Even with Covid-19 seeping across the planet, the sun still rises here on Dewees. And let me tell you, that fat star cresting the Atlantic horizon is truly something to behold. Nearly every morning we watch peach and pomegranate nectar leak across the sky and wonder how Mother Nature manages to top herself again and again.
But this morning we don’t contemplate the sky’s beauty from our bed.
Instead, we gather our clamming gear in the dark, knowing just what to do because Judy the real estate naturalist and her husband, Reggie, showed us a while back how it works. The key is to get to Two Pipes, the best clamming spot, about two hours after low tide.

Clamming is ideal for a nonhunter like myself, seeing as how bivalves don’t run very fast and I don’t have to wear hunter orange, draw blood, or handle guts. The only real challenge is not to get sucked into the pluff mud or lose my shoes in the process.
Some people use a special rake with a built-in basket, such as the nice one Chris got from his sister for Christmas. But most folks on Dewees prefer a scratcher. As for me, I find it irresistible to just squat on my haunches and feel around for prey with my bare hands.

Now why should such a thing feel so satisfying? Am I tapping into my inner Neanderthal? Or just reverting to my toddler self? (Don’t worry, Mom, I won’t go out to play and then come home with no clothes on.)
In the warmer months pluff mud is known for its, ahem, distinctive odor. It is, after all, nothing but decomposing spartina grass and critters: crabs, oysters, shrimp, bugs, what have you. Maybe that’s one of the advantages of a long-handled implement. Your nose is kept at a safe distance from the putrefaction.
But I can’t smell much now. It’s too cold. With one hand on my rake for stability, I plunge the other into the shallow water and watch it turn the color of spent coffee grounds. While I’m feeling around, it occurs to me that, one, I look not unlike my one-year-old grandson playing in the mud; and, two, that all this rotting matter is what makes life possible.
Death allows life. Now there’s a heavy thought before my second cup of English Breakfast.
I feel a rounded shell the size of my fist and pull it out, the mud sucking around my hand like a vacuum. I lob it toward the basket Chris has set on the island between us.

“Another one?” Chris asks. He’s been raking the mud for a while with no results.
“You’ve really got to pay close attention. As soon as you feel something hard, dig in,” I say. Now that I’ve been clamming for fifteen minutes, I feel like I can speak with authority on the matter.
Chris gives me the no-duh look. “That’s what I’m doing, but all I’m getting are empty oyster shells.”
“Then do like me and use your hands.” I hold them up and let the slime ooze down my fingers.
“I’d rather not,” he says as he wrestles his feet from the quickmud and moves to another spot.
I stay with my little gold mine and ponder while I dig. I can see why not everyone wants to go around sticking their hands where the sun don’t shine. Especially now, when nearly every surface, not to mention human hand, seems suspect. What silent killer lurks here, you wonder.

Sure, hands can transmit viruses, but what about mud? And where do these things come from anyway? Can a virus originate in mud? There are, after all, more species of organisms in the soil than there are aboveground. Maybe that’s where every living thing has ever begun.
“For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” says the Bible. Without dead things to make dirt for living things, where would we be?
Chris corners a patch of clams and tosses them into the basket one by one. “That oughta do it,” he says. As we head back to our golf cart, I think about the chowder we’ll have for lunch, feeling grateful that, although there’s nothing any of us can do to stop the Big Conveyor Belt of Life, playing in the pluff mud can sure slow it down, if only for a moment.
But next time I’ll wear gloves.

Wow, Monica! How gratifying is that to harvest your own meal? We are getting ready to morel mushroom hunt here. Conditions will be just right in a week or so. Having something gratifying to put your energy into is what life is all about. I’m happy to see you are a hunter/forager in your own right!
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Morels! I love them! We’ve found them a few times, on accident, near the cabin. Every time I go looking for them, they can’t be found. It’s so frustrating! Haha But it’s really all about the Easter egg hunt, isn’t it? 🙂
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Hi Monica!! I was astonished to read about your residence on Dewees Island. Back in the 90s, another family joined us for a week’s vacation on Isle of Palms and during that time, all of us did a tour of Dewees! It’s all in one of my scrapbooks! Such a beautiful place. I will write more via email. I so enjoyed reading your posts.
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Whoa! Get outta here, Jan! That’s amazing. You will definitely have to send me the details in an email. Small world, indeed. Thanks for reading. 🙂
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As a fellow writer whose novels are set on Dewees, I so loved reading your whimsical take today. So much beauty, so many distinctive eyes to take in and sort it. All Awesome! Thank you. Dershie McDevitt
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Thank you so much for reading, Dershie. I hope I get to meet you! I know we must have a lot in common. 🙂
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The thing is, if you know of a prime collecting spot, you should clam up about it. You wouldn’t want all the riffraff cleaning it out. (Although, as it’s apparently not that easy to get there, I imagine the riffraff quota is pretty low. 😉 )
Pity the poor clam. It’s never watched a sunrise.
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Ha! Good points, Dave. And I do pity the clam, for a variety of reasons. But he sure does make soup taste good. So there’s that.
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Now I know what we’re doing when I come back! Beautiful writing as always. xo
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Hi-
i just caught up on the whole series and I enjoyed each one. The Bosworth incident must’ve been frightening. Baloo loves those Temptations. He did have a similar reaction with an antibiotic once and it was tremendously disquieting to say the least.
The beach crying post was especially moving. You’re right that there are so many people suffering right now in unique ways.
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I’m glad you’re enjoying the posts, Beth. I hope these little stories can brighten a day or be a touch point of connection, the way stories have always served us.
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