Around the Cape
Good Harbor Beach, Gloucester
By: Melissa de Haan Cummings - Jul 05, 2015
Around the Cape
What's new?
I been taking the kids
to Good Harbor
O Too good for us!
No People like you go there
O you know what?
You can go past the parking lot
and park on that street
I don't know the name of it
By the hotel
If you're early
You don't have to do all that walking
not that walking's so bad
You have to get there early
Plus the hotel has a snack bar
I used to go to Good Harbor all the time
when I was a kid We'd meet at the Rock
O I know the rock! The only rock
on the beach!
Yar I guess it is!
It is! I know exactly!
By the creek!
Yar I'd go to work for my old man
be at the dock at five
and ride my ten speed to the beach
Be there by ten thirty
Spend all day there!
What did you father do?
Lumping
Hard Merchandise was in the cove!
From Wicked Tuna?
Yah
D knows one of the guys!
Dave Marciano!
They won the last contest!
They're famous!
Only for being on TV
Sophie doesn't want to do much
She likes art and drama
I'm going to do drama next year
I wish you would
Last year I had too many practises
It will be different this year
Practise will be at seven
O you'll have time then!
Yah
Better than baseball games at seven thirty
They stop them at nine forty five
Marge plays ball
Usually it's the kid who plays
Yah she just sat there
She's spoiled
Does the grandpa spoil her too?
Michael Yep
Who does it more?
They both do
Why do they spoil her?
Because her parents
don't live together
and they both work
and she has no siblings
Her parents aren't home that much
Well my dad has Chowda Cup
He's not always home
Usually he is
I see some kids I know
Where?
There
Remember if you see
the LoJacomo grandparents
tell me
I've gotta get gas
I'll get it on the way home
You know what?
You call me in the morning
when you're ready to go down
We'll walk the boulevard
Let me know if you go
If you don't ...
What time you gotta be there?
Early in the morning
I gotta go to the bank anyway
Let me know if you're going
O you know what I can do?
Get him a gift
I gotta talk to Pat too
cause if Pat's going down
around five ...
She has a gift certificate
to that store next to ...
Yah Let me know
what you're gonna do
Call Pat
See if she can give me a ride
around five thirty
Supposed to be nice
Should go in
Where's Dylan?
He's down playing baseball
We broke his board
By accident
Look Look
I'm going cause of Jamie
If Jamie wasn't going
I wouldn't
I don't walk around by myself
...down the boulevard
We used to have paper
for ummm nine dollars
I'll carry that
No
Alright Write that down
I offered
Pick up your rubbish
I'm going to get my shoes
This sand is hurting my feet
I have to dry off
I have to go cause I have
a doctor's appointment
They broke your boogie board
It's not broken
Yar it is Look there
You can still use it
We'll go by Marshall's
on the way home
Can I use Riley's?
Yah
No!
He won't let me
I wanna play with ...
He's over there
I'll show you
We gotta walk home
You gotta jump in the shower
Your grandma's gotta
jump in the shower
El lago El lago
Know what that means?
No
The lake
You should get
You should get
You should get
Come on! Stacy's behind you!
You wanna get her a slush?
A what?
Three dollars
O the teens made a circle of stones!
Pointed at by the toddler
in daddy's arms
Used as a pitcher's mound
by the ten year old girls
Hey! Watch out!
If you walk by there you're ...
Let's see who can
shake the most sand
out of their hand!
I win! I win!
I'm going to jump in the water?
Why?
Cause he's so excited!
Run and land on bellies
in the sand
Hey! Go get your thing
But the only concern
I have about the slush
right now
is that you're not going
to be able to carry things
Buys four slushes
Sata! Will you time us
running the boardwalk?
Start when I'm at the red sign
Stop when I'm at the red sign
Two minutes ten seconds
There was so many people!
One minute twenty six
One minute twenty three
Forty five
One way?
Eighty six is one minute
twenty six
One minute five seconds
210
123
105 equals 438
126
126 equals 252
438 less 252 is 186
You need less than 186 to win
Let's see who can do it
the slowest this time
Who's winning?
I think you are
Sata!
Know why Riley was so long?
He sat on the dune
for like five minutes
Molly! Come up here!
What are you doing after this?
Wanna play ball?
I get to bat first
No You don't
Yes I do
Then I get to whip it!
No
No you don't!
With all these people around!
Quit throwing sand on me
If you want to play
with sand sit there!
The wind blows it!
Teen selling slush
rocks back in his canvas chair
attending to iPhone
Hah! Someone made
this great ... Thing!
Recognize team shirt and cap
Shift the chair toward the dunes
for the second time
follow the sun
Slush seller on his feet
Stretching Yawning
as four small people
arrive and consider
Slushes cost three dollars
I know
Why didn't you tell me?
Why?
So we can know
how much money to bring
Sata can we play baseball?
Sure I have to go to the bathroom first
We'll meet you at the field
O K
Two women in shorts
feed a collection of gulls
One sits one stands
A young bird is left out
Nearby
heavy ladies on a blanket
silently object
struggle to sit
in defense
Boy runs through
Fluttering
Return
Sats! Fifteen minutes
and three seconds!
Let's see
Yes!
And the very tan rather elegant
older couple near the beach house
lying two feet above the sand
in matching horizontal recliners
who have a red canvas
wagon to match the beds
Where shall we play?
There?
No We made a field
Carves a mound
with his toes
You pitch Sata
Since I'm better
I'll be the closer!
O You're better?
Yah Pitch
O look! People are going to the island!
Can we go?
O yes!
Slush teen lets down
the blue and red umbrella
pushes it into a yellow bag
empties a container of water
in the dunes packs something
on top of the wagon
and drags all up the beach
or the boardwalk is gone
See the waves cross each other?
Yah
That island's nothing much
Yes it is
See that flat rock up there?
Yah
That's where a path is
I think there's a quarry up there
And the view of course
See Thatcher's?
Wet sand balls on us
Quit it!
What?
The two lighthouses?
You climbed the left hand one
Remember?
Yah
Lookit the sun
It looks funny
Why do you see blue after?
You're not supposed
to look at the sun
It gives you black spots
You're supposed to
look in a mirror
Sand flying backwards at us
Riley!
If you tease people all the time
they aren't going to like you!
Walks by himself
O there's a wiffle ball!
I know whose it is
Don't throw it
Take it
Give it to him next time
O Is that Mitchell's?
Yah
Don't throw it!
Keep it for him
My board is broken too
I thought it would be
Let's leave them at the cove
I want a new one too
Of course
And I'll keep my old one
Can we get new surfboards?
Can we go to the book store now?
No It's too late
We'll go Monday
Do you see our bat and ball?
No
Do you see the red sign?
Yes It's right there
See the life guard station?
Yah Just to the side of it
That side or that side?
That side
O
Our things are there!
That's good I didn't think
anyone would take them
in that short a time
Why is Sophie black?
Because Marge married a black man
and they had Sophie's father
is he black?
Yes
And her mother is black
Her grandparents spoil her?
How?
They let her stay up with TV
as long as she likes
Until one thirty!
I do too
well until eleven thirty
I wait until they go to bed
and come down stairs
But your parents don't let you!
You sneak
I know a kid that's spoiled
A J
He says he's this taller than me
and he's only this taller
People are having a fight
about the Confederate Flag
You know about the Civil War?
When Lincoln was President
Yah The North and the South?
Yah and slavery
Lincoln stopped slavery
Why did the South have slavery?
They didn't have to pay them
They just had to feed them
and shelter them
They needed lots of people
to grow cotton and tobacco
The weather's better there
and they had huge farms
called plantations
It's cold here and people
have indoor jobs
Paul Revere made plates
and cups
And was he a blacksmith too?
I'm not sure Maybe
So the big stores refuse to sell
the flag of the South
and the little stores
have thousands of orders
are making lots of money
That's funny!
Yar it is!
What channel is Wicked Tuna on?
Seven eighty or Seven O Nine
I'll look it up and call you
If I'm in the shower
leave a message
Is D our step grandfather?
Yah
We're you married to Dad's real father?
Yah
What was his name?
Richard Joseph De Haan
Dad is Richard Joseph De Haan Junior
How come you call him Joe?
When he was tiny my father was bouncing him
on his knee calling him The MoJo Man
and I said Joe! We'll call him Joe!
His father was Dick and my brother was Rick
He needed his own name
Dick?
Yah
Like penis?
Yah
Why did they call him Dick?
Because he thought Richard
made him sound too stuffy
He came on as stuck up
Know what I mean?
You could have been
Richard Joseph De Haan the Third!
We would've called you DICK!
Hahahahaha
Josh's friend had a baby
and named him Jack Peter
Know what Peter is?
No
Same as Dick
And Jack is when you play with yourself
which most people do
O
There's Mom!
We went to Salt Island!
Where?
Off Good Harbor
O
What's that other island?
Milk Where gulls are
supposed to breed
O all the guano!
Melissa de Haan Cummings
2-4 July 2015