Ladies' Luncheons at "The Lab"

During Christmas break, a little stir-craziness always set in. School had been out a while. The holiday was over, and frankly all the excitement of catching up with our out-of-town visiting cousins had pretty much evaporated. The younger set needed a diversion. And you could walk to Rosettis for ice cream only so many times.

Then one day in 1975 my cousins and I discovered the Gulf Coast Laboratory's Marine Education Center lodged in a pre-fab building on the other side of Highway 90. I was vaguely familiar with the lab. My 6th grade class had gone on a field trip to the Ocean Springs campus. I remembered the dense, pervasive musky odor of estuarine mud. If you think you don't know that smell, conjure up the immediate post-Katrina days from your memory bank. Now you know it.

So we went on another field trip across 90 and learned all about estuaries and Mississippi's native snakes. We watched turtles cavorting in a pool of brackish water. We handled horseshoe crabs and learned how to tell the difference between a male and a female.

After an hour or so, we returned to the house much smarter than when we left. And we hadn't even been to school in two weeks.

Some years later, post-college, I briefly worked in the lab's public relations office. By this time, the Marine Ed Center had nearly outgrown its temporary home and was about to move into a brand new building on the Point. It's showpiece was a 44,000 gallon Gulf of Mexico aquarium surrounded by smaller aquaria.

For some mysterious reason, the large aquarium leaked which postponed the grand opening for months.

One of my happiest memories of the Lab are of the employees' monthly potluck luncheons. We held a couple of those in the lobby of the still-vacant new building. At the December luncheon, we made a little photocopy cookbook of all our favorite recipes and gave it out as a party favor.

Even after I left the lab, the Marine Ed Center continued to be part of my life. During the 1990s, my current employer, the Navy, helped sponsor live science broadcasts of the Jason PROJECT there.

Volunteers from the Naval Oceanographic Office helped pint-sized ocean explorers "drive" one of the Navy's Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) around the 44,0000-gallon tank (now long past it's leaking problems).

Hurricane Katrina took the Marine Ed Center -- like most structures on the Point -- down to its foundation. For more information on the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and J. L. Scott Marine Education Center, now part of the University of Southern Mississippi, visit here.

Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie

Unfortunately, the hurricane also took my little well-used photocopy of the Christmas party recipe booklet. There were so many good recipes in it, but my favorite was Dr. Harriet Perry's chocolate chip pecan pie. As a rule, I am not fond of pecan pie, but everything is divine with chocolate isn't it? To this day, I make this pie for my Thanksgiving dessert table. I think the following recipe is pretty close to what I remember.


3 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch single crust pie

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar, flour, melted butter or margarine, salt, lemon juice, and corn syrup. Mix thoroughly, then stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Pour mixture into pie shell.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until set and golden.