Tim Potter is the personnel director of the town of Grundy in Grundy, Virginia. He is involved in addressing the town's opportunities and challenges, particularly focusing on the flood project with the Corps of Engineers. 

Victor Pruitt is a seasoned professional in the seafood industry with a rich family history in the trade. Mr. Pruitt and his family were from Onancock, Virginia, and owned and operated buyboats on the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River throughout the 1960's and 70's. They bought and sold seafood using these boats, primarily in Washington, D.C. Among the buyboats they owned and operated were the Lester, Thelma Earl, and the Ruth and Annie.

Walther Fidler (1923-2013). Remembering his early boyhood, Walther Fidler spoke of bicycles flung asunder on the wharf, sneaking onto and all around the steamboat as it stopped in his home community of Sharps. Legislator Fidler speaks in vivid imagery of muscular Black stevedores entertaining the masses while loading recalcitrant calves aboard the tall, white vessels. He spoke of the vast disparity between Black and white households in the community and marveled at the positive spirit displayed by neighboring African-Americans.

Wanda Guy, born Wanda Smith Lilliston, a native of Deep Creek, Virginia, is the daughter of a waterman (George F. Smith) and was formerly married to Gus Lilliston, also a waterman. Her life story is deeply intertwined with the watermen culture of Eastern Shore, Virginia, a lineage that traces back to her father's dedication to the seafood industry. She grew up in the Deep Creek area on the Eastern Shore of Virginia (near OnancockHer upbringing was marked by the rhythms of her father's work on the water, which left an indelible impression on her life and values.

Mr. Crosby was an African-American raconteur, a Lancaster County legend, who founded a snack shop just north of White Stone on Rt. 3. A veteran of the fishing industry, he knew every aspect of boating and sold seafood in Richmond over a forty-five year period.

With a father and grandfather who ran a cannery at the steamboat wharf, John Cowart's telling brought to life the Adams Floating Theatre, the rich singing of the Black men in his family’s oyster house, and the dynamic interaction at the country store.