Comments on: The Silly Season

By: tecosystems

tecosystems — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 18:19:31 +0000

A Lazy, Pre-Holiday weekend Post new boat 037 Originally uploaded by sogsr. There are lots of things I could talk about today, and probably half a dozen things I should talk about today, but I don't think it's going to happen. I could tell...

By: site admin

site admin — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 17:31:44 +0000

The Cape's economy has moved off of the tourism dependency of the 60s and is now over-dependant on construction and the building trades. I don't think the day-tripper, short term rental crowd is very big anymore. It's now big second homes and people looking for the comforts of home they are used to off cape -- Starbucks, etc. A rainy summer in the 60s and early 70s meant some very hard times for the locals over the winters.

By: stephen ogrady

stephen ogrady — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 17:20:24 +0000

i spent portions of each summer down at my grandfather’s place in Orleans, so i too can look at the Cape and say “i remember when it wasn’t like this…”

but as much as i might personally loathe the hordes of sunburned whiners, i’m learning first hand what life is like without them. i’m at the family place in Maine for the summer, and the weather here is killing local general stores, bars, restaurants and marinas.

i tend to forget just how dependent some of these areas are on outside dollars, but life without them is tough on a lot of folks.

none of this, of course, is to say that the Cape isn’t overcrowded – it clearly is – but that the opposite can be just as tough to weather.

By: site admin

site admin — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 16:43:00 +0000

Eagle Pond is still there, but jammed with dog walkers, etc. The charm persists, but it’s under siege, I just have learned to look for it in October and not 4th of July Weekend.

I just returned from a harrowing three hour expedition to Hyannis. Nasty.

I miss the old Cape, but all things must pass …..

Have a grea t holiday.
dc

By: Jim Leonard

Jim Leonard — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 16:23:43 +0000

How fondly I remember the drives from Osterville to Hyannis in the winter season when you might see three other cars. That is when the ancient ways had not been converted to development roads and the scrub oaks and pitch pines hadn’t been mowed down for quarter acre lots.

There is still charm on the Cape, but it is now widely dispersed in pockets that have to be discovered or re-discovered. I hope that Eagle Pond is still as charming as it once was.

I save my yearly pilgrimages to the Cape for the two weeks that bridge Labor Day so that I get a taste of the summer madness as well as the muted relief of the summer people’s departure.

One old timer used to call them wood ticks. “Yep,” he said, “here in the summa and gone in the winta.”

Jim