have never been stop lights in Greenbackville. In the 50's, there were only a few people who ever owned a car. On the main street were two stores, and a barber shop. But for me the big attraction was the canal ... a man-made, L-shaped harbor for the boats of watermen. My dad was once a waterman there. So was Grandpop. But by the mid-fifties, Grandpop had stopped working on the water and became the owner of "The Store" which was at the dock on Harbor Drive at the entrance to the canal. It was there solely for the watermen. Pop got there at 3am every weekday morning and cut pig skin baits for the trotliners. These were crabbers who preferred the long bottom-resting "trotlines" with many baitsrather than using the newer crab pots. As the line was pulled into the boat over a roller, the crabs were scooped up with a dip net. Pop also sold Atlantic gas for all the crabbing boats. From 10am to 1pm the crabbers began returning to weigh their wooden barrels full of blue crabs at Pop's dock where a commercial truck waited for the daily catch.

After unloading, each waterman would dock his boat back in the canal and come sit in Pop's tiny store (which measured maybe 15' x 30' including the front porch). They'd grab a Nehi or Yoohoo soda from Pop's cooler, open a pack of Nabs (orange peanut-butter crackers), sit down with their rubber boots folded over at the knees, and start telling great stories.