Connecticut Lobster Roll

Something about my grandmother’s death makes me want to run. The morning after she died, I ran ten miles by the Charles River. I was crying, I was thrilled, I listened to music. The ten miles went by in a blur. As I walked home up the side street away from the river, thinking about the James Taylor lyric, “Ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go,” and how that would be the corniest tweet ever, I was hit by a gust of wind. A mighty wind at my back, startling me and blowing leaves all around me.

Running is helping me manage my emotions. It tires me out so that I don’t bring that energy into places where it would be innappropriate. Seeing my father and Happy’s death have sheared away some of the fears I carried for too long. Running is a way to express this new lightness. I am now determined to run 26.2 miles in October.

My aunt and I dined at the Lobster Landing in Clinton, CT. A fun fact; I was the first to review this place on Yelp. I think this is the second lobster roll I have ever had in my life. The first was with Lady C at the beach in Manchester by the Sea. That was a New England style lobster roll, with the meat chilled, tossed in mayonnaise, with celery, lemon juice and lettuce. She paid for the roll and carried it across the main drag right to my towel.

This was a Connecticut Lobster Roll. That’s warm lobster meat served with drawn butter on a hot dog bun. Wikipedia explains… “There is also a variant called the Connecticut Lobster Roll, which is warm lobster, fresh from the shell with drawn butter. According to the book “Connecticut Icons,” the Connecticut roll was introduced in the 1930s at a restaurant in West Haven on Savin Rock called Perry’s, following a request from a traveling salesman who frequented the place. Once Perry’s put the new sandwich on its menu, its popularity spread up and down the Connecticut coast, but not far beyond.”