Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories. With Marysville and Union County celebrating Bicentennial anniversaries in 2019 and 2020, respectively, these articles help depict what life was like in those early years.
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When I was a kid, we always had turkey on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then, on New Year’s Day, we had pork and sauerkraut because my grandmother said that would bring us good luck during the new year. I don’t think she really believed that, but she always said it.
There was one other thing we had on every one of those holidays. It was escalloped oysters. I didn’t really like them until I was about 10 years old, and then they became one of my very favorite foods. And they still are today.
We bought the oysters at Spring’s Market on North Main Street. The market didn’t normally have them in stock, so we had to special order them. My mother would call the store a few days in advance and order two quarts of “Selects.” Those were the largest oysters.
I sometimes watched as my mother, or my grandmother, prepared them. They made alternating layers of oysters and cracker crumbs in a special casserole with a few other things added, including whipping cream.
When my grandmother was making the oysters, she always set aside a couple of them. She put them on crackers, and she ate them raw. She really liked them that way, but you couldn’t pay me enough to eat one of those things raw.
The first thing they did in preparing the oysters was to examine each one closely. I asked why they did that, and they told me they wanted to make sure none of them had a pearl inside. They said I could break a tooth if I bit into a pearl. They claimed they didn’t find pearls often, just every now and then.
I always thought they were just pulling my leg about those pearls, but one Thanksgiving when I sat down at the table, there was a small dish next to my plate. It held something that was off-white, about the size of a small pea. It was a pearl that my grandmother had found in an oyster.
Wow, I thought that was great. My mother gave me an envelope so I could take the pearl to school to show my teacher and my friends. I did that the following Monday and when Miss Orahood saw it, she explained to the class how oysters make pearls. I thought that was pretty special.
When we went outdoors for recess, some of my friends wanted to see and hold the little pearl. But when one of them was holding it, it fell out of his hand and into the gravel. That’s the last I ever saw of that little pearl.
Those wishing to contact Bill Boyd can e-mail him at bill@davidwboyd.com