RE: OT NON-FICTION: The Crabs

[AustinBoston]

 Many years ago, on one of those hot summer days when you have to do something to escape the heat, we took our two small girls down to Horseneck Beach on the South Coast of Massachusetts.
 
 Horseneck Beach is a State Reservation that was set up after the 1938 hurricane.  Before the hurricane, there were relatives that owned cabins in the area, but after the hurricane, the state decided the properties in the area were not reparable and took the land by imminent domain.  The beach is at least a half-mile long (maybe more) and is famous for surf. It is not unusual to see dozens of surfers trying to catch the waves.
 
 We don t surf, but we do like to go out as far as we dare, holding each other s hands, and let the waves sweep us off our feet.  We ll do it for as long as our bodies can stand the cold water, then we ll scramble our blue skin ashore to warm up.  As soon as we re warm, we head back into the water, or make some sand castles, or walk the beach.
 
 Meanwhile, there are often a thousand or more people on the beach, with all the typical beach things going on.  People can be seen sunning themselves, hiding under umbrellas, listening to the radio, trying to eat sandwiches filled with sand, playing games of Frisbee and volleyball.  There are blankets and coolers and towels and dogs and beach chairs everywhere.
 
 If you don t like the crowds, just start walking.  The beach is long enough so that if you walk far enough, the crowds will taper off and you can find stretches of beach with only a few people, or on a slower day, nobody at all.
 
 In another section of the park, there is a pont of land (the " horseneck" ) that reaches a short way out into the bay.  The point includes more sandy beach as well as rocks and the remains of old WWII gun and lookout placements.  In this same area, there are stands where one can get hot dogs, fried clams, or ice cream.
 
 So on this promising summer day, we headed down to temporarily claim our piece of sandy beachfront real estate.
 
 At least, that s what we planned to do.  We arrived just after they closed the parking lot.  It was full.  We decided to drive down near the neck, where there is a very small parking area, and see if we could find a spot, but our luck was against us.
 
 It took an hour and a half to drive down here.  We were not going to just lay down and accept defeat.  So I opened the map and found another State Park nearby.  It was called Demarest-Lloyd SP.  We knew nothing about it.  It was not clear from the map how to get there.  But we headed in the general direction hoping to pick up the signs.
 
 We did find signs, and within 20 minutes we were in the parking lot and parked.  This place turned out to be a hidden gem.  This was much warmer water than Horseneck.  There was no surf.  Well offshore, there was clearly a strong tidal current, so we would simply avoid that area.  There was plenty of shallow water near shore for the girls to play in, and in another area there was a long sandbar with children playing on it.
 
 There were crabs in the water.  We saw them now and then, running from us or from our shadows as we walked.  Most were 5-6 inches across, but many were smaller than that.  There were people there who had collected coolers full of them.  I was unsure of the legality of collecting them, but I was not going to make an issue of it.  It was clear that their intention was to eat them.
 
 This, of course, meant that the girls, who were still quite small, wanted to be carried.  There were cries of " The crabs will get us!"  whenever they were expected to walk in the beautiful, warm, clear water.  PJay and I tried to reassure them that the crabs would not get them.
 
 We played and splashed and walked in the shallows.  And tried to fend off the demands to be picked up.  " The crabs are going to pinch my toes!"
 
 " No, they are not."
 " Yes, they will, Daddy! Please pick me up! Please!"
 
 This happened again and again, in the saddest whine you ever heard.  YUou d have thought we had condemned them to death.  Sometimes, we would pick them up for a minute or two, then put them back in the warm, clear water.  As soon as their feet were wet, it would start again.  Round and round it went.  I?d come here to relax, and this seemed like the perfect setting.  But this crab business was getting on my nerves.
 
 " Daddy, I m scared.  The crabs are going to grab and pinch my toes!"  The whines had not worked, so DD#1 had put on her bravest non-whine voice.
 " For the last time, [:@]THE CRABS ARE NOT GOING TO PINCH YOUR TOES!" [:@]
 
 I m sure I got the attention of people on shore with my bellowing, and I certanly can bellow.  I intended it to be the last time I said it.  It was.  You see, before I was done bellowing out this declaration of crab-non-pinching, I had pulled my foot completely out of the water with crab still firmly attached.  It must have looked like a scene from a cartoon, where the toe manages to be six inches long and bigger than the rest of the foot, and of course the crab would have looked to be two feet across.  I hoped the girls hadn t seen it, because I really didn t want to spend all afternoon carrying one or both of them.  It wasn?t painful, but explaining that to a three-year-old and a five-year-old who had already worked themselves into a frenzy would be useless.
 
 Of course, both girls saw the crab.  I had lost, and neither girl touched the water again.[:@]
 
 We have been back to both beaches numerous times, but every visit to Demarest-Lloyd SP is accompanied with the story of the crabs that won t pinch your toes.
 
 Austin
 
 P.S. Sadly, about 5 years ago, a teenage girl got caught in the strong offshore tidal current at Demarest-Lloyd, was swept out into the cove, and drowned.  This has clearly kept a lot of people away from the park.  We still visit the park, but the crowds (especially for the first few years after the drowning) have been much thinner on those hot summer days. - AB

[wiininkwe]

 AustinBoston
What a sweet story, thanks AB, for always having a gift to give us.
 T
 []

[ShirleyT]

 wiininkwe
After reading AB s plea [8D] for posts on his story on birols message I figured I had enough time to read the story now and comment. (I have tried several times to read the story but the phone, dinner or something always kept me from reading the whole story [:@]).
 
 My comments: YOU SHOULD NEVER LIE TO YOUR CHILDREN!! [] Of course we all know you didn t do it intentionally [] it seems they have never forgotten the crab escapade! This is undoubtly one of the great stories you will be able to share with your grandkids. But my advice is to wait until they are grown so they won t have a fear of crabs either! [8D][8D][][]

[Wayfarer]

 AustinBoston
I had crabs once.  [&:]
 
 Never will forget  em!
 
 [font=" Script MT Bold" ]Wayfarer[/font][/size]
 

[AustinBoston]

 ShirleyT

ORIGINAL:  ShirleyT
 My comments: YOU SHOULD NEVER LIE TO YOUR CHILDREN!! [] Of course we all know you didn t do it intentionally [] it seems they have never forgotten the crab escapade! This is undoubtly one of the great stories you will be able to share with your grandkids. But my advice is to wait until they are grown so they won t have a fear of crabs either! [8D][8D][][]
 

 Is it a lie if you believed it (until proven otherwise)?
 
 Oh, when it comes to the grandchildren, the crabs will weigh 40 pounds, [] and I will have to go to the hospital to get my toe re-attached. [][] And oh, by the way, the crabs love to hide unther the bed![][][][]
 
 Austin []

[ShirleyT]

 AustinBoston
You be bad AB you be bad!! [][]

[birol]

 AustinBoston
Hilarious, he bellows "  CRABS WON" T BITE YOUR FEET AND THERE IS ONE HANGING FROM HIS TOE " !!!!!
 
 
 Bad AB bad ! I bet you never lied to your children ever again, if you did, all they have to do is go " crabs" , giggle and you are toast [][][]
 
 

[Turn Key]

 AustinBoston
Great stuff, AB.  And no, it s not a lie if you believe it to be true.

[tlhdoc]

 AustinBoston
AB I think you should give up computers and take up writing full time.  Thanks for the story.

[Starcraft Dad]

 AustinBoston
Loved the story AB.  I think I need to start printing your stories, put them in a binder and lable it " AB s Greatest Hits."   COuld be some neat campfire stories to read to the kids.
 
 Not meaning to be OT, but the drowning of the girl is tragic.  I just want to remind our members that if you all come to Michigan, be aware that even though the great lakes are just that, lakes, we do have rip tides caused from storms out on the lake.  We have had seven people drown in the last two weeks swimming in the southern parts of Lake Michigan.  They can become very dangerous at any given time, very quickly.
 
 I now return you to your local programming.

[wiininkwe]

 AustinBoston
Ya know, this sort of reminds me of when we used to take the kids to the beach at Lake Michigan, and there was a spot by the pier where there was supposed to be an under tow.   We always warned them that they were not to enter the water there, and reinforced it by telling them that they could get pulled under and drown.   Well, it wasn t  til they were much older that we found out that for several years the whole bunch of them believed that there was a " Big Toe"  lurking under the water there that would try to snag you.   They were half fascinated by the thought that they might get to see it, and the other half was scared to death that it would get them.
 T
 []

[campingboaters]

 AustinBoston
We took a day trip to Wildwood NJ this past weekend and spent some time on the beach and plyaing in the water.  It was one of those perfect days -- not too hot, not too windy and the water was just the right temperature so you didn t freeze going in and their were no jellyfish.  As I was wading out in to the crashing waves and teaching my 5YO to " jump"  over the waves, she was asking if there were any crabs out there!!  I just started laughing because I didn t want to lie to her, but I also didn t want her to never enter the water again!  
 
 I " feel"  your pain Austin!   [8D]

[Gone-Camping]

 AustinBoston
Never been to the second one, but your story brings back fond memories of my childhood. My parents would load the family up and head for Horseneck Beach at least twice per summer, and parking back then was a pain in the butt too (this was back in the mid 60 s). I do remember that water being absolutely frigid, it " made things shrink"  to the tinies porportions! I also remember seeing Horseshoe Crabs on that particular beach, and lot s of seaweed washed up (does it still do that there???).
 
 In comparison now that I live down here in Va Beach area and play down on Cape Hatteras Island, the water is so much warmer... about 80§ water temps or so in the summer months!
 
 Thanks for the story and jogging my memory!!! []

[Ab Diver]

 AustinBoston
Austin-- finally got around to reading your story. The picture in my mind s eye of you doing the " soft-shell shuffle"  on one foot while holding your girls is beyond hilarious.  Thanks for sharing.
 
 On a different crabby note, a bunch of friends and I were cleaning our day s catch at the ocean way back when we were barely teenagers.  The list of seafood caught was long-- anything that was legal to take was taken. While the 8 of us were all gathered around the fish-cleaning station, cleaning our abalones, ling-cod, cabazone, rock-fish, perch, scallops, mussels, and rock-crabs, the usual boyhood bravado, challenges, and friendly insults were hurled back and forth. If a particularly good " zinger"  was hurled at one guy, it was met with a round of laughter at the poor unfortunate s lack of one-up-man-ship if he didn t come right back with a snappy retort. If the round of laughter was particularly loud and long, sometimes a handful of whatever was being cleaned at that moment by the loser might be hurled back in your direction. I one-upped one guy, only to have a handful of perch guts thrown at me. (Yah, I know, it s gross. Ladies, young boys can do some gross stuff. Get over it. [] ) As I dodged the offending offal, I forgot what I was doing and let the rock crab I was attempting to de-claw slip in my hand. In a last great act of defiance, it pinched my thumb right through the flesh on one side, and clean through the thumbnail on the other side. (Rock crabs are good eating, but have STRONG claws). The site of me flinging my bloody hand in all directions trying to free my stricken thumb, while screaming bloody murder at the crab, made me the day s big loser by all up-man-ship accounting procedures then known to our group.
 
 So what s the moral of our two stories? Nothing, I guess, but sometimes us " highly evolved"  primates lose a battle or two with the those lowly invertebrates, eh? Problem is, it always seems to happen when there s a crowd around to see it. []

[Firefyter-Emt]

 AustinBoston

Oh, when it comes to the grandchildren, the crabs will weigh 40 pounds

 So, Uh Tom... Something ya all not telling us?? What s up with " the grandchildern" ?? []
 
 Or.. maybe something you are just whishing for??? []