DUBLIN – Around 65 bushels – or 520 gallons – of oysters were put away at Lu Mil Vineyard on Saturday.
“They’re eating them as fast as we can cook them,” said Dublin Mayor Horace Wyatt, who was serving as one of the three oyster steamers at the Dublin Peanut Festival’s fourth annual Oyster Roast and Fish Fry. Wyatt and the rest of the oyster team were busy dumping buckets of the mollusks in the three two-bushel steamers they had on hand for the job.
Crystal McDaniel was dubbed “Hush Puppy Queen” by the Festival committee, and husband Tim reigned as “Fish King” for the day. The duo kept busy with their respective kingdoms, while watched over by a couple of men in chairs, whom the couple good-naturedly joked were their “advisory council.”
Inside the General Store, the tables were full.
“They were lined up at the door when we started serving at 11 a.m., and that wave left and the lunch crowd came in, and they just keep coming in waves like that,” said organizer Bobbi Todd. “It’s been nonstop all day.”
Five-gallon buckets were stationed at each table, and some men, reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting, had the bucket lodged between their knees, elbows resting on their legs, while eating oysters straight off the knife they were using to pry open the shells.
“I love to hear that clink of oysters hitting the bucket,” said Todd.
Boy Scout Troop 622 out of Dublin was on hand for the day acting as busboys, dish washers, and general help for the Peanut Festival Committee.
“The Dublin Peanut Festival and the Dublin Boy Scouts go hand-in-hand,” commented Troop 622 leader Alex Hursey. “It’s just natural that we work together, because we’re both working for the good of Dublin.”
At least one guest felt the same way.
“I wouldn’t miss this,” said Dublin resident Brenda Brisson. “(The Festival) does such good work, and I want to support them in what they do.”
Among other benefits to the Mother County, the Dulbin Peanut Festival Committee provides a $2,000 scholarship annually to a West Bladen student who will be attending Bladen Community College. For more information on the Peanut Festival and their activities, visit http://www.dublinpeanutfestival.com/.
Chrysta Carroll can be reached by calling 910-862-4163.
