A car passing on 6A. (this is unheard of) Sudden brake lights as a car pulls over, obviously lost. Cars shooting out of gates on the rotary without looking, people driving north when they think they are heading south, – summer has arrived on the Cape. Lights on until all hours of the morning in the house behind me, cars with boom boxes driving by on the way to the beach, fireworks popping and booming on the beach every night because people are on vacation every week for the next ten weeks, people walking by my house and stopping by to talk, a whole group of new “beach friends” every Saturday, runners and cyclists EVERYWHERE – and I mean everywhere – the Cape is alive and I LOVE it.
People often ask me how I stand it here in the summer with all the traffic and “tourists”. What people who don’t live here, don’t understand, is that in the other three seasons the Cape is a quiet sanctuary just for me. I enjoy long lonely stretches of the beach, beautiful changing colors of the marsh, absent from kayakers and shore fisherman, long winding roads free of traffic, shops so quiet the owners are happy to visit a bit with you, and cold, gray winter days with huge waves crashing that hold a beauty all their own. I especially love the early May days when I hear the tap-tap of the hammers opening up and fixing the cottages on the beach for the coming season. I used to read novels where the rich would leave the cities in June and head to the beaches for the “season”. I used to love the idea of each summer being a special season, where everyday life is abandoned for beaches and cottages for two whole months. And now I live it. Without even traveling to do it.
When June hits, the music starts, people come and for ten weeks my sanctuary is alive and kicking with lovely, interesting people from all over the world. Sometimes I feel like they are “my company”. They’ve come just to visit with me for a few days on the beach. Then my own friends and family come all summer long for short stays. A different group every few weeks. My life becomes weeks of fires at night, grilled food, beach days, and pretty, pretty drinks. My adult children come many times, each time bringing a different group of fun friends to hang out with.
How could I possibly hate summer because of the “traffic and the tourists”? When I was a young teen, growing up in really rural upstate NY, I devoured books about people having these kinds of summers, while I spent long summer days alone, in my backyard. There was no place to walk to and we only had one car that dad took to work. My siblings were all younger than me. I was totally alone and made up stories of going to the shore for the “summer season”.
Hate this? Find it annoying? I think not. I give gratitude for every passerby, every pop of the fireworks, and, yes, even for the few extra minutes it takes to maneuver around my little island paradise for the next ten weeks. My little girl daydreams have manifested into reality and I couldn’t be happier on this last weekend in June.
And so, as another day goes by, hubby went to gather (buy) wood for tonight’s campfire, the fireworks will start popping soon, the Pino Grigio is cold and fruity, the citronella candles are lit, the radio is advertising Spanky’s Clam Shack, I am content, and….I have written.
PS to Erin & Ashley – Uhhh…. Ramona put out her own brand of the Pino G….she’s here on Cape this weekend doing tastings…is there a bottle of this in my future? (birthday hint) lol!
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