On a personal note, my computer is virus free! It's going to be so much easier doing my documents now I have photoshop back and a non-sticky keyboard.
So...on to the interview. One of the documents I wanted to include in my bundle is an article on quahoggers of Rhode Island. I wanted to learn what the process was for gathering these shellfish and who was doing it. I figured I'd start my search for a quahogger at two of the local seafood stores on the island, Anthony's Seafood and Longwarf Seafood.
I went to Anthony's first to ask who their quahog supplier was. The guy working behind the counter was very nice and ran to the back to get his boss. He returned a few minutes later with a torn scrap of cardboard (he apologized and said he could find paper if I really wanted it) with "Andrades Catch, Bristol, Wood Street, 1st left" scrawled in red ink. After an explanation of the directions for how to get there, the guy behind the counter wished me luck and I was on my way.
I arrived at Longwarf seafood just as they were unlocking the doors. It's much darker and dingier than Anthony's high-ceilinged, white washed front display room but they sell local wholesale so I figured I might luck out on finding a local supplier. The man seemed really interested in my project when I explained it and told me he has one quahogger who comes in as a supplier.
"He'll probably be in today around 2 or 3, that's usually when he comes in. If not today then tomorrow for sure." Thankful for this direct lead to a digger I passed on my information with the promise that I'd be contacted by the quahogger when he came in. (That was Wednesday and he still hasn't called so I'm glad Andrade's in Bristol turned out to be a good spot...)
To be honest I got a bit lost trying to find Andrade's, but eventually after a few loops around downtown Bristol I found the small white building up the hill from the water. Inside was a whirring machine that seemed to be sorting clams. A young teenager was pouring them into the top and a deeply tanned man in a sleeveless T-shirt was at the bottom holding open a mesh bag to catch the clams as they tumbled down the chute. Shouting over the machine I asked if I could get in contact with some quahog diggers for a quick interview. A young girl about my age jumped up from a back desk and yelled to shut the machine off.
"Hi," she said. "I'm Julie. My dad owns this place. What did you say you needed?" I explained the paper I was writing and my need for a quahogger to interview.
"Well, my dad was a digger for a long time, there are some articles about him on the wall. And he's a diver," she said pointing to the tanned man on the floor catching clams in a bag. "There's a guy coming in about our age in like two minutes if you want to talk to him. He digs. Read the articles while you wait, there's a lot of information all over the shop if you're interested in quahogging".
So I did--one was a newspaper article and the other a Rhode Island Monthly article from '97. Before I got to the end of the second one a young guy walked through the door and walked into a back room. He returned with a cup of coffee and started chatting with the teenager. The machine had begun sorting and whirring again. I shouted over the noise and introduced myself.
"Are you a quahog digger? I'm writing a paper and the girl at the front desk said I could interview you". He looked surprised.
"You wanna interview me about quahogs?" he laughed. "Well why not?" We stepped outside into the drizzly rain so we wouldn't have to shout over the sorting machine.
I had a list of questions I'd written out as a rough guide:
-How long have you been shellfishing?
-Do you only dig for clams or are you open to other shellfish?
-What's the difference between the different clams?(cherrystones vs quahogs)
-Who taught you to do this?
-How often do you go out?
-What do you consider a good catch for the day?
-Is there a limit to how many you can pull in per day?
-Is there a certain technique to the raking/digging?
-Do you feel like this is a dying art?
-Are there any new technologies that you're competing against?
We talked about a lot of other stuff besides the questions I had down and I ended up with two pages of written notes from the interview. For the record his name is Bryan Aldrich, he's 27 years old, and he's been quahogging since he was 17.
I'll save the rest of the information for the paper, but that was the process of getting the information.
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