Story by Stewart Dale Spencer
Photos by various contributors.
Cole Barton and his sweetheart Nichole Kertis had a few of their friends and family over — 93 to be exact — on Saturday, April 20 for a bit of fellowship and food. Cole says that this is the 12th year of the crawfish boil. He lives in what used to be the original Coupland State Bank. He graciously opened his home and his patio to the hungry throng.
Citizen’s National Bank was very neighborly and allowed Cole and company to set up the crawfish cooking operation in their drive-thru lane.
The cooking was handled by Cole’s father, Jack Barton, and a few assistants. He wasn’t the least bit bothered by the kids that flocked to the kiddie pool, which was filled (repeatedly) with the fresh-water crustaceans, a.k.a. “crawdads” or “mudbugs.” Click here to learn more about these critters.
A kiddie pool full of crawfish is a kid magnet!
A timed eating contest was held. Charles Molineux took home the trophy by consuming 53 crawfish in 5 minutes. Here we see him proudly displaying his hard-won trophy. Looks like it brought tears to his eyes.
Here are a few more images from that day. If anyone has any other images they would like to add, or if you would like to add a description to any of these images, please contact me at stewart.d.spencer@icloud.com.
Apparently, this crawfish has a different idea about who should be eaten.
Nichole is surprised with birthday brownies.
Future crawfish eating contest participant.
No, really. I was putting the eggs IN the hen house!
Evidently, goldfish and rubber ducks are almost as interesting as crawfish.
Kayla Spencer tries her first crawfish. Here we see her wondering about the “brown stuff.”
Defiant to the end!
Giant crawfishes caught in the act of attempting to acquire a human hostage.
Crawfish meditations.
For some, the three main food groups: crawfish, potatoes, and corn on the cob.