As a rule, in this particular port the selling of lobster right off the boat hasn't been a common practice. One of the reasons is that fresh-caught lobsters, at least in this area, generally have a gut full of herring or mackerel or some other bait, and generally if these lobsters are held for a couple of days, they eliminate that product from their gut and the taste tends to be a lot better.
I was particularly impressed when I first came down here, seeing the tableloads. Most places you buy a lobster, it's a big deal. There is one lobster, there is this, there is that. We can buy those green lobsters here and have them cooked, but it was a real thrill to be involved in the industry in selling not hundreds of pounds a weekend, but tonnes. To organize that and to see those people come in from all across the country, buying lobsters.... Lobsters were sized, not by pounds but by dollars.
You go to buy something and you say you'd like to buy some lobster. They ask how much money you have in your jeans. You reply you've got $20 for yourself and your lady. Okay, so you get $20 worth. You ask for $20 worth of lobster. They ask if you would like a big one or a couple of smaller ones. You reply you'll go for it. They tell you the big ones are good, they're really good, they're just cooked a little longer. Is a big, juicy roast of prime beef tasty? Of course it is. Do you cook it as you do a small steak? No, you don't, you do it differently, but they're equally good. That was a real thrill.
We used to have people lined up 25, 35 deep. That's why Joanne got into cooking and selling lobsters, because it was.... It wasn't necessarily to make a huge amount per pound, but you sold a lot of pounds and you had a lot of.... If you had sharp people on the cash and sharp people serving it, it was...and we didn't have the regulations at that time where you couldn't go in and look at it. Everybody came in. We had school kids in. We had busloads of tourists in. It was a fun time. It still is very much a fun time here on the wharf, particularly a weekend when the boats call. And because here we have the tides, we just can't go out and in when we want. Most of you would probably realize we have a 42-foot tide here most of the time. So we can really only enter and leave port for about four hours every tide, at high water.
If you have the wharves loaded with people, I think people really enjoy that. Some arrangements are made to take individuals out. I have had people come out with me a lot of different times, generally what we call high water. You're waiting for the boat to rise; the boat rises and you go like mad. You fish, fish, fish, fish; you come back in, and people have a real experience of what's going on. It's different from a day trip, but it's still very exciting, very thrilling. It's one of those things that make a really interesting trip here--the tides, the lobster, the whole thing.
But as far as cooking them in kettles along the side of the road, I was in Maine a couple of years ago and there was a super idea for a restaurant there. And if I get a chance to do that, it might happen. It was like the way we market lobster here. Put it on the table, fill it up, and all the people go ah. And they take that lobster away and eat it right outside.