THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 1, 1996 TAG: 9608290319
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 48 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: Ronald Speer
LENGTH: 70 lines
The Summer of '96 will go down, in native American lingo, as ``The year of the big billfishes.''
The subtitle might be: ``The summer when the crabs and the rockfish returned.''
And in smaller letters, I'll mark '96 down as ``The season my ice cream got good.''
Billfishing, once reserved for the very rich and the very famous, was so hot that anyone with a yearning to hook a monster marlin and watch it dance could fulfill the dream.
The blue crab, a tasty favorite that had fallen on hard times it seemed, gathered in great numbers in the waters around the Albemarle. The soft-shell season stretched into the summer. And then the hardshells filled watermen's pots.
And rockfish, a species that had seemed as dead as the dodo bird, came back to coastal waters by the millions. One of my top fishing memories was a spring morning when I landed and released 10 of the fish that I never thought would thrive again.
The ice cream recipe that I've adopted came because raw eggs are not popular anymore, and I don't like to cook eggs because it takes so long to cool them.
So now my standby that never fails is two cups of sugar mixed with four tablespoons of flour, and blended with two cups of fruit or chocolate. That's joined by 1 1/2 quarts of half-and-half and churned in 30 minutes to perfection.
My taste tester is 7-year-old Grant Tate. He sampled my watermelon ice cream and the next day came to the door when I was gone.
``Does Mr. Speer have anymore watermelon ice cream?'' he asked. ``No, but he'll probably make some this weekend,'' my wife replied.
``Well,'' said my pint-sized pal, ``if he's going to have to make some new, tell him I'd rather have his fried apple.''
There were lots of other highlights in the Summer of '96. Outer Banks families who took in teen-age players at the Babe Ruth World Series will remember August as ``The month we found out real baseball games are a lot more fun than television.''
The hummingbirds were thicker than ever before. And the pelicans, rarely seen when I first started coming to the Outer Banks 19 years ago, are all over the place - a heartwarming reminder than mankind can change its ways and preserve the environment.
Food lovers may remember the summer for the opening of popular new restaurants such as the Flying Fish, Millie's Diner and the Lone Cedar Cafe, where the president pro tem of the state Senate may sit down for a chat as a friendly host.
August could go down in history as ``The month the hot didn't come,'' because the high temperature was in the 80s day after day, week after week.
But '96 may also be remembered as ``The summer the lightning scared the dickens out of us.'' Night after night the skies were laced with displays by nature that humbled the most heralded fireworks displays.
As a sailor, I'll write off the summer as the year the Wind Gypsy went hard aground in one race, hooked a crab pot in another and blew out a mainsail when I was over-canvased in brawny winds in a third. The real Americans might have called it ``The summer when the boat wouldn't float.''
Now, on the last weekend of the summer invasion, we head into my favorite season.
The fishing's still good. The restaurants are open without any waiting lines. High schoolers play football every Friday night. All kinds of flavors are yet to be tried in my ice cream maker.
And if nature doesn't hammer us with a hurricane, I'll be on the Wind Gypsy today with a newly painted bottom, an aggressive crew and a keen eye peeled for gusts and shoals and crab pots.
It don't get no better than fall on the Outer Banks. by CNB