If I have to serve the public to pay my bills, I might as well do it on the water. That's what I decided last summer, when the school year ended and I took a job waitressing at the Stockpot on Bow Street, where a whole line of restaurants have built colorful outdoor decks along the waterfront behind Bow and Ceres streets. Although long hours in the steamy summer is draining work, the bustle and commotion of the flocking tourists and local professionals make waiting tables on the decks seem more exciting than just slinging beer and haddock sandwiches. The cool sea breeze and the gorgeous view remind me that despite the occasional surly customer and the noxious dumpster smell, working on the decks is a great summer job.

Two weeks ago, the City of Portsmouth announced it would meet with business owners along the waterfront to discuss the status of the Portsmouth riverwalk. The thought of polishing up the decks is disappointing to many of my colleagues. The plan is to offer more access to the waterfront, but the reality is that for each restaurant, each deck, there's a crowd that calls it home. In a city constantly smoothing itself over, the concern of many of the bartenders, cooks, waitstaff and customers is that in the process, one of downtown's last quirky corners will be erased.

Of course, the block's already been upgraded a few times. A sailor from even 50 years ago would hardly recognize it today. For two centuries, this was the rough-around-the-edges, working-class neighborhood of the wealthy city. The Olde Ferry Landing restaurant was truly a ferry landing until 1822, when the Portsmouth Bridge was built across the Piscataqua. The Bow Street block was built for industrial use in the early 19th century after a series of fires destroyed the previous buildings. The Portsmouth Brewing Company shipped their product from their brewing and bottling plant here. One of the few remnants of the brewery is displayed on the ceiling of the Stockpot's lower level: the giant spiked wheel drove the multi-floor hoisting system that transported goods in and out of the warehouse.

The working class Bow Street neighborhood eventually became a slum, filled with seedy tenements and beer halls. In an 1884 guidebook of Portsmouth, Joseph H. Foster writes, "It is a pity that these beautiful shores should not be devoted to handsome residences, instead of sordid tenements, shops and gas works."

It wasn't until 1965 that local residents made a conscious effort to clean up the Bow Street district. The Olde Harbour Association, a coalition of more than 50 local business and property owners, worked to preserve the history of the area through restoration. The plan was to create a block similar to Bow Street today, with shops on the street level and apartments or offices on the upper floors. The Olde Harbour Association felt that by investing in the neighborhood, the property values would increase, creating more tax revenue for the city. As a property-rich district, Bow Street would be spared from the urban renewal program that was razing dilapidated historic buildings in other areas of Portsmouth. Although the organization disbanded with no record of any formal accomplishment, instilling the spirit of cooperative improvement along Bow Street was an important achievement.

The waterfront began developing into "the decks" in 1975, with the opening of the Olde Ferry Landing. Co-owners Jack and Jimmy Blalock, who have worked in the restaurant business nearly all their lives, can boast that theirs is the oldest deck restaurant in Portsmouth. They also are the only owners who happen to own the building and the land, or dock, it occupies. The only other restaurant along the decks when they started was the Riversmere, in the highly coveted spot of what is now Poco's Bow Street Cantina. The Riversmere leased the parking lot behind their restaurant from the city and built the deck that is there today.

Restaurants came and went along the waterfront during the 1980s. When I asked about the decks' history, the Blalocks could recall fairly well when the Riversmere went and the Tugboat restaurant came in, when Harpoon Willy's started and when Poco's and the Stockpot made their moves. By 1989, the decks had landed the lineup as we know it today-Poco's at the corner of Bow and Ceres Streets, followed by the enclosed Olde Ferry Landing, the Stockpot's open air decks, and, finally, Harpoon Willy's. On Ceres Street, the trellised Oar House restaurant deck has recently been joined by newcomer The Blue Claw.

Visit the decks on a Friday night, or around 3 p.m. on a warm September Saturday, and there is an unmistakable energy that's unique to this spot. Whether it's the historic buildings, the salty air, or that deep New Englander anxiety that tells us to suck up the nice weather while we can, there's something about the waterfront that makes me feel good and lucky to be there, even if it is my third double in a row.

I love to see the cooks and dishwashers sitting on milk crates in the alley, sopping with sweat and covered in food. I love yelling to my friends working on the other decks. I love the bartenders who console this weary waitress after her shift with a delicious cocktail and an understanding ear. And yes, although I hate to admit it, I love the tourists, high-maintenance moms and the belligerent drunks, too, because they give me great stories to tell.

Get enough drinks in anyone who has ever worked a summer at the decks and they'll have a litany of tales about battling the alley's dumpster stench, drunks diving into the river-sometimes for fun, more than once to avoid paying the tab-or an angry customer throwing menus at a slow waitress. I've heard most of the legends, and have even witnessed a few in the making. After interviewing waitstaff from the Olde Ferry Landing, the Stockpot and Harpoon Willy's (who claimed there are just too many wacky antics to remember) for this story, it became clear that many of the stories originated from longtime waiter and yarn spinner Marc Carrol. As an employee of both the Olde Ferry Landing and the Stockpot, Carrol has seen everything there is to see on the decks.

"Someone once brought a goat into the Olde Ferry Landing. It was going to be slaughtered the next day and the owner wanted to take it out on the town its last night," Carrol recalled. When asked for a Stockpot story, he said, "The managers and a waiter were trying to subdue this drunk man while they were waiting for the cops to come and arrest him, and they ended up having to sit on him. This is before the Stockpot had a fence between the seats and the alley. There was just a rope. So as the guys are sitting on this drunk and everyone is watching, a customer sitting on the deck asks the waiter, 'So, what are your desserts?'"

Despite the breakneck pace, the crazy customers and all the trouble it entails, the decks are important to the people who work there. If it weren't for the added income during the summer months, many Portsmouth restaurant employees would be unable to survive here. Business owners also depend on the summer push and have become very protective of the area. Any hint of altering the existing setup inevitably causes concern.

The much-talked-about Portsmouth riverwalk is no exception, despite the fact that many waterfront business owners and the City of Portsmouth feel it could increase business for the decks. Through federal funding secured by Sen. Judd Gregg and a grant from the N.H. Department of Transportation, the riverwalk now has full funding, and the city is seeking the necessary permits. The final design and how it will affect each restaurant, however, are still unknown. There have been no new drafts of the plan drawn up, and there are major discrepancies among business owners, managers and staff as to what the project will entail. With all this speculation, the deck owners and staff are getting nervous that they might find themselves in the center of a lengthy municipal mess that could drastically affect their incomes.

The idea of a riverwalk came about in 1995, when the Community Development Office introduced the project as a way for Portsmouth residents to gain more access to the waterfront. Initially, the plans called for an 800-foot walkway that would connect Ceres Street with Prescott Park. Due to lack of funding and, unofficially, opposition from private property owners, the project will be scaled back in favor of a less elaborate design. According to Cindy Hayden, Portsmouth community development director, the riverwalk will be a 400-foot walkway starting at Ceres Street by Poco's and stopping just past Harpoon Willy's. Because no plans currently exist, it's uncertain how construction will affect each restaurant.

Jack Blalock, who has worked closely with Hayden over the years and is very positive about the project, says he hopes the city will include business owners in creating the plans. He would like to see a riverwalk that would simply extend and clean up the existing alleyway and decks. One possibility would be moving the Stockpot and Harpoon Willy's decks out further to extend the alley. The alley would then be paved, proper drainage installed and new dumpsters put in place of the old.

John Golumb, owner of Poco's, is eager for the city to begin the riverwalk, which would draw people into his waterfront deck and ideally fix the alleyway permanently. He has even negotiated a stipulation into Poco's deck lease that a portion of the rent goes into a fund to promote the riverwalk. To date, Golumb has given more than $100,000 dollars in support of the project.

When asked if there were any city prohibitions against the owners investing their own money into cleaning the alleyway, Hayden said, "If people want to clean up their own property, then they are more than welcome to do so." This point is moot, however if plans for the riverwalk will improve the alley anyway. "We don't want to spend our own money to fix the problem just to have it ripped up," said Blalock. This is why Blalock and Golumb have been hesitant to make any major improvements to the alley, despite the fact that they feel it is a top priority.

As it currently stands, city officials hope to begin construction of the riverwalk after the final $500,000 is released from the Department of Transportation to Portsmouth in July 2005. To avoid any stress on the deck restaurants, construction would be delayed until late fall. In the meantime, permits must be attained from the Historic District Commission and the Portsmouth Planning Board, as well as a State Wetlands Permit, which was denied to the Stockpot when they sought to expand their deck in 2002, according to general manager Jessica Vassilion. As things stand, everything will remain in stasis for yet another summer, if not longer.

Most of the waterfront business owners are positive, yet a little wary, when it comes to the riverwalk, assuming that it will be years before the project gets off the ground. The employees I talked to on the decks, however, see the riverwalk as just another gentrification project proposed by City Hall. Perhaps fear of change makes my colleagues so cynical. As a group, we depend on a volatile industry that can easily turn unprofitable with slight changes in everything from the stock market to the weather. Although everyone on the decks would love to see business improve, many of us have to concern ourselves with a major construction project at our place of work that could threaten our chances of financially surviving the winter.

Despite our grumblings and reservations, the riverwalk will be built eventually, in one form or another. Many see cleaning up one of the last unrefined downtown districts as a positive move. For those who know and love the working class history of the waterfront, that sailors once unloaded cargo and brewery workers rolled kegs onto ships there, we will miss the few remaining reminders of this great era of Portsmouth's past. Smoothing the jutting angles of the decks and bricking over the dirt in the alley will certainly make things look neat and clean, but in the process of building a new riverwalk, Portsmouth will part with a piece of its past.