Clams.

Friday, March 24, 2006

[6:36am] The days were getting lighter and the snow had almost completely melted away. The crew had made it safely and sound to the Land of Enchantment, and there was to be another John Piper discussion that evening.

It was a Canada day, the sort of morning that made one pine for P.E.I. amongst the novel characters of L.M. Montgomery. But Collette had never seen that side of Canada – her first impression of Canada had not been good. She had seen it twice, entered it once. But that was left for the tales of the family vacation to Michigan.

However, there were other vacations still – the third, and last trip to Arkansas, Hot Springs. Collette had been eleven. The main details of that trip, (this time with Grandma Snicketts to another timeshare) – clams (millions of them – baby ones), clams, clams, clams… There were other moments she recalled, such as watching the wonderful old Flight of the Phoenix one evening and the speedboat ride, which was always great fun. They had sped along for a good while, (everyone but Grandma), and ended up in front of the dam where the water was so clear, they could see fifty feet down to the very bottom of the lake. But it was the clams that seemed to keep Collette and Carrie-Bri occupied from start to finish.

They went clam digging every day, every sparable hour.

Dad had also made the mistake of allowing Collette to film the family vacation that year (an honor for which they fought every year) and while rewatching it later, they realized that 2/3 of the film consisted of nothing but clam-digging. Perhaps they weren’t clams. But they certainly looked close enough, although they were all tiny and once they had collected a good bunch they usually ended up putting them back in the rocks and the mud anyway. And that was the end of their visits to Arkansas.

“The big black cloud all heavy with rain, that shadowed the ground on Kapiti Plain.”