Just a stone’s throw from the Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts is Wood’s Seafood, an end-of-the-pier seafood shack and fish market that you’d expect from any harbor town, but especially from this harbor town, because this harbor town is America’s Hometown.
After passing on a refreshing dip in the Governor Bradford Inn‘s fish-shaped pool,
then feeling a pang of disappointment in my patriotic heart when I saw the glorified zen garden that houses Plymouth Rock (follow the signs, walk to the railing, and look down),
I turned and headed back along Plymouth Harbor with my sights set on the sea-salted grey building at the end of Town Wharf.
…
Here’s how the story goes:
Mr. Wood was a pilgrim. He came here on a boat with other pilgrims. The pilgrims met the Indians locals and wanted to invite them to dinner. The pilgrims wanted turkey. Mr. Wood wanted fish.
Whereas Mr. Wood was thinking that a high energy and heart-healthy dinner rich in Omega-3 fatty acids would make for a nice first impression, the pilgrims had other, more nefarious plans.
When the Indians locals inevitably slipped into tryptophan-induced comas, the pilgrims would slaughter them and immediately begin erecting strip malls and clearing forest for landfills, and they’d build a casino or two for the remaining Indians locals to run as sort of a consolation prize.
Mr. Wood digressed and lived out his days catching fish on Plymouth Beach, blissfully ignorant of the genocide set in motion by this first Thanksgiving.
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Ok, that might not be exactly how the story goes (Mr. Wood was a merman from the lost continent of Atlantis), but Wood’s Seafood is the destination of choice in Plymouth for buttery lobster rolls, fried clams strips, steamed mussels, and creamy clam chowder in styrofoam cups.
Or should I say, clam chowda.
