Episode 13: The Great Crab Escape

January 19, 2023

Music Credits
Another Day of Sun / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
Martin Landström / Zoo Zoo / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
Alexandria / Ebb & Flod / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com

Narration

Before we get started, I have something to ask you. Would you please share this podcast with someone who you think might like it? Thank you!!

Today, we have a special guest. My grandmother’s best friend Borgny will join us. Borgny and Irene were the best of friends from childhood all through my grandma’s life. Borgny has agreed to share a story with you on the podcast. I knew about this story, but my grandma didn’t share it with me on tape.

What you’re about to hear is a recording on the phone with Borgny. I was so happy to get to talk to her – just a couple of weeks ago, actually. It might be a little hard to hear, but I hope you’ll listen. It is just so good. 

Next week, Irene is back, as she talks about becoming a mom.

Here is Borgny!

Borgny: We decided we were going to have a party.

In Norway, they have a lot of parties with those big crabs. They are big, they are not little, they are big.

When you cook them, they become red. They are like brownish-gray when they are live, and as soon as you put them in boiling water, they get red.

So we were going to have a party. We were maybe 3-4 couples.

Out at Sheepshead Bay – It’s almost out to Coney Island – there are all those fishing boats and crab boats, and all that came in. There we could buy them live.

But we didn’t think – stupid us – we didn’t think to take anything with us to have it in. We thought they would have something for us to put them in. 

You know what they gave us? These big paper bags. So by the time we got to the subway, the crabs were wet and the paper bag broke. And the crabs are crawling all over the subway.

People are screaming. They were still alive, and crawling. They weren’t crawling that fast, but they were crawling. 

My God, they are not attacking people, they are just crawling to hide, run away. They don’t know what the heck is going on. 

Finally, one girl came with a big bag, and we got them from under the seats, all over. When you take them, you have to take them from the back, behind the big claws. Otherwise they’ll bite you and they can bite hard. They don’t want to let go. If they bite you, they don’t want to let go.

We got them in, and we took them home and we washed them, because they had been on the subway floor. So then we washed them and put them in boiling water. 

We had a party…with crabs that had been crawling on the floor in the subway!

But they were good. (laughed)

Oh, we had so many stories. We could go back and say, Remember when we did that? And we did a lot of crazy stuff too. I don’t know. We had a good time. We were the best of friends.