Norhtwest Harbor

Northwest Harbor, I can remember getting up at 3 am, loading the boat, hooking up the trailer with boat and setting out for the day's scalloping at Northwest Harbor.

It must have been all of 23 degrees out and when we arrived at the launching ramp we had to chop the ice away from the ramp so that we could launch out boat into the cold darkness 0f the harbor.

I was the most prolific scallop hole in those days you could get into the boat at 6 am and be back ashore, boat loaded, 15 "bags" on board, that was the limit of bushels of scallops 2 men on one boat could take in those days, at ll am and head for the shucking house where we would spend the next 6 hours shucking scallops. After that was finished I would inspect the dredges and repair the nets or sometimes have to weave a whole new basket. Scallop shells and winkles are pretty cruel to the twine netting on a scallop dredge.

All for that $80 share that I would receive. That was a good days pay back in those days, I can remember being able to pay the bills on that kind of money and still have some left over for groceries and some fun. If you skipped the fun (wasn't likely) and went scalloping for five days in a row, then you were really making money. Some days it would be so quiet on the water you could hear your soul thinking. Most days the wind blew, it rained and it was damned cold. It got so cold that we would have to chop the ice from our path to the scallop hole with an wood axe. That would slow us down so that we were good and cold until we started hauling the dredges in and culling the scallops.

You could find almost anything on that cull board. It was like a treasure hunt finding mostly scallops (keepers), clams, fish, and an occasional rubber boot or glove. The best finds were fishing tackle that some poor bloke lost while trying to haul in that cocktail bluefish one had on the end of their fishing pole.

That was good times, as I sit here and ponder what will happen to it all. The scalloping is about gone, no piss clams, few if any hard clams, the economy in the toilet, I thank my higher power for social security.