Stewpendous!Shrimptacular!Oysterrific!
I went to the Oyster Roast hungry, which is a bad plan for a reporter. It’s hard to take notes and photos with a bowlful of fish stew in hand, and it’s impossible to be unbiased with a full tummy of goodness. I wasn't alone.
Approximately 375-400 people got a full tummy of goodness, feasting on 45 bushels of oysters, 250 pounds of shrimp, and 2 big barrels of fish stew.
"It was absolutely the best Oyster Roast we've ever had!" said Ocracoke Seafood Company manager Pattie Plyler. Who could argue with that?
If only I could imbue the Current with Odor-Rama, you would smell the Oyster Roast and a sniff would be worth a thousand words. Oysters, steam, beer, shrimp, fish stew, vinegar, the briny water of Silver Lake, the salty sand and mud washed off the oysters, the cool crisp air of an island winter day, the sun beating down (yes, you can smell it), and the wonderful miasma that always surrounds the fish house – ahhh, that’s the sweet aroma of Ocracoke’s commercial fishing heritage. The Oyster Roast puts the fun in funky!
And the sounds! The rumble and thunder of oysters being tumbled onto plywood tables, the scrape of oyster knives, the sucking and slurping, the clatter of empty shells tossed into buckets, the crack of aluminum cans being opened (O happiest of sounds!), the slap of rubber boots on the fish house floor, the spraying of water, the mellow rock of the Aaron Caswell Band, and the laughter and happy shouts of recognition as shuckers see old friends and meet new ones.
The Oyster Roast is ostensibly about the seafood, but really it’s the best place to see and be seen on Ocracoke. Friends, neighbors, familiar faces, and new people all gather in the warm sunshine to celebrate that we actually can gather in the warm sunshine outside on the 27th of December.
“The day couldn’t have been better – we couldn’t have asked for anything more,” said Ocracoke waterman Rudy Austin, who was pleased with the weather and the success of this off-season event. “We have a lot of people coming to the island for the whole weekend just to come to this.”
I decided to interview some of those people, and the first one I chatted with was first-timer Alison Kemp from Hertford, NC, who was here with friends. He’d already eaten some oysters, some shrimp and some stew. He kept shucking while I talked, and agreed that he’d be back again next year.
Alison’s friend, Dusty Poole of Clayton, NC, was enjoying his 7th Oyster Roast.
“I love the island – I love just being here,” he said, adding that he’d only ever been to Ocracoke the last week of December.
The youngest member of their group was Dallas Bateman, currently of Glouster County, VA, where he started off as a crabber and now works in landscaping. This was his 2nd trip to Ocracoke for the Oyster Roast.
Dallas was there with his granduncle Paul Bateman from Selma, NC, who was delighted to learn that I represented the Ocracoke Current. “That’s my fat belly on the front page!” he exclaimed, identifying himself as the oyster-eater in the steamy photo I took last year (and used in the Shuck It story earlier this month.) Who better to interview than a Current cover boy?
“I love this place,” he said about Ocracoke. “I love to come over and hang out – it’s a magic place.”
Paul first visited 40 years ago, and for the past 7 years, he and his wife have arrived every Christmas day and stayed a week. He loves the Oyster Roast, and talked all the other guys into joining the fun. As a regular visitor, Paul's gotten to know some island people (now including me!). He’s also a fan of the local music scene and was thrilled to hear Martin Garrish and Marcy Brenner play at the Topless Oyster Friday night.
"The locals here are a national treasure," he said. Who could argue with that?
As the Oyster Roast was winding down, people headed over the the Working Watermen's exhibit in the Community Square, where dessert and hot cider were being served. The Square, the exhibit, and the docks were swarming like it was a summer day!
Later, I stopped by the Fish House at dusk to talk to Pattie Plyler and Tree Ray, who were cleaning up.
"It was a good time," Tree said.
Pattie was really happy with the turn-out and the success of the whole event. Tree was responsible for most of the planning and organizing for the first time this year and Pattie couldn’t praise her enough. She was also full of kudos for Tree's mom, Carissa VanderVere, who volunteered to sell t-shirts at the Oyster Roast and was still shucking oysters in the dark (to make a stew the next day.)
Pattie’s also happy that the Oyster Roast brings out Ocracoke’s local 20- and 30-somethings to help steam, shuck, eat, and clean up. Many of them were still there, enjoying the last rays of winter sunshine.
“All of young people are out on the dock watching the sunset and eating oysters,” Pattie told me. “It’s the perfect end to a perfect day.”
