POKER
So Poker. Well it started out, on Friday nights. The women were unpacking the groceries and making beds, getting the house opened up so to speak. The men were icing and tapping the beer, and the kids were playing. Everyone brought something already prepared for dinner that night so after everyone ate the games bagan. Some one's Great Aute "Tilly" (LOL not her real name) had donated a big maple dining room table. So the women would chat on the porch and the men started playing poker for chips at the table. During the day they biult picnic tables and such and the game moved outside. This went on during the weekend. After awhile the men started playing for pennies and nickles, and the women started playing for chips. Over a few years the men progressed to nickle dime quarter, the women to penny nickle and the kids played for chips. This was not good.
They all put a small portion of each pot into a kitty, and when there was enough they bought us kids "The Yacht". It was an old rowboat with oars, and we kept loosing the oar locks. Towards the end the men were playing for dollars and that was the beginning of the end of the shore.
So after we had the yacht they made us a trout line and we crabbed. Chicken necks or smoked eels as bait. We would row out to one end and pull the line by hand, dipping each crab into a wicker basket. When there were enough they got steamed, and the females went into she crab soup. Saturdays the women & kids sat around the table and shelled peas, cut green beans, potatoes carrots, onions, all the veggies for the soup. The pot was huge and made like 15 gallons of soup. You had to stand on a stool to reach and stir it with a wooden paddle. But it sure was good stuff. But the steamed crabs were always my favorite. I woke my parents up more than once hammering claws at 6 a.m. lol. Eating them was good but catching then was more fun. We also had a seine and would walk the low water and catch soft shell crabs and minnows to use for bait. GTG more later