Something Fishy

One of the gifts we received for our 29th wedding anniversary was a visit from Rachel Baron (daughter) and Alison Bond (friend), all the way from New York City.

The previous weekend, they had been to the “historic” Shad Festival in Lambertville, NJ. This two-day get-together has been held annually since 1981 to herald the return of spawning shad up the Delaware River. This quote is part of the “romance” of the shad:

The abundance of shad in spring reminds us again how fortunate we are to have in our midst the largest free flowing river in the East, one that has eagerly responded to conservation and clean up efforts. Nowhere is this thanks better expressed than at the annual Shad Festival at Lambertville, where the tiny city’s commercial links with shad span more than a century. The Lewis family of Lambertville, whose island fishery dates to 1888, and who hold the only remaining commercial license to catch shad with nets, have been key participants since the festival’s inception 24 years ago.

So before Rachel and Alison visited Houston, they reveled in the Shad Festival and the area surrounding Lambertville. The accompanying photos are proof of their visit. (Rachel was at a loss to explain how she can to be inside something resembling a concrete outhouse. She swears she couldn’t remember – the shad stole her mind.) She does note, however, that in the entire Shad Festival complex, you could only get actual shad in two booths. The people were abundant but the shad were not.