Icon, legend and town ambassador — this is how some residents describe the weekend crossing guard in the Eastern Shore town of St. Michaels, Maryland.
Charles Jenkins has been helping people get safely from one side of Talbot Street to the other for 20 years. The maritime community doesn’t have a traffic light through its downtown, and it can get crowded during peak weekends in the summer or during special events. More than 10,000 visitors can show up on the weekends.
“I’m the traffic light,” Jenkins said with a laugh.
The Easton resident has been working as a crossing guard since he was in the fifth grade. “I just stayed with it. That’s what I like doing. I love traffic,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins, 77, works as a crossing guard during the week in neighboring Easton when school is in session. He has worked almost five decades as a crossing guard on the Eastern Shore.
One of the best parts of his job, Jenkins said, is meeting visitors from different parts of the country, such as New York, D.C. and Philadelphia. He describes himself as a people person, and said that the visitors he helps cross the street sometimes give him hugs, high fives and say kind things.
“I try to be nice to everybody,” he said.
“I look at Charles Jenkins as a human traffic calmer,” said St. Michaels Police Chief Anthony Smith. He said that’s very important in a small town with cyclists, festivals and many other special events throughout the year.
“He makes the town safe,” Smith said.
Some of the locals in St. Michaels don’t always appreciate Jenkins and the work he does. Smith said he gets phone calls from some residents who want to know why Jenkins is holding up traffic when they have to get somewhere. Smith said he tells them that is the point of having a crossing guard in place — to keep people driving cautiously and watching out for visitors.
Smith said Jenkins also acts as the eyes and ears for the town and helps keep the community safe.
“That’s why we love him here,” Smith said.
Visitors usually hear Jenkins before they see him in his yellow vest and gloves out in the street or along the sidewalk. That’s because of the whistle around his neck. He said you can hear it from three blocks away
“People are driving, they are on their phones or texting, or talking and they are turning their heads. With my whistle, and I blow it loud, that gets a reaction from them,” Jenkins said.
He said some drivers are not so pleasant and have even made obscene gestures to him or hollered at him to get out of the road. But he said he doesn’t pay attention to them because he has a job to do.
“My job is to protect the little kids and older people and make sure nobody has no accidents,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins has lots of friends and supporters in town who frequently shake his hand, call out his name or bring him food and water while he is working the weekends.
“He is an icon here,” said Jeff Joseph, a St. Michaels resident who was eating breakfast at the Carpenter Street Saloon one Saturday when Jenkins walked in to say hi.
Joseph said Jenkins always has a smile on his face and everyone in town appreciates the hard work he does to keep traffic moving and keep people safe.
Jenkins hopes to keep working as long as he can and tries not to miss a day of work.
He has a message for visitors to St. Michaels: “Be careful, be safe and obey what I say and you will get along nice here.”
