The Lighthouse Keeper
BY DANIEL W. DRAKE

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER


The calendar says it is the middle of

July. In some respects the calendar is right, but in some respects it seems very wrong.

All the fog of the last couple of weeks is pretty typical in Nantucket at the end of June and through July. Perhaps, in the last couple of days, the fogbanks have been a bit thicker than we have been used to and have been more persistent in shrouding the island throughout the day, but that, too, is a mark of Nantucket’s July. When it’s hot on the mainland, Nantucket revels in its natural air-conditioning, in which the fog plays a big part.

It’s also normal in July for clothes in closets and drawers to begin to feel the effects of the dampness. Garments which have been unused for a few weeks or months become damp and musty. Shoes develop a certain unpleasant patina.

Closet and cabinet doors swell. One cupboard door in our house, made of maple, increases its length by almost one-half inch as the dampness sets in, so that it fits snuggly in July rather than totally missing its catch as it does by the end of the winter dry season.

In typical July fashion, there are people in the streets and on the sidewalk. There is traffic on the roads. The jams of cars around the Steamboat Wharf at midday are in their finest July form. The usual chorus of “The traffic is worse than ever, ” uttered in harmony, is common to most social intercourse.

Drivers have taken on their mid-summer mien. Many are polite and cheerily cede the right of way, waving on others although they may have been waiting much longer in that particular crush of traffic. Most who are granted first access graciously acknowledge the favor with a smile or a wave.

There also are those who approach a traffic conflict with a sense of divine purpose. If faced with a stop sign they slow down, and maybe pause instantaneously, before inserting their vehicle into the oncoming flow of traffic, regardless of the fact that if they let one car go by the way will be clear. The taxi drivers practice this maneuver all winter.

If granted the right of way from a side street or in a narrow passage, these drivers look straight ahead and glare at their hood ornament. Courtesy is left at home.

The benefit and party circuit is booming. If one has the time, inclination and/or wherewithal, one could spend ten nights a week attending various bashes.

No matter that the hors d’oeuvres and some of the faces tend to become a bit repetitive. It’s July in Nantucket.

If it’s so July, why isn’t it July? Well, for one thing go to the beach anywhere along the south shore. There are people there, but the crowds are not July crowds.

Have you been in the water? Well then you know it isn’t July water. It is very, very cold; seemingly more like the end of May or early June.On Sunday, very few people even got their feet wet and the number who went swimming could be counted on the fingers of one hand. That’s not July.

One hears that the high end restaurants are doing well this season, but walking by the patio of one establishment that might be termed “mid-range” there are hardly any patrons. Many bed and breakfasts have a lot of unused beds. That’s not July.

Parenthetically, this raises, again, the question of whether the reason for the apparent softness in business is the weather, or whether it is something of more lasting impact such as the price point of a Nantucket vacation becoming too much for those who want to spend a few days in a B&B, eat well but modestly and generally enjoy the pleasures Nantucket has to offer without taking out a loan. Since 9/11, the drivers of tourism have been in something of an enigma, but there appear to be signs that Nantucket risks going the way of Bermuda in pricing out its bread-and-butter tourist trade.

The summer is supposed to be quiet on the political front as well. July is a time for political hibernation.

But that is not the case this year.

The NP&EDC continues with its shenanigans. Last week it was termed “dysfunctional.” That seems like high praise. It has been suggested, for a whole variety of reasons, that this column devote some space to the workings of the Planning Board and the NP&EDC.

Having in mind the Winston Churchill statement “I have nothing to hide.” when Franklin Roosevelt found him bouncing on a White House bed in the all-together, a better idea is to force all the members of these August groups to go to the beach, to undress in front of each other and the assembled crowd, and then spend five minutes paddling in the non-July water. If that doesn’t cure them of their pettiness and animosity, then they are beyond redemption and it probably isn’t worth spending any time on them.

On another front, ’Sconset appears to have broken out of its Brigadoon cocoon with the realization that it is being had with respect to who is paying the costs of its new sewage treatment plant. When the plant was authorized several years ago at Town Meeting, it was with the understanding that the cost would be borne by the taxpayers of Nantucket. With the completion of the plant and the implementation of the permanent financing to pay for it, there apparently is an opportunity to rethink who will bear the cost.

The recent discussions about the funding of the new Surfside wastewater treatment plant also brought back into focus the payment scheme for the ’Sconset plant. In the context of the outcome of the debate on the Surfside plant Town Administration has proposed a plan to the Sewer Commissioners whereby all of the costs of their new plant would be borne by the inhabitants of the ’Sconset sewer district, including new users, rather than by the taxpayers island-wide. This issue has galvanized ’Sconset like nothing since – well, since ever. It is definitely not July in the usually bucolic village.

The fog, the dampness, the people, the traffic and the social whirl all point to the fact that it is July. But there are enough signs that it is not to make us wonder whether we are all in a bit of a Rip Van Winkle mode. Will we wake up in a week or so to find ourselves in the middle of November?

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The “Lighthouse Keeper” reflects the views of the author and does not represent the editorial position of The Nantucket Independent. Please send any comments to drake@nantucketindependent.com.

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