Seniors' Lobster Feast Draws Big Crowd

Most New Englanders would say that summer just isn't complete without a good old-fashioned lobster boil amongst close friends, especially if you live on Aquidneck Island.

So it's small wonder that the Middletown Senior Center pulled in a bigger-than normal crowd Friday, all for the main event of 50 local lobsters served up with tasty traditional New England-style fixings.

It was the Middletown Senior Center's first lobster boil and it was met with great anticipation.

Given what lobster feasts entail, upon arrival guests found their Senior Center dining room braced for the inevitable aftermath of claw and shell piles—each table covered with newspapers, followed by place mats, then lobster bibs, and topped off with thick piles of extra napkins. A collection tray waited at the center of each table for all to contribute.

Guests settled in, friends were found, warm conversations and laughter ensued. A raffle was held for a hand-knit blanket and staffer Chris Johnson, who bought at least a gazillion and one tickets, turned out to be the lucky winner.

Eyes widened and deep inhalations savored the thick scent of sweet and savory simmering in giant pots.

And then, the summertime feast began.

Heaping bowls of homemade white clam chowder, thick with generous slices of tender local clams, were set before diners. Meanwhile back in the kitchen, individual serving-size mesh-netted bags of potatoes, onions and sausage continued to simmer toward melt-in-your-mouth perfection. The lobsters, the main event, waited in giant coolers before brought outside to the giant clambake pot set up in the parking lot.

Proud of their state-of-the-art kitchen, the seniors and staff often strive to use the facility to its full advantage. Besides daily meals, about once a month there's typically one luncheon at the Middletown Senior Center that becomes extraordinarily memorable because of some festive theme or stumbled-upon cause for celebration.

Friday's lobster feast came from one-part-generosity of a local lobsterman and one-part proud mother-in-law.

Senior Center Executive Director Arleen Kaull stepped away from the steaming lobster pot momentarily to say a few words, to acknowledge Mary Winters, a senior center regular whose son-in-law and local lobsterman Richard Breen and daughter Ann Breen generously provided all the lobsters at a greatly reduced rate for the luncheon and hand-delivered them that same morning.

The Breens sell lobsters at the Thursday weekly farmer's market at the Old Grange on East Main Road and have a stand set up directly across the street nearly every day.

Winters said she's become accustomed to the perks of having a lobsterman for a son-in-law. "We had a lot of people over and he supplied the lobster and even shelled all the lobster for us. I had so much lobster I was giving it away to friends," said Winters.

Moments later, the lobsters arrived, conversations dimmed, and attention turned to wielding lobster crackers, twisting, and crunching, and dipping the steaming hot fresh lobster meat into drawn butter.

By the luncheon's end, the table centers bore the distinct new centerpieces of a lobster feast aftermath, and staffers were surely glad they had laid out the newspaper coverings over every table.