Community Corner

Modest Proposal: An EG Clambake

Writer Ray Huling suggested it to me during a recent interview and I think it's a great idea.


Is it my imagination or is East Greenwich rediscovering its waterfront?

There's the , and a story you'll be reading about later this week, about Mike Dellagrotta and Allen Gammon's new Scalloptown "Yacht Club."

And there are the two women with funds from a research grant. They have plans to make a living archive of Greenwich Cove, past and present. Finally, there's , "Harvesting the Bay: Fathers, Sons and the Last of the Wild Shellfishermen."

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It was during the interview with Huling, an EG native and son and grandson of quahoggers, that he suggested an idea with real merit: a town clambake to celebrate and support the fishing industry in East Greenwich.

We were talking about , the former town landfill at the top of the cove. It was named in honor of Scalloptown, what the waterfront was called decades ago because of the large number of scallop fishermen working there. For Huling, naming a park seemed an exercise in nostalgia at the very time there are people making a living on the water today.

Find out what's happening in East Greenwichwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

That's when he suggested holding a town clambake each year, buying the shellfish from R.I. Clam right there on Water Street.

A clambake, I thought. Now that's an idea!

Then, last Wednesday, the Providence Journal ran a story about the clambake tradition in Warren. If Warren can do it, why not EG?

So, I'm throwing out this idea: let's hold a clambake in East Greenwich as part of our end-of-the-summer festivities. Or maybe do it at the beginning of the summer, to kick things off.

Bob Plain (my esteemed predecessor) even suggested the perfect place to hold such an event: the EG Fireman's Hall, which just happens to have the best view of Greenwich Cove in town.

What say you, East Greenwich – can we pull this off?


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