Come See Provincetown, See The Wonders, See The People!… It Sounds Like A Circus Barker

Today is Carnival in Provincetown!

I love P’town, that is one of the reasons that I got a cottage on the Cape. It is a very welcoming place for us. Last weekend I had a trans friend up at the cottage and we went out to dinner at a restaurant in town (Wellfleet) and I was people watching (our table had a window seat and was in the corner, so I was facing the corner and I could only look out of the window) and a saw a couple of gay couples and a lesbians couple come in. We went around to different Cape Cod National Seashore areas and talked to some of the rangers and they never batted an eye lash as two trans women came up to them to ask them questions.

Provincetown does have an eclectic mix people in this Yankee Magazine article they write it,

13 Reasons Why We Love Cape Cod: Everything ElseWorld-class lifeguards, a classic summer cocktail, people-watching in P-town, a talking clam, and more. Here are even more reasons why we love Cape Cod.
Yankee Magazine
April 10, 2019

There are so many reasons to make a summer escape to the Cape and Islands, in fact, that we filled more than two dozen pages of Yankee’s May/June issue with a selection of our favorites, including things to see, things to do, and things to eat. But that still wasn’t enough! Here’s a look at even more reasons we love Cape Cod.

And one of them is P’town.

People-Watching in Provincetown
I am a person who forgets things—names, the dates of essential historical events, where I was two Christmases ago. I blame this partly on genetics (my dad is famously forgetful) and partly on the drugs I experimented with in college, some of which I remember.

But I haven’t forgotten the first time I visited Provincetown. I was a 27-year-old Californian who had recently relocated to Boston, a city I found beautiful but not as interesting as San Francisco, the once-quirky place where I grew up. A few months into my new New England life, I was told by gays, writers, and an opinioned grandmother from South Boston that I must visit a place called P-town, at the tip of a place called Cape Cod. Norman Mailer also recommended it. “There could be no other town like it,” he wrote.

I arrived by boat in July (as one does), and after a short walk along a pier I found myself on Commercial Street, the town’s main drag, where a seemingly unusual but actually quite common P-town summer scene played out before me. There was John Waters on a bicycle. There was a drag queen with terrific posture laughing about something with a family from Ohio. There was a tank top–wearing young man on a moped stopping (too abruptly!) to flirt with tank top–wearing young men on a balcony. There were townies just trying to get to the post office. There was a middle-aged lesbian couple talking to their dog. There was an older man (in his 50s) and a younger man (in his 20s) walking together and smiling, and I couldn’t be sure if they were lovers or father and son. There was a large man in a harness carrying a small man in a Speedo. There was a street performer playing the piano. There were teenagers from the suburbs, grown men from Dallas, a shirtless Jamaican on a skateboard, a painter lugging his supplies, an activist shouting to be heard, and a handsome man who seemed like trouble. (I would come to learn that my instincts were correct: He was running away from many things, including quite possibly the authorities. People come to P-town to lose themselves and to find themselves.)

I remember when we used to spend a couple of weeks at a cottage in North Truro and when we went into P’town my father used to call Bohemian and the street were lined by street artist who would paint your portrait or a caricature drawing on street corners. There were many famous artists and writers who spent time in P’town; Eugene O’Neill, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Tennessee Williams, Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut, Anthony Bourdain, Mary Oliver, and E.E. Cummings all spent time in P’town. (A good movie to watch is “Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson”). I later learned that my parents went on their honeymoon in Provincetown back in the 30’s

I'm heading up there this morning for the weekend.

Train Trans

Yesterday I went up to the Eastern States Exposition to the Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show. I not really a big fan of model trains but we had a train layout in the basement when I was little and it gave me many hours of enjoyment, and the hobby has progressed immensely since I was little. One of the directions that it has advanced is in the area of electronics; my background is in the field of Instrumentation and Control Engineering.  Before I retired I worked for an international company that made control systems for power plants so model train controls is just an extension of that.

Also for some reason trains and trans seem to go together. In one support group it got so bad that we had a rule that you couldn’t talk about trains, a rule that was broken many times, and on one of the online forums they has a thread devoted to trains.

So here are some photos and a video from yesterday’s trip.

I went up with a retired employee from work and member of the senior center’s photo club. We met two other former employees who now have a video production company that makes train videos. Also much to my surprise I met a trans woman that I know and she was selling trains equipment.

One thing, for many trans people they think going to a show like this is impossible but it is an excellent way to get out because no one cares about you, they only care about model trains.

Staycation – Broadway

There are only a few places that evoke the feeling and image of Broadway. Yesterday I went to see the Broadway play Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. The morning started out early with the anticipation of going to New York City

My cousin got group discount rates for the play and there was twenty of us that he got tickets for include three cousins. In the morning I drove down to my cousin’s house in Stratford and we all then topk the Metro North train into Grand Central Station, they have improved the cars and the track since the last disastrous Metro North Trip to NYC. The cars were new and clean compared to 2009 trip to New York Pride.

Once we got to Grand Central Station we walked up to a restaurant on W 43^rd Street just down the street from the theater to have lunch. Tony's Di Napoli is a family style Italian restaurant; our reservation was at noon for sixteen people. For appetizers we had, Zucchini Fritti, Calamari Fritti, meatballs, and Prosciutto and Burrata, that was followed by a Cesar salad. For the pasta we had baked ziti Napolitano, that was followed by Chicken Parmigiana… just your basic Italian lunch.

We had to skip desert of strawberry shortcake because we ran out of time and had to get to the theater.

I never knew that Carole King was a song writer first; I never knew that she and her husband Gerry Goffin wrote songs for groups like The Shirelles (“Will You Love Me Tomorrow”), Bobby Vee (“Take Good Care Of My Baby”), The Drifters (“Some Kind of Wonderful” and “Up On the Roof”), The Chiffons, (“One Fine Day”), Dee Dee Warwick, and even The Monkees ("Pleasant Valley Sunday"). The Beatles even used one of their songs Chains

During the play when she divorced Gerry Goffin and was moving out to California she sang her song “You Got A Friend” to her friends and fellow song writers Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, it brought tears to my eyes. She was moving out to California to move away from her ex and to start over on her own.

There is something about a play that I like, it is a multidimensional experience and watching the live performance is so much more satisfying then watching a movie. Seeing the interaction of the audience and the players is like magic, the audience brings alive the actors. And seeing a play on Broadway isn't like any other play in either big or small theaters… it’s Broadway! (which was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil)

Saycation – Mystic Seaport Community Carol Sing

This was something like the third or fourth time that I went down to Mystic Seaport for their Community Carol Sing. Admission is normally $23 (senior discount) but this weekend it was free with a non-perishable canned good item food donation (All contributions are donated to and distributed by the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center.). I went with a friend and we wandered around and then went to the carol sing. After a while we grew tired of the caroling and walked back around the seaport, the sun was getting lower but the crowds were all over at the carol sing.

This photo (If you click on the photos you can see full size pictures) was taken from the I-95 scenic overlook about two thirds of a mile away.

Panorama f/22, 1/200sec, ISO 400, EV -1 290mm

Notice the lanterns for the Lantern Light Tours

Join us for the 36th annual theatrical production of Lantern Light Tours at Mystic Seaport. Set on Christmas Eve in 1876, the play unfolds in the Museum’s historic buildings and vessels. Visitors of all ages will enjoy seasonal delights that include a horse-drawn carriage ride, the beautiful glow of lanterns that light the way and, just perhaps, a visit with old St. Nick! at Mystic Seaport.

The Mayflower II is undergoing restoration for the second winter...

Since it was a Community Carol Sing…

Staycation Over Labor Day Weekend

Over the Labor Day weekend I went up to my brother's and sister-in-laws in southern Maine and on Saturday we decided to go on the Casco Bay ferry. But first we stopped and had lunch at the Black Point Inn in Scarborough it is a 175 year old sitting on the Western Cove across from Old Orchard Beach. After lunch we walked over in back of the inn to the other side of the peninsula.

There we found the old ocean pump house for the inn, it was built in 1919.

We then went up to Portland to take the Casco Bay ferry out to the islands. It is a beautiful trip and it was only $15 for the round trip to Little Diamond, Big Diamond and Long Islands and it was about a three hour tour. The day was perfect, in the low 70s, a light wind and very few clouds.

On the way out we passed Bug Light Park and a group of people were flying this monster of a kit. It had to be over thirty or forty feet long.

On the way to Little Diamond Island I snapped this photo Highland Head Lighthouse about 9 miles way.

The weather was perfect for sailboats! I would hate to have a powerboat going through all those sailboats since the sailboats have the right-away.

I always want to take a cruise on one of those charter schooners but after see this one packed to the gunwales I don't think I want to take a cruise on them.

Another charter schooner coming out from behind an island

As the ferry left the dock on Little Diamond Island, the captain gunned the engines churning up the sea in the ships wake and the kids all on the dock jumped in.

I took this picture of the Navy Blue Angles that were at the Brunswick Air Show some twenty miles away. I took the picture handhold my 500 mm lens!

On Sunday we went down to the Kennebunk town beach on the last day of summer to relax and read by the ocean. It was a little chilly in the shad of the umbrella but after 20 - 30 minutes in the sun I got back in the shade and repeated the cycle when I got cold.

And on Labor Day I drove home because I had a meeting to go on Tuesday.

Staycation – Mystic Seaport

A couple of Sunday’s ago I went down to Mystic Seaport for the day with some friends. The seaport had finished renovating the Charles W. Morgan a 19^th century whaling ship over the summer. Afterward they sailed up the New England coast and I was so envious, I wished that I could be on that cruise. But the trip the other weekend to the seaport changed all that. The overhead was only six feet high and the beams were only about 5’ 6” and the hatches were even lower. I made a number of unlady like comments as I kept bumping my head… whack... whack... whack... G*d d**n, s*n of a b***h! Whack...

As usual I took a slew of photographs, but I wanted to show them to you and maybe give the feeling of traveling on the ship. (I took the liberty of change her from a whaling ship to one that carried passengers)

So set your “Wayback Machine” to the year 1880.

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We arrived in town and we could see the masts from the ships in port...

As we arrive at the dock we can see our ship tied up with the other sailing ships…

As we carry our bags from the carriage we can get a good look at the ship…

Boarding the ship we walk past the wheelhouse and the chartroom off to the left, the stairs to below deck and is on the port side of the ship.

As we go below deck I sneak a peek at the captain’s lounge and his cabin, he even has his own bed  and head, luxuries that we won't have.

Well this will be our home for the next month month!

After we stored our bags we went back up on deck but we went through the cargo hole…

And we took a peek into the crew’s quarters, 27 seaman are crammed in this space!

On deck we could see another ship tied up, the square rigged Joseph Conrad...

We stood on deck while we got under way, this is probably the last look of land until we land in England.

Falcon Ridge…

I went to a concert Saturday with a friend; we met at a Park & Ride in Farmington and I drove up to Hillsdale NY where the concert was being held. Falcon Ridge Folk Festival is a three day event but I want to check it out before I went the three days.

It was only an hour and a half ride and we got there around 11 and found a place in the shade to sit, stage left from the main stage. Before the first act began I wandered around to look for my friends who were up there for the whole event and to buy some funny money and get lunch.

Funny money you say…

They have script that you use to buy food at the festival; my friend said it was to make sure the festival got their cut of the proceeds from the vendors. Besides food they also have a number of vendors selling stuff like clothes, hat, and leather goods. They also have a tent where the bands sell their CDs and sign autographs. I went off my low carb diet at lunch, I figured I’ll splurge on a potato pancake and what a pancake it was, it was the size of the 10 inch plate and about three-eighths thick… mega carbs!

When the band started to warm up, I went back to the main stage and set-up my camera and settled down. Beside the main stage they also have a workshop stage, a dance stage, and a family stage and my friend went over to the workshop stage.

As the sun worked its way around the sky I found myself in the sun and slowly cooking. a little bit about the main stage viewing area. It is on the side of small hill and they allow blankets and beach chairs in the center section but nothing tall enough to block the view of the people behind you and then father up the hill they allow tents and cabanas, on the sides you can have regular lawn chairs. Only one side has shade for the most of the day and that was where I sat.

The weather was beautiful, high in the upper 70s to low 80s, low humidity and a light wind with some clouds that prevented the sun from baking me.

During the first band a friend dropped by who works for the festival and we chatted briefly and she left off some frozen bottles of water which carries me through the day… Thanks J.

So what bands did I see… here is a short video of the pictures that I took during the concert.

So what didn’t I like, well the list is short, the iceman must go down as the most… I don’t know what. But he drove around saying in a deep voice Iiiiiiice drawing out the “I.” The other thing I didn’t like was during Ronny Cox, one of the bands that I wanted to hear, a group of teenagers (college age) sat down in front of me drinking beer, talking about college and guys. One of them was one the phone!
One thing that wasn’t on the list was the porta-potties, they were amazingly clean! That was one thing that I dreaded was using the porta-potties, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The next time that I go I'll bring a beach chair so I can sit in the center section and get a better view of the stage, a cooler with a lot of water, a hat and suntan lotion. And there will be a next time, it was a nice afternoon, I don't think that I'll go up for the festival because my tent sleeping days are over. Now if someone want to rent a RV, I might consider going the whole weekend.

I videoed a number of the songs but I don’t want to post them here, so here are the YouTube versions of the songs that I liked (minus the chatty teenagers in the background).

Fire Island Day Trip

Well actual it was more than a day trip, I went out to Long Island to stay with some friends on Friday, we went to Fire Island on Saturday, and then I came home on Sunday on the 4:15 ferry out of Port Jefferson.

We got up early so we could be at the passenger ferry boat terminal in Bay Shore to catch the 9:30 ferry to Fair Harbor. All the ferries to the different towns on Fire Island are lined up for the morning run. (click on a photo to see it full size)

My friends had invited me to a party that the organization that belong to was having at a cottage in Fair Harbor. In the morning a group of us walked over from the bay side where the cottage was to the ocean side of the island, a distance of only a quarter mile. This is a view looking down Pine Walk towards the ocean.

In the afternoon I went over to wade in the ocean. The waves were about 2 feet high but then a seven foot wave would roar in. A couple of years ago I got caught in one of the seven foot waves and I was knocked over and ground into the sand. But this year I knew what watch out for, the dreaded seven foot waves, because soon as you turn your back on them… WHAM! This year it happen to a father and daughter, the girl looked about ten or twelve years old; the father had his back to the waves when a seven foot wave stuck them and deposited then up on the beach. The girl was crying and coughing but otherwise okay.

This year there were lifeguards on duty. I was trying to figure out the mound of sand that they dig in front of the tower and the only thing I could think of was that it was to help lift the tower into place.

There is only one way to get around on the island other than walking and that is by bike, so everywhere you go there are bicycles racks and each bike must have a bell and a light… it’s the law!

And if you have packages to carry off the boat you use your little red wagon that you keep by the ferry slip.

As the sun sets in the west the 8:00PM ferry to Bay Shore departs into the setting sun.

The sunset from in front of the cottage where we were visiting…

On Sunday I walked around Port Jefferson while I waited for my ship to come in, I found a spot in the shade and watched karaoke singers while I had a grape Italian ice cup. I didn't have long to wait, when it arrived I drove up and into the ferry. One of the nice things about owning a compact car is that you get loaded first and you are one of the first to get off. This is a photo looking through my car windshield out the back of the ship, they allow you in your car during the voyage so I put the radio on, put the seat back and read.

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Fire Island is known for its “gay” community but it is only two towns out of more than a dozen towns on the island.

When we were getting on the ferry to go back to the main island there were a number of people debarking and I could swear that there was a member of the tribe getting off the boat. So I guess I not the only trans-women in Fair Harbor.

Every year they have an invasion to the Pines, another small village on Fire Island. The Fire Island News said this about the invasion,

History of the Invasion for newbies (are there any?)

The Invasion started 39 years ago when a few bored Grove drag queens led by Teri Warren decided to take a water taxi to the Pines where they were denied entrance to a well known watering hole because it conflicted with the Pines’ ban on cross dressing. She went back to the Grove and got friends who then, en masse, “invaded” the Pines. The Invasion has become a friendly and fun tradition ever since. Panzi was one of those original invaders, and has led the parade of invaders.

Sayville Ferry owner Ken Stein has transported the parade of the invaders every year. They now average 300 strong occupying a special ferry that sails into the Pines harbor (I [Panzi, the drag queen who organizes the invasion each year] toot the horn since all the queens are waving, and Capt. Stein has to maneuver between the yachts lining the harbor – who toot back whatever signal I give. This is my moment!)

The Fourth Of July…

...Was washed out from Hurricane Arthur at the cottage in New Hampshire so we went to where the rain wasn’t, Vermont.

We went to Billings Farm and Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Park in Woodstock for a day trip. I never knew that there were any national parks in New England other than Acadia National Park in Maine; the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Park is a new federal park that opened in 1992. The National Park website says this about the park,

Nestled among the rolling hills and pastures of eastern-central Vermont, the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park is the only national park to tell the story of conservation history and the evolving nature of land stewardship in America. The boyhood home of George Perkins Marsh, one of America's first conservationists, and later the home of Frederick Billings, the property was given to the American people by its most recent owners, Laurance S. and Mary F. Rockefeller. The park was created by an Act of Congress and signed into law by President George Bush on August 26, 1992. Under law, the purposes of the park are as follows:

•     To interpret the history and evolution of conservation stewardship in America;
•     To recognize and interpret the contributions and birthplace of George Perkins Marsh, pioneering environmentalist, author of Man and Nature, statesman, lawyer, and linguist;
•     To recognize and interpret the contributions of Frederick Billings, conservationist, pioneer in reforestation and scientific farm management, lawyer, philanthropist, and railroad builder, who extended the principles of land management introduced by Marsh;
•     To preserve the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller mansion and its surrounding lands; and
•     To recognize the significant contributions of Julia Billings, Mary Billings French, Mary French Rockefeller, and Laurance Spelman Rockefeller in perpetuating the Marsh-Billings heritage.

[…]
The park seeks to put the idea of conservation stewardship into a modern context, interpreting the idea of place and the ways in which humans can balance natural resource conservation with the requirements of our twenty-first century world. The Conservation Study Institute, established by the National Park Service to enhance leadership in conservation and facilitate stewardship partnerships in local communities, is also located at the park.

The park is across the street from the Billings Farm (Yes, it is the same Billings that Billings Montana is named after), it a working farm from 1890s complete with livestock. Their website says…

Get to know our Jerseys, sheep, horses, oxen, and chickens through interactive programs and activities. Explore the barns and calf nursery and watch the afternoon milking of the herd. Visitors will experience a first-hand sampling of actual farm work, animals, and agricultural processes. The authentically restored 1890 Farm House, the center of the farm and forestry operation a century ago – features the farm manager's office, family living quarters – and creamery, where butter was produced for market. Interactive programs in the farmhouse for visitors and students interpret 19th century agricultural improvement, butter production, and domestic life. Engaging exhibits housed in 19th century barns depict the annual cycle of rural life and work, as well as the cultural values of Vermont farm families a century ago.

But I didn’t care about the livestock since when I was growing up we had farms all around us and in addition, we only had time for visiting the farmhouse before the tour of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller mansion began.

This is the barn yard and fields where you can take a wagon tour around them…

We then toured the farmhouse where they made butter in the basement, the Farmcollector website described the process…

In the late 1800s, butter was the Billings farm's principal commodity. The farm produced about 5,000 pounds of it in peak years. Located in the walkout lower level of the farm manager's house, the creamery consists of two fairly small rooms. The first room, closest to the barn, is where milk was delivered and transferred into special separator cans that were then immersed in ice water-laden Cooley creamers. Once sufficient time had passed for the cream to rise, the cans were raised out of the ice water, and the skim milk was drained into a galvanized metal gutter that delivered it to the slop bucket.

The tanks against the right wall and along the back wall are the Cooley creamers. And the tank to the left is,

The cream was then transferred into a water-jacketed Vermont Machine Co. 50-gallon tempering vat, brought to a temperature of about 60 degrees and held for several hours. That caused a slight souring response that imparted a then-desirable tang to the butter. Once enough warm and partially sour cream had been collected (about 50 gallons) it was transferred to a Vermont Machine Co. No. 8 Davis swing butter churn suspended by wrought hooks from the ceiling. The churn was powered with a pitman connected through a line shaft eccentric to a small water engine driven by water piped from the farm's pond up on the hill.

The churn…

The water turbine…

We then went upstairs to the pallor; the farmhouse was one of the first houses in Woodstock to have gas thanks to Mr. Billings. Notice the hose coming off the overhead gas lamps and going to a gas lamp on the table, which was the equivalent of today’s table lamps.

This is the guest room where the grandmother stayed, notice the bootjack in the lower left next to the pair of women’s shoes.

We then walked over to the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller mansion carriage house where the tour of the mansion begins after about a ten minute discourse on the national park we headed out to the mansion. This is the front of the mansion…

Overlooking the farm and mountain across the river…

Pictures are not allowed inside the mansion. Once inside the walls are covered with “Hudson River School” paintings and it is one of the largest private collections of the Hudson River School. I am a big fan of the Hudson River style of painting and the Wadsworth Atheneum and the New Britain Museum of American Art have some of the largest public collections of the Hudson River School in the world. So I was stunned to find another collection of that style of painting. A complete description of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park grounds can be found here.

After we left the house we walked over to see the gardens…

 

One of the things that they mentioned throughout the tour of the mansion was the book by George Perkins Marsh the first owner of the mansion titled “Man and Nature: Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action.” It was a book ahead of its time, Marsh writes about how man is effecting nature and altering the climate. In an 1847 speech he said,

Man cannot at his pleasure command the rain and the sunshine, the wind and frost and snow, yet it is certain that climate itself has in many instances been gradually changed and ameliorated or deteriorated by human action. 

He recognized back then what we now call global warming, he saw that what we were doing to the land causes climate change. I got his book for free in Kindle format from Amazon.