The Life of a Clam Digger (1972, Long Island)

[@newbeginningsyourway]

This is so beautifully done: music, scenery. Very emotional.

[@barbarastevens4821]

This makes me smile and cry at the same time. Daddy was a Long Island clam digger, when not working at Grumman or the family shop Oakley and Sons where he manufactured clam tongs and rakes. The Great South Bay was our second home. I spent many a day sunning atop the cabin on the 28 foot Garvey clam boat, listening to my transistor radio until dayend when I would cull, sort and bag the clams. Those were the days, and nothing beats being on the bay-so peaceful.......

[@solochristo65]

My dad worked at Grumman too......He only clammed some Saturdays. But he did build two clam boats in our backyard in the 70's for his sons.

[@kaimivision3637]

This movie should be in the Long Island Maritime Museum if not there already.

[@kaimivision3637]

My mom's partner Charlie Noto of Slip, NY was a long time clammer. He built his own clam boat which he stored in his yard over the winter.

[@solochristo65]

Our Family came out a little later than this time......On one of the best built clam boats by my dad in the backyard. Sea Reed 2 (two was written roman numeral way) with an inboard BUT not in the cabin!! Of course, his Sea Reed 1 was first with an outboard. As a young teenager I had some of my best and worse times out on the bay clamming. Worse only because it wasn't always easy and fun working with a lot older brothers........LOL!! Great Video though. It's all great memories now!

[@corkpop8401]

Former treader here worked East West Islands moored in Great River sold in Bayshore summers of 72-76. I always had tremendous respect for tongers, they were more than strong. Great to see the bushels again before count bags came in around 73/74. Thanks for this historic footage. When I tell people about this life and the money we made they are incredulous. Once a Bayman always a Bayman.

[@SeeSetauket]

My husband, Dave K., is from N.B. He started clamming in the early 70s and is still clamming, but on the north shore now. Nothing like clamming to keep a person in shape! Thank you very much for posting this; I didn't know Dave then, and it's nice to have a peek into what his life was like back then.

[@MC-yx2gn]

I remember raking clams out of moriches bay for summer barbecues. I still live here and could get choked up about how much the feel of the population has changed. Between the max exodus of young families over the past 15-20 years, and the huge influx of people from the city since covid, the “Long Islander” personality has seemingly diluted. Plenty of nice people, but there’s a different social class moving in where the old pickup trucks and family station wagons are being replaced by Audis and Escalades. When I was a kid, it was normal to disappear into the woods with dirtbikes, at .22, or a shotgun and have a blast all day. I remember more than one occasion where we were walked up on by Suffolk PD. Someone would call about excessive gun shots and they’d show up. They’d make sure we were shooting into the woods and not doing anything stupid, and they’d tell us to be careful. Even I can’t believe it now.

[@highschoolhoopfan]

Great footage. Your Dad was quite the videographer 40 years ago. I was a bayman (Belport Bay area) for about 10 years in the late 60's and early 70's before I decided to go off to college and get a real job. There have since been many many crazy and hectic days when I wished I had stayed a clammer . . . and today just became one of them. THANKS.

[@oligohome]

My uncles were clammers back in the day, one received a parent for a clam digging tool.. I learned to shuck a clam at age 5. They would bring a silver metal garbage can filled w/ clams to the annual family BBQ at my Grandparent's house in Bayport. What great memories.

[@mudpuddle8333]

my dad was a lobsterman on the north shore... but i remember on days that we went to fire island.. crossing the bridge... and seeing like hundreds of these clam boats on the great south bay... North Shore clam boats were styled differently

[@mine-g5o]

aww ,i worked out of Babylon, Bayshore,sayville those what are the days it was so wonderful being a clammer / baymen!! 😊😊😊

[@KevinLawrenceODonnell]

Wonderful Post. In the summers of of 1974-'75,Steve Moore of Bayport and David O'Connell of Oakdale and I were part of a crew working for Bluepoint's where we'd meet in the early morning, truck over to Glen Cove and board our boat and head out to Mamaroneck Bay. We'd dredge for chowders(seed clams)in polluted waters, back to Glen Cove, burlap bags into the truck, back to West Savville, then out to the clean waters of the Bay to the seed beds... , not a bad summer's day, we were young & strong

[@larryseaman7880]

Good video I've worked on the bays of long island 60 years enjoyed the video of days of wooden baskets and 62 pound bushels of necks

[@praisefree]

Thank you for sharing, I worked in the COOP building in the summer of 75', I didn't know so many Van Essendelf's existed in the world, lol. Though the job was hard, it became an incentive to get through High School. The hopper for separating the clams was constantly flowing with water, my dungaree's were always soft, but my hands grew large calluses from working with the bags and salt water. I think I even remember the clock.

[@debjurgens6447]

How I miss seeing the clam boats out on the bay. I miss the way Long Island used to be.

[@RobertPearson777]

My dad was a sales rep for USG which made fiberglass. him and my brother made a flatdeck tonging boat in our basement in halves and bolted the pieces together and fiberglassed it more. the boat lasted for many years but by the time I got it I had to keep throwing the water out of it when driving it from and back the legal clam area on great south bay.

[@PaulPeluso123]

What a great Video I grew up on the water too. Shirley was where we use to clam and fish, 1972 I was 7 and remember everyone was a clammer my whole canal was filled with clam boats. I have old 8 MM of us I should get it on a DVD before they dissappear

[@raymondwurtz4874]

Clamming in Shirley ? No way , you mean Mastic Beach ! Or otherwise in your dreams !

[@jakebernstein117]

Fantastic vintage video… Jay Fischesser

[@kwbo6]

great video, brings back alot of good memories. I was 15 when I started working for John Morris at Bellport Shellfish. We bought clams on the Patchogue dock and had a shop on Woodside Ave and another on Arthur Ave in Bellport. Worked there during high school, also clammed during the summer. We worked short handled rakes in the water on the flats. After 4 years in the Air Force I returned and long handled for a year and 1/2. I missed the "hayday" when I was away. Still miss those days.

[@timflynn2136]

Clammed in Grant Florida in 1983-1985 with a bunch of clammers from Bayshore and Islip, NY

[@ncmizzy]

That was great, my husband was a Baymen from Patchogue this brought back many good memories. Too bad clamming is a lost art now. We miss it.

[@katoota22]

thanks for sharing this!Reminds me of my Dad and family! They were all Baymen from patchogue!! I wasn't born till 79 but my dad use to tell me storie's and I still have alot of pic's from my dad and my uncle's on the water but no video!! I bet someone in my family is in that video!! :)

[@allisonicolem1]

I Ioved it.Thanks for the memories.I clammed Hecksher,the Flats, East and West Islands,Babylon and Bayshore Cove in the winters raked,tonged and treaded all over the bay. From 1974 off and on till about 1987.What a great experience.I miss it.

[@Steelocation]

Yep, just spoke with your dad over the phone and he told me to find it here on KZbin. Going to make a dvd out of it for my dad :)

[@franmcdonald6457]

I remember those days well! It was a great work out preparing for football. It also helped pay my way through college and graduate school. I actually clammed every summer until I was 27 years old!!

[@bosco3131]

Wow, that's amazing. Brings back some great memories...Thanks so much for posting.

[@mdellorto]

thank you for sharing that. Really makes me miss Long Island, and brings back very nice memories. Fleet Foxes.. extra nice touch

[@LagunaSlick]

I was a clammer out of West Islip starting at age 16 in 1975. This really brings back the memories.

[@guitartom01]

wow - just found this video. brings back some great memories of clamming on the Great South Bay in the early 70's. Me and my buddies used to dig off Babylon and West Babylon. Thank you for posting this video and adding an excellent sound track! Tom

[@moonrakerful]

Growing up in West Sayville we thought this way of life would never end. Unfortunatly we were wrong. Those were the good old days.

[@solochristo65]

We were clammers....also from same town. Our Boats were the Sea Reed 1 and Sea Reed 2 (numbers were written roman numeral style).

[@BOBINT1]

Great memories. My Dad owned Southbay Fishing Station in West Sayville. Spent my summers there. Some of my fondest memories are from those times.

[@maryhouck]

Oh thank you for sharing this! I grew up a few blocks away from this! By the West Sayville Golf Course. I had no footage!

[@martyslager788]

Hey Chris my name is Martin slager I remember West sayville very well grew up at 55 rollstone avenue and went to West sayville Christian reformed Church and I believe Tommy may have been your father the great South Bay was a peaceful place

[@solochristo65]

My family knew some Slager's..... and my brother is an Elder At that Church next door. Our family's clam boats were the Sea Reed 1 and Sea Reed 2.

[@captainh3831]

Working those tongs all day must have been a pretty good all over workout.

[@SurfahSistah]

Thank you Tom and Chris Seerveld for preserving this part of West Sayville, Long Island, NY history, from a half-breed West Sayville, Long Island, NY Dutch girl.

[@paulsluiter6437]

What a treasure!

[@madiikniight]

I remember in the middle 50's going with my Dad down to the dock at night to "pump the boats". My Mom worked at Blue Points when she was a young woman canning oysters. My uncles were clammers, Kaan, & VanEssendelft. I grew up in Bohemia but my Mom's family were from West Sayville.

[@ThomasBMagwn]

The video thumbnail kinda reminded me of Gilgo beach!

[@1superloki]

What a great video. Thanks so much.

[@dale3858]

Nice video, it brings back memories of a better time, it was a lot different then. I was a clammer in Maine in the 70s, most diggers were good men, only a few were bad guys, today it's a lot different, most are an unsavory bunch. I've lived on the water since 2002, I'm severely disabled, since I've been here I've had 2 drug dealing and crack addicted clammers that have been terrorizing me on and off for 12 years, felony trespassing, destroying my property, pissing next to my well, tearing down my signs, tearing down my fences throwing their garbage everywhere and threatening me, it's now got to the point that I have to sell my home and leave. The real estate market is terrible and I won't have enough cash to start over. The police won't even help me when they know these two guys are criminals. I'm beside myself, sleep with a gun at my side and most nights I can't sleep at all...

[@RickNBacker]

Hello, wondering how you're making out today, situation improve or changed?

[@dale3858]

Driven from my home and now I'm homeless, I'm not well. The punks that did this to me are related to Maine state troopers that refused to help me, one of the troopers even tried to get me to sell my home to one of her friends.

[@RickNBacker]

I'm sorry to hear that. Hope things turn around for you.

[@josephrichthammer4113]

I worked at the coop in 1971. I remember how the burlap bags and saltwater ruined my hands, I believe I made $2hr. I went to school with Don Van Essendeft. I also remember going down Division Street one summer and watching Bruce VanBrunt build a clam (tonging) boat

[@ltdann86]

Great video..burlap bags,wooden baskets not counting clams a bushell was a bushell.. like it was yesterday Thanks

[@abmmtge]

It was Fiore and yes Jimmy was his buyer. Also Butch Augustine's Truck as well. Tommy Guida was his buyer

[@bobc511]

Dug from 72' to 81' full-time year-round bayman out of West Islip. Worked Babylon, West Islip and Bay Shore waters. Hard but honest work. Paid for college, cars - always had money in my pocket. Best partying was out on the Great South Bay. Everyone took care of one another. Law of the sea and the best community ever a member of. Watching babes sailing by on their razors while watching out for 'Connie' and drunk boaters.

[@TheTrimSmith]

great footage thanks for sharing.

[@northernpike56]

really enjoyed that, thx :-)

[@INdifrnve]

I remember being a kid watching these guys clam in all weather and seas. They were true baymen.

[@abmmtge]

Yep. Until 1983

[@michaelplesch]

Thanks for the memories

[@emanovska]

oh the dreamtime...

[@OFFSHOREJOJO]

I like the Bosten Whaler with the 33 HP on it!May have been me??LOL

[@michaelgangstreich1581]

Thank you for such beautiful memories of the people, boats and life I knew as a member of the Great South Bay Farmers Cooperative. Was Tom's nickname Captain Red, or is my ageing mind playing tricks? Mike in Oslo

[@seanjmichel]

How clean was the bay back then? It's an absolute disaster now.

[@robertmilligan3831]

By '72 septic pollution required closing 3/4 of the bay to digging. Houses along the water dumped strait into the bay. Visibility was 1-2', whereas in the 60's it was up to 10'. I assumed the sewer systems would have resulted in a cleaner bay today. No? I was always dismayed that I was paid only 0.5 cents per clam (from the buyers on the dock), yet they sold for $2.50 a dozen on a restaurant plate a few miles away.

[@moonrakerful]

How do you know the clam buyers? Were you a clammer at that time?

[@Philflash]

Nice footage!

[@moonrakerful]

Do you remember names like: Ronny Cooke, Mike the Cop, Four Balls?

[@avefeds5924]

Hey Chris I am going to be making a short film on my grandfather Ralph who is a clam digger and I was wondering if you would let me use some small segments of this video for my own since all of my grandfathers was washed away in hurricane Sandy.

[@moonrakerful]

When I saw the clam buyers truck on the dock I think it was owned by a guy named Fury? Jimmy worked for Fury and actually bought the clams from you. As myth had it I think Ronnie Cooke was the most sucessful Clammer at this time. I think some people made $300.00 a day cash at that time.

[@rayconnors1806]

I remember Donkey Raking as a Kid!

[@emanovska]

wow thanks

[@jakkujunktrader2766]

Those guys are tongers

[@OFFSHOREJOJO]

Stop with the Walter Mitty stories everybody clammed!Feet rake thong etc etc!!LOL

[@ThomasBMagwn]

Btw the music for this video is very sad sounding! You should of played Jim Croce in the background not this terrible sad shitty ass music!!!