
DATE: Sunday, June 29, 1997                 TAG: 9706270303

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 30   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: BEACH PEOPLE 

SOURCE: BY MILES DANIELS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: OCRACOKE                          LENGTH:   99 lines

FORMER CLAMMER STILL SERVES THE PUBLIC AND HIS CRABBERS

Wayne Teeter is a simple man.

He eats raw clams. He never buys a truck with less than 100,000 miles on it. And he never takes a vacation.

``He's an ordinary feller,'' Charles ``Corky'' Mason says of his friend. ``As far as I know he's a fair man.

``I can't say anything bad about him.''

A 52-year-old Ocracoke native, Teeter wears many hats.

He owns a clam house, tackle shop and a newly opened retail seafood market. And if that's not enough, Teeter also represents Ocracoke on the Hyde County Board of Commissioners - an elected job that takes at least two hours a day.

A firm Democrat, Teeter says he's not liberal. In fact, his favorite politician is Republican Jesse Helms, a U. S. senator from North Carolina - and one of the most conservative members of Congress.

As far as a political philosophy, Teeter's is simple: ``People, not politicians, create the law.''

``Laws are made because people are doing bad things,'' Teeter says with a drawn out Ocracoke brogue. ``Somebody down the road is always creating problems.''

Teeter is not your ordinary polished politician.

He usually wears frayed shorts, a stained T-shirt and a baseball cap. With a long, gray beard, Teeter looks a lot like Charlie Daniels, the country singer. He's also about the height of the singer: 6-feet tall and a bit on the plump side.

On a recent Thursday, Teeter was busy adding finishing touches to ``Something Fishy,'' his new retail seafood market across from Howard's Pub on Ocracoke. Building inspectors were going over his property. And watermen were checking in and out.

Seafood is all Teeter has ever known. An eighth-grade drop-out, he started working on a trawl boat when he was about 12. For a while, Teeter served in the Coast Guard - but he soon returned to his first love.

``I was born in seafood,'' Teeter says. ``I've been in it all of my life.''

Lining the docks of Teeter's Clam House are shedders similar to those used by local crabbers. Instead of crabs, though, Teeter's eight shedders are filled with more than 2 million tiny clams.

Right now, the clams are no larger than a grain of sand. But by November they will be the size of a quarter and be moved to Teeter's three-acre clam bed in the Pamlico Sound. In two more years, Teeter will rake up the full-size clams and sell them to local seafood markets and restaurants.

In addition to clams, Teeter also harvests crabs, fish and just about anything else that swims in the nearby sea or sound.

Teeter begins every day at 5:30 a.m. when he goes straight to the docks to make sure his crabbers have gas for their boats and bait for their pots. The men fish for themselves - but sell their catches to Teeter. The seafood house owner says his two chocolate labs, Ginger and Mingo, do the rest.

``They run this place,'' Teeter says, laughing.

Teeter never eats at home. He simply doesn't have the time.

His office is fully equipped with a microwave, stove-top oven and all the ingredients necessary to make his favorite dish - clam chowder. He works with clams all day. But he doesn't tire of tasting them.

Above his office door hangs a sign that pretty much describes Teeter's fast paced life: ``God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I'm so far behind, I will never die.''

Teeter's drive to work is fairly short, around one to two minutes. His old GMC truck takes him just about everywhere on the tiny island. Calls from disgruntled citizens - and from those who think he's doing a good job as commissioner - occupy several hours a day. The rest of Teeter's time is filled with repairs, paper work and keeping everything going.

Teeter's day usually ends around 6 p.m. - when he finally gets a chance to spend a few minutes with his wife of 35 years, Belinda. He then crawls into bed and snoozes until early the next morning.

``I've never even had the time to figure out how old I was,'' Teeter says. ``And I don't know what stress is.''

Ask Teeter about retiring and he laughs.

``I've never thought about retiring,'' Teeter says. ``You retire when you die.''

Once a week, on Sunday, Teeter manages to escape his duties as a business owner and politician and slip into a tiny Ocracoke church. In the Pentecostal sanctuary, he spends a couple hours with the Lord - whom he claims keeps him going. Church is about the only time Teeter gets away from his duties.

But according to Teeter, it's all he wants.

``Why go on vacation?'' Teeter asks. ``I live where people from everywhere come to vacation.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by WILLIAM P. CANNON

Ocracoe resident Wayne Teeters owns a clam house, tackle shop and a

newly opened retail seafood market. And if that's not enough, Teeter

also represents Ocracoke on the Hyde County Board of Commissioners -

an elected job that takes at least two hours a day.

Graphic

AT A GLANCE

Who: Wayne Teeter

What: Clammer, seafood shop owner, Ocracoke Island's

representative to the Hyde County Board of Commissioners

Where: "Something Fishy" seafood store, across from Howard's Pub