Two Weeks in Rockport MA

Kathy and I lived in Rockport MA from 1998 to 2007. We lived in a house 30 feet from the ocean, with no land between us and Norway. We lived in a neighborhood on the edge of a tourist area, and most of our neighbors had been coming there, at least in the summers, since they were children. A few of us were year-round residents. From the Forth of July until Labor Day there is a neighborhood Saturday night pot luck supper on “the green” that has been a tradition since the 1940's; there's even a diorama of one of these suppers in the history room of the Rockport library.

Both Kathy and I grew up in neighborhoods where everyone knew everyone else. In our late teens or early twenties we traded that kind of neighborhood for the semi-anonymity of suburban Boston, where we were friends with some neighbors but didn't know others. We were delighted to find that in Rockport we were back in a neighborhood that reminded each of us of our childhoods. Since 2007 we've been determined to go back to our Rockport neighborhood for at least a week (often much longer) every summer. And we've found that you can go back. The Saturday night pot lucks have been joined by the Sunday night open air movies. Almost any afternoon at 5 o'clock a few people gather on the green for a glass of a favorite beverage, some snacks, and an exchange of news.

In addition to the neighborhood social life, we were within walking distance of many of the places we needed to go to meet life's needs and desires. Large supermarkets and drugstores were beyond easy walking, but banks, the post office, art galleries, the boat club, the town hall, convenience stores, a lobster pound, a hardware store, and a train to Boston could be reached on foot. During the summer, with our bedroom windows open to the sea, we woke up to the sound of the surf, the engines (and portable radios) of the lobstermen visiting their pots, and the cries of gulls. It was, and is, a wonderful place.

In 2015 we rented a small cottage, 2 doors away from the house we had owned, for two weeks beginning on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. We were there in time for the last pot luck supper of the season, and for a Sundy night movie (The Pink Panther). The weather was mostly perfect: crystal clear skies, hot sun, air temperatures in the low 80's the first week and the high 70's the second. We had a few days with light rain toward the end of the first week; Alex spent one of them at a lecture in Cambridge and Kathy spent a whole day reading. We got to spend lots of time (although not enough) with our friends Millicent, Leslie, Ruth, Sue & Bill, Tom & Sally, Elliot & Susan, and Butch & Leenie. We ate pizza (chicken & black olive) from Delaney's with Millicent on Tuesday nights. We had lobsters from Roy Moore's several times. We saw a painting by our friend Emily on exhibit at the Rockport Art Association. We had dinner with Leslie at Jalapenos. We had a fantastic seafood chowder prepared by Ruth. And we got to visit our son Andy and his friend Melanie several times.

But perhaps the experience which will stick in my memory the longest is the evening of our second Wednesday. We sat on the porch of our cottage each provisioned with two freshly-cooked lobsters and a bottle of wine, watching the water and occasional sailboats. We saw a beautiful sunset, and quite a while later we watched the new moon set and the stars begin to come out. The air stayed warm enough for only light sweaters. We watched jets heading east, and remembered experiences on our trips to Europe. The lobsters were gone by sunset, but the wine lasted until bedtime.

Next year we'll aim for four weeks in Rockport!