Loose Leaf Notes: 13 for the Hometown

1. You know you’re having a hometown vacation when you’re riding your mother’s neighbor’s bike and someone stops you on the street to ask where the library is and you actually know.

2. I get such a boost from my sunset walks at the ocean that when I get ready to take one I tell my mother I’m going down for my Vitamin B-each shot.

3. Because my hometown is a peninsula, only about five miles long and as narrow as a road wide in some places, I can start watching the sunset from the ocean and then walk to the bay and see the rest of it.

4. Named after Hull England, Hull Massachusetts is 20 miles from Boston by car and only 5 miles by sea. The main beach is called Nantasket, named by the Wampanoag Indian Tribe and meaning "at the strait" or "low-tide place."

5. In July of 2005 I posted an excerpt from the book I wrote, The Jim and Dan Stories, about the white feather that dropped in my path while walking on Nantasket Beach after my brother Jimmy died in 2001, and one that appeared in the hospital a month later, right before my brother Danny died. Three years later I’m still getting comments on that post. See HERE.

6. Former Boston mayor John F. Fitzgerald, the father of Rose Kennedy; President Calvin Coolidge; and Joe Kennedy Sr. all summered in Hull. So did Barbara Walters.

7. Video: Boogie Board Days on Nantasket Beach with a cameo role by Jonathan Livingston Seagull HERE.

8. Watch the Nantasket Beach tsunami HERE.

9. See my 40th High School Class Reunion Picture, taken last Saturday HERE. My High School Graduation picture is HERE.

10. Judging by the letters in a shoebox on the bottom of my father’s closet (which I’m allowed to read, as the family archivist, two years after his death) he had a lot of girlfriends when he was a nineteen year old WWII soldier, including my mother.

11. The letters are written in pencil. The envelopes are stamped with 3 cent stamps. One is sealed with lipstick kisses.

12. We thought my father looked like Elvis Presley when he was young. What do you think? Look HERE.

13. The Three Musketeers of Gulldom do a BlueMan routine on Nantasket Beach HERE. Next they perform as Larry, Curly, and Moe Gull HERE.

Thursday headquarters is here. My other 13's are here. View more 13 Thursday’s here.

Comments

Great post...I need to visit your hometown I would like it since I love cities near the ocean, beach, waterfront. And you are beautiful you were 40 years ago and you still are today...wish I can look as good as you and your classmates when I celebrate my 40th in 10 years. Oops 8....lol.
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Posted by: Yasmin | August 6, 2008 11:02 PM

I think he looks like Elvis. Very handsome. Happy T13!

Posted by: Adelle Laudan | August 7, 2008 1:31 AM

Absolutely he looked like Elvis!

Posted by: Nicholas | August 7, 2008 1:40 AM

Yes, your Dad had that Elvis thing going on. I read your "white feather" piece, and commented there too.

Posted by: Imelda / GreenishLady | August 7, 2008 4:41 AM

Your dad was indeed quite handsome. Loved your TT and I'm hoping you're having a very relaxing vacation. It sounds like you are, anyway.

Posted by: CountryDew | August 7, 2008 7:23 AM

Definitely a resemblance...especially posed that way. This was an especially fun 13!

Posted by: June | August 7, 2008 7:35 AM

Nice note on Nantasket. If you are looking for more Wampanoag names for the area and what they mean, you may find the new book A Cultural History of the Native Peoples of Southern New England of interest - it has an entire section in the back with place names for the New England area, as well as a small dictionary and other references. There are more places in New England using Native names then most people know.

Posted by: Wampanoag Native American researcher | August 7, 2008 8:18 AM

Y'all sure are a cute bunch! You look like a doll-baby, and yes, he does look like Elvis Presley! Cute, cute, cute!

Posted by: Poe | August 7, 2008 9:05 AM

i love #11! happy tt

Posted by: she | August 7, 2008 9:21 AM

#6 - So did my Grandmother: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=20876447%40N00&q=nantasket&m=text

Posted by: Janet | August 7, 2008 11:19 AM

That's so cool!

Posted by: colleen | August 7, 2008 11:40 AM

Hull, Mass sounds like a wonderful place to grow up. Oh, and I agree that your daddy did look a bit like Elvis. :-)

Posted by: Dawn's Daily Life | August 7, 2008 12:24 PM

This is a delicious recollection of past, present and future. I love how you weave it all together when talking about Hometown. I don't think I'm ready to talk/write about my hometown yet. Maybe never.... ;)

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Posted by: On a limb with Claudia | August 7, 2008 2:21 PM

Thanks for your visit to my T-13 at Small Reflections earlier. I’m sorry you couldn’t see the video and don’t know what the problem is … because I’m watching it as I type this comment to you, so it seems to be working now … at least for me. Here’s the actual link to it at YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQNpEET9WqQ
I love your ‘random’ 13s … did one myself for the first time last week … totally forgot I intended to do one today. Such is life. I’m easily distracted I guess. I love #2 and 3 … often walk the block and a half to the ocean myself to watch the entire sunset here. I’ve saved the link to the ‘white feather’ post so I can read it when I’m not rushed. I missed all my HS reunions … not sure why.
Hugs and blessings,

Posted by: storyteller's 2nd blog | August 7, 2008 4:04 PM

Oh, very powerful video. I saw the movie. And Let it Be was the song we sang to my brother Dan as he was dying, so that scene was particularly poignant for me.

Posted by: colleen | August 7, 2008 4:15 PM

i always enjoy your thursday posts so much! hull sounds like a fabulous spot to vacation. lucky you - living there in your youth!

your shyness must have outweighed your beauty for you to have been afraid to bring attention to yourself as a teen. you are just so beautiful it is hard to imagine your not feeling extremely self-confident!

hope these late summer days among friends and family continue to be golden...the vacation you are having sounds magical!

Posted by: sky | August 7, 2008 4:17 PM

He is a handsome "Elvis" and probably meant more to you than any singer. I think I actually remember reading the Dear Abby, How do you get rid of freckles, because my family was there and my dad told about the time his little brother Floyd sanded his freckles off. ouch

Posted by: Lilibeth | August 7, 2008 7:45 PM

I can see Elvis.
I can also see Seth Myers. :)

Oh, so close to Boston and Provincetown. I fell in love with that whole area when I visited, as you know. I want to go back so badly and just "be" there. :)

Where I don't want to go: class reunions. lol

~S :)

Posted by: Shephard | August 7, 2008 9:35 PM

nice to get that reunion group shot. did you enjoy the reunion? it's good to get closure on whatever happened to so-and-so and see how fluidly or fixedly some people grow I bet.

sounds like a good home town place to hang out.

Posted by: Pearl | August 7, 2008 9:44 PM

Yep, I can definitely see Elvis in your Dad. He even has that loose lock of hair falling across his forehead just like Elvis.

Your Thursday Thirteen's are fun. :-)

Posted by: Beth | August 7, 2008 9:59 PM

a lot of deposits in the old memory bank-- a lot to process - all good ...

Posted by: sandy | August 8, 2008 9:09 AM

You'all are certainly related to the right people.

Posted by: Tabor | August 8, 2008 9:27 AM

This was fun. No. 10 made me smile!

Posted by: SandyCarlson | August 9, 2008 12:05 PM

You certainly live in a very beautiful part of the country...well the world actually.