tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173108274185173540.post285875126685054216..comments2023-12-14T01:33:12.065-08:00Comments on The Fake's Progress: Day 10: Through the armpit of Cape CodMichael Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05514899759538419921noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173108274185173540.post-40172638755103023332009-10-13T17:18:09.641-07:002009-10-13T17:18:09.641-07:00Cape Cod still has its charm. Florida --- well, th...Cape Cod still has its charm. Florida --- well, the less said about that, the better.Michael Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05514899759538419921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173108274185173540.post-55306463115174196312009-10-12T14:39:11.521-07:002009-10-12T14:39:11.521-07:00No -- one advantage of getting old is that I remem...No -- one advantage of getting old is that I remember Cape Cod and Florida in the fifties, and they are pleasant memories indeed, and free, and I don't have to go see what they look like now.Susan Sawyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17249426819285565971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173108274185173540.post-79892578483438296222009-10-11T19:07:04.137-07:002009-10-11T19:07:04.137-07:00Yes, it's a train bridge. When it's down, ...Yes, it's a train bridge. When it's down, it's about ten feet above the water. <br /><br />Fortunately, or unfortunately, it's not down very often these days. The only train that crosses it is the Cape Code Trash Train -- a rickety repurposed passenger train that takes the Cape's bundled garbage back to the mainland, presumably to a landfill somewhere. <br /><br />One can only hope it's Hartford. <br /><br />Last year on my way home from Maine -- the first time I did this trip -- the Trash Train passed me as I was motoring west in the canal. There's a mile or so where the railbed runs right beside the canal. <br /><br />The train was all lit up, with that seductive homelike look that nocturnal trains always have. It was making a cozy taca-taca noise on the bumpy badly-maintained track, and poking along at maybe ten or twelve miles an hour. <br /><br />It was easy to imagine what one might have seen through those warmly-lit windows a few decades back -- tired Boston salarymen joining their families for a weekend on the Cape, or heading back from such a weekend to face the grind again. <br /><br />These days, what you see through the train's windows is piled bags of trash. The tired salarymen are all stuck in traffic, in their Lexuses or Escalades, on the highway bridge a mile or so to the east. <br /><br />On the train, they might have had a cocktail or two. In the Lexus, they're probably listening to the angry-white-guy talk radio that seems to dominate the airwaves in Massachusetts, and most other places in America.<br /><br />Not really a story of progress, is it?Michael Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05514899759538419921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173108274185173540.post-64246846648261636372009-10-11T16:07:25.469-07:002009-10-11T16:07:25.469-07:00It's fun to hear about the canal from the boat...It's fun to hear about the canal from the boat's point of view (or sailor's, excuse me). The near bridge in the postcard has a huge place in my early consciousness, as we spent the summer I was 5 in Dennis, which had my parents' first home town together a decade earlier, and the Cape was a place they loved deeply. <br />You can take Route 6 all the way from Grinnell, Iowa to Dennis, and maybe we did. The way that bridge worked, and the reason it was needed, was topic of conversation and fascination for all six of us for days. Weeks! (my older brothers probably remember it even better than I do.) What goes over it now? Or was it a train bridge that we just saw from afar? (I don't think so. I think we waited for it.)Susan Sawyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17249426819285565971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173108274185173540.post-4094266295251913012009-10-10T09:09:45.846-07:002009-10-10T09:09:45.846-07:00Yes, it's pretty clunky, isn't it?Yes, it's pretty clunky, isn't it?Michael Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05514899759538419921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173108274185173540.post-3632614497564538122009-10-09T23:21:02.776-07:002009-10-09T23:21:02.776-07:00(This comment system sucks.)(This comment system sucks.)Jonathan Lundellhttp://pragmatos.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8173108274185173540.post-41759402314168332292009-10-09T23:19:46.152-07:002009-10-09T23:19:46.152-07:00I love it when you talk salty. Furl the jib! Reef ...I love it when you talk salty. Furl the jib! Reef the main! Check out the furler! Call Ishmael!<br /><br />Speaking of the Cape, Wellfleet, &c, I just finished Russo's latest. Bit of a downer, but some good lines.Jonathan Lundellhttp://pragmatos.netnoreply@blogger.com