Meet Your Neighbor
Spanky Kania
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent

Date of birth May 12, 1951

Likes most about Nantucket The people.

Likes least about Nantucket The loss of public access to land and beaches.

Favorite TV show Jeopardy "Ialways laughed that if I made the paper nobody would know who I am," said Stephen Kania - unless you call him Spanky, which is how everyone knows this island native.

He explained that he got the nickname when he was a kid playing school baseball. When the team marched through the streets on their way to practice or play at Academy Hill School and other town spots, people would call out "There goes Spanky and the gang," after the classic children's comedy show "Little Rascals."

After graduating from Nantucket High in 1969, Spanky traveled for a couple of years, surfing in Hawaii and visiting friends in California. When he returned here, in his 20s, he took on an assortment of odd jobs - "Whatever was available in those days" - then in his 30s began fishing on draggers out of Woods Hole, New Bedford and the few working from Nantucket. That led to beginning to dig his own shellfish commercially on Tuckernuck and joining the fleet of commercial scallopers. He still scallops in the winters, but more than 20 years ago Spanky launched his famous raw bar business.

"I've been doing raw bars long enough for a little neck to become a very old quahog - a long, long time," he said, noting that he has no need for a formal business name or advertising because the quality of his shellfish is so superior he stays busy with caterers from early May until Christmas.

He said there is no big secret to his success other than to ensure that his product is consistently top of the line and properly cared for from purchase to plate.

"I'm very picky about my seafood. I ice it for a long, long time. But, you have to start out with a great product," said Spanky, adding that he makes his own dipping sauces.

In his free time Spanky visits with his mother Dorothy Morris and sister Thea Kaiser, who both still live on the island. He loves to flyfish and treasures walking the beaches with his wife Kitty, a wallpaper hanger, and Paisley, the mutt they rescued from Tennessee.

"The bottom line is anything we do for fun is off-season," he said of how hard locals work in the summer. "We never have fun here in the summer. I have fun doing my business, but that's a whole different type of fun."

In the future Spanky would like to explore more of the world's beautiful places, and if fate permits, win the lottery for $5 million (he doubts $1 million would last long here). Otherwise, his life on Nantucket is a happy one.

"We've gone with the flow," he said. "There are good sides and there's down sides. For the person who wanted to work,

it [the work] was here. Life is great." I