My flight was late so after the hour long drive out to the coast it was well after lunch time and most of the seafood places were closed until early evening and the dinner crowds. I wasn't in the mood for fast food so when I noticed a dive called the Highway One Oyster House with the neon "Open" sign still lit I pulled in.
I weaved around the numerous potholes and mud puddles before parking my car at the front of the place. Climbing out of the car, I carefully walked to the front door and checked the sign to make sure the place was open. Sure enough the sign said "Open 11am to Midnight Sunday thru Thursday. Opening the door I stepped up onto the cracked and sloped concrete floor and then wandered into the front room.
After a few minutes wait, a young woman stepped in and said, "Hey there, welcome to the Oyster House, you can sit anywhere you like."
I found a nearby booth and sat down. The waitress returned and asked, "What would you like to drink?"
"I'll have some un-sweet tea. How are the oysters today?"
"Oysters are good, you want to start out with a dozen?" she asked running her hand up to pull a stray lock of her dirty blonde hair from her eyes. I had considered ordering a beer but wondered if she was old enough to serve it.
"Actually I was thinking of getting the bucket."
"All right, but you got to sit up at the oyster bar for the bucket," she pointed to the bar behind her. "And I'll shuck the oysters for you."
"You shuck them, really?"
"Yeah, I'm as good a shucker as any guy, you just wait and watch."
"Okay," I replied and grabbed my napkin and silverware and moved up to the oyster bar.
The waitress disappeared for a few minutes and then returned with my iced tea, a plate of crackers and two small containers, one with cocktail sauce, the other with horseradish. She smiled and then wandered back to the kitchen as I watched her hips sway. "Surely she's old enough," I found myself thinking, wishing I had ordered a beer.
I pondered her age as I took the horseradish, dumped it all into the cocktail sauce container and mixed it together. Opening a packet of crackers, I dipped one into the sauce and took out a sizable swab of the spicy mixture and tried a big bite. The taste tingled over my tongue and then I could feel a slight burn in up in my sinuses. Tears welled in my eyes and I smiled, "Yeah, just right." I grabbed another cracker and dipped it into the sauce, taking another large bite with similar results.
After a few minutes the waitress returned with a nice size bucket full of large oysters. Scooting up in my chair, I watched intently as she grabbed an oyster, held it firmly in the palm of her hand. She then carefully grabbed her shucking knife and worked the blade in a small opening between halves of the shell. Delicately working the blade inside the oyster, she cut through the lower muscle and then opened the upper half of the oyster.