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Reading Tara Bozick's article today on oystering, and one she did a few days ago on the shrimping industry, have given me pause to think about both situations from a couple of different perspectives. I could bemoan the high price of oysters this season, or point to the fact that a lot of city people I know think of shrimp as "ocean roaches" and wouldn't touch an oyster with a stick and gloves on. Others I know might choke down oysters on the half shell because it's "cool" (cooler yet when you are a little tanked I s'pose), or pay $15.00 for a half dozen little maggot sized shrimp in a cocktail dish with a slice of lemon and a sprig of some kind of weed lying on the plate. I for one view seafood a bit differently. You see, I could eat flounder, bay shrimp, and oysters, three meals a day (and in fact have), and never think twice about it. I showed my bay rat side, I am fairly certain, the first time I walked into a restaurant, and saw a menu that offered up shrimp with six or a dozen as a meal........ Where I come from, a shrimp, oyster, or fish dinner or a combination of all three, consisted of an enormous platter, piled as high with seafood as gravity would allow.......and maybe just to make it an official "meal", a few soaked overnight and cooked for hours, pinto beans and a salad. We'd eat until we couldn't hold another shrimp, go collapse on the couch in front of a ballgame, and go back at halftime for a few more. The platter would sit out most of the day for those who desired a snack, and the leftovers would find their way into a Tupperware container in the fridge, and inevitably, I'd grab a cold handful of whatever was there for breakfast, or to put on some bread and take for my lunch. Oh, and don't even talk to me tartar sauce.......that's for city wusses. Okay, maybe I'll eat it if there's nothing else, as I am a city boy these days. But if you want a treat, I'll be glad to let you try my homemade cocktail sauce, just don't ask me what's in it......Six shrimp, indeed! That's an appetizer.

So, now for the other perspective. As a ten year old kid, I got my Social Security card. (you weren't born with one in your hand as a tracking device back in those days). The only reason I got it, was so I could get a job.......heading shrimp. Turned out that was a short lived, tedious little career move, that was soon replaced by a deckhand job on my old neighbor's shrimpboat. In 1960, there were a multitude of shrimpers in my hometown. Most were in old shrimping families, who'd done it for generations. There was always a few newbies trying their hand at it, and a few Union Carbiders, shiftworkers in operations, that had the money for a boat and ran it when they could, or paid a local to run it when they were at the plant. Those boats were always easy to spot, as the winches, rigging, deck cleats, and such were always really nice and shiny stainless steel..........straight from the plant to their boat. If you found one of those guys in the Carbide, DuPont, or Alcoa, welding shop fabricating something like that on company time, and asked him what he was working on, he'd likely tell you a "guv'ment job"(by the people, for the people). In those days, you couldn't find an empty slip between six in the evening and four in the morning. there wers shrimpboats as far as you could see, and old timers sitting on the decks with their net needles, mending their nets, or taking a link or two out of the jump chain or just washing down the deck for the morning exodus of boats out of the harbor. When I wasn't on one of those boats, I remember my mornings before sunrise,  a kid in a big old wicker chair on the screened in front porch on the bayfront, smelling the diesel exhaust, watching all the red and green running lights and white mast lights, in single file fashion running out the cut to where they started their dragging and lying on the CB radios about what they were catching. Those memories, along with the old shrimpers rusted out cars running from Griffee's store to the boat docks, with a couple of bags of rock salt up on the trunk or hood, are really all but gone now. It is a sad sight, going down to the harbor these days. Most of the slips are empty nowadays. There are a few boats left.......and half of those sit idle during the season, because the were repossessed by the bank, or because it costs more for fuel than they could hope to earn, trying to compete with imported and farm raised shrimp prices. It is just a fact of life I guess, seeing that culture just wither away and die. I still remember a song my mama used to sing to me to put me to sleep......"shrimpboats are a comin', their sails are in sight, shrimpboats are a comin, there'll be dancin' tonight"............ Folks, the boats have just about set sail for the last time. You need to go down on a summer night and do it soon.......they are almost gone.

Guess I should be happy that I got to be a part of it, and experience it for myself. My kids and your kids will only know what we tell them of it.