HOW TO COOK A CLAM BOIL.

Donna Parker is renowned for her clam boil so I'm sharing her recipe and method. First she scrubbed up about 8 potatoes and 6 pounds of little neck clams. The potatoes go in the bottom of a big corn cooker pot. She covers them with water and 1 can of beer, arranges the clams on top and sprinkles them lightly with salt to taste cayenne pepper.

Next she loads individual cheesecloth bags with the meat. Here is 8 hot dogs.

This is 12 breakfast sausage and another bag holds  four linguisa cut into chunks. You can place the meat in the pot without a bag, but it is easier to dish up from the bag, explains Donna.
The meat is arranged on top with four vidalia onions and all is set to boil. It takes about 45 minutes from cold start to finish. Donna cooked four ears of corn, broken in half, in a separate pot.

Bob tied a lobster bib on Jim and then the feasting began while the clams boiled.

We visited and snacked on shrimp and crackers and ate lobster because at the Parkers, a clam boil is a feast and you have to have lobster, too.

In 2010 when we visited, Bob taught me how to pet the lobster to put it in yet another giant pot to cook. You stand them on their tails, pet them and they become docile and go into the boiling hot water without thrashing and splashing. These one to one and a quarter pounders cost $3.99 each already cooked. They are soft-shelled. You can crack them open with your fingers. Bob explained that lobster shed their shells and the newly grown shells are still soft. They don't taste any different.  In may they are caught before shedding.

Bob poured a bit of strawberry bubbly.

Donna loaded individual bowls with clams and for each a cup of the broth.

You load up your plate with potatoes, onion, meat  and corn. Pour on a bit of butter and broth and chow down. The clams you dip in the broth first, (or vinegar if you prefer) then into the butter and enjoy. Yum. The broth is so delicious, you can drink it straight, cup after cup. I got to take some back to the motor home.
I must apologize for no pictures of Donna. I was concentrating so hard on the recipe and getting every step in the process, and busily eating in between, I forgot to take a picture of all of us before I waddled, much too full,  out to the motor home with my containers of broth.

DEPRESSION YEARS

The depression affected people differently in different parts of the country as stated previously. But, no one was immune. Phyllis Morad, 78, of Groveland, (as featured in Tuolumne County "friends and neighbors magazine) lived in Buffalo, New York. "The depression lingered for years until the war started. "...I remember our icebox was in the hall. The iceman had to come weekly with his big tongs and ice cube. The rag man came in a horse and wooden wagon, yelling 'Rags!'All the women kept their rags in a special bag. He would weigh them and pay for them. Lots of our meals were soup and rye bread. My mom sewed. She made my sister and me matching outfits, and curtains for the house. One day, my father came home with a brand-new sewing machine. She was in tears and made him take it back, because even though she really wanted it, she knew we couldn't afford the payments.
I remember stepping on tin cans and toothpaste tubes, made out of lead, which were saved for the war effort. We had rationing for shoes, sugar and butter, little stamps to get those items. If you needed shoes and didn't have a stamp...what were you going to do?"
Facing a depressed economy today is harder since most families have become used to instant gratification. We can learn a great deal from the past.