How Happy Is a Clam or a Camper?

SEELEY LAKE – A mother looking fondly at her toddler playing in the sandbox might remark, "He's been fussy all morning, but now look at him – he's happy as a clam."

Reportedly, Robert E. Lee particularly enjoyed using the phrase, "happy as a clam at high tide." But is a clam really happy? Since no scientific study has measured the degree of a clam's happiness or sadness, the phrase apparently is the product of anthropomorphic projection.

The full phrase, as used by Lee, hints at the supposed basis for a clam's happiness. Chowder-hungry humans can only dig up clams during low tide, therefore clams that don't relish being made into chowder are happy when the tide is high. Not surprisingly, the phrase is reputed to have originated in New England.

A happiness phrase bearing the same intent, but perhaps more suitable to Montana and the western states, is "happy camper." The origin of the phrase is uncertain, though as far back as 1928 The Helena Independent newspaper offered a list of items attributed to a, presumably female, "happy camper." The list included a small pillow, two bath towels and one or more dark blue or black skirts or bloomers.

No less a western icon than John Wayne used the obverse of the phrase in the 1947 movie "Tycoon" when he remarked, "He's not a happy camper."

But perhaps the biggest hoopla surrounding the use of the phrase is associated with Vice President Dan Quayle's 1989 visit to American Samoa. In his book "Veeps," Bill Kelter records Quayle's address to the locals: "'Keep that commitment to just being happy people... You all look like happy campers to me. Happy campers you are. Happy campers you have been. And as far as I am concerned, happy campers you will always be.'"

Kelter also records the fall-out from those comments. "After Quayle's visit, the territory Congressional delegate, Eni F. H. Faleomavaega, issued a letter of protest at Quayle's remarks, saying, 'It appears that some individuals have even drawn the conclusion that the people of Samoa are simple, illiterate natives happily camped out in the jungle."

Alas, the pursuit of happiness is never an easy one – not for clams, not for campers, and never for politicians.