teacher (!), then came home and worked at Capt. Ben’s, then moved to Colorado (Mesa State College), then to California (Monterey Peninsula College), then did a semester abroad in Europe, then moved to Asheville (UNC– Asheville). Finally she landed in Boone (Appalachian State University) and graduated. I forgot to ask what her degree was in.

In the fall of ’98 she opened the Wayfarer Hostel in her mom’s house and ran it for three years. She also met fiddler David Tweedie of Molasses Creek fame and married him in 2002. Their union produced eight year-old Lachlan (the 10th generation of Ocracoke Howards!).

Amy and David eventually bought her grandparents’ house on eponymous Howard Street, and settled in to life on Ocracoke.

Over the years, Amy has waited tables at the Back Porch and Flying Melon restaurants, and been the Back Porch’s dessert chef. She and her dad do Ghost and History walking tours all summer long, and for the past three years, they’ve hosted “You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet!” an evening of colorful Ocracoke storytelling each week at Deepwater Theater. 

Collecting local stories has become a hobby for Amy.

“My dad has done lots of research on the older stories,” she said. “I’ve also added newer stories, ones that my generation can remember and relate to.”

Amy’s a member of the Ocracoke Needle and Thread Club, a.k.a., the Quilters, and helped create the beautiful sampler quilt that’s on the bed at OPS. Raffle tickets are available in the gift shop. The Quilters also make quilts for other good causes, and will sew you something special for the right price. 

Amy’s knowledge of Ocracoke’s culture and history made her uniquely qualified for the OPS administrator’s role. She also has years of experience recruiting volunteers and organizing fundraisers for the Ocrafolk Festival. 

And of course, there’s her mom, Julie Howard. Julie managed the gift shop for many, many years before her retirement and subsequent move to Bellingham, WA. During a long visit this summer, Julie also filled in as interim administrator when DeAnna Locke left the position. (I asked Amy, “So, have you accepted the inevitability of turning into your mother?” Her answer? "No." My reply? "It happens to us all. Resistance is futile.")

But her mom has already been a help to her on the job, mostly with finding things. Who knew the Story of Ocracoke Island books were stored under the bed? Julie, of course. Then there was the man who called recently with an inquiry. Years ago, his family donated some old wooden pegs (rumored to be from Blackbeard’s cabin on Springer’s Point!), and wondered what OPS had done with them. A quick call to Julie and Amy was able to find the pegs – in the same spot they’ve been all the while.

Marcy, Amy and Mary Ellen, hard at work on the Museum's porch!
Marcy, Amy and Mary Ellen, hard at work on the Museum's porch!

Amy and Mary Ellen have both relied on the great support they get from the rest of the OPS crew: wonderful gift shop volunteers, bookkeeper Marcy Brenner, committee members, and more. "We're learning about the jobs as we go," Amy said.

Bill Jones is president of the OPS executive committee. He says that the committee has “heard lots of the exciting new ideas that Amy and Mary Ellen have in mind.”

“We are so thrilled to have two creative and energetic people working with us,” he added. “They seem to be inspiring each other to come up with great ideas and their enthusiasm is spreading through the whole OPS family.”

The Museum's fall hours are Monday – Friday, 10 – 4, Saturday 11 – 4. The Museum will close for the season the Saturday after Thanksgiving. You can find out more about them at www.ocracokepreservation.org and/or by liking Ocracoke Preservation Society on Facebook. 


 

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