The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-05-06
The Connecticut Perk Later Published Whenever the Spirit Moves
 by The State of Connecticut Publicity Commission THOMAS C. PERKINS
 Executive Secretary Hartford Connecticut
TOMAS (. PERRIN.
Executive Secretary
Connecticut

of fish was dropped into their un- derworld coffers. It was not a bluff the same racketeers had dropped more than one fisherman from other partS-who had refused to submit to the payment of blood money.
 Well" said Captain John Smith, president of the Southern New Eng land Fishermen, we got our backs up. Fishing all these years, and our folks before us fishing all these years, we decided not pay the black mail" There was nice, cold gleam in Captain Smiths blue eyes as he went on, i've close-hauled, hitched up our sea pants and went after 'em. We got the company of squad of he-men from the Connecticut State Police and they escorted our trucks to the State line below Greenwich. The Gangs Collectors were waiting at the line, but when they saw the troopers they melted away like snow in May. And beggin' your pardon-it was a damned god thing for their hides that they did melt away because the third truck in our line had aboard bunch of men that have been fighting the sea for years and on the truck with them was--Well-a lot of hardware you don't use in fishing. "Cap'n Smiths bronzed fist hit the table. And we got our fresh Connecticut fish into New York City and been gettin it in ever since without paying a penny of that kind of blood money, making 1t possible, you see, for anybody to buy our fresh fish at price they can afford to pay. But we would like to see lot more Connecticut people get the benefit of fine fish from their own home waters. Wed like. for instance. to see an ar- rangement worked out so that it would be possible for some of state institutions to use fish caught by home folks"
 And you can bet your bottom dollar the flags will break out all along the beach when news reaches the fishing towns of Connecticut to the fleet that home folks who like an honest fish are at last insisting upon Connecticut variety
 Connecticut's Waterfront
 A jaunt along Conecticut's water front is one continuous voyage of discovery-even beauty may be turned up if one is of an inquiring exposition and has as guide and companion one versed in the lore of the beach. It seemed to us, as we stood on dock in New London and watched blunt noSed tugboat puff upstream, that the two hom- pres pacing its deck were usually gifted in the matter of compilations. Their skins were of a deeper brown than it is possible to acquire any, where or anytime in Florida. Fact is thet faces of these tugboat men were about as brown as strong cof- fee-and when you mention coffee you name the secret. Tugboat coffee IS not by any means ordinary coffee. A fresh cup of coffee is a total stranger about tugboat. Night and day the coffee pot stands on the galley range, always simmering and brewing. When it's strength is on the Wane in goes big cupful of fresh ground coffee usually as black as the ace of spades. The old grounds are allowed to remain in the pot. A new brew is put on only when the post is so full of grounds that there is no room for water. And a fine suntan appears upon the countenances of the tugboat boys Sometimes, so the beach legend goes, tugboat coffee is en- ployed as stain to impart a high yaller cast to the interior and ex- terior color schemes, in which tug boats are decked out.
 And so, as one drifts along the home coast, odd bits of this-and- that perk through. It was the Elm Tree In, hard by Westerly. R. l., and yet 1n Pawcatuck. Connecticut, that we learned about champion oyster openers. Indeed, on the strength of our interview with Chef Gardiner of the Elm Tree Inn, we are now able to Scotch myth and claim for Connecticut, unofficially, of course, the worlds fastest oyster opener. Chef Gardiner himself. We mad heard of the rara avis who, after opening 100 oysters in minutes at a recent show in Madison Square Garden, New York City, was pro- claimed the worlds champ oyster shellar To the best of our in- formation and belief that proclama- t1on was all wet r.. for as we stood in the Elm Tree Kitchen and watched Chef Gardner perform, we counted 'em 7. no less than 25 oysters opened in a minute or 5 oysters per minute better than the record so widely proclaimed in be- half of the Madison Square Garden performer . Chef Gardiner is a full blooded Narragansett Indian ;. His ancestors lived upon the Shores of Charleston Pond near Pawcatuck This is an inland salt water pond and from its waters for centuries came the principal food supply of Chef Gardiner's an- CeStOrs .. always g goodly num- Der of Charleston Pond oysters and It