Commission Paid in Scallops??

The idea for this blog came to me yesterday as I was responding to a comment by Jo-Anne Smith on a post , Dog Days of Summer Fishing , I posted a couple of days ago. Jo-Anne asked me if we had scallops in my area. That question caused the light bulb in my brain to illuminate.

I don't know how many of you remember the real estate market during the 1980s--but according to my parents-it was bad. Interest rates were 18% and my Dad's building/development business was struggling. It was a difficult time for anyone in real estate related businesses. There was not a whole lot of building going on and he was sitting on several spec houses with construction loans with exorbitant interest rates. The bank had to be paid every month as you would expect.

My Dad owned heavy equipment and trucks and thanks to that, he was able to pick up some work to keep the bank at bay and food on the table. One of the jobs that came his way was digging out, removing and hauling scallops shells from a fish house. He was not very happy about using his equipment to dig out the smelly shells but work was work. So he dug out the shells, loaded them on a dump truck and hauled them. At the end of each day, he washed the truck and backhoe trying to wash away the smell as best he could.

When the job was complete and he presented the fisherman with the bill, the man told my Dad he did not have the money to pay him but would like to pay him in scallops! Yes, my Dad came home with many pounds of scallops. Mom prepared and froze the scallops.

Now my Mom is a resourceful woman and an excellent cook but there are only so many ways to prepare scallops. Believe me she tried each and every method and recipe she could find. It seemed we ate scallops 5 to 6 times per week and if there was a dish on the table we did not recognize, we immediately suspected that it was scallops in disguise. You can bet we were not sad to see the last of the scallops. It was a long time after that before any of us ate scallops again.

Maybe times aren't as bad as you think, when was the last time you were paid in scallops?

Photos courtesy of Flickr

Cynthia Tilghman, Onslow Home Specialist 910 459 1989

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