Crabs in Maryland

This past weekend I went home for the first time since Christmas. Obviously a lot of the conversation centered on the upcoming wedding--but hey, that's to be expected when your mother is having her first child married in under a year. A highlight of the trip was going to a restaurant called the Crab Shack Deck, in Kent Narrows, which is just east of Annapolis across the Bay Bridge. After mom's white-knuckled drive across the three-mile long bridge, we stumbled upon this popular spot located within a small marina before crossing the last bridge to Maryland's Eastern Shore. It was the type of place where crabs should be eaten--concrete floor, picnic tables, and paper coverings for easy shell clean up. It had been well over a year since I last had them, so when a dozen steaming large size crabs smothered in Old Bay were dumped on our table it was like heaven. They tasted like they were pulled out of the water mere hours earlier and they were cooked just right. The sky was blue and the sun was warm, it was a good time.

As is the case in the yin and yang of life, the next night we had crabs again, only now at an all-you-can eat event at an American Legion in Laurel, Maryland. The event was filled with a treasure trove of blue hairs and red necks but that's not to say it wasn't fun. The crabs, while not as good as what we had the night before, were never ending, and how many times in one's life do you have the opportunity to drink a cold brew poured from a beer branded crayon tub? ---Maybe we should use that serving method as a Maryland regional nod at the wedding reception. In the end it was still fun, although my sister and I bolted the second the lights dimmed and the country/western/rock/folk singer took the stage causing a crab-filled local to take the first spot on the dance floor.

This was the conversation overheard from an older woman and her daughter as I left the place with my sister.

Mom-"I think one of those frogs cut me"

Daughter-"What?"

Mom-"One of those frogs, it cut my finger"

Daughter-"We didn't eat frogs"

Mom-"You know, one of the shells, it cut me"

Daughter-"You mean crab shell"

Mom-"Frog, crab, same thing"

Daughter-"They're not the same, mom"

Mom-"They're both, you know, amphibians or something"

Daughter-"Crabs are crustaceans"

Mom-"Well they're the same to me, and it whatever it's called, it cut me"


Folks, I couldn't make this stuff up.