PORTSMOUTH, R.I., Dec. 27, 2005
Purple Pearl Was Almost Tossed
Rhode Island Man Didn't Realize What He Had: A 1-In-2-Million Find
-
Play CBS Video Video Rare Purple Pearl Found A Rhode Island family found a rare purple pearl in a clam they bought from a restaurant. Barbara and Ted Krensavage and their son, Michael, discuss it with Tracy Smith.
-
-
The rare purple pearl the Krensavage family had set in a ring (CBS/EARLY SHOW)
-
Barbara, Ted and Michael Krensave on The Early Show Tuesday (CBS/EARLY SHOW)
-
It happened earlier this month when Barbara Krensavage brought home about four dozen quahogs from a Newport seafood restaurant.
"I felt like having clams and I went out and we got 50 of them," she told Tracy Smith on The Early Show Tuesday. "They tasted so good, I went out the next day in a blizzard to get more."
Her husband, Thaddeus or "Ted" Krensavage, was shucking them when he came across one he thought was diseased.
"As I opened it," he told Smith, "I noticed this — I didn't know what it was — a hard thing that isn't supposed to be in clams, I knew, or thought, anyway. And I scraped it into a plate of discarded clam shells … and was planning on throwing it out. Then, Barbara came over."
She continued the story for Smith: "I said, 'Let me see that thing. It might be a pearl!' "
Upon closer inspection, the couple realized it was not only a pearl, but a purple one.
"We're finding out there's only a handful on earth," Barbara Krensavage said. "We were excited, biting it and everything."
©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
