European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 05, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 20 the stars and stripes monday september 5, 1977 is 7wat a afar she allow and it s my x Smeu. /4npw5ta800 by Marc Charney associated press he indians May have held the first Clambake but the Yankees around South Dartmouth Mas-s.,will Tell you that Only a Yankee can run one right. Others will argue. The portuguese who arrived on the shores of new England a couple of centuries after the Yankees say they run a Fine Clambake and so do the italians and Irish whoever. But the Yankees have a Point. A Clam bake is a complicated thing and some thing filled with tradition. With one false step you wind up with just a picnic that smells of fish. Each labor Day and fourth of july and Many of the weekends in be tween in the Small new England towns where shingled Frame houses line the Salt water Large pits Are dug in the Beach great quantities of lob Ster and Corn and clams Are set aside and teams go out to prepare this Curi Ous ritual feast. Some Are Tow wide events to raise Money for a local Lodge or Volunteer fire unit. A committee puts those together and the Public pays an admission fee to eat what the committee Cooks. It tastes Good of course but i wonder if it compares with our Clambake a smaller affair on a spit of private land where friends Chip in for the groceries and for the privilege of working up a hunger equal to the meal. It is a mixed crowd of old friends who gather every year midwesterner and new yorkers jews and ital ians French canadians and Yankees. At ours the Yankees Are clearly in charge. A bake master who grew up near South Dartmouth runs the show and after enough Beer he May Tell you about his ancestor the sea Captain. He May Tell you the lore of clambakes of the indians who in vented them but stayed away from lob sters which were taboo of the Mammoth clambakes that were run by previous generations of Yankees. The stories sound apocryphal he swears they Are True. He May warn about the Sou easter on the Hori Zon beyond the masts in the Harbor out on Buzzards Bay. Meanwhile he organizes people in teams and assigns them their tasks. It fascinates newcomers. His lady French Canadian and Yankee herself has heard it All before and goes about her work amused. And somehow lubricated by cold Beer the work gets done. Each year As we learn from our mistakes the food comes out tasting better. The first arrivals dig a pit six feet or so Long three feet wide two or three feet deep. Another team slashes about in the Salt water raking in Rock Weed filling bags with it lugging it near the pit. On the rocks near the Shore Are a Friend and his wife with their son George who was t born at the time of last year s bake. Arriving through the Brambles is the Young Yankee lady from town who once argued that Lin Guica a spicy portuguese sausage tasted Fine but just was t traditional enough for a Yankee bake. Link sausage is what we be used since. Someone is sent to find rocks the size of soccer balls no Sandstone please it won t take the heat of the fire. Others bring firewood red Oak if you can get it be cause it Burns the hottest. Still others fetch the food one lobster apiece for 30 or 40 people crates of Corn that will Cool soaking in the Salt water until ready to be cooked soft Shell clams to be wrapped in cheesecloth bags so they can be retrieved from the steaming pit potatoes onions sausage and fish fillets butter to be melted Over a campfire Watermelon to finish it off. Tripe is another traditional Yankee ingredient but we Long ago decided we weren t Complete purists and could do without it. The Wood goes into the pit Linin the Bottom for a fire that will heat the rocks so hot that the Carbon on the will Burn off. When that happens they Are ready to Cook the food. A layer of Rock Weed is thrown on the rocks and great Clouds of steam billow up. Then the potatoes then another layer of Rock Weed then the other ingredients in layers alternated with Rock Weed and in the top layer live lobsters and a final potato. A Tarpaulin goes Over the pit to Seal in the steam rocks around the Edge hold it on the ground. In an hour or two when that final potato on top of everything is soft it Means the steam has reached even the coldest parts of the pit. The lobsters Are a Brilliant red the bake is ready. It comes out a succulent melange the Rock Weed has Given off a briny steam that permeates everything the lobster and Clam juices have soaked through the Corn and the onions and they in turn have Fla voted the shellfish the fillets the sausage. The Sun is Low in the sky now and that Sou easter is sending a Damp Breeze Over us. We Bend Over the pit and bring the foldout piping hot. A Cloud of steam billowing up from the ground in our faces provokes a surreal primal feeling. It makes you Admire the indians who thought it All up and the Yankees who preserved it the newer immigrants who have adopted it and the mixed groups like ourselves who enjoy it. Last year one of us brought a group of friends visiting from England for the Bicentennial. They were fascinated. We sit on the seawall smashing lobsters open with nutcrackers or Small rocks washing Down shellfish with wine trading reminiscence. A favorite Story involves the Yankee lady from town a Quick witted sort who takes Delight in flirting and who each year brings the marshmallows. A few years ago she ran into a Young Man in a bathing suit who had just swum ashore from a boat and who introduced himself exuberantly i be been at sea for two weeks and i Haven t seen a  if you be been at sea for two weeks and All you be missed is a marshmallow you re in trouble she said with her Sau Chest flourish and then he laughed she found out Why and she turned purple. The bake master told her to watch her self in this crowd. She d been flirting with an out of uniform Catholic priest. By Erma Bombeck at wit s end a couple at a party the other night were lament ing the fact that they did t know if their children were old enough to be left alone when they go on vacation. How old a re they i asked. Fifteen 17 and 20," replied the wife. You have it All wrong said my husband. The ques Tion is not How old but How Young. Offhand i d say you missed it by 12 years. You could have gone when they were three five and eight but not  you Are too funny said the woman but i m  so Are we i interrupted. Did you Ever hear of a three year old calling up 100 of her closest friends and having a party the minute your car leaves the driveway or a five year old getting your car stuck sideways inthe garage or an eight year old leaving the Garden Hose running for 15 Days and finding your Trees waiting to merge on the expressway chimed in another father. You can t leave a seven year old said the woman indignantly. Listen said another observer. My daughter at seven could have run general motors from a Sand Box. She could make a meal handle major Deci Sions dress herself and i once saw her move a piano when a Barbie head rolled under it. She knew How to adjust the color on the to set walk in the attic with out a floor and could sniff out bananas i was saving through three inches of Metal. The Only thing she needed me for was to make out her Deposit slips at the Bank. That s the year we should have goal on a vacation with her Home running things. Not 10 years  what happened 10 years later we asked. According to the police report it was a 746." which was blocking off streets for a Parade without a permit. Kidnapping and holding an assistant principal against his will. Assault naming three Drums 12 guitars and a Bass As weapons causing hearing damage to anyone within a radius of 112 Miles and sterility in a 34-year-old Milkman who left his truck. Unsanctioned gathering of 150 people in a House built As a single family dwelling causing the Kitchen to become a health and fire Hazard. There were also charges of neglect to the dog who had t been fed anything in three weeks except pizza and space dust but the testimony was weak. But leaving Small children constitutes neglect said the couple. We know but it beats a 746." c Field enterprises. Inc