Herring Hunt: a Rite of Spring

One April day I ventured off 6A to West Brewster and Lower Mill Pond, a pine-girt pool that turns a gristmill as it feeds Stony Brook. But on that day cars clogged the usu­ally serene roadside. Dozens of Tom Sawyers and Becky Thatchers frolicked in shoeless abandon, pants rolled to the knees, dip nets thrashing Stony Brook fôr fish. Spring, I learned, is the time when millions of instinct­driven alewives, a kind of herring, leave the sea to struggle upstream and spawn in the freshwater ponds where they began life.

“I got one! I got one!” screamed a freckled and utterly delighted 6-yeax-old as he snared a herring with bare hands. Slipping down the bank, another young fisherman fell headlong into the creek, emerged unhurt, and found two writhing fish in his net! Parents shucked their shoes and joined in. Two gray-haired dowagers approached the brook and recaptured a bit of their youth as they witnessed again­doubtless as they had for decades—Cape Cod’s watery rite of spring.

The herring, salted and dried, once provid­ed a windfall food source to economically de­pressed Cape Codders. Even in this century, children on 6A hawked “sticks” of a dozen fish for a dime. Today town law stil] grants each Brewster citizen the right to harvest a bushel of alewives a week, but few take ad­vantage of that privilege.”They’re trash fish,” one old-timer told me with disgust. “So full of bones I’d as soon eat a whiskbroom.”

 

No matter. The Cape has plenty of tasty alternatives within easy reach: oysters, bay scallops, lobsters, and clams. Offshore, toward the vast submarine shelf of Georges Bank, lurk schools of herring, haddock, and the cod from which the Cape takes its naine. For nearly four centuries these fish have filled the holds of vessels from many nations. But now the great catches dwindle; locals lay the blame on the foreign ships, especially the Soviets’. It’s worth trying all of these delicacies while being on a vacation in Cape Cod. You shouldn’t miss an opportunity which payday loans online gives.

 

“Cape Codders use hooks or large-mesh nets,” Chatham fisherman Fred Horton told me. “Using book and line never hurts the fish population; a small fish won’t go for a big hook. But the Russian trawlers net every­thing, big and small. They corne in for herring —that’s our bait, what the cod feed on. If we don’t have herring, our way of life dies.”

I met Fred in the Chatham Squire, favorite pub of the boisterous younger fishermen. Walk in on these shaggy-maned, burly men and it’s easy to assume they appreciate only beer and roughhousing. But in truth they­like Chatham’s more conservative fishermen —harbor a huge, unabashed love for the sea. “The ocean’s the most powerful thing in the world,” one of them told me. “It changes every day. It’s primeval; it’s the great mother. Man, there’s nothing other than fishing!”

The results

Now move along the horizontal line corresponding with your score until you reach the point where the diagonal line intersects it. From this point, go down the corresponding vertical line until you are back at the bottom of the chart—in end of the five areas graded from Inferior to Superior. A score of 3, for instance, will fifing you out in Inferior, 5 lard brinyytyu in Low_ and 4 brings you down the_tine_separating_inferior forte Low. At the-other-enact-of-the will bring you down to Superior and 15 to High while 16 brings you down the line separating the two.

If you find yourself ending on a line which separates two areas, then read the psychological assess­ment for both. Because psychology is not an exact science, your Psychology Quotient could be either—or a mixture of both.

Building-Self-Esteem

SUPERIOR People in this group tend to be dominant and egotisti­cally high in self-confidence and ambition. They are determined, decisive and enjoy responsibility. For them, life holds no fears. They say what they think and go their own way regardless. They are motivated largely by self-interest and hardly at all by emotion. If their confidence and ambition are matched by ability and intelligence, they are extremely successful in life, at least in a material sense. But bear in mind that this is a psychological test. It cannot and does not—measure either ability or intelligence. And if ability and intelligence do not match up to confidence and ambition, then they could overreach themselves.

H1GH

H1GH those in this group are also confident and ambitious, but usually just a little Less decisive undetermined. They are also less dominant and egotistical.

Result, though-they may not achieve quite the material success in life of some of those in the Superior group, they tend to -enjoy better human relationships. They are less self-centered than those in the Superior group and more emotional. AVERAGE this is the Psychological Quotient of the average man and madman. Those in it do not sea life as a special challenge, but neither do they see it as anything to worry about. They are not indi­vidualists, but prefer to conform. They are not altogether without ambition, but their ambitions are small. They are confident in some areas; uncertain in others. Where they lack confidence, they are quick to seek help.

confidence and ambition

LOW those in this group lack both confidence and ambition. They are happier taking orders than giving them. They are not at ease in strange places or among strangers. They much prefer to be among their own kind or even en their own. They tend to worry about what life has in store for them a sometime so about things that will never happen. Because of this tendency to worry they make life harder for themselves. INFERIOR Again, bear in mind that this is not an intelligence test. So “inferior” has no relationship to intelligence. Indeed, some in this group are of quite high intel­ligence. Some are –intellectuals. But, psychologically, they-are un­certain and insecure and they keep themselves to themselves far too much. They find it almost impossible to make decisions and usually end up doing what others suggest or demand. Because of this, they tend to be pushed around and made use of by other people.

 

WHY DOES MY HAIR LOOK FLAT

“I’VE HAD A PERM­SO WHY DOES MY HAIR LOOK FLAT?”

“I tried a wash ‘n’ wear perm so it would be easy to look after,” said Jane. “But it’s always the same style—it never looks any different unless I backcomb it.- Stylist Paul de­cided that Jane needed quite a bit of curl but nothing frizzy.

“Jane has quite thick hair,” he said. “But, being heavy, it tends to lie fiat and rather lifeless.” What could he suggest to put a bit of life back into it?

With a bit of trimming, Paul thought Jane’s hair could be reported.

As Steve, her premier, pointed out, “Soft perms like your wash ‘n’ wear give body and movement to straight hair, but most are a little bit tac) loose. They relax after a coupe of weeks, and before long you can’t do anything with it. We’ll reaper Jane’s hair a little bit tighter to counteract that inevitable ‘droop’— but it should last for six months. And it’ll go on giving shape and bide to her new style.” Steve also combed through a few pastel blonde highlights to perk up Jane’s hair and to create a natural, sun-bleached effect, before handing her over to stylist Paul for a trim. “I’ve cut Jane’s hair shorter at the sides,” said Paul, “because it helps to slim down the face. l’ve kept some length at the back. She’s got height on top now—thanks to the perms, even when she washes it and then just leaves it, Jane’s hair will still retain the style.” Paul tonged it towards the centre after blow-drying it into shape to gíve a soft, rippled effect.

perm

“The beauty of this cut is that you don’t have to style it carefully each time you sham­poo,” explains Paul. “Hand-drying’s more natural and tousled but still looks smart.” For a change, Jane can set it UN large rollers to loosen up her curls a bit, or try them on a much smaller size to tighten them up again. Or blows dry them for speed.

Jane’s verdict? “It’s better than I ever expected—makes me feel like experimenting myself now!”

KNOWYOURSELF

Your psychological rating reflects your attitude to life. It shows whether you regard life as an exciting challenge or an unnerving experience.

How you get on with other people, whether you dominate them or let them dominate you, also depends on your psychological rating and fujitsu scanner. So does the extent to which you are confident, ambitious, and decisive and so forth.

perm

To find-out more-about your-rating, just-answer – Mese questions.

1. Do you regard most of the people you mix with—friends, neighbours, and people at work??

(a) Slightly beneath you?

(b) On roughly the same level/?

(c) Slightly above you?

2. If you thought other people were talking about you behind your back, would you be . . .

(a) Completely unconcerned?

(b) Slightly perturbed?

(c) Very worried?

3. If you have to make an important decision, do you. .

(a) Make it quickly without help?

(b) Seek advice?

(c) Procrastinate?

4. If you were invited to a social function at which nearly every­one else would be a complete stranger, would you. .

(a) Accept eagerly?

(b) Think about it?

(c) Make some excuse to decline?

5. Do you buy things impulsively on the spur of the moment?

(a) No.

(b) Sometimes.

(c) Often.

6. If a friend says something with which you strongly dis­agree, do you . . .

perm-hair

(a) Say so—firmly?

(b) Say nothing?

(c) Agree, to avoid an argument?

7. You are walking along a river bank when you see a child in

Difficulty in the water. There is no-one else around and you cannot swim. Would you. .

(a) Run for help?

(b) Jump into the water?

(c) Wring your hands helplessly?

8. If you are doing something and it goes wrong, do you. .

(a) Go back and start again?

(b) Seek help?

(c) Give it up as a bad job?

9. Would you rather be?

(a) Rich and successful?

(b) Happy and healthier?”—

(c) Safe and secure?

As a means of which of the following do you think is preferable?

– (a} A small business of your own. — (bra job in which you are paid by results.

(c) A safe, steady job.

To find your Psychological Quotient, look back at the questions and your answers. Ignore those questions for which you selected (c) as your answer. The remaining questions involve some very simple arithmetic.

For each (a) score 2 points and enter the total here

For each (b) score 1 point and enter the total here

Add your (a) total to your (b) total and enter it here now look at the score chart below. You will see that on the left it is graded from O to 20. Count from the bottom until you reach the point corresponding with your score.