Month: September 2007

Picked the first of the tomatoes yesterday.

We are told that the American worker is the most productive in the world, meaning we create more wealth per time card than anyone else, including the much-vaunted workforces of Asia.
This worker is under orders to rest and rejuvenate. It’s been a busy summer at the office, and more often than not, I’ve left work feeling like my head was encased in cement.
The perfect weather we’ve had this weekend was a spectacular blessing and I’ve taken full advantage of it, with a day at Falmouth’s splendid Pops Goes the Summer and then a quick trip to the Vineyard with my grandson, Bob.
We took the new ferry back, which turned out to be the main point of the outing for Bob, who decided he’d rather attend my neighbor’s pool party than tour the island.
Bob is nostalgic about the end of summer and as he said, a half-way point in his childhood: he enters grade 7 tomorrow. I admit to being teary-eyed myself this morning, remembering the sublime moment when the Cape Cod Symphony played that perfect composition for a summer evening, the Leroy Anderson piece “Serenata”.
There are so many challenges that come with living in this area: high prices, less than stellar public schools, the annual influx of tourists and second home owners and an underlying malaise that stems from a lack of professional opportunities, that the end of summer has a particular sadness.
While many Cape Codders look forward to “getting back to normal”, I always feel deep down that when Labor Day comes, we also lose something magical. The gardens, so beautiful in June in July, are gone by. The fairs, outdoor art shows, concerts and fireworks are memories. Fall is advertised as the best time on the Cape, and in some ways, that’s true, but there’s no question that the pace slows down and the mood changes.
This was not an especially busy summer, but here’s the annual recap: besides this weekend’s events, I did fit in the annual July Fourth cookout in Wareham, the Cape Verdean festival at Onset Beach, several trips with the kids to the county fair, the Provincetown and Woods Hole film fests, a visit to the first air show at the base since 2001, a major family reunion, a minor college reunion and several fireworks displays.