The Last Gasp of Summer

Sconset Traffic, Elvis is Back, Irish Poets, Beauty of Boats, Corky Laing Returns

The sun rose at 5:49 this morning and will set at 7:40 this evening. We now have less than 14 hours of daylight. The long, lazy days of August, are slowly giving way to autumn.

The Beauty of Big Dogs

We’ve had some pretty glorious days of beach weather recently, and I’ve been taking full advantage, hitting the north shore by 10:30 a.m. and leaving by 1 p.m. before the crowds of families begin to arrive. Almost always it’s just me, my beach chair, towel and book. But this week was different.

I’m not a fan of dogs on the beach, for a variety of reasons. There’s the health aspect and also the annoyance factor of dogs running around and whipping up sprays of sand. But every now and then I encounter a dog and responsible dog owner that changes my mind for the better.

Such was the case earlier this week, when I met Duke, a five-year-old Golden Retriever who was so beautiful and well-mannered that I didn’t mind when he ran over my towel to jump in the water, or shook off the remnants of the ocean all over me when he exited. When he decided to lie down on the beach nearby, I took it as a sign that it was time to get another dog soon – maybe a Golden Retriever.

I’d gotten my first Golden my freshman year in college. By the time I returned home from the University of Denver at the end of my first year and got off the plane with my new puppy, Sasha, I was hooked on Goldens. They are so beautiful, friendly and lovable. How can one not love them?

Sasha lived to be 14, and after he died we got another golden, Prairie, followed by another golden, Rosie. But the streak was broken with our last dog, Ella, a wonderful black lab. Ella was the best. She left us four years ago, and we’ve been dog-less ever since. My beach encounter with Duke made me start thinking about how wonderful it would be to have a dog again.

Too Many People Even Sconset

Last week I took a drive out to Sconset to get a sandwich from Claudette’s. I’ve always found in summers past that a drive to the east end of the island is a nice escape from the madness in town, even in August. But not this year.

I was shocked to see cars parked on the grassy shoulders on both sides of Main Street leading into the village. I’ve never seen this before. It struck me as an affront to civility and a desecration of what Sconset is supposed to represent: Serenity and a grace note on our ever-changing island. When did things change out here?

I drove around a bit, and finding no parking anywhere, I headed back home. I felt a little guilty for pointing people towards Claudette’s in my last issue of Near and Afar, which was my Best of Nantucket edition. I fear my recommendation may add to an already bad parking situation in the village.

Traffic is indeed a big problem all over the island this summer, and I don’t see our town government addressing it in any way, shape or form.

A Stop & Shop employee who lives out near the airport told me that in the off season it takes him 5-6 minutes to get to work. This time of year, it’s 35-40 minutes. I was coming from the airport on a non-beach day last week and it took me 65 minutes to get from Old South Road to my home in the mid-island.

It is unrealistic to expect that our little island would remain frozen in time forever. But those of us who’ve been here for decades, or our whole lives, miss the Nantucket of old. As one friend, who’s been summering here for over 40 years said, the flavor of the island has changed.

Don’t Miss Out

We are in the last gasp of summer. The Pops has come and gone, and this weekend is the Boys & Girls Club Summer Groove and the Opera House Cup. The latter signifies the end of summer to me. The weather begins to change and the people begin leaving in increasingly larger numbers. It’s time.

We’ve been exhausted by the sheer volume of the crowds on our island this summer. Nantucket was never meant to sustain this many people. It’s been way too much. As we wrap up the season, there are a few events I’ll point you to in the next seven days that you won’t want to miss.

THEATRE: Legends of the Fifties, through Aug. 23

The Theatre Workshop is producing one of its best musicals with Million Dollar Quartet, playing at Bennett Hall through August 23. If you are a fan of 50’s rock and roll you will likely enjoy this evening of music featuring musicians appearing as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, who gathered together for an impromptu jam sessions in 1956 at Sun Records. A true story. The actors/musicians are phenomenal, and I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed a non-Broadway performance of musical theatre as much as I loved this. Click here for tickets. https://www.theatrenantucket.org/shows-tickets/show/million-dollar-quartet

FILM: The Beauty of Sail, The Power of Poetry, Aug. 16

If you’re a fan of the documentaries of island filmmaker John Stanton (Last Call, The Last Bay Scallop?) you will enjoy seeing a preview of his newest film. It is a work-in-progress about Northern Irish poets and their responses, through their art, to the 30 years of terror in Northern Ireland known as The Troubles, as well as the trauma and echoes of the war that remain today.

“Today in Belfast we still have walls,” says the late, great poet Michael Longley, in the film, “but poetry is like an x-ray that sees through the walls to the other side.”

They Murdered the Ice Cream Man – the title comes from one of Longley’s poems – is the name of that film. Stanton, who in full disclosure in also my husband, has been working on this film for over a decade and and has been able to put together an extraordinary team based in Belfast. He expects to bring the film to audiences on both sides of the Atlantic in the summer of 2026.

Following the 10-minute sneak preview and a Q&A with the filmmaker, stick around for Wood, Sails, Dreams, his iconic 2013 film about the beauty of boats made from trees and powered by the wind. The film includes interviews with boat builders and restorers who were instrumental in the resurgence of wooden sailboats.

It takes audiences from Nantucket to the Vineyard; Newport and Bristol, RI, to Brooklin, Maine, and includes gorgeous footage of sailboats from the Opera House Cup shot by cinematographer Danny Driscoll.

Archival clips of OHC founder Gwen Gaillard and Chick Walsh and interviews with some of the people involved in the early days of the OHC make this a sentimental favorite, shown on the eve of this year ’s Opera House Cup.

6 p.m., Saturday, August 16 in the Studio Theatre of Dreamland. Click here for tickets https://www.nantucketdreamland.org/events/film-for-thought-wood-sails-dreams-with-preview-of-new-film-qa-with-director-to-follow

ROCK ’N ROLL: Mountain Redux, Aug. 21

There was a time, 50 years ago, when Nantucket was a very different place. It had an innocence and openness that allowed people to be who they were and perhaps because of that the island was an incubator of creativity. I first met Corky Laing, the drummer for Mountain, in 1973, when the band was on the rise and several of the bandmates including Felix Pappalardi, Laing, David Perry and tour manager Nick Ferrantella were all living on the island when they weren’t touring.

I knew Corky from taking care of the horses he and his wife Francie owned in the little stable next to their house on Marble Way. Bucky was a sturdy buckskin and was Corky’s horse. Francie owned a chestnut mare, Pumpkin, that appeared to be part Arabian.

Corky kept his Nantucket home until 1992, long after Mountain broke up following the death of Felix Pappalardi, shot by his wife Gail in their New York City apartment. Corky stayed in the music life, playing with a variety of other musicians, but always returned to the island.

Now living in Finland, at the age of 70-something, he’s still playing music and touring around Europe. He returns to the island next week for a one-night rock revue featuring local musicians, playing the music of Mountain and other rock favorites.

7 p.m., Thursday, August 21 in the main theatre of The Dreamland. Click here for tickets https://www.nantucketdreamland.org/events/dreamland-concert-series-corky-laings-rock-revue-celebrating-the-music-of-mountain-peter-frampton-more