Cape Cod

I must have been in fourth or fifth grade when I began to comprehend the historical importance of the state of Massachusetts, way up north somewhere, where the Boston Red Sox played baseball. I was growing up in the deep south when John F. Kennedy was elected President. T’was then that I began hearing about Cape Cod, where the Kennedy family had their vacation home in Hyannisport. Yesterday, only days away from my 75th birthday, we went to Cape Cod., first time ever for me. Along the way, still on the mainland, I saw signs for Plymouth, that settlement on the mainland shore that faces outward toward Cape Cod. . . Plymouth colony, where the Pilgrims first set up their rendition of the Lord’s community, apart from the high church establishment in Europe. . . a return to the ancient Christian vision of establishing the Lord’s kingdom on earth. Crossing on a bridge, we arrived on Cape Cod. After a few minutes, I was seeing signs for Hyannis. I recalled hearing about Hyannis port, where the Kennedys had their yacht docked, back in the day, During those early days of the Kennedy administration, President Kennedy’s wife, Jackie generated a unique fascination in the media. Their family, residing in the White House, inspired popular comparisons to Camelot, the legendary kingdom where King Arthur had ruled with his queen, Guinevere, back in the earliest years of Great Britain. Later, while sitting on a Cape Cod beach, my mind was generating other memories. In 1971, while working in a Colorado ski lodge tavern, I had heard John Duffy, a New England native, sing his song, “Nantucket Ferry.” I was thinking that the legendary Nantucket was out there somewhere.

Back in 1847, Herman Melville had signed on as a harpooner with a whaling ship sailing out of Nantucket. Following that whaling voyage around the world, Melville wrote his great (some say the greatest) American novel, Moby Dick. Being a novelist myself, I was reflecting on this Cape Cod moment as I waded through the water at Breakwater beach. Those whaling daydreams cast my memory net back to a song earlier heard, back in the day, 1960’s, on the old 33 rpm record player. Judy Collins sang “Farewell to Tarwathie”,a song about the coast of Greenland, a song sung by some long-gone sailor whose hope was to find riches in “hunting the whale.” Perhaps that sailor would have returned to Cape Cod when the expedition was complete and the voyage was done. I was humming “Farewell to Tarwathie’ as we bid farewell to the legendary Cape Cod, to return to Boston. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV29xK2xyZ4 Glass half-Full