-by Robert P. Barsanti- June comes with velocity. The momentum tips in March, with a few polite e-mail and a gentle phone call; “Could you find someone to paint the house?” Hidden under the calendar, the deadlines ride a dark current until the warmth of May dries out the island […]
Nantucket Essays
Watching Life Unfold
by Robert P. Barsanti When you live on Nantucket, you become so accustomed to its luxury that it becomes commonplace and invisible. The ocean breathes in the distance. The roses climb up onto the roof and then bloom. The sky glows an electric blue. You grow so familiar with the […]
Summer Education
• by Robert P. Barsanti • Education ends and begins in the spring. The high school had its graduation in the auditorium; the parents and well-wishers watched as the students moved their tassels from one side to the other and then it was done for them. They went home to […]
Washington Muse
• by Robert P. Barsanti • Deep in Nantucket High School, stared at by bored department heads or truculent students, are a series of deeply formal pictures of the graduating class of Nantucket High School. The young men wear jackets and ties, the young women have dresses, and they stare […]
Fandango
• by Robert P. Barsanti • So, I was cold. May fools and frustrates the best of us. On a bright and cloudless Saturday afternoon, when the Red Sox were hitting home runs out of Fenway and the Figawi sailboats zipped before the wind on their way over from Hyannis, […]
Remembering Who Earned This
• by Robert P. Barsanti • This year, Boxed Water is the new thing. On Sunday morning, the beautiful ones drifted down to the ferries wearing Vineyard Vines, loafers, sunglasses, and carrying white and black boxes of Boxed Water. They swirled it, sipped it, set it back on the tables, […]
Patterns in the Fog
by Robert P. Barsanti One of the pleasures of attending a baseball game at Nantucket High School comes from watching the sea fog slowly creep down the harbor. From the sunny comforts of the first base stands, the runner takes his lead off first, the right fielder looks in for […]
Yards of Spring
• by Robert P. Barsanti • Winter leaves like a tenant. One morning you wake up, and he is gone. The trash remains, as well as the broken windows, punch holes in the walls, and a plumbing challenge in the upstairs bathroom. The miscreants themselves have slipped away at dawn […]
Nantucket Winters
• by Robert P. Barsanti • On Friday at four, A contractor and I stood on the rear deck of the Gray Lady Two as it popped into its high gear, sprouted a rooster tail, and zipped over the swells. The long swells marched slowly in from the northeast. We […]