JUNE 11, 2020
During the fall of my graduation year (1977), Jim my soon to be fiancé, entered a two-year M.PL. (Masters in Urban Planning Development) program at Queens. He had been accepted to many programs but this one allowed him to study in the Law School and the Engineering School, and have a teaching spot to pay the bills. It also meant that we could live in the same city. We married mid-way through his program on September 2nd1978 just before Jim headed back to school.
Janice and Jim. I made my wedding dress, floor length with slight train, fitted bodice and flared skirt, round neckline with narrow self binding, front and back yokes, princess seaming, full length sleeves, gathered into narrow bias binding, satin ribbon for tie belt
For our honeymoon, a touring/camping trip in a 1966 red Rambler, a first time visit to Cape Cod was our destination but on the way we stopped at Lake Placid, New York and Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe Vermont. I saw The Sound of Music film with my grandparents when it first opened in Canada. My parents had been to Stowe to ski and brought me back a souvenir T-shirt that just said STOWE in green letters across the front. I wore it all the time. So we were curious to see the place for ourselves.
The highlight was our stay in Provincetown. We joined the crew of the Schooner Hindu for a sail across Provincetown Harbour and into Cape Cod Bay.
We were in shorts and T-shirts. It was a warm day at the harbour on September sixth but we wondered if we would find it too cold once on the ocean. The crew was busy preparing to set sail. They were all in summer clothes so we thought we might be okay. Shortly after we were into the bay, the wind came up, the sky went dark, and it looked liked rain. The crew quickly went down below and suited up in foul-weather gear. They had to sail the boat. All we had to do was sit there, and freeze; there wasn’t anywhere else to go.
Pepe’s Wharf had “the best seafood in all New England”, so they said. It was the place to see the crowds and the ferry that sailed between Provincetown and Boston.
Lobster with sky-high prices was available all over town. I grew up in Halifax for my early years and even though mother was from Prince Edward Island, I had never had lobster. Jim grew up in Ottawa and was not sure if he would enjoy it. We could not afford to order something we might not like. We decided to order a lobster roll to share as a starter, followed with burgers and cole slaw. Once we tucked into our lunch we immediately realized; should’ve gone for the whole lobster!
Commercial Street was a great place for window-shopping. I forgot about a sign in one of the windows for silk sheets at a good price. I wanted to go back to look for the store. So we re-traced our steps and after some searching found the right store and opened the door. Jim was more about approaching the salesclerk and getting the shopping done. I was smitten with the wide plank floors, the dark wood walls and the window at the back with an ocean view. There were wood plinths. I thought it was for jewelry on display under glass. But I could not quite understand what the objects were. I glanced at leather briefs, skull faces and chokers displayed on the walls. After some discussion the clerk said I had misread the sign. The sign said silk shorts, for men. At eighty dollars a pair, we made our excuses and rushed out the door.
Thirty-five years later, when we were wintering in Key West, Florida, we discovered The Hindu wintering at the Historic Seaport. It was a working gig for her, karma for us. A revisit was a must.