Catching Up

It dawned on me the other day that I never reported out on the Annual Heritage Days weekend. Time to catch up.

Heritage Days begins with the lighting up of the coast on Friday night.  The Luminaria brings neighborhoods together to participate and Cedar Point sent its best.  Betty and John Kincaid stored the bottles all summer long and a crew fills them with sand and candles in the afternoon. Peter and Linda Martin with their son Peter, led the charge around 5:00 with the milk bottles and candles for the Jetties and the beach.  Haley was out there too, with Sophia and Charlotte and Kristen and lots of other neighbors.  The wind was up and I had my doubts about how many we would be able to get to hold the match but the vast majority burned all night long.

As I was working my way down the beach around 8:00 to light my share, I ended up in conversation with a mother, her daughter and her daughter's husband.  The senior member of the trio was a Mrs. Burton, formerly of Scituate and returned to visit after many years.  They shared with me their story of a tour of Etrusco on the day it came off the beach in November 1956.  Mrs. Burton's husband, Richard, (an easy one to remember) was part of the team working on re floating the ship.  Mother and daughter recalled dinner nearly on the table when Richard arrived home with word that they were going to have to drive to Boston to pick him up as he was going aboard ship now that the team had had success at last.  Once in Boston both were taken aboard.  The younger recalled it being a dirty and unpleasant tour until they made it into the captain's berth.  There the wood work was polished to perfection and the appointments were impeccable.  I kept up the questioning as long as I could as I was unbelievably excited to have stumbled into this story.  All those years later Etrusco has still got stories to tell.

Saturday and Sunday saw the Lighthouse and Tower open for tours once again.  There was scarcely a breeze on Saturday and on Sunday there was a gale.  Peter and Barbara Whitfield took their usual places and were joined on Saturday by my sister Lee and on Sunday by Nancy Fay and her nephew Ben.  I can never thank them enough for pitching in.   Haley headed up to the Bates House where I am pleased to report they had a new high mark set for visitors at an open house.

The crowds were of a reasonable size and that let me tell more stories than usual on Saturday.  On Sunday I took a step back and tried to take more questions rather than lecture.  The guests did not let me down either as I was asked many things that don't often come up.

One of the great surprises of the day was a question on a ball cap I keep in the office.  It is from the USS Enterprise and was a gift from a naval officer once of that ship and now on staff with the Joint Chiefs.  It turns out that his sister in law and her family were on the tour and it gave me a chance to let them now how much I miss Patrick's correspondence.  One of these days he will come through and we will get a picture of the two of us in those hats.

The next open house is here on Sunday August 19th from 1:00 to 4:00.  Visitors are asked to donate $2.00 and there will be t-shirts and sweatshirts available as souvenirs.  There are also books on Scituate history, mugs, prints and Christmas cards.  Come on down and support the Light and the Society.

I know, I know ...

The router at the top of the Light has died.  This puts the cameras out of commission until I can find a replacement and get it installed.  It could be the long cable that takes the signal from the top to the connection by my desk is cooked as well.  Tests will begin today and repairs will be as timely as possible.

Update:  Tests have determined it is the long cable that snakes under the kitchen, down the runway, and up the Tower.  Repair date to be determined.

Update 2:  We are back up with both cameras.  There was a faulty cable along with the originally burned out  router.  I had a back up for both and once again you can get a glimpse of this storied harbor.

Tuesday Night News

In the middle of a tremendously fun band of thunderstorms I thought I better note that the web cams are down because of an earlier set of thunderstorms that burned out my router.  I will be on the case tomorrow and hope to have the kit back in place then.

In other news I would like to reveal that the lobster that adorns the garden has been named 5 Eyes.  

Getting glasses for him is going to be a challenge.  Thanks to Dave Ball for the name.

We hosted an open house here Sunday and just over 200 visited from 1:00 to 4:00.  Thanks go out to the team supreme of Julie, Lee Coscia, with Peter and Barbara Whitfield.  It was gusty out there and a  tent went flying over Barbara's head on its way to the parking lot.  I enjoyed being able to share the renovated Utility Room for the first time and the response from young and old was terrific.  Heritage Days are the next opportunities for the public to tour the Cottage and the Tower.  Come and see us on August 4 and 5.

Don't Lose That Number

A weekend heatwave brought a tremendous crowd to Scituate Light.  Some behaved and some did not.

We get guests on the beach and guests all around the Tower and the Jetties every day.  The numbers are incredible.  We have the greatest conversations on the fence and in the yard.  We see old friends and meet new ones.  Most people are good guests; they clean up after their dogs, they recognize the limits we have to place on access, they admire the Light and wish us well taking care of the site.  And as I noted, the numbers are incredible.  There could be one thousand people here on an average day.  Posing for pictures, walking the seawall, grabbing a hot dog, pacing the dog, reading the papers. All of these things happened here this weekend and in all that I  haven't a complaint.

But, (and you knew this was coming didn't you,) there is another list of activities that happens here that I can not applaud.

On Friday night I had to phone the police at around 11:00 when a group formed around the Tower and onto the Big Jetty that was determined to share a play by play account of the various indignities that exist when drinking beer and not having access to a restroom coincide.  Girls voices visited me as I was reading, at a pitch that shook the glasses in the cabinet, with nouns and verbs I would rather not hear next to each other if I have to hear them at all.  I have gone out to groups like these in the past and moved them on myself.  At the  end of the summer especially, groups meet here to add one more memory of the old home town before a new chapter begins some where else. This was different in that words were exchanged at a high decibel level that ought not be exchanged at all.  There was a shamelessness to the behavior. I considered going out with a camera to take some pictures until I recognized that there was no way to embarrass such people.  They had crossed over into another universe from mine; one where you could apparently be both physically and verbally disgusting en mass.  Scituate Police moved them on very quickly. I asked that they send the message that this is not the place for that alternative universe to reappear.

Saturday morning we had a great set of guests as an old friend and roommate of my brother brought his extended in laws to the Light. I got to practice for next weekend's open house and take some questions as we moved from the Utility Room with its new displays through the office, the runway and at last, the Tower. It was a wonderful visit for us and we hope for them.  Later in the day we caught them again as they headed out on a chartered boat for a cruise. It was a  perfect evening for that and a great day all around.

Sunday saw lots of weeds pulled up, gardens watered, a gutter repaired, and even a swim.  We had a ton of company all afternoon and we enjoyed all of it.  I sold a few shirts from a table set up in the yard as a fund raiser for the Cottage and the Tower.  I poured through a classic mystery, listened to the Sox.  There were all the elements in place for another perfect day.

Then the power went out.  It was nearly 9:00 when we lost it and we got our flashlights in place and read a little bit.  Around 10:30 it was time to go up to bed and call it a nearly perfect day.

When the power returned, the sound of computers and microwaves waking up, woke me up.  At about 3:00 I let the cat out, noticed a skunk in the courtyard by the office going to town on the clover, and, as I was heading back up to sleep, I heard something in the yard. At first I thought it was someone on the roof of the runway.

Window by window I checked, and as I went, I turned on some lights.  As I flicked on a kitchen light, I saw someone run across the yard and duck through the fence.  I came to the conclusion that there had been someone sitting in the Adirondack chair that I sat in all afternoon while I read. I began to wonder if the car break ins I had read about on Seaview and Scituate Aves had moved down to the Point.

That had me up and wide awake.  It was approaching 3:30.

I did not want to overreact.  I don't like to call and in the three plus years we have been here I have called all of four times prior to this weekend.  I want cars to come when I call but recognize that human nature being what it is, if I call once a week, they may not come as fast as I want them to.  I got a flashlight and went up stairs where I could scan around the Tower and the Jetty.  There didn't seem like too many voices out there and I only saw one car in the lot.  I decided this could be a couple using the wee hours of the morning to advance their relationship.  I was partially right.

By ten minutes to four it was quiet again. The lone car was still in place but I couldn't see any one or hear anyone. I had checked the door to the Tower, I had checked our cars.  The kayaks were fine. The flashlight and the flicking lights seemed to have done the trick.  I was just getting back to bed when I heard two voices approaching the car.  Oddly they did not get in and drive away.  The two of them began to wander toward Rebecca Road.  I decided I had to call again.  I told the dispatcher all that had transpired and that I couldn't go back to sleep until I knew that this wasn't a crew breaking into cars.

Down the street rolled three cruisers.  It was after four.  The couple was back at the car and greeted the officers like it wasn't four in the morning and it was as normal a thing in the world to be in the Lighthouse Parking lot hanging around.  I began to think the alternative universe had returned.  (I was also rooting for the skunk to play a role.) Inexplicably the two didn't get into the car and drive away.  I had only been partially right.  There were actually four of them and the driver and his femme fatale were missing!

The first young lady, (lets call her Doris, for the Doris Day voice she used when greeting the police) began to call out for her missing chauffeur.  Her partner was a young man making the continually perplexing fashion choice of boxers pulled up to mid chest and shorts dropped down to mid thigh. (I always think that kids dressed this way look like old men getting undressed.) We will call him Stanley Kowalski  as at one point he tore off his t shirt like Brando in Street Car Named Desire.  She was now using the voice of a thousand cigarettes and language that would make a prison guard blush.  It was ten after four and we have gone back into the twilight zone.

She called for him for about five minutes straight, using the voice of Vito Corleone with a head cold and the language of a deranged rapper trying to empty the cursing dictionary of all its adjectives.  I did not want to think about what he might be doing so I pulled the pillow over my head and began to catalog all the things I knew he was not doing.

He was not:  Solving Pi to a repeating decimal, chairing a Mensa meeting, debating the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act, gathering records needed to be considered as Mitt Romney's VP, writing a thank you card to his aunt, flossing his teeth, training for the Olympics, learning the Boy Scout pledge, writing a book, reading a book, researching the Higgs Bosun particle, trading recipes, trading baseball cards, playing Monopoly or home asleep.

He was also not:  Panning for gold, auditioning for Broadway, raising the Titanic, developing film, recovering from surgery, buying the world a Coke, renewing season tickets, parsing his words, playing Roulette, running laps, felling trees, digging ditches, or saving the whales.

I had many more but I began to entertain thoughts that I was crazed by sleep deprivation and that all of it was nothing but a bad dream.  Then I heard the laughing.

Doris and Stanley had at last been joined by Romeo and Juliet of the Jetty.  With their arms around each other they lolled across the parking lot in the halogen glare of the dark before dawn.  With a great deal of cheer they made their way to the car and at last took leave of Cedar Point.  In some ways a scene of great innocence and in others a trip to a maddening place where there isn't any sort of recognition that life can be anything better than coarse and animal.

I could do without this kind of visit.  I could do without having to watch the growing pains of the shameless and phony Doris and Stanleys of the world, seemingly raised by filthy mouthed wolves who see every place they go as an outhouse or brothel.  I did in fact get back to sleep in time for another amazing sun rise to wake me up. My first thought this morning:

Wouldn't it have been great if the skunk played a bigger role in the story?

On the Fence

I have been away from the blog of late, though it has been on the sidelines of my mind frequently.  I kept thinking that I needed to get back to the routine of sharing the tales of this place and how could I fit it into the chores and the work related responsibilities that have monopolized the time.  With Summer School registration in place, I have a few minutes to catch up.

The calendar tells me that it has been three weeks since I jumped in here with an apology for letting the cameras blink out.  Since then we have had a mix of weather that has had an impact on life on the Point.  A twelve foot tide with a wind pushing brought stone and sand onto the walkway and into the road just as I was noticing the cameras were down.  The hardest hit was to the gardens around the parking lot and in the small courtyard in front of the office from which I type.  Neighbors lost a great number of plants and vegetables as well.  The salt in the air turned plants black that were otherwise untouched by the ocean.  It was a bad run of luck as Memorial Day weekend had seen the annual clean up of the Point and the planting of geraniums and marigolds to go along with the perennials I had put in place last year.  Things were looking good here until a freak tide turned back the clock.

The last few weeks has seen a recovery.  Julie and I went out the next day and shoveled off the walkway.  The Town sent some trucks down initially to get the big stones off the road and later, a street sweeper, to get the sand that was strewn across the parking lot.  I turned over all the gardens and got some fresh water into the roots of the perennials.  Some still did not make it though the daisies and the sedum seem unkillable.

An island garden as you drive off the Point was especially hit hard.  I worked on that one a while before I realized what it needed was a concentration of plants rather than the spread out approach, and a planting of grass around the rest.  I will be showing you the progress of that one as the summer continues.

There are some success stories. Hydrangeas are out in front of the cottage in pink and blue. A transplant from Hart Park came back to the flagpole garden.  Dave Ball donated a Lawson rose to the yard arm that holds up the blue and white Lighthouse sign.  That has seen significant new growth.  What had been a vegetable garden by the kitchen door is now a booming perennial garden that I will be able to steal from for a long, long time.  Everyone of those plants is loving the long days of sun and the big drinks of water they get when we rinse off from the beach.

Horticulture set aside, we have also had some guests of note. 

On a Saturday morning a few weeks ago I was working with the weed whacker when I stopped to meet a guy at the fence who knew more about fishing this coast than I ever will.  Spenser was waiting for his son to finish the ACTs and ended up swapping fishing stories with me.  Originally a Somerville guy, he was as jealous as anyone I have met at my luck having this spot. "A sweet gig", I believe was the exact quote.  He got that right.

Julie's sister and her husband have been making regular visits as well.  Fridays are set aside for them and for their dogs who take a swim and want to take another.  I have been setting up a pop up tent in the yard and as a result we are all out there much more often.  As kids we had no notion of the sun being damaging.  Call that lesson learned.

A neighbor has let his house to a couple originally from the Azores.  The gentlemen guest is responsible for this work of art.  Gathered entirely from objects he found on the beach and assembled seemingly in minutes. I watched two teenagers over the weekend slam on the brakes, park the car, hike up the side of the seawall, then walk around gauging this sculpture.  They were far from the only ones to do so.

Two sisters from the Regina Laudis order of Connecticut were in town and Julie invited them in to the Cottage for a visit after watching them cool off in the first tough heat of the year.  Both were wonderful visitors with a great many questions and a real enthusiasm for the Lighthouse.  We don't know for sure if it is the first time two nuns climbed up the Tower, but lets say that it was.

Finally, a student of mine named Nick Staples surprised me with a gift as the year closed.  Created by his father it is a perfect fit for the garden outside the kitchen door.  I officially kick off the contest to name the lobster. Winners will be announced in a later posting.

Light, Camera, .... Oops

The cameras are back up and I apologize for letting that chore get away from me as we finish up the school year.  Two more papers and entering the comment line on the report card will wrap the year.

 Next up is Summer School,  two and half weeks away.

Another Remarkable Gift

This morning as we celebrated Mother's Day here on the Point, there was a knock on the door.

Mark Poritsky, son of longtime Point resident Ray Poritsky, had brought us a gift.  His father, a Brown professor and illustrator of anatomy texts, had a painting at his cottage.  Mark wanted us to have it.

He explained that it was a bit different from most of the work his father had done before and that the family attributed the differences to the onset of illness.  We hung it up immediately and thanked him profusely. 

 It is different than most and it is here.  We are so, so, lucky.