This will be the first year in I don’t know how many that one or the other of the Rattray cousins won’t take part in the East Hampton Town Trustees’ clam contest. With my youngest away at school and the others aged out or also away, there is no one left who can enter the junior division.
Hitting the clam beds for the fall contest was an annual thing. Entirely by chance, I had discovered a hot spot in Three Mile Harbor, which reliably produced kid-category winners. I have happy memories of my son, Ellis, still in his Pokemon phase, scratching on the flats and, another time, my nephew Teddy footing in the mud while up to his neck in water — Teddy won that year, as it happened.
The contest works like this: Digging officially begins at a set time before the event. There are sections for kids and adults for each of the town’s major harbors and overall winners, respectively, for the heaviest of all. In the event of a tie, the judges will consider the clams’ girth in making a final decision. The winning clam is placed on a doll-sized throne and topped with a paper crown. Prizes, donated by local businesses, include clam baskets and rakes and a gift certificate or two.
It is a lovely event, one that I am quite fond of, as it feels like a reward for locals having made it through the summer without losing our minds. But I am often left with a nagging question: Where are the giants coming from? In all my years of digging, I have never come across one even half as large as the winners. I am not saying that pumpkin-contest trickery — in which unscrupulous competitors seek out and buy the largest they can find and then make the rounds of the cash-paying events — is going on, but you never know. In reality, there must be a honey-hole somewhere where the dinosaur clams thrive. It’s just that I have no idea where it is.
There has been controversy, however. In 2004, a former town trustee was accused of taking clams in one harbor and passing them off as coming from another. Evidence offered included the fact that no one had seen the alleged perpetrator digging anywhere other than Napeague.
This year’s contest, the 34th, will be judged on Oct. 5. Digging officially begins Sept. 28. There is a $1 entry fee per clam.