When I was five or six I ate a raw clam. Or a raw oyster.
In the basement of our military housing, in the back of the laundry room, there was a large sink my parents used for cleaning seafood. This was Alaska and the basement was always cold. I remember sitting on the hard counter next to the sink watching as my dad cleaned the clams. Maybe they were oysters. He told me some people ate them raw and maybe to prove how grown up I was I put one of the cold slimy creatures in my mouth and swallowed. I remember the grit in my teeth.
I think this really happened, but maybe not. I know cleaning seafood in the basement sink was a regular occurance during the years we lived in Alaska. I know I sat on the counter and watched. I can imagine my dad joking about eating raw oysters. I know was naive enough to actually try it. I certainly believe this is true and I the only way I can eat a clam now is in clam chowder or deep fried or in some other way totally disguised. I won't eat an oyster or mussel. I had to disect a clam in high school (no, there's not much to disect) and I told my friends I had eaten a raw one with absolute faith that I was telling the truth.
It is hard to imagine my dad actually allowing me to eat a raw clam. Or a raw oyster. I do agree with Joan Didion that "if you remember it, then it's true." For me this story is true.
