Albert and his friend, Denny, went shrimp-baiting. That’s the odd term they use on the coast for catching shrimp. The baiting is fishmeal and clay. Guess shrimp don’t much care what they eat. You’re allowed 48 quarts. Albert and Denny got 250. Albert didn’t have any scruples and Denny didn’t know. This was Den’s first time out.

After getting their quota and sneaking home came the cleaning part. Denny figured they have to be gutted like anything else. He wasn’t too concerned. How much gut could a small shrimp have.

“Okay. first we have to cut their heads off. Then devein them”, Albert told Denny.

“Uh, devein them? What’s that mean?”, Denny asked.

“It means we have to yank that vein there out”, Albert told him.

“Why?”, Denny asked.

“Cause if you don’t the shrimp are going to taste like shit, that’s why”.

Albert and Denny spent the next few hours chopping off heads and deveining the shrimp. Denny thought that they’d spent all day and half the night doing this. They took a chance on getting caught over the limit and being fined. They could have stayed dry. They wouldn’t have to do this lousy job.

“Albert, I was thinking. We could have gone to the market and bought them easier than this and they’d be just as fresh”, Denny told Albert.

“Yea, you’re right. But this gives us braggin’ rights and we snookered the Game Commission. That’s the whole point of this”.