Precerpt from In with the East Wind: A Mary Poppins Kind of Life (Leaver) - Acton: The Fish Man
The fish man came to the door like clockwork every Thursday. He parked his refrigerated truck in our driveway, walked past Duke, who had come to know him, and asked Ma to come out and see what she might like that week: haddock, clams, oysters, mussels, scallops, lobster, and more. Most often, Ma would load up on haddock, scallop, and clams, leaving the lobster for our supermarket trip in the city after church on Sundays. Ma made a wicked haddock meal. She would bread a big fish with corn meal, put a little bit of milk into a fish-shaped white corning-type bowl, and bake it. Those were the days. I hanker after haddock a lot. It is almost impossible to find outside of New England, and no one makes it like Ma did. Every Sunday after church, we’d stop at the supermarket and pick up eight live lobsters. Some folks called them sea spiders (not because they did not like them but because, well, they do look like spiders, especially when they are alive). Lobster was our Sunday meal ...