Shout Jubilee

Courtesy of The Estate of Pierce Stewart Foster

I fell in love with Alabama’s Eastern Shore as a child, during trips to spend time with my great aunt. The sweeping sunsets and moss-laden oaks had a great deal to do with my enchantment, but I was most intrigued by the idea of a jubilee.

You see, in the predawn hours of summertime along the shores of Alabama’s Mobile Bay, a natural phenomenon known as a jubilee occurs several times each year.

During a jubilee, high volumes of crab, shrimp, flounder, eel and other bay inhabitants swarm in a seemingly unconscious state, close enough to the shoreline to easily be netted or gigged. Jubilees have long been celebrated by Eastern Shore residents who, in keeping with local tradition, ring bells to alert neighbors when one is underway. Roused from sleep, participants gather along the shore to take part in the revelry, harvesting as much of the bay’s bounty as they can before morning light and shifting winds break the spell.

It fascinated me, the idea of scooping up bounty from the bay by the light of the moon. It would be many years before I would find myself taking part in a jubilee – 2013 to be exact, shortly after my husband and I moved to Montrose. It was then that I was finally able to run down to the shore, gig in one hand, net in the other, and scoop up shrimp and flounder alongside my college sweetheart. Little did we know at the time, but our first child was there on the sandy shore with us.

We spent a good part of the next day picking crabs – a task that sounds much easier than it is, let me assure you. But when the crab cakes were served later that evening, piping hot and butter drenched, and we first tasted the fruit of our harvest, it was well worth it.

Now, years later, I’m grateful to say that my three little girls get that opportunity each summer – to stand alongside their Daddy, pajama-clad, barefoot in the sand, armed with tiny nets and pink flashlights, and watch the magic of Alabama’s Mobile Bay unfold.

A lot has changed about the Eastern Shore since I was a girl, but summertime jubilees remain sweet and tender reminders that the magic and mystery of the Mobile Bay is alive and well.