Cape Break

Just so you know, it is a lake effect blizzard outside, it is freezing, and I, I am about 14 steps from the abyss, and walking fast.  In the nick of time I remembered the one thing that could rescue me from the well of despair that has become this winter. 

Through the swirling confetti outside my window it appeared to me, fuzzy at first but soon clearer, the diffused vision that appeared to be an arm, flexed with tight fist as if to show off the muscles.  Closer it loomed, sharper it became. The Cape.  Of course!  As it always does, it saved me once again.  It got me through last winter (see posts of 1/16, 2/4, and 2/17), and it will see me through this winter from hell. 

A different tack this time. Here for your reading pleasure, and as an aid to restoring my sanity, are some little odd facts (some would say trivia) about the beloved Cape named Cod.

The Cape Cod Canal, the body of water that separates the entire Cape from the rest of the United States, is 8 miles long, from bay to bay.

Grover Cleveland, Fayetteville, NY native, had a summer home in Buzzards Bay.  We central New Yorkers aren’t as dumb as we look.  We found the Cape early on!

The Town of Dennis was named after its first pastor, the Reverend Josiah Dennis.

The first Pilgrims landed at Provincetown on Nov. 11, 1620.  My birthday!  Well, not the year, though sometimes it feels it.

A German submarine, in the first World War, and the second World War, fired shots at the Town of Orleans.  They missed.   What the hell were they thinking?

Cranberry “farming” began in the Town of Dennis in 1815. Harwich established the first commercial cranberry bogs in the nation in 1846.  Harwich remains the leading grower of cranberries because of its ideal soil conditions and extended growing season.  The cranberry is now Massachusetts’ leading agricultural product.  Yummy!

The paper bag was first created in Dennis by Luther Child Crowell and patented by him in 1867.  Where would mankind be without Luther?

Cape Cop is the land of lighthouses.  There are more lighthouses in Cape Cod than any other county in America.  They say there are currently 7 working lighthouses.  I count 8, but let’s not quibble. 

Rt. 6A (one of my very favorite rides), also known as the Old King’s Highway, is the longest contiguous historic district in America and contains four centuries of architecture.

And last, but certainly not least, this from an old Cape native I was talking with last summer.  What do they call folks who are not from Massachusetts that buy a house and move to the Cape?  They call them “washashores.”  As in outsider, not from here.  But there the apparent coldness ends.  Cape Cod folks, I’ve found, are very friendly and welcoming.

Maybe we’ll visit this topic again, soon, if winter doesn’t go away!

Mark Twain Quote: “The way it is now, the asylums can hold the sane people, but if we tried to shut up the insane we should run out of building materials.”