Bruce from West Seattle shared with us this image of John Singer Sargent's masterpiece, the Oyster Gatherers of Cancale. Stop by Singer Sargent's website for a history of both the painting and Cancale's oyster industry. Thanks Bruce!
I have 55 years of Hood Canal oyster memories but I also spent 5 years in Alabama in the 1980’s. . My best oyster memory there is being taken to lunch at a little hole in the wall bar somewhere outside Mobile. My host and I sat at the bar and ate fresh shucked oysters on the half shell with bottles of Coca Cola. The grizzled old bartender stood silently behind the bar shucking oysters and putting them on a tray in front of us. After at least 18 oysters apiece my host signaled that we were done. The bartender bussed our shells and Coca Cola bottles and said “That will be $12.”
Low tides this weekend on Puget Sound. We’ll be at Frenchman’s Cove sometime Friday afternoon. It might be time Saturday go hunt up one of our geoducks and make some chowder for Sunday dinner. We have an old meat grinder that was Henry Querrette’s…the Frenchman that Frenchman’s Cove is named after. Henry homesteaded the property in 1905. The grinder is an old soldier but works pretty darn well. Henry rowed his handbuilt rowboats all over Hood Canal and I know that he knew a lot of good folks on your side of the canal. You are right…those were different times. We are trying to get a handle on the folks that live around us and it is not that easy.
Your mornings are sunny when we are still stoking the fire at 9 am on a summer morning. However we get the late afternoon and early evening sun and it can get very hot in the summer. We always say that the good folks on the other side of the canal are a lot cooler in the evening. But our sunsets kick serious rear end!
Hood Canal is one of the most beautiful places in the world. We are lucky to have it to enjoy.
You are welcome!
I have 55 years of Hood Canal oyster memories but I also spent 5 years in Alabama in the 1980’s. . My best oyster memory there is being taken to lunch at a little hole in the wall bar somewhere outside Mobile. My host and I sat at the bar and ate fresh shucked oysters on the half shell with bottles of Coca Cola. The grizzled old bartender stood silently behind the bar shucking oysters and putting them on a tray in front of us. After at least 18 oysters apiece my host signaled that we were done. The bartender bussed our shells and Coca Cola bottles and said “That will be $12.”
Low tides this weekend on Puget Sound. We’ll be at Frenchman’s Cove sometime Friday afternoon. It might be time Saturday go hunt up one of our geoducks and make some chowder for Sunday dinner. We have an old meat grinder that was Henry Querrette’s…the Frenchman that Frenchman’s Cove is named after. Henry homesteaded the property in 1905. The grinder is an old soldier but works pretty darn well. Henry rowed his handbuilt rowboats all over Hood Canal and I know that he knew a lot of good folks on your side of the canal. You are right…those were different times. We are trying to get a handle on the folks that live around us and it is not that easy.
Your mornings are sunny when we are still stoking the fire at 9 am on a summer morning. However we get the late afternoon and early evening sun and it can get very hot in the summer. We always say that the good folks on the other side of the canal are a lot cooler in the evening. But our sunsets kick serious rear end!
Hood Canal is one of the most beautiful places in the world. We are lucky to have it to enjoy.
Regards;
Bruce