NEWBURG, Md. – Jason Jones, a third-generation waterman from Newburg and the owner and founder of Bubba’s Place, definitely was a stand-out act during his son’s career day at Dr. Thomas L Higdon elementary school, as he brought his 26 ft crab boat along with actual live crabs to show the students the entire process of crab potting.
Jones, who most know as Bubba, has participated in a few career days before with the Bel Alton Fire Department, but this was his first time on his own, showing off his main trade. His wife believed it would be a good idea to show the kids at their son’s school what he did for a living.
Jones, however, didn’t know what his presentation would look like until the morning of career day.
“The morning of the career day I was out crabbing trying to figure out what I was going to show the kids so I figured the more I had to show the more interest they would have,” Jones told TheBayNet.com.
So Jones hauled his 26 ft long boat along with a crab pot, a few live crabs he caught that morning, razor clams, a cull stick, tongs, baskets, oilskins, boots, and gloves to the school.
“I basically ran them through the entire process of crab potting,” stated Jones. “How we put the put on the winder and which pulls the pot from the bottom, how we dump the crabs out into a cull box, how we re-baited the pots and set it back over. Then I showed them how we cull the crabs / sort them into different sizes. I also showed them how the crab gets in the pots and how the pot works. I also let the kids touch the crab while I held the claws. They took turns trying to pick up the crabs and measure them, then they passed around the tongs and cull stick.”
When asked if he thought his presentation was a hit, he explained how he heard that a few teachers learned a lot, and at one point even had other career day participants watching the presentation.
“I believe this day is important for the kids so they can learn and experience not only the different types of jobs there are, but how they are performed also,” explained Jones. “I believe there are a lot of jobs that are ‘hidden’ due to them being indoors or not discussed as much as the more popular careers.”
Jones then went on to explain how special it was that he got to share that day with his son.
“To be honest it didn’t really sink in until my son got home from school and said all the people at school were talking about me being there then he pulled out a book that his teachers had made for me,” said Jones. “Each child in his class colored a picture of a crab and wrote what they liked best about my presentation. It was at that point that I knew I taught them all something different. The one that stuck out the most was how to tell the difference between a male and female crab. My father who I spent a many of days on the river with had taught my son that females have finger nail polish that’s how you know it’s a girl so when we were crabing my dad would have my son culling out all the females while he sorted out the males, at two years old my dad had him calling crabs. One child in that class wrote that in the book girls have finger nail polish that one hit me hard.”
That presentation will certainly be one that the students will never forget.
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Very Cool!!
Pretty cool, we need more real life in our schools. This will be remembered by the kids for a long time. Great job, Jason!
That is awesome!