Back from vacation, our 27th year to spend at Wellfleet.  Quite different from 27 years ago.  No one had cell phones, or computers then.  What a difference 27 years makes.  Each of the teens had a cell phone and a computer.  The little guys had Wii and DS games.  The world has gone mad with technology.  In 2007 Maria brought out her laptop.  She loved it.  We were going to have a pirate party and we needed some riddles, and she pulled out the laptop and quickly came up with these:  What do you get when you cross a pirate with a zucchini?  A squashbuckler.  Where can you find a buccaneer's bathroom?  The poop deck.  Why coudn't the little pirate get into the pirate movie?  It was rated "Aarrrr".  We all thought the computer was a good addition at that time and even strangers on the beach tried to answer the riddles.

Best moments of the vacation?  The 4th of July parade was fun and I saw several people I knew.  Finding Maria's bench at the Preservation Hall.  Helene and I went to each bench, no luck.  Finally, the last bench, way in the back of the garden, and there it was Maria Ciancanelli Kelly.  When I brought my sister Maureen to see it, I had to ask a rather heavy person to move, so I could show Maureen the name.  Maria's bench wow.  Taking a picture of Timmy with his cousin Jer...Timmy whipped off his wool hat (he had sun burnt his head) and Jer with all that hair, arms around each other.  Can't wait to get that photo back.  Meeting our latest addition - baby Orson, cute as a button, and played bababutz with his Great Aunt Linda.  Sitting on the deck, morning with coffee, evening with a Miller Lite.  Wonderful view of the tides coming in and going out. 

14 days go by like a blink of the eye.  In fact, 27 years seemed to have passed the same way.  Good to go away, and always good to come back home.

Yesterday was Regina's 13th birthday and there was a party at her house.  It was the usual crowd, Regina had a bunch of friends, too cold to swim in the pond, but just right to sit on the porch and see the mountains.  Kevin had moved one of the living room couches on the porch, and that is where something happened that has impressed me and stayed in my head.  Rachael's little cousin was standing looking at the couch, when Rachael lifted her and put her on the couch.  Marysol immediately put her head down on one of the big soft pillows and looked tired.  And Rachael said, "Do you want to go hi-e-hi-e?"

Now this was something I had heard all my life.  Grandma Burky said it, Bucky said it a million times - "Let's go hi-e-hi-e", "Close your eyes and go hi-e-hi-e".  I said it to my kids, rocking them to sleep.  It was almost a lullaby -hi-e-hi-e.  And here years later Rachael is saying it.  I looked at her and said, my mother said that all the time, and Rachael eyes changed and she said, "Mom used to say that".  I just thought that was so significant, a siimple made up word, or maybe it sounds like that in my Grandmother's language, but there it was generations later.  I hadn't said or thought of hi-e-hi-e for years and then it pops up.  Family - don't ever underestimate it.

First, an update on the turkeys.  Now the mama turkey has only one baby, but he or she is getting bigger and now they come with three aunts, other female turkeys to help her keep the little one in control.  Timmy caught him in the garden, acutally caught him, held the baby to show me, and when he put him down, the baby ran off fast to his mother.  Maybe that will teach him to stay closer and not be so curious.

Now the big news is Cape Cod - the annual trek will be this Saturday, coming up fast.  The cast of characters keeps changing, but we will have a full house.  Also, Rachael has a house the first week, and Kevin has a house for the two weeks, like us.  Kevin wrote about Cape Cod, his regrets that he didn't spend every vacation, every day at the Cape with Maria, but the times he did spend there are etched in his head, just like all of the rest of us.  We can see Ria walking with first Jer, then Rachael, then Regina, holding their hand, carrying a pail, bending down to pick up a shell, examining it and then adding it to the pail.  We can see her with the big bag full of goodies, books to read, toys for the kids.  We can see her sitting in the chair in the water, head bent over a Harry Potter book, looking up to keep her eye on the kids in the water.  We can see that great big smile on her face - Wellfleet was truly her second home, as Kevin pointed out in his story.  And their home reflected it, collections of seashells, sand in jars, buckets of rocks, memories that she brought back to remind her and keep her close to her second home.

Cape Cod is like that to all of us, good memories of years ago, little kids have grown up, pictures in albums and boxes full of the changing, growing, getting older, but still the joy of being at the Cape.  This year my sister Kathy and her family are coming for the second week.  The new grandchild, not even a year, will be there, as well as his cousin Mina.  New children to share the memories.  Bon Voyage.

Well Clay Hill Road is looking like the Nature Channel, with turkeys running all around both sides of the road.  The old Tom Turkey is still alive, I thought he was shot when I didn't see him for a while.  But a few days ago he showed up again, with three or four ladies.  He looks different though.  His tail feathers, that were once pristine, now hang in awkward positions.  His strut is slower and I think he's tired out.  There is a hen turkey that came with three babies, now only two, but they are cute.  She clucks to them, and they follow her all around, and even peck at the cracked corn.

This morning, I was having my coffee when I saw another tom turkey in the front yard.  He came right up to the picture window, and looked (I thought at me) but he was watching his reflection.  Thinking it was a competitor, he suddenly jumped up and attacked the window.  "That's it", I yelled, stupid turkey, knocking on the window to scare him away.  I guess they really don't have much brains.

We also have red squirrels - nasty little fighters that can fend off the gray squirrels that are more than twice their size.  And this year, we have an albino red squirrel.  He's white.  Like a ghost. 

I really have to get some pictures so people believe me.  I white red squirrel - who would have thought.

There was a lot of coverage on tv this week of the babysitter's boyfriend who put the 18 month old baby in the washer to play "hide and seek".  He didn't realize when the door shut, it locked and the water began to fill the washer.  Well, the laundromat camera caught the whole thing, the man running frantic for help, people jumping and finally someone pulling the plug to shut off the machine.  All ended well, the baby was ok, but I bet they get a new babysitter.

It made me remember a photo my father had taken of Barbara in the washing machine, the old kind with the wringer.  She was probably about three, a big smile on her face, suds on her body.  Why he posed her like that, we'll never know, or maybe it is just a figment of my imagination.  Anyway, it brought back memories of Bucky and her washing machine.  The washer was in the cellar, next to the sink so the hoses could empty.  I think it had a buzzer on it when the wash was done.  Well, not really done.  Then Bucky had to put the clothes, one at a time through the wringer to wring out the water....no spin cycle on this washer.  The problems were many.  Clothes got tangled and you had to tug to get them out, fingers could get caught, and worse of all Bucky's housedress that she was wearing would enter the wringer.

Then you would hear her screams, the only way to shut off the wringer was like above, you had to pull the plug out.  We would run down the cellar stairs, watching our mothers big chest get closer and closer to the wheels.   "Pull the plug," she would scream.  Now this is where it got even worse.  Whenever you pulled the plug , because there was so much water, you got a shock that could knock you to the floor.  But what a choice, so you would tug on the wire, hoping this time would be different.  No, the shock came, but the wringer stopped.  Bucky would pull out her dress, wipe the swear off her face, and say "Plug it back in, so I can finish this shitty wash".  Another shock, no surprise and a happy ending to the story.

When I was a teenager in High School, the gym had a sliding door that opened for basketball games, but was closed during the day so it could accommodate two gym classes at the same time, the boys on one side, the girls on the other.  Sometimes the door didn't close completely, there was a small crack for an opening.  This was enough for the boys to try to catch a glimpse of the girls in their shorts.  You could hear them all fighting to get an eye on the crack, making lewd remarks and calling out for the girls to come close.  Sometimes the girls would go to the crack and try to figure out which boy or boys were there, but most of the time we ignored them. 

The best one was John V.D., a kid I had started kindergarten with and now we were seniors.  Everyone knew it was John's eye on the crack, he had a particular voice and he had earned the title of "Class Clown" in the yearbook.  Anyway, one day John started to call, "Girls, Girls, it's your lover boy", and we all laughed.  One girl went close to the crack and yelled, "It doesn't sound like my loverboy to me, it sounds like John V.D.  I thought of that yesterday when I watched the tom turkey strut all day after a female turkey.  I could imagine him saying, "it's your lover boy" while the female turkey just picked at dandelion heads and imaginery bugs in the earth.  She would let him get close to her, he was all puffed out, tail fully extended, and then she would go off into the field, or the woods, and he would follow her.  They would both emerge in a few minutes, with nothing romantic happening. 

We had guests in the Bird's Nest yesterday and they too were following the turkeys around the yard, trying to get a good picture.  The last two weeks have been very busy, and our guests were in for a treat --wisteria climbing right to the top of the maple tree and turkeys strutting in the yard.  All at no charge.

Back Again

Somethings have changed with this blog, not my doing, but I am trying to figure it out.  It's really spring now, Mr. Ding-a-Ling the icecream truck was here yesterday.  The turkey is still strutting, even though turkey season started six days ago.  And my classes are still amusing and interesting me.  Last week in the heroes and villains of the Bible class we did Adam, Eve and the snake.  The Rabbi who taught it was wonderful, as was the Rabbi that taught the story of Moses.  Anyway, he put a whole new slant on the story.  Adam was created in the second chapter (even though man and woman were already created in the first chapter).  Now here's where it gets different.  Adam was both male and female, so it was more than a rib God took to form Eve, it was half his body.  Then the tree - God puts in right in the middle of the garden, but forbids the eating of the fruit.  The Rabbi stated, "God had the whole garden to play with, he could have stuck the tree in a secluded corner, but he puts it right in the middle"  Then when they eat the fruit, and see they are naked, they dress in fig leaves and hide in the trees.  God asks "Where are you?" but he knows they are - they don't look like trees just because they stuck some leaves here and there.  What God means is Where are you in your development?  So, the Rabbi sees the story as a test by God to see if they are ready to leave the garden, go out in the world.  And they do, and now they have children with painful childbirth and must work hard for a living.  "The real world," as the rabbi put it.  Now isn't that interesting?  It doesn't paint the woman as conniving, the snake as evil or the man as stupidly following the woman....they just  do what they have to to leave the garden and get on with life.  Interesting and different isn't it?

The rabbi before was also a great talker, the hour and half went by so quickly.  When somebody said the word "fornication" as an answer (it was wrong), he asked "Do you want to hear a joke about fornication?" Of course, everyone said yes.  So he started, using a heavy Jewish accent, Little Moises goes to his Mother and asks "What is fornication?" She says go ask your father.  So he asks his father and his father sends him to his Grandmother.  "What is fornication?" he asks, and she smiles and says "I will show you fornication" and takes him to the closet.  She pulls out a plain house dress and holds it up before him.  This is a simple dress, just for around the house, nothing fancy.  Then she pulls out a sparkly, brightly colored dress, covered with beads and sequins.  "Now, she says, "This is a dress for an occasion."  We all laughed.  I hope I figured out this new format all right.