Loudest Mouth in Town: Squire Frederick

The Scoop spent a few minutes catching up with City of Annapolis Town Crier Squire Frederick Taylor, who will be honored tonight at the Historic Annapolis Preservation Awards. Taylor spent about 35 years with the Department of Defense, then started leading walking tours of Annapolis in 1996. Mayor Ellen Moyer appointed him town crier in 2006. Here he tells his story in his own words.

I had some influence by a couple of friends. And I put friends in quotation marks.

Before Watermark was Watermark, it was Three Centuries Tours. Every once in a while, they would ask me if I would read a proclamation for a corporation that was in town. So I said, sure. I did it several times, and I guess on a couple occasions, I was in the right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at the right time. And somebody said, hey, that was pretty good.

Another friend had been visiting his daughter in Minnesota. When he came back, he had a newspaper article about the Minnesota town crier. So he and his wife said, Fred, you know what you should do? I thought about it for a little while and I said, well, yeah, maybe I should. Get me out and about and meet some people and things like that.

I went over to Ellen Moyer and petitioned her to appoint me as a town crier so I could join the American Guild of Town Criers. It took a little while, but eventually she said, sure.

A couple years after that, she made a permanent appointment for the rest of my life. So long as I stayed healthy, kept an interest, and didn't bring any disrepute on the city of Annapolis. So I guess I've met all of those requirements.

99.9% of it is all volunteer.

I'm marching in parades, cutting ribbons, giving tours around town.

In the old days, they would also protect the king. Carry their big bell and if somebody got too close, smack them in the face or something. Ever heard anybody say, that face rings a bell? It was the town crier.

It probably wasn't so much the history in the beginning. It was more the social aspect of myself getting out and around and just meeting people.

A little ham, I guess, is inside of me. So it's kind of fun to stand there and gather everybody around, get their attention.

A couple years ago, I was over at the Naval Academy and they asked me to give a proclamation on Constitution Day.

He said, can you be like a George Washington? I said, I'll be whatever you want me to be. So dressed in my attire down there in King Hall at the noontime hour, lunchtime, I gave the proclamation and had 4,000 midshipmen in the palm of my hand. At the end of the proclamation, I gave a big Go Navy and the place erupted.

All the rest of the time ... I'm competing in town crier competitions around the world.

The seasoned criers will tell you, be careful of what you eat and what you drink. Because some of the more experienced criers might offer you as much ice cream, caffeine, whatever it is that will clog your vocal cords.

Very social when you're not competing, but very competitive on the days of the competition.

I worked with the Department of Defense. Worked for them for, I guess, about 34, 35 years. I retired, in quotes, in 1996.

I've been walking the streets for them, on again, off again, pretty regularly since 1997.

I spend most of my time in town. But no, I live just outside of Baltimore, up in Catonsville.

I had the opportunity to welcome former President Carter and Rosalynn to town.

I went racing through the revolving door, ringing the bell, making a big announcement: My lords, my ladies, arriving at the Westin Hotel, former President James Earl Carter, class of 1947, United States Naval Academy.

His aide came up to me, said, Squire Frederick, that was pretty good. He said, but you had something wrong. He said he didn't graduate in '47. He graduated in '46. I said, well, he graduated in '46, but he was in the class of '47. They accelerated the program and made it a three-year program instead of a four. And he said, oh, I didn't know that. Thank you very much.

I will be 86 in July.

They're going to have to carry me out.