My Grandmother used to tell us that the poor house in her town served lobster all the time. Prices are exceptionally good right now in Maine due to the minimal tourist season and reduced exports. It's a sacrifice but I've been eating more of them to support our local lobstermen.
THG: Thank you for this!!!! This is my family's heritage. My family is based in Booth Bay Harbor, Maine. I'm in Kansas, soon to move to Abu Dhabi. With the exception of one uncle (truck driver) my dad (Civil Engineer) (both long retired), and myself, all of my male relatives on my dad's side of the family are lobstermen. They don't limit themselves to lobster, but it's their main catch. I remember my dad telling me of when he was young, the only way his family survived was to eat lobster back in the '30s and '40s. Times were tough back then. The lobsters were abundant then too. All he had to do was lift a rock on the craggy coastline and there would be many lobster to take home to eat. He had lobster for lunch and dinner many days during the week. When I visit there from time-to-time, my dad makes sure I never pay for a lobster to eat. It's his way to express his love to me. I'm honored every time he does this. - Love you Dad!!!!
Boothbay Harbor! I used to vacation there every year at the Anchorwatch Inn, I think it's out of business now, I haven't been able to get up that way in quite some time....beautiful area.
My father was a lobster fisherman on Prince Edward Island, and told us stories about how in the 50s-60s lobster was still the food of the poor in fishing villages. By the time I was born lobster was a delicacy again, and my father used to tell us that it made better financial sense for him to sell the lobster he caught, and buy steaks for supper.
When I was a boy, my family had seafood once a year at a "fisherman's wharf" while on vacation at the beach in California. As lobster was the most expensive item on the menu, we children were not allowed to order it. However, on the short list of (cheaper) dishes we could select from was Abalone, so that's what I always ordered. As the years passed (and our parents' ability to pay increased) we were allowed to order Lobster if we wished, but I had developed an enduring love of Abalone. You guessed it...Abalone is now the most expensive item on the menu, IF you can even find a restaurant that offers it.
I dove for abs for 9 years. They haven't opened the season for the last few years in Ca, but I wasn't particularly enamored of lobster. I grew up catching and cooking crawdads, and often call them fresh water lobster. I really miss the whole experience of ab diving. I can't really separate the eating from the diving, and the river I go to had a terrible year for crawdads. Heres to healthy populations, and fine meals to come!
About the only place to find good abalone is Alaska, if my cousins are to be believed. They go there for the fishing. My family had a similar tradition of eating seafood on special occasions, but this being the Midwest, that meant Gulf shrimp, crab, and my personal favorite, scallops.
@@rotisseriebear5394 I had crawdads for the first time on an Alaskan cruise. They were excellent! Yet as a kid I thought they were hideous and useless creatures. Sort of a microcosm of THG's theme.
Lobster used to be so commom here in New England that they were poor people food, and prisoners complained about often they fed lobster. They've since been over fished like everything else. Oh look, it is in the video too, lol. Now i like lobster, but not enough to pay $18 a pound for. Shrimp are far better in my opinion and yes i could eat them every week without a problem.
In the early 2000's my dad had a friend that would dive for abalone when allowed, and my dad would get a few. And we would have a big elaborate family dinner with fried breaded abalone as the main course. Even my EX that didn't like seafood would eat it.
Occasionally cooked lobster as a graduate student in the dorms at UNH. Back then a live chix-size cost a mere $5 at the local lobster pounds in Kittery. It was even the romantic lure for my spouse, who was then a visiting Swiss researcher living in the dorm and who had never eaten lobster.
My dad worked a lobster boat in the 70's and we kids ate it weekly. All the neighbors thought it was a treat to get fresh lobster from "Mr. Charlie". Loved the video.
This is a forty year old story. I’m from Boston but went to college in Milwaukee. About a year after I had left school a couple of friends from there were traveling through New England and we met for dinner. One of them, facing a lot of choices on the menu asked what he should choose. Since he had never had lobster, that my suggestion. He did enjoy it but when it arrived he exclaimed, “but how to I eat it?” “Just pick it up and bite into it,” I told him.
So true! The first year I came to Boston, my aunt served 2-3 lobsters for each person in every party/gatherings ( 30 ) years ago 😁 I consume almost 60-80 in a year ! Thank you so very much auntie 💗🐒🌞 I was treated like a Royalty, I’ll never forget!
I remember a story I read in Air and Space about flight crews having to take I think C-130s or maybe Constellations up to Maine on training flights and they would load up on lobster and fly back, selling them off at base. One crew had encountered some weather on the way back and got bounced around a little. They thought nothing of it until an alert came on that one of the hatches had popped open. A crew member went back to find that one of the foam containers of lobster had tipped over and the lobsters were roaming about the cargo area and were falling through an access hatch out of the plane. They joked that they were bombing the east coast with lobster
You correctly pronounced "Bangor"! Well done; most folks 'from away' get it wrong. I lived on the coast of Maine for many years, back when the traps were still wooden (and often sold as 'tourist traps') and lobstermen built their own boats out of Maine spruce and powered them with engines from vehicles too rusty to pass inspection. That world is gone now...
Thank you for the refresher. When I was in school in Augusta, Maine, one week of my 5th was devoted to learning the lobster industry as it was relevant to the states history and one of the states major exports. But most of all, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for pronouncing Bangor correctly!
lived in Maine around 1990- there were a couple old guys I talked to who were kids during WWII, they talked of trading "better off" kids at school lunch (along with money, or candy) their lobster sandwiches for PB&Js, which were the delicacies :) they said they ate so much lobster that they got sick of it for the rest of their lives :) :)
Grew up in Kodak Alaska. We ate salmon, halibut and king crab all week long. Only beef/pork was on Sunday. Can understand very well the use of “fancy” food for everyday sustenance. I can relate to those who got tired of lobster and considered it a “poor” food. Thanks for the history review! Brings it close to home.
An authentic lobster roll with a cold beer on a hot summer day, and I am instantly transported two thousand miles and fifty years back to the sunny, breezy Connecticut shore...good times. Thanks for this excellent episode.
Years ago, I worked with an older guy who grew up in a small outport on the east coast of Canada. His father was a lobsterman and, thus, was out of work much of the year. He said he envied the kids who had bologna or Spam in their lunches, because if he pulled out a lobster sandwich, everyone knew he was poor, and some kids would make fun of him. To the day he retired, he never ate lobster.
Great episode! I remember my aunt who was born and raised in Nova Scotia telling me that when she was a young girl in the 1920s and 1930 that Lobster was what the poor people ate! Same thing you talked about. I had a hard time imagining that!
I live on an island in The Bay of Fundy. At one time, (long before my time), they used to take horsecarts to the beach to pitch fork lobsters aboard for fertilizer. When my moms family were kids, everyone ate lobsters, but you didn't let your neighbors know. It was a sign of poverty. I am currently cleaning out last seasons seafood from my freezer to make room for the new season. Yesterday, I had lobster chowder for lunch and scallops for supper. I have left overs of both, and will be having venison burger and scallops for lunch today. I'm poor as dirt, but I eat well.
My Dad grew up on a farm in Georgia during the Great Depression. He said they didn't have any money but they had abundant food and ate well. We had a 1.5 acre garden when I was a kid and we had more food than we could eat and can. I remember giving away bushels of vegetables at church.
@Paul Reeves And the early 20th century. My dad was born in 1904. He was one of the younger siblings. I've heard my moms family mention it too. They would have been kids between 1910 and 1930 or so. Don't be so quick to say ppl lie when you don't know what you are talking about.
I'm sort of westcoasterized now but what you described is almost the perfect East coast senerio. I have a little bit of insight having spent my first 7 years in Oromocto, or Gagetown if you prefer.
I remember when my dad was lobstering back in the 60's. We didn't have a lot of money, but we had lobstah! Every day I would go to school with a lobster sandwich in my brown bag. I was so sick of it, I was trading my lobster sandwiches for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I never had a problem trading for any other kind of sandwich I wanted!
@@chuckvt5196 redistribution of wealth means you gave everyone in your class a piece of your sandwich until you were all left with the same amount of sandwich. You'd be hoping that it was enough for a bite.
When I visited Maine, I learned that the "traditional" way of eating lobster locally was to boil it in sea water over an open fire. That was extremely tasty.
The truth is that steaming them is far more efficient. You only need to boil an inch of water toss in three or four lobsters and put a lid on it for 10 minutes or so depending on the size.
I was stationed in Maine in the early 70s and I remember a place where you sat at a picnic table in someone’s yard and could get a lobster, steamers, ear of corn and iced tea for about five bucks.
A very interesting piece of history. growing up in rural Australia, i would have always considered lobster a high end fancy meal .it goes to show geographically how different views can be. well done history guy.
I live in Maine. I love the flavor of lobsters. When I was younger, my dad worked extra as a diver and often the lobstermen would partially pay in lobsters. We grew up eating lobsters several times a week. I never properly appreciated them until I had to buy them myself!
Aloha History Guy and Gal, Now you touched a subject (and very well, I might add)of something I knew of before moving to Hawaii, Lobsters. Before our needed move ,my Dad and his friend had 1250 Lobster Pots down off of Montauk Point. No mater what the weather, the pots needed to be worked or you found only one large beat up monster inside your pot. All the others of the catch were eaten by this survivor. Pots were built of white oak laths into a heavy white oak frame and weighed down with about 100 pounds of bricks to enable them to sink and stay in 'lines of 100 pots each' of that was the law 50+ years ago . Each line was 1 mile long and has a marker bout at each end so net dragging fishermen hopefully wouldn't hual your pots away. So what ever the weather, the pots needed to be hualed in and rebaited with what ever cheap(free fish we caught. Hawaii Lobsters are rarely fished for as they waters they are in is generally too close to shore and full of bad currents to work in. Also they are Rock or spiny lobster , without the two prized claws and rarer still is the Slipper lobster . Save the wine for drinking, butter and lemon please. Mahalo,Mark Baker
Living in Maine right now, my home state. In the Colonial days they used to crawl right up on shore when the tide went out and any under 5 pounds were considered too puny to bother with, lol.
Modern lobster traps are made to only catch lobsters up to a certain size. There are still bigger lobster in the deep colder waters but unless they get caught up in drag net you don't see them any more. If the older larger lobsters are caught in drag nets they are suppose to be thrown back as breeders.
@@michaeltarsetti1314 , also, old large lobsters are reputed to have tougher, stringier meat ( the tail is a large muscle, after all). Small lobsters are kind of like "veal of the sea"!
Tony & Susan here, Just wanted to send a note and tell you how much we love your video's. Great presentations and you speak clearly and speedily. Your dedication to the investigation of your topics is to be commended. So Cheers to you.
I've seen some that big coming from Australia, but not so much Maine anymore. It's like deer in Michigan. Used to be able to get big bucks, but now anything over 6 points seems to be hunted immediately.
To add insult to injury, there was a Beef Producers commercial to drive the nail home. I'm having steak tonight. Going to see if any of the stores around here has lobster tails. Edit: the evil bastards played another Beef:It's what's for dinner commercial.
Thanks for the Lobster history. I enjoy your videos, and you do an excellent job of presenting history in an easy to understand format. I have a suggestion for a topic. I am an avid Civil War history buff. I would love to see a video with your take on "The Battle of Gettysburg - JEB Stuart's flanking maneuver to disrupt the center of the Union defense against Pickett's charge and how George Armstrong Custer defeated Stuart's cavalry in the East Cavalry Battlefield." I think that Custer's heroic charge should be given more credit for saving the Union, and that Lee should not be so vilified for his decision to send Pickett over that mile of open field. I have read several books on the topic and the best that I have found is "Lost Triumph" by Tom Carhart. Carhart does a very good job of documenting his thesis. There is no question that Custer disrupted the Stuart maneuver, but most historians do not give Custer much credit for the significance of his operations to the overall battle. I have talked with many of the Gettysburg battleground rangers, and most of them do not see it as being very important. In the book "Killer Angels" and the movie "Gettysburg" the East Cavalry Battlefield gets nary a mention. I would suggest that Custer's courage and audacity saved the Union, and that this should counterpoise his poor judgement at the "Battle of Little Big Horn" for which he is most remembered.
I think it's awesome when someone finds their niche, and you can totally feel their interest and passion for what they're doing. You have an absolute love and excitement for history that shows in your unbias delivery of every story you pass on. Thank you for sharing it with us. I would love to hear your delivery of the "Black Wall street" / "Tulsa race riots 1921".
My grandfather here in Canuckistanian told me many years ago when in elementary school the poor kids ate lobster sandwiches and my grandfather's dad was a sea captain so they were considered very "well off" so they got to take balogna sandwiches which was considered fairly expensive in his elementary school days in his very rural town.
I'm a lobsterman in Maine, and I can confirm that despite the pandemic, the boat price is at an all-time high due to the new marketing and sale of lobster tails, cooked, shucked, flash-frozen, and then shipped directly to households has put much more demand on processors than anyone expected for the entire marketplace 6 months ago, since most sales of lobster are (or were) still to local restaurants and their vendors.
I've been clawing my way through puns for a while, but always feel that I am in over my head. It is so easy to get trapped in all the lobster puns- enough to make you see red. Really, beneath my tough exterior, I am just a softie inside.
I've got no pithy answer. But Yezzz, you've got a way with words, mate. I gotta hand you that! Mind your fingers, though! (My subsequently lame attempt at crustatian-human-interaction-humour.)
A similar story of food for the poor turning into food for the rich played out in The Netherlands. I used to sail on an original (iron, not steel) boat called a zalmschouw ("salmon boat"). The idea of fishing for salmon on the Dutch rivers like the Rhine was unimaginable in the 1960's and 1970's, but it tuned out that this was a thriving industry earlier on, with salmon being so abundant and cheap, that domestic staff demanded in their contracts to get salmon for dinner on no more than a certain number of days in the week. Just like lobster in Maine!
I enjoy these videos, and the subtle humor adds to the betterment of the experience of watching, listening and or both watching and listening experience
hey boss i work in a museum at the pemaquid point lighthouse and i gotta say you got your facts straight. right down to the detail of what looked to be the pemaquid co-op at 8:03. pemaquid co-op was the first lobster co-op in the world. great work chief
Dear Lance Geiger and Heidi Weichert.............(importantly, this of course includes Heidi) anyone that is considered a "History Guy" is someone to admire or at least, people must learn to stay quiet and listen to what history teaches us ! I tip my hat to you both ! These videos are of great value and much appreciated ! Again, thanks.
When I was much younger, I kept talking about how lobster was just like an underwater cockroach to get my sister to abandon her dinner and get a double serving :)
I grew up on the Connecticut shore and as kids we would often go out on boats/rowboats and come across lobster pods in the water. We all looked at each other and reminded ourselves that you mess with the lobster pod and a bullet would be in the air.
I don’t remember getting shot at, but if you messed with somebody else’s lobster pot, your folks had already heard about it by the time you got home, and you were in big trouble.
@@BloodAsp Called strings here on the north/west side of long island sound. 8-10 pots tied together in a chain. So you could haul them up on deck, empty, re-bait, and pass them off the stern. Lobster were a worthwhile crop before the great west nile poisoning of '99,
I'm just discovering you for the first time and less than 2 minutes into your video I fell in love and subscribed! Seriously, great video. Great info. Thanks so much!
Wow. How I thought lobsters were fancy ! With my wife working on Thanksgiving the last few years before our retirement I was relegated with cooking Thanksgiving dinner. For the first couple of years it was Black Angus steaks. If I was cooking then it’ll be what I like. Then The last couple of years I switched to seafood; most all being crustaceans, lobster crab clams scallops shrimp. All the while saying that if the pilgrims knew what lobster tasted like we’d have lobster on Thanksgiving. What an eye opener this video was! Turkey was probably most certainly a welcome change. Who knew?
My 81 year old father told me stories of the school he attended that limited the number of times per week a child could bring lobster sandwiches for lunch as that labelled them as poor. He told me that many farmers used lobster as fertilizer in their fields. He grew up near the Eastern coast of New Brunswick Canada so lobster was plentiful.
Campobello/Eastport here.. My grandfather owned a fish market in Eastport who would bring home bushel baskets of lobster where my grandmothers and great grandmothers would boil and pick for hours.. I hated lobsters when I was young but now that I'm old and can't afford them I wish I had a freezer full..
My grandfather spent WW2 in the North Atlantic with the Navy, he was raised in the prairies and never had the chance to have lobster until the war. It was tradition on his birthday that he’d eat lobster.
I was reading about the island of Sark during the German occupation in World War Two. The Germans took so much of their crops that they were forced to eat what they could gather to survive, and I believe it was the Lady of the island (hereditary ruler who rents it from the English monarchy) who said something along the lines of: when it is all that is available, one grows mightily sick of lobster. The story of the Channel Islands in WW2 might make a good episode.
What a great episode. Living in coastal "Downeast" Maine, lobster trapping and other fishing is a major economic force. As a boy , I would go out and help a neighbor pull his traps, my pay being 4 good sized 2 to 2 1/2 pound lobsters for my family. However, my favorite seafood is the nice large Sea Scallops, not the small bay scallops. This is also a common fishing business here in Washington County Maine. Thank you so much for making this episode.
I live near a place on the East Coast called "Poverty Beach" . Lobster was so plentiful you could pick them up in the shallows along with clams. oysters and mussels. If you had no money or food in the house, you went to "Poverty Beach".
Another great video! My dad fished for lobsters as a hobby when I was to kid, so we enjoyed them quite a bit. Yum! Incidentally, the "lobster" you show at 6:15 is actually a crawfish...also delicious!
THEY HAVE THEM IN THE UK. THEY DONT KNOW HOW THEY GOT INTO OUR RIVERS BUT THE KILLED OFF THE FRESHWATER SHRIMP BUT THEY ARE CAUGHT AND WRAPPED IN BACON AND COOKED THEY SAY THEY ARE TASTY
@@terryoneill9525 Those are signal crayfish, from the Pacific Northwest. I'm not sure how they got to Britain, but they were intentionally introduced to mainland Europe in the 60s because they were immune to a disease that was killing off the native crayfish. They are a lot bigger than the Louisiana red swamp crawfish shown in THG's photo and they are also delicious, from all accounts. Here in Wisconsin, we have a problem with invasive rusty crayfish. As in Europe, they are outcompeting native species.
When my kids fell down and got scrapes or bruises they didn’t fall and get hurt, they “took a digger” and if they bumped their head “it was a header”, never been downtown either, we went “up the street” my step mom took it one word easier and always said “goin upstreet”. We didn’t play on the lawn either, we stayed and played in the “dooryard” or “backyard”, heck the place I worked was even locally known as “the yard” and we were known as “dubbers”, haha!
I think there are parallels with many foods. In Louisiana, I'm sure early settlers didn't relish cray/crawfish (mudbugs), it was what they had to eat to survive. Similarly, boudin (rice, meat, and seasonings in a casing) was a way to stretch the meat. Now, they are almost considered treats and delicacies. Good info as usual, THG. :)
Crisfield, Maryland was the seafood capitol of the World in the early 20th Century. It held the Worlds record on the harvest of oysters, ducks, crabs as well as having the Worlds largest amount of registered boats. There was even a man who raised terrapins as a food eaten by the wealthy in New York restaurants. That man became very wealthy as well as the owners of the packing houses. At one point in time Crisfield's population was 30-40 thousand people. There is now approximately 2000 people. The seafood industry exploded for the town after the Civil War because of the railroad running a line to the seaside community and it's hunger for the oyster industry. Greed by the major seafood processing houses refused to allow many business to locate here in the 50's and 60's because they did not want to loose their cheap labor from the poor black and white population. As a result there are very few jobs and unemployment is one of the highest in the State of Maryland as well as Somerset County being one of the poorest on the East Coast. The seafood industry is a skeleton of it's past. Over fishing of crabs and oysters have devastated the economy. Most back then thought there was no end to the bounty the Chesapeake Bay. The lesson learned is that the greed and shortsightedness of the population and of those who lived there thought the good times would never end . Google Crisfield, Maryland and look at the old black and white pictures from it's early days to see the Town in it's heyday.
The only thing I've been really disappointed about COVID restrictions is we weren't able to have our yearly vacation in southern Maine (I live in Ontario). Lobster is cheaper than ground beef there! Load up on culls and get the salted water boiling on the campfire....
@buddydgb How was it? Lots of restrictions? We were hoping to maybe go for a long weekend this fall but doesn't look like the border will reopen until next year....
My brother-in-law sells live Maine lobster out of San Diego, CA and his business has taken a marked upswing in sales this year. Long live the Maine lobster! As a side note: I'm a dive fanatic and have always had some sort of fresh seafood available, my favorite being lobster. Here in California, we don't have the "real" thing, but they are fairly abundant in certain places and we call them "bugs." My weapon of choice was a mop w/ about two to three feet of handle left to wield it. By sweeping that mop under the rock ledges I couldn't reach by hand, I'd get several "bugs" at once, tangled by their spiney legs, and then liesurely pick them off the mop and put them in the goodie bag. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
You should see whats going on with our lobster fishery here in Nova Scotia... its a battleground between aboriginals and the fishing industry. All of this over what was fed to prisoners...
LOL. My mom grew up "poor" in a relatively cashless bartering society in a small remote corner of Nova Scotia. Her dad, my grandfather, would fish for lobster as a means of getting a little bit of cash and then spread what did not sell, onto his fields as fertilizer. Mom made her way to school everyday with her "poor kid's lunch" of lobster sandwiches and a little bottle of cream to drink; both of which were kept cool until lunch time in a brook near the school. Yep...she had it tough because supper consisted of Atlantic Salmon her dad caught that day, field potatoes and spinach all home grown organically before that was even a thing. Mom died recently at 86...but her warm and pleasant stories of a bygone era live on in my mind as a reminder of just how good she had it and how distant we've become from the field and the sea. Rejoice in what you have and give thanks for that.
Sorry for your loss. This reminds me of the things my Grandfather and Grandmother told me. He was from Finland and she grew up on the Ozark Mountains. The hard times and the good times, 2 people that lived through WW1 & 2 they both died in 1980 within hours of each other, while I was in the metradian sea. Pass those memories on to your children and add yours, put it in writing if you can.
@@garyl6031 Hey Gary. Thanks so much for your touching words and good advice on poutting it all down in writing. Interestingly enough, as you've mentioned, both my grandparents lived through both world wars with my grandfather fighting in both and they also survived the Halifax Explosion and Spanish Flu as well...unbelievable. But what really caught my attention is that in 1977 I was in the Mediterranean and had just returned to go back to school and my grandfather died within a few days. My grandmother lived for another 20 years.
Thank you for a very interesting article ! Take care , stay safe and healthy wherever your research or adventure takes you ! Doing well here in Kansas .
I recall a Neffie friend of mine telling me that when he was a young lad in elementary school, he coming from a low income family, always got lobster sandwiches for lunch. Not only that, they were envious of the rich kids because they got peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. I also recall my father going down to the docks where he could purchase lobster right off the Fisher, or should I say lobster men? Finally, I get to the point, which was the cost, drum roll please........ $1.00 bushel!!!!!! My but time has changed things. Not just a little, but a huge amount!
I am reminded of the movie "Tom Horn" where the Tom Horn character (Steve McQueen) is seated a a huge outdoor banquet table. I think this was 1880's Montana. The rancher's staff comes along and deposits a whole lobster on each diner's plate. Horn somewhat recoils and says "That's the biggest bug I ever saw".
Steve McQueen's last movie "Tom Horn" featured a lobser dish in the far west circa 1890s. Lobsters delivered by rail, on ice, insulated by hay. Tom Horn was not impressed with the meal, he said 'This is the biggest bug I ever ate'
My Grandmother used to tell us that the poor house in her town served lobster all the time. Prices are exceptionally good right now in Maine due to the minimal tourist season and reduced exports. It's a sacrifice but I've been eating more of them to support our local lobstermen.
THG: Thank you for this!!!! This is my family's heritage. My family is based in Booth Bay Harbor, Maine. I'm in Kansas, soon to move to Abu Dhabi. With the exception of one uncle (truck driver) my dad (Civil Engineer) (both long retired), and myself, all of my male relatives on my dad's side of the family are lobstermen. They don't limit themselves to lobster, but it's their main catch. I remember my dad telling me of when he was young, the only way his family survived was to eat lobster back in the '30s and '40s. Times were tough back then. The lobsters were abundant then too. All he had to do was lift a rock on the craggy coastline and there would be many lobster to take home to eat. He had lobster for lunch and dinner many days during the week. When I visit there from time-to-time, my dad makes sure I never pay for a lobster to eat. It's his way to express his love to me. I'm honored every time he does this. - Love you Dad!!!!
Boothbay Harbor!
I used to vacation there every year at the Anchorwatch Inn, I think it's out of business now, I haven't been able to get up that way in quite some time....beautiful area.
My father was a lobster fisherman on Prince Edward Island, and told us stories about how in the 50s-60s lobster was still the food of the poor in fishing villages. By the time I was born lobster was a delicacy again, and my father used to tell us that it made better financial sense for him to sell the lobster he caught, and buy steaks for supper.
Lol 😅
When I was a boy, my family had seafood once a year at a "fisherman's wharf" while on vacation at the beach in California. As lobster was the most expensive item on the menu, we children were not allowed to order it. However, on the short list of (cheaper) dishes we could select from was Abalone, so that's what I always ordered. As the years passed (and our parents' ability to pay increased) we were allowed to order Lobster if we wished, but I had developed an enduring love of Abalone. You guessed it...Abalone is now the most expensive item on the menu, IF you can even find a restaurant that offers it.
I dove for abs for 9 years. They haven't opened the season for the last few years in Ca, but I wasn't particularly enamored of lobster. I grew up catching and cooking crawdads, and often call them fresh water lobster. I really miss the whole experience of ab diving. I can't really separate the eating from the diving, and the river I go to had a terrible year for crawdads. Heres to healthy populations, and fine meals to come!
About the only place to find good abalone is Alaska, if my cousins are to be believed. They go there for the fishing.
My family had a similar tradition of eating seafood on special occasions, but this being the Midwest, that meant Gulf shrimp, crab, and my personal favorite, scallops.
@@rotisseriebear5394 I had crawdads for the first time on an Alaskan cruise. They were excellent! Yet as a kid I thought they were hideous and useless creatures. Sort of a microcosm of THG's theme.
Lobster used to be so commom here in New England that they were poor people food, and prisoners complained about often they fed lobster. They've since been over fished like everything else.
Oh look, it is in the video too, lol.
Now i like lobster, but not enough to pay $18 a pound for. Shrimp are far better in my opinion and yes i could eat them every week without a problem.
In the early 2000's my dad had a friend that would dive for abalone when allowed, and my dad would get a few. And we would have a big elaborate family dinner with fried breaded abalone as the main course. Even my EX that didn't like seafood would eat it.
Occasionally cooked lobster as a graduate student in the dorms at UNH. Back then a live chix-size cost a mere $5 at the local lobster pounds in Kittery. It was even the romantic lure for my spouse, who was then a visiting Swiss researcher living in the dorm and who had never eaten lobster.
This guy. His dialect and understanding of things that have passed, is fine combination
My dad worked a lobster boat in the 70's and we kids ate it weekly. All the neighbors thought it was a treat to get fresh lobster from "Mr. Charlie". Loved the video.
Please never stop. Thank you.
THGs love of puns might be one of his most endearing qualities
MAINE dish.
THG is a very punny guy. If you really like fish puns, check out Kip Adotta "Wet Dream."
"The controversy has left a lot of people... steamed."
This is a forty year old story.
I’m from Boston but went to college in Milwaukee.
About a year after I had left school a couple of friends from there were traveling through New England and we met for dinner.
One of them, facing a lot of choices on the menu asked what he should choose. Since he had never had lobster, that my suggestion.
He did enjoy it but when it arrived he exclaimed, “but how to I eat it?”
“Just pick it up and bite into it,” I told him.
My favorite food is lobster. I highly recommend stopping at Young’s Lobster Pound in Belfast, Maine on the way to Bar Harbor. 👍
So true!
The first year I came to Boston, my aunt served 2-3 lobsters for each person in every party/gatherings ( 30 ) years ago 😁
I consume almost 60-80 in a year !
Thank you so very much auntie 💗🐒🌞
I was treated like a Royalty, I’ll never forget!
I remember a story I read in Air and Space about flight crews having to take I think C-130s or maybe Constellations up to Maine on training flights and they would load up on lobster and fly back, selling them off at base.
One crew had encountered some weather on the way back and got bounced around a little. They thought nothing of it until an alert came on that one of the hatches had popped open. A crew member went back to find that one of the foam containers of lobster had tipped over and the lobsters were roaming about the cargo area and were falling through an access hatch out of the plane. They joked that they were bombing the east coast with lobster
That's kind of awesome.
Doctor: How did you get that bruise on your head, ma'am?
Housewife: Well you see, Doc, I was attacked be flying lobsters.
Found the article online: www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/lobster-tale-180963193/
@@johnbeauvais3159 Flight crews use to do the same thing with Coors beer back when you couldn't get it east of the Mississippi River.
Randy Nelson The obvious advantage there being you could fly at FL230 and have it good and cold when you get back
Yup Loring Air Force Base home of the 101st Air Refuling Wing (Also the 3rd landing area for the space shuttle {never used for that purpose})
You correctly pronounced "Bangor"! Well done; most folks 'from away' get it wrong. I lived on the coast of Maine for many years, back when the traps were still wooden (and often sold as 'tourist traps') and lobstermen built their own boats out of Maine spruce and powered them with engines from vehicles too rusty to pass inspection. That world is gone now...
Thank you for the refresher. When I was in school in Augusta, Maine, one week of my 5th was devoted to learning the lobster industry as it was relevant to the states history and one of the states major exports.
But most of all, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for pronouncing Bangor correctly!
I said the same thing lol
lived in Maine around 1990- there were a couple old guys I talked to who were kids during WWII, they talked of trading "better off" kids at school lunch (along with money, or candy) their lobster sandwiches for PB&Js, which were the delicacies :) they said they ate so much lobster that they got sick of it for the rest of their lives :) :)
Grew up in Kodak Alaska. We ate salmon, halibut and king crab all week long. Only beef/pork was on Sunday. Can understand very well the use of “fancy” food for everyday sustenance. I can relate to those who got tired of lobster and considered it a “poor” food. Thanks for the history review! Brings it close to home.
An authentic lobster roll with a cold beer on a hot summer day, and I am instantly transported two thousand miles and fifty years back to the sunny, breezy Connecticut shore...good times. Thanks for this excellent episode.
Lobster, a great excuse to eat butter.
Just like french fries are really just a utensil for eating ketchup.
yeah.. if you cook terrible it would be rubber... that why....
@@jamesgardner2101 My perspective has just been changed forever......
@@Free_Krazy Butter, a good excuse to eat lobster.
@Guilty Spark ...on everything except french fries.
Food history is greatly undervalued. Keep up the good work sir and may there be many fine meals in your future!
Years ago, I worked with an older guy who grew up in a small outport on the east coast of Canada. His father was a lobsterman and, thus, was out of work much of the year. He said he envied the kids who had bologna or Spam in their lunches, because if he pulled out a lobster sandwich, everyone knew he was poor, and some kids would make fun of him. To the day he retired, he never ate lobster.
Great episode! I remember my aunt who was born and raised in Nova Scotia telling me that when she was a young girl in the 1920s and 1930 that Lobster was what the poor people ate! Same thing you talked about. I had a hard time imagining that!
I live on an island in The Bay of Fundy. At one time, (long before my time), they used to take horsecarts to the beach to pitch fork lobsters aboard for fertilizer. When my moms family were kids, everyone ate lobsters, but you didn't let your neighbors know. It was a sign of poverty. I am currently cleaning out last seasons seafood from my freezer to make room for the new season. Yesterday, I had lobster chowder for lunch and scallops for supper. I have left overs of both, and will be having venison burger and scallops for lunch today. I'm poor as dirt, but I eat well.
We used mackerel on the garden. Grand Father said you could get a stone for a farthing one season
My Dad grew up on a farm in Georgia during the Great Depression. He said they didn't have any money but they had abundant food and ate well. We had a 1.5 acre garden when I was a kid and we had more food than we could eat and can. I remember giving away bushels of vegetables at church.
"poor" is only a measure of your attitude. You sound rich to me! :-)
@Paul Reeves And the early 20th century. My dad was born in 1904. He was one of the younger siblings. I've heard my moms family mention it too. They would have been kids between 1910 and 1930 or so. Don't be so quick to say ppl lie when you don't know what you are talking about.
I'm sort of westcoasterized now but what you described is almost the perfect East coast senerio. I have a little bit of insight having spent my first 7 years in Oromocto, or Gagetown if you prefer.
I remember when my dad was lobstering back in the 60's. We didn't have a lot of money, but we had lobstah! Every day I would go to school with a lobster sandwich in my brown bag. I was so sick of it, I was trading my lobster sandwiches for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I never had a problem trading for any other kind of sandwich I wanted!
hey lobster kid
@Ross Outdoors Lol! Redistribution of wealth, grade school style!
@@chuckvt5196 ? How did you get that? What i see is the free market in action.
@@chuckvt5196 redistribution of wealth means you gave everyone in your class a piece of your sandwich until you were all left with the same amount of sandwich. You'd be hoping that it was enough for a bite.
When I visited Maine, I learned that the "traditional" way of eating lobster locally was to boil it in sea water over an open fire. That was extremely tasty.
The truth is that steaming them is far more efficient. You only need to boil an inch of water toss in three or four lobsters and put a lid on it for 10 minutes or so depending on the size.
@@jonnyphenomenon When you're on an island with lots of driftwood about, you don't need to worry about how much sea water or firewood you use.
I was stationed in Maine in the early 70s and I remember a place where you sat at a picnic table in someone’s yard and could get a lobster, steamers, ear of corn and iced tea for about five bucks.
Wish I hadn't watched his piece. Now I am craving lobster. Great job as always!
Love this kind of anecdotal history. There are enough channels presenting nothing but human conflicts and machinery in a historical context.
You have an amazing ability to make things that I never would have gone a second thought into a fascinating video.
A very interesting piece of history. growing up in rural Australia, i would have always considered lobster a high end fancy meal .it goes to show geographically how different views can be. well done history guy.
I live in Maine. I love the flavor of lobsters. When I was younger, my dad worked extra as a diver and often the lobstermen would partially pay in lobsters. We grew up eating lobsters several times a week. I never properly appreciated them until I had to buy them myself!
Those random and interesting subjects its one of the reasons I love this channel. Also, the storytelling skills of this guy is amazing.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the lobster's for inspiring my favorite B 52's song.
I like the Peter Griffin version
@@Mike-DuBose ...i dont know if a fictional character can be given song credits.
ua-cam.com/video/Oh5J33KAaqw/v-deo.html
@@terryboyer1342 ua-cam.com/video/f31mB6apCoE/v-deo.html
@@IzzyTheEditor Silence! I keel you.
Aloha History Guy and Gal,
Now you touched a subject (and very well, I might add)of something I knew of before moving to Hawaii, Lobsters.
Before our needed move ,my Dad and his friend had 1250 Lobster Pots down off of Montauk Point. No mater what the weather, the pots needed to be worked or you found only one large beat up monster inside your pot. All the others of the catch were eaten by this survivor.
Pots were built of white oak laths into a heavy white oak frame and weighed down with about 100 pounds of bricks to enable them to sink and stay in 'lines of 100 pots each' of that was the law 50+ years ago . Each line was 1 mile long and has a marker bout at each end so net dragging fishermen hopefully wouldn't hual your pots away.
So what ever the weather, the pots needed to be hualed in and rebaited with what ever cheap(free fish we caught.
Hawaii Lobsters are rarely fished for as they waters they are in is generally too close to shore and full of bad currents to work in. Also they are Rock or spiny lobster , without the two prized claws and rarer still is the Slipper lobster . Save the wine for drinking, butter and lemon please. Mahalo,Mark Baker
Living in Maine right now, my home state. In the Colonial days they used to crawl right up on shore when the tide went out and any under 5 pounds were considered too puny to bother with, lol.
LOL, there is much less life of all kinds right across the continent now. Except human life of course.
Down by Old Orchard myself. I can remember my uncle coming back from Rockland with 20 lb+ ones.
Modern lobster traps are made to only catch lobsters up to a certain size. There are still bigger lobster in the deep colder waters but unless they get caught up in drag net you don't see them any more. If the older larger lobsters are caught in drag nets they are suppose to be thrown back as breeders.
@@michaeltarsetti1314 very interesting, good to know.
@@michaeltarsetti1314 , also, old large lobsters are reputed to have tougher, stringier meat ( the tail is a large muscle, after all). Small lobsters are kind of like "veal of the sea"!
Tony & Susan here, Just wanted to send a note and tell you how much we love your video's. Great presentations and you speak clearly and speedily. Your dedication to the investigation of your topics is to be commended. So Cheers to you.
16-pound lobsters were common? Getting hungry just listening to this video. Great job, once again!
@xr7fan no wonder it was prison food........
They used to get BIG.
I've seen some that big coming from Australia, but not so much Maine anymore. It's like deer in Michigan. Used to be able to get big bucks, but now anything over 6 points seems to be hunted immediately.
@xr7fan You got that right. It would only be good for stew.
To add insult to injury, there was a Beef Producers commercial to drive the nail home. I'm having steak tonight. Going to see if any of the stores around here has lobster tails.
Edit: the evil bastards played another Beef:It's what's for dinner commercial.
Thanks for the Lobster history. I enjoy your videos, and you do an excellent job of presenting history in an easy to understand format.
I have a suggestion for a topic. I am an avid Civil War history buff. I would love to see a video with your take on "The Battle of Gettysburg - JEB Stuart's flanking maneuver to disrupt the center of the Union defense against Pickett's charge and how George Armstrong Custer defeated Stuart's cavalry in the East Cavalry Battlefield." I think that Custer's heroic charge should be given more credit for saving the Union, and that Lee should not be so vilified for his decision to send Pickett over that mile of open field. I have read several books on the topic and the best that I have found is "Lost Triumph" by Tom Carhart. Carhart does a very good job of documenting his thesis. There is no question that Custer disrupted the Stuart maneuver, but most historians do not give Custer much credit for the significance of his operations to the overall battle. I have talked with many of the Gettysburg battleground rangers, and most of them do not see it as being very important. In the book "Killer Angels" and the movie "Gettysburg" the East Cavalry Battlefield gets nary a mention. I would suggest that Custer's courage and audacity saved the Union, and that this should counterpoise his poor judgement at the "Battle of Little Big Horn" for which he is most remembered.
I think it's awesome when someone finds their niche, and you can totally feel their interest and passion for what they're doing. You have an absolute love and excitement for history that shows in your unbias delivery of every story you pass on. Thank you for sharing it with us. I would love to hear your delivery of the "Black Wall street" / "Tulsa race riots 1921".
You ALWAYS put a smile on my face History Guy; I’d like to sincerely thank you for your contribution to my history knowledge as well as happiness.
My grandfather here in Canuckistanian told me many years ago when in elementary school the poor kids ate lobster sandwiches and my grandfather's dad was a sea captain so they were considered very "well off" so they got to take balogna sandwiches which was considered fairly expensive in his elementary school days in his very rural town.
this is one of the best forgotten history episodes.
I'm a lobsterman in Maine, and I can confirm that despite the pandemic, the boat price is at an all-time high due to the new marketing and sale of lobster tails, cooked, shucked, flash-frozen, and then shipped directly to households has put much more demand on processors than anyone expected for the entire marketplace 6 months ago, since most sales of lobster are (or were) still to local restaurants and their vendors.
Thank you, History Guy, for doing what you do...and for doing it so well.
Maine dish huh? The History Guy's pun game is getting more notorious be the episode. I wonder what he will shell out next time
I've been clawing my way through puns for a while, but always feel that I am in over my head. It is so easy to get trapped in all the lobster puns- enough to make you see red. Really, beneath my tough exterior, I am just a softie inside.
I've got no pithy answer. But Yezzz, you've got a way with words, mate. I gotta hand you that! Mind your fingers, though! (My subsequently lame attempt at crustatian-human-interaction-humour.)
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Puns are the main reason I come here. Plus the history.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Oh, well played sir! Multiple puns in one pot!
Bill D. in Iowa, that WAS good wasn’t it? Like butter. I’m going to clam up now... don’t want to bug you.
Very informative! Haven't eaten lobster in a while, but still would like to enjoy it once in a while! Thanks for your good work!
We need more food history! This is neat!
I sure enjoyed all the paintings, photos, and film bits in this episode!
A similar story of food for the poor turning into food for the rich played out in The Netherlands. I used to sail on an original (iron, not steel) boat called a zalmschouw ("salmon boat"). The idea of fishing for salmon on the Dutch rivers like the Rhine was unimaginable in the 1960's and 1970's, but it tuned out that this was a thriving industry earlier on, with salmon being so abundant and cheap, that domestic staff demanded in their contracts to get salmon for dinner on no more than a certain number of days in the week. Just like lobster in Maine!
HG, thanks so much for doing this history, sooo very interesting as all of you postings are!!
My father grew up on PEI during the Great Depression. To quote him: "We ate lobster; The rich kids ate roast beef."
I enjoy these videos, and the subtle humor adds to the betterment of the experience of watching, listening and or both watching and listening experience
I hope you can drum up some more forgotten history from Southern Illinois again sometime soon, always a pleasure.
Somewhat controversial. The most "southern" part of a northern state.
@@TheMrPeteChannel Oh please.
i'd like to see an episode on the 1974 N&W railyard explosion in Decatur.
@@brandonsebastian1334 oh my!
hey boss i work in a museum at the pemaquid point lighthouse and i gotta say you got your facts straight. right down to the detail of what looked to be the pemaquid co-op at 8:03. pemaquid co-op was the first lobster co-op in the world. great work chief
I wonder how ancient those 25lb lobsters were?
"Pilgrims vs Primordial Lobsters" will be my historical shlock-horror movie title.
Or the 2m one that pliney the elder described
Probably 60-75 years old.
"The Lobster That Ate Chesapeake Bay" Get it?
...I'll show myself out.
I would watch that.
I bet good i love me a ten pounder now and then and those are great i come from boston so maine is close we get them!
Dear Lance Geiger and Heidi Weichert.............(importantly, this of course includes Heidi) anyone that is considered a "History Guy" is someone to admire or at least, people must learn to stay quiet and listen to what history teaches us ! I tip my hat to you both ! These videos are of great value and much appreciated ! Again, thanks.
When I was much younger, I kept talking about how lobster was just like an underwater cockroach to get my sister to abandon her dinner and get a double serving :)
lol.... I hope she reads this and gets you back!
Thank you. Your wonderfully fun and informative videos help my brain from turning to mush.
As a Mainah I approve of this message.
Edit: Thank You for pronouncing Bangor (Bang Or) correctly
Those of Scandinavian heritage pronounce your avatar/logo: IMP - a - lah !
🇫🇮🇦🇽🇸🇪🇳🇴🇩🇰 😎✌️
I was just about to make the same comment. (Watching this in Bangor)
Holla! From Maine
@@adamc7828 I HATE those people who use that messed up pronunciation;It's not cute It's annoying!
@@adamc7828 down in York County but grew up on Autumn St and Curve St in Bangor
The history guy is excellent. Great research details.
I grew up on the Connecticut shore and as kids we would often go out on boats/rowboats and come across lobster pods in the water. We all looked at each other and reminded ourselves that you mess with the lobster pod and a bullet would be in the air.
Basically bank accounts with water. You put your fingers in mine, you can expect similar consequences as well.
@@masterimbecile Oooh, scary.
I don’t remember getting shot at, but if you messed with somebody else’s lobster pot, your folks had already heard about it by the time you got home, and you were in big trouble.
Pods or pots? I could understand Pots. ...Are their groups called pods?
@@BloodAsp Called strings here on the north/west side of long island sound.
8-10 pots tied together in a chain. So you could haul them up on deck, empty, re-bait, and pass them off the stern.
Lobster were a worthwhile crop before the great west nile poisoning of '99,
I'm just discovering you for the first time and less than 2 minutes into your video I fell in love and subscribed!
Seriously, great video. Great info. Thanks so much!
Wow. How I thought lobsters were fancy ! With my wife working on Thanksgiving the last few years before our retirement I was relegated with cooking Thanksgiving dinner. For the first couple of years it was Black Angus steaks. If I was cooking then it’ll be what I like. Then The last couple of years I switched to seafood; most all being crustaceans, lobster crab clams scallops shrimp. All the while saying that if the pilgrims knew what lobster tasted like we’d have lobster on Thanksgiving. What an eye opener this video was! Turkey was probably most certainly a welcome change. Who knew?
Awesome video, thanks for doing all this research and taking the time to tell the world about forgotten history.
My 81 year old father told me stories of the school he attended that limited the number of times per week a child could bring lobster sandwiches for lunch as that labelled them as poor. He told me that many farmers used lobster as fertilizer in their fields. He grew up near the Eastern coast of New Brunswick Canada so lobster was plentiful.
Campobello/Eastport here.. My grandfather owned a fish market in Eastport who would bring home bushel baskets of lobster where my grandmothers and great grandmothers would boil and pick for hours.. I hated lobsters when I was young but now that I'm old and can't afford them I wish I had a freezer full..
My grandfather spent WW2 in the North Atlantic with the Navy, he was raised in the prairies and never had the chance to have lobster until the war.
It was tradition on his birthday that he’d eat lobster.
I heard a similar story from my dad. He was from Bar Harbor Maine and around the same age as your father. Poor people ate lobster.
Thank you for all of these videos and a wonderful sense of humor.
I was reading about the island of Sark during the German occupation in World War Two. The Germans took so much of their crops that they were forced to eat what they could gather to survive, and I believe it was the Lady of the island (hereditary ruler who rents it from the English monarchy) who said something along the lines of: when it is all that is available, one grows mightily sick of lobster.
The story of the Channel Islands in WW2 might make a good episode.
All about when and where you are. Fascinating!
What a great episode. Living in coastal "Downeast" Maine, lobster trapping and other fishing is a major economic force.
As a boy , I would go out and help a neighbor pull his traps, my pay being 4 good sized 2 to 2 1/2 pound lobsters for my family.
However, my favorite seafood is the nice large Sea Scallops, not the small bay scallops. This is also a common fishing business here in Washington County Maine.
Thank you so much for making this episode.
Another snappy presentation thanks xxx
I live near a place on the East Coast called "Poverty Beach" . Lobster was so plentiful you could pick them up in the shallows along with clams. oysters and mussels. If you had no money or food in the house, you went to "Poverty Beach".
Another great video! My dad fished for lobsters as a hobby when I was to kid, so we enjoyed them quite a bit. Yum!
Incidentally, the "lobster" you show at 6:15 is actually a crawfish...also delicious!
THEY HAVE THEM IN THE UK. THEY DONT KNOW HOW THEY GOT INTO OUR RIVERS BUT THE KILLED OFF THE FRESHWATER SHRIMP BUT THEY ARE CAUGHT AND WRAPPED IN BACON AND COOKED THEY SAY THEY ARE TASTY
@@terryoneill9525 Those are signal crayfish, from the Pacific Northwest. I'm not sure how they got to Britain, but they were intentionally introduced to mainland Europe in the 60s because they were immune to a disease that was killing off the native crayfish. They are a lot bigger than the Louisiana red swamp crawfish shown in THG's photo and they are also delicious, from all accounts.
Here in Wisconsin, we have a problem with invasive rusty crayfish. As in Europe, they are outcompeting native species.
Remember THG, MainAhs don’t say Nor’Easter unless you count the weatherman on tv, we say No’theaster. Great Video!
must be a flatlandah
When my kids fell down and got scrapes or bruises they didn’t fall and get hurt, they “took a digger” and if they bumped their head “it was a header”, never been downtown either, we went “up the street” my step mom took it one word easier and always said “goin upstreet”. We didn’t play on the lawn either, we stayed and played in the “dooryard” or “backyard”, heck the place I worked was even locally known as “the yard” and we were known as “dubbers”, haha!
Thank you for pronouncing Bangor correctly! Great video as always!!
I think there are parallels with many foods. In Louisiana, I'm sure early settlers didn't relish cray/crawfish (mudbugs), it was what they had to eat to survive. Similarly, boudin (rice, meat, and seasonings in a casing) was a way to stretch the meat. Now, they are almost considered treats and delicacies. Good info as usual, THG. :)
Well written and very interesting delivered.
"When life gives you lemons, order the lobster tail." - Ziad K. Abdelnour
Are you just trolling popular channels with crappy quotes to try and build a channel? I've had a look. Not that flash.
I’m going to steel this hook for my own shellfish motivations. 👏👋
@@kiamichiozarks7056
LOL 🤣 👍
Dy-no-mite!!!!!
Don’t forget the butter 🧈 to go with the lobster 🦞 tails and lemon 🍋!
Congratulations, another great video. Thank you!
Crisfield, Maryland was the seafood capitol of the World in the early 20th Century. It held the Worlds record on the harvest of oysters, ducks, crabs as well as having the Worlds largest amount of registered boats. There was even a man who raised terrapins as a food eaten by the wealthy in New York restaurants. That man became very wealthy as well as the owners of the packing houses.
At one point in time Crisfield's population was 30-40 thousand people. There is now approximately 2000 people. The seafood industry exploded for the town after the Civil War because of the railroad running a line to the seaside community and it's hunger for the oyster industry.
Greed by the major seafood processing houses refused to allow many business to locate here in the 50's and 60's because they did not want to loose their cheap labor from the poor black and white population. As a result there are very few jobs and unemployment is one of the highest in the State of Maryland as well as Somerset County being one of the poorest on the East Coast. The seafood industry is a skeleton of it's past.
Over fishing of crabs and oysters have devastated the economy. Most back then thought there was no end to the bounty the Chesapeake Bay. The lesson learned is that the greed and shortsightedness of the population and of those who lived there thought the good times would never end .
Google Crisfield, Maryland and look at the old black and white pictures from it's early days to see the Town in it's heyday.
I've never heard of this channel before even though I've searched for "Food History" before. Instant Subscribe.
The only thing I've been really disappointed about COVID restrictions is we weren't able to have our yearly vacation in southern Maine (I live in Ontario). Lobster is cheaper than ground beef there! Load up on culls and get the salted water boiling on the campfire....
@buddydgb How was it? Lots of restrictions? We were hoping to maybe go for a long weekend this fall but doesn't look like the border will reopen until next year....
My brother-in-law sells live Maine lobster out of San Diego, CA and his business has taken a marked upswing in sales this year. Long live the Maine lobster! As a side note: I'm a dive fanatic and have always had some sort of fresh seafood available, my favorite being lobster. Here in California, we don't have the "real" thing, but they are fairly abundant in certain places and we call them "bugs." My weapon of choice was a mop w/ about two to three feet of handle left to wield it. By sweeping that mop under the rock ledges I couldn't reach by hand, I'd get several "bugs" at once, tangled by their spiney legs, and then liesurely pick them off the mop and put them in the goodie bag. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
You should see whats going on with our lobster fishery here in Nova Scotia... its a battleground between aboriginals and the fishing industry. All of this over what was fed to prisoners...
Money talks.
The Miq'Mac have been Lobstering for ages and it won't hurt Canada's Precious Commercial Lobstering! Signed a First Nations Mainer.
LOL. My mom grew up "poor" in a relatively cashless bartering society in a small remote corner of Nova Scotia. Her dad, my grandfather, would fish for lobster as a means of getting a little bit of cash and then spread what did not sell, onto his fields as fertilizer. Mom made her way to school everyday with her "poor kid's lunch" of lobster sandwiches and a little bottle of cream to drink; both of which were kept cool until lunch time in a brook near the school.
Yep...she had it tough because supper consisted of Atlantic Salmon her dad caught that day, field potatoes and spinach all home grown organically before that was even a thing. Mom died recently at 86...but her warm and pleasant stories of a bygone era live on in my mind as a reminder of just how good she had it and how distant we've become from the field and the sea. Rejoice in what you have and give thanks for that.
Sorry for your loss. This reminds me of the things my Grandfather and Grandmother told me. He was from Finland and she grew up on the Ozark Mountains. The hard times and the good times, 2 people that lived through WW1 & 2 they both died in 1980 within hours of each other, while I was in the metradian sea. Pass those memories on to your children and add yours, put it in writing if you can.
@@garyl6031 Hey Gary. Thanks so much for your touching words and good advice on poutting it all down in writing. Interestingly enough, as you've mentioned, both my grandparents lived through both world wars with my grandfather fighting in both and they also survived the Halifax Explosion and Spanish Flu as well...unbelievable. But what really caught my attention is that in 1977 I was in the Mediterranean and had just returned to go back to school and my grandfather died within a few days. My grandmother lived for another 20 years.
No joke, just listened to Rock Lobster on the way into work this morning. Coincidence? I think not!
Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon in action.
Thank you for a very interesting article ! Take care , stay safe and healthy wherever your research or adventure takes you ! Doing well here in Kansas .
I was told the story about indentured servants in the Bahamas having contracts that would limit how many times a week they would be fed lobster..
This was a great choice for a video. I had heard that lobster had completely flipped in perception the past 100 years or so but never knew the story.
I recall a Neffie friend of mine telling me that when he was a young lad in elementary school, he coming from a low income family, always got lobster sandwiches for lunch. Not only that, they were envious of the rich kids because they got peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch.
I also recall my father going down to the docks where he could purchase lobster right off the Fisher, or should I say lobster men?
Finally, I get to the point, which was the cost, drum roll please........
$1.00 bushel!!!!!!
My but time has changed things. Not just a little, but a huge amount!
P
I always enjoy telling folks this story of Lobster !!
"We have a date with Destiny -- and it looks like she's ordered the lobster."
great Mystery Men quote!
I needed to read that quote a true classic just about everyone in that movie needs an oscar.
Destiny is notoriously high maintenance.
I hate when the do that.
People who can quote mystery men are people who are well cultured
this was a fantastic well made video. you should be on tv.
Wait a minute. A history guy episode that involves the sea and not a single mention of pirates? Has something gone wrong?!
He mentioned Long John Silver's near the end, I think.
@@jasonsilverman3125 Now I'm hungry
Poor kid: "we don't have any money so we eat lobster"
Rich kid:"we have lots of money so we eat lobster"
Yeah I'm surprised he didn't mention those Canadian lobster Pirates stealing lobsters and traps from American fisherman?
It's 2020
well done...another subject of interesting history that i never knew i needed to know. keep up the good work!
I am reminded of the movie "Tom Horn" where the Tom Horn character (Steve McQueen) is seated a a huge outdoor banquet table. I think this was 1880's Montana. The rancher's staff comes along and deposits a whole lobster on each diner's plate. Horn somewhat recoils and says "That's the biggest bug I ever saw".
Your content and presentation is always excellent. I like your old intro more than any of your new ones!
It's funny to me that shellfish are a loophole for Lent, when the old testament forbade shellfish.
Yup it’s Traife
Well, Jews still don't eat lobsters.
The ban on shellfish is considered "old covenant" whereas Lent is originally a Catholic thing. By the way, most European boys/men are not circumcised…
@xr7fan Plenty of nonsense to go around for all creed.
Oh the irony, apparently crusaders in route from mussina ate them also.
Love your play on words.
Steve McQueen's last movie "Tom Horn" featured a lobser dish in the far west circa 1890s. Lobsters delivered by rail, on ice, insulated by hay. Tom Horn was not impressed with the meal, he said 'This is the biggest bug I ever ate'
Great video History Guy!