Lobster Tales, Chapter Two: the final chapter

I should have taken Pete up on his offer to give me a wake-up call the next morning. When I have to get up at an outrageous hour, I set my radio alarm, but then I wake up constantly throughout the night to make sure my alarm is working and I haven't overslept. I bet I got a grand total of two hours' sleep, max, last Thursday night.

My friend and fellow A∆K member Lynn picked me up at 5:00 a.m. sharp. Her car's trunk was full of lobster meat, it was raining to beat the band, it was chilly, and we told ourselves and each other how happy we were to be out and about in this madness.

How do eleven sorority sisters pack 430 lobster box lunches in a little over two hours? It's not easy, but we've become a well-oiled machine after years of doing it.

Five of us worked in the kitchen; one mixed the lobster, with a little mayonnaise, in two-pound batches and passed it along to the two "sandwich makers," of which I was one. We filled the buns ridiculously full of the fresh lobster meat, full to overflowing, actually.

Then we passed the filled sandwiches on to our assistants, who wrapped them in foil and delivered them to the crew in the dining room. Here the sandwiches were boxed with a bag of chips, a thick homemade brownie, a fancy napkin, and a thank-you-for-supporting A∆K note.

About 1 1/2 hours into the ritual, when all seemed to be going well, the thing that happens every Lobster Box Lunch day happened again: we began hearing whisperings about the number of boxes yet to be filled, the amount of lobster meat left, and whether we'd have enough lobster to make the remaining sandwiches.

I've heard this every single LBL day since I retired from teaching in 2004 and could attend the LBL event. And I've never seen us actually run out of lobster meat. I've seen the hysteria, the panic, the cold-to-the-bone fear, but I've never seen the worst happen.

...until this year. We'd run out of lobster meat with 40 sandwiches yet to be made.

We'd done the math correctly; we'd ordered the correct amount of lobster meat, but then several last-minute orders came in on Friday morning. Orders are supposed to be finalized on Wednesday night. Hence, the problem.

I made a call to Pete; he said he could supply six more pounds of lobster. It wouldn't, however, be ready until 9:00 a.m. I'd forgotten, when I called him, that it was now only 7:30 a.m.

So we lobster ladies sat around for awhile, chatted, and waited for 7:45, when it would be time to head into Portland for the extra six pounds.

By 10:00 a.m. the additional lobster meat had arrived, and we were back in business. The final boxed lunches were made, we loaded up our vehicles for any deliveries on our routes home, and we were done.

Another successful Lobster Box Lunch fundraiser could now be put to rest. And what a deal our customers got: a generous lobster roll, a bag of chips, a homemade brownie, all for $8.