Clam Bakes

Family Clambake Photo; 1952.
Grandpa in shaded area of photo, 3rd from left. Mom and Dad Center. Little Nancy, child standing in front row. Janie?...not thought of yet.


Cherry Picking Group Photo; 1954.
Left to right: Uncle Johnnie, Mom and little Nancy. Grandpa second from right with Wolf.

My best guess, the "last day of picking for the year", some day around August 10th, and Dad more than likely not in the picture because he had "gone with the load" (translation: the last cherries picked that day for the season delivered to the canning factory).

What would come next day or at least within a couple? Nancy and Grandpa would take a drive to the ice cream store and eat "pig's dinners".

Ah yes, Grandpa and his clambakes. Every year. Family reunion. Steamed clams, salt potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, and about a hundred pies, sure as day that at least some of them (notice I didn't write one of them) would be sour cherry and apple. The only rule; had to be a month with a "r" in it...'cause of the quality of the clam, of course. "Don't want to eat all that sand!"


"Uncle Johnnie"
The "professional" fisherman. "Fished every mile of that Lake, from here to Canada and back."

I'd hear stories told down mostly by my Dad about the size of the fish Uncle Johnnie would catch. His favorites to tell though were always about the size of the waves in the middle and how those storms could come up outta' nowhere.

Dad would throw his shoulders back proud, "Uncle Johnnie had sailed and fished the Ocean and always said Lake Ontario had more dangerous waters. It's the way the waves break on that Lake. They roll on the Ocean. On that Lake they can come from all directions at once in a storm; rolling, and crashing, and breaking. Uncle Johnnie he knew how to handle a boat out there. But I'd never try it. Not in a storm. Not in the middle. Too far to swim to shore when you are stuck out there in the middle. I'd want a pretty good size boat to try it. Then, not sure I would."

In answer to your question: yes, my Dad has crossed Lake Ontario on a boat, The Colberg when it travelled back and forth from the Port at Charlotte (Rochester) to Canada as a young man... and yes, that was a pretty large boat, indeed.