Snug Harbor Rhode Island Businesses and People
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| DIRECTIONS
TO SNUG HARBOR, RHODE ISLAND |
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| From
the West: Rte.
95 North to exit 92, right onto Rte.2, |
| 1.5
mi. down turn right onto Rte. 78. Go to end, turn
left onto |
| Rte.1
North, in approximately 15 minutes, take Snug
Harbor |
| East
Matunuck-Jerusalem exit onto Succotash Road, then left |
| at
fork onto Gooseberry Road, go straight to Point
Judith Marina's parking lot. |
| From
the North: Rte.
95 South to Rte.4 South to Rte.1 South, |
| in
approximately 15 minutes, take Snug Harbor-East
Matunuck Jerusalem exit (this will be a left exit)
onto Succotash Road, then left at fork onto
Gooseberry Road, go straight to Point Judith
Marina's parking lot. |
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Snug
Harbor Rhode Island Business
Snug
Harbor, certainly has changed over the years.
Summering there when I was a kid I can remember only one
store really. The old
fishing supply, tackle, mini-supermarket of sorts for all the
fisherman down at the old Snug Harbor Marina.
That marina had been there since my father was a boy, I can
still remember his stories of going down to the marina to help the
fisherman and boaters with their boats.
I followed in suit and so did my younger brother.
Now
we did not think of that little market at the Snug Harbor Marina
as a “mini-supermarket” back when I was a kid.
Nope, that mini-market and little café was more of a CANDY
STORE. YES! That’s
right, they were a penny candy store, boy you really sure could
get a lot in those days for two quarters.
My
brother and I would sneak off to the “Candy Store” and buy all
sorts of penny candies, of course we would occasionally get into a
little “hotwater” with the folks about eating too much candy
before supper, but hey it was vacation.
I
can even remember one instance where I snuck down to the
“market”, at the Snug Harbor Marina, without my little
brother. I was
addicted at the time to the sweet taste and the high I got from
sugar. I bought all
sorts of candy. When
returned back to the house, my mom caught me and gave me the
typical motherly “third degree”, about where I had been.
As a typical young kid on vacation I tried to lie, or at
least leave out the pertainent details.
To no avail I could not hide the blugging bag of penny
candy. When she (mom)
found that bag I new I was in not just hot water by deep water,
well over my head. Thinking
fast on my feet. I
told her it wasn’t my fault.
The lady behind the counter at the market was a terrific
saleswoman. I grabbed
mom’s attention with this line.
Then it started as I spun my tale.
You
see it was not my fault I bought all this penny candy.
I went down there just for a small treat for myself.
I started buying all sorts of candy and as was and is
probably still typical for me it was difficult to make up my mind.
I took too long deciding.
So the lady (who really was a stunning teenage girl about
six or seven years older than I with a bikini top on) asked me:
How much money do you have?
Now by this point I had all of mom’s attention and I
thought, based on her facial expressions she was starting to take
the story, yup hook line and sinker I thought to myself.
So I continued with an innocent face, wasn’t my fault
really…I dumped all my money on the counter and the girl behind
the counter counted it out, then she started suggestion candies to
me and scooping them out of their bottles and boxes and counting
them out. By the time
we were done I had not even one penny left.
But WOW did I have a big bag of candies.
So big I couldn’t carry it with one hand it took two
hands, now I did not tell mom that part about the big bag, because
by the time she caught me I had already eaten some, kind of like
drinking a drink a little bit to make sure you don’t spill any
while you walk with it, same concept by with a bag of penny
candies. My tale spun
on and on, how she (mom) should not be mad at me I was gullible
and was suckered and sold by a crafty sales woman at the Marina.
I had thought she took my bait and “fish-tale” hook
line and sinker. I sighed with relief.
But she hadn’t, in retrospect she thought my tale was so
good she would just save it a few minutes until my dad was done
with his tinkering, now my old man loved to tinker and putter,
whether after work on weekdays at home, on the weekends or even
during summer vacation, whether it was his house or a rental as it
was in this case. He
was always looking for something to do, something to improve and
make better, although it was not always the case.
About fifteen minutes passed and then dad was back in
the house. Mom
could not wait to get out my tale to him.
I could not believe it, I had thought this was between mom
and I, hadn’t she taken the story hook line and sinker?
Evidentially not, in fact not many if any stories at all
got past her, although she liked to believe her two little boys,
yup no sisters, just two trouble making boys, had she.
Dad was and still is a skeptic, hardly says a word, unless
it has tremendous meaning or is a good joke or story to make
people laugh. Now
this tale my mom was about to tell him became a certainty to be
re-told again and again about how gullible I must be, but said in
such a sarcastic and certainly fecious tone and manner as to not
only embarrass me, but remind me that mom and dad will always be
much smarter than I. Mom
told Dad the tale I had spun to her, dad shook his head, without a
moment to think and blurted out, he did not believe a word I
uttered. Years later
he would still tell the story of the “fish-tale”, and it
really was a fish tale since many of the penny candies I bought
down at the Snug Harbor Marina were “Swedish fish”, small
little gummy candies for a penny a piece sometimes two for a
penny. Sometimes I
was really luck and got more than one for the same price, those
little gummy fish called Swedish fish would stick together in the
hot humid summer air, at the marina market, there was never air
conditioning there, even to this day they have no air conditioning
just a big old industrial fan in the corner to help circulate the
refreshing ocean air.
BUSINESS of Snug Harbor Rhode Island
Today:
Snug
Harbor Rhode Island today has many businesses, not just the boat
building yard, the Gooseberry Marina and the Snug Harbor Marina
that were there when I was a boy.
But there is a regular market, which is thriving during the
summer time those few short peak months when I used to vacation
there when I was a boy. Usually
the months of June, July and August.
Now however that mom an dad’s wish and long-time dream
has come true and they are semi-retired they now live fulltime
down at Snug Harbor.
During
the winter the regular market is not open all the time, but during
the summer it certainly is a busy place, there is still that
little market down at the Snug Harbor Marina, the “candy
counter” is still in the same place, although with a lot less
candy these days and much more expensive, although on a recent
trip to Snug Harbor I can remember seeing a little container of
those Swedish fish.
Snug
Harbor has experienced quite a bit of growth, the old boat
building yard, now too is a marina, with so many boats and docks,
all the boats don’t fit in the water!
They have this curious looking fork-lift looking machine
that actually picks the boats out of the water and then places
them neatly on racks. Yup,
racks that go up three Boats high, that’s right they stack the
boats up like matchbox cars in a child’s play set.
The Snug Harbor Marina is still best known for it’s
fishing tournaments, it’s regular fisherman that bring their
daily catch into the marina for sale, it’s lobsters, wow do I
like those Rhode Island Lobsters, and those little clams they call
“cherry stones”, sometimes at restaurants they call them
casino clams. Actually
that name: Casino
Clams was actually coined around the turn of the century in
Naragansett, Rhode Island not too far from Snug Harbor.
You see during the turn of the century Naragansett, Rhode
Island was the play ground of the rich and famous, similar to that
of Newport, Rhode Island, famous for it’s Mansions, called
“cottages”, for people like the Lodges, the Rockafellers, and
Hudsons and others with lots of money.
Now at Naragansett on the pier they had the first casino in
the United States. At
that casino they strived to serve all sorts of sea food.
Those curious looking little clams, which still to this day
you can wade into the water, sometimes ankle deep, usually knee
deep and if you are really into clamming you can go up to your
waste or deeper clamming. Some
people use rakes and others just their bare feet smooshing around
in the sand on the ocean bottom until they feel one of those clams
and then scooping them up, placing them in a bucket to bring home
to have some fresh casino clams, or cherry stones as I like to
call them. Back to
where the name Casino Clams comes from, coined in old Naragansett
on the Nargansett pier at the first Casino.
Those rich and stuffy people did not very much like to eat
raw clams which are today considered a delicacy of sorts.
So an innovative chef came up with a little recipe where he
would take those clams and wrap them in bacon and seasoning and
bake the clams in the half shell serving them up as appetizers
also known as ordeovers and serve them to the rich and stuffy
people vacationing during the summer and spending their money at
the casino. To appeal
to them (the rich) the clams were referred to as Casino Clams and
ever since all over the country and even to the present day in the
true Casino destination resort community of Las Vegas, Nevada,
those clams are referred to prepared the same way as Casino Clams,
but it is the name cherry stones that I will always remember and
think of them as.
Rhode
Island Oil Spill:
http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/qr/qr91.html
Snug
Harbor Fishing Tournaments:
http://www.sportfishermen.com/tournaments/rhode_island/
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