The night was damp and cool after a warm day. Perfect to form the fog that visits this time of the year, which it did, as we found our way in the night through the woods and across the state line. The clusters of fog around water sources were dangerous on these roads because of deer and curvy roads. We'd come this way when Katrina visited; the backroads that take you around cities and communities. That time I'd been dodging Mobile Bay and a tunnel on I-10 that could have left us sitting in the middle of Mobile Bay. This time we were visiting friends for Christmas.
It's an old smuggling trail of sorts and connects one of the most isolated places in our area with the big city lying upstream to the northeast. Very few know the way. And I personally know of a concrete dock out in the middle of the marsh that connects that place in the middle of nowhere with the rest of the world. It's a world on the edge of two states, hidden and blending into the same monotone color the marsh grass depicts. All the same and unimpressive to uneducated eyes.
Yes, I can say there has been very much commercial activity in that area all of my life.
Back then they were running motorcycles out of a bar. Car parts. Things. A clue was the numerous junkyards stuck back on one-lane roads, half hidden in the piney woods and the gall berry bushes. Who knows exactly what was going on, but business was good. One of the biggest players was a tough old man named Charlie and everybody that knew, didn't mess with that dude at all. Very small guy too. One of those people in life that had come up tough and was very old. And mean as a snake when things went sideways. Any other time with any other person and he was the nicest guy you've ever met. Old biker dude. Married half a dozen very pretty young wives. All blonde. If you lived here any time at all, eventually you'd run across him. Most people never even knew because he didn't fit the pattern.
If you listen and don't try to impress on people, they loosen up and tell you stuff. I always kept a tight mouth around those bayou people. For one thing, they didn't need me or my opinions, and another if you run in trying to be in control, they'd shuffle you right on over to the dead end street and just keep right on trucking. The water life is a tough taskmaster. You don't bluff that and they had lived it. They knew everyone worth knowing in the whole county and were related to half of them. And all of them had paid their dues and scraped a living here for a very long time. Most have a decidedly different opinion on matters of legality and occupations. Not very many doctors and lawyers, that's for sure. (As if those positions are void of reproach.)
I remember one trip out there. I had a commercial ice maker that needed selling and of course that caught the attention of one of the seafood guys. Somehow I'm able to set many people at ease right off the bat and he and I clicked as soon as we met to discuss the sale. It was green-headed horsefly season and they were fierce. I just kept moving and maybe that's what it was, the ability to suffer through swarms of flying sadists intent on drinking your blood. At any rate he wanted the ice maker and had a perfect set-up for it. A dock in the back yard with access to unmetered water to feed the ice maker. An elevated house for the hurricane tides. A above-ground pool filled with kids. A very pretty wife with the perkiest set I've ever seen on such a woman of that age. He told me he used to fish off Peru....
Check. Check. Check.
I had meant to go get some oysters from him but I've lost his card and number and don't really know if I can remember where his house was. Down one of those one-lane roads out in the middle of nowhere. It is considered sort of rude in this/that place just to show up. You also can get shot or bitten by the dog.
Up in east Texas where my parents lived for a while, my dad sent me over to a neighbor's house like 5 miles away. Close neighbor. LOL Anyway, my dad said when you get to the gate, stop and get out and lean against the truck. The neighbor will eventually decide you're harmless and come out to talk to you. Tell him who you are and how you know him. Don't do anything "stupid" because his wife is "Meaner than a cat with a sore tooth." I got there and back without any new holes in my body so I figure it was a win. The come-along worked but I let my dad return it. 8)
Tom Mooney knows a little about that part of the world. The fog got me to drifting back over that trail and that's where I wound up (in my head). I was surprised to see the dock out there in the middle of nothing but I kept a poker face. You'd never know it until you're 100 yds away. There's bad juju in them woods. I stay away mostly but I know a bunch of those folks. Many are very good people, just poor. And I can't say for sure lately, but the oysters that used to come out of that place were the best you could get anywhere.
We drew Christmas shift one time which means Wed -Sun evening shift. You were stuck unless some fool would swap with you. One of the machinists was tonging oysters and he decided to treat us for our holiday meal. He and his partner in crime, a Polish guy, would create pandemonium every evening as we went to work, joking and carrying on. It was a good shift.
We arrived and he had five oysters in a five gallon bucket because that's all it would hold. They were GINORMOUS...one of the General Formen has mentioned wanting some big oysters and he brought him some. He said he was poling from one spot to another and found only those five in a place. We had a great meal and a good shift.