Harvesting Scallops
A giclee print of my original woodcut of Harvesting Scallops where I grew up on the Niantic River in Waterford, Connecticut. Some of my fondest memories come to mind in the Autumn of the year in October, November when on "opening day” of Scallop Season, the quiet estuary would come alive at daybreak with scores of small boats; people bending over the sides looking into what appeared to be orange crates. These were "spotting boxes” that floated alongside the boat giving the Scalloper an aquarium-like view of the scallops on the riverbed below, which then could be scooped into their nets and harvested. My father in the foreground, wearing a knitted Navy cap, is emptying his net of scallops into the boat. We would catch three bushels on a tide. Folks would come from as far away as 80 miles to buy the scallops that my mother opened and sold. As a young man I took my place in the boat and scalloped each year until I left home at the age of 18. Precious memories of Indian Summer and Scallop Season!