Nantucket Essays

Nantucket Beaches
Nantucket Essays, Nantucket Events

Change

~ by Robert P. Barsanti ~ Everything changes. The island changes every summer with every new season of visitors. The shop owners stand at their doors and wait to see who walks in and who walks by. Is this the summer for towers of oysters and cherrystones? Is this the […]

Nantucket Essays

In the Season of Small Dogs

~ by Robert P. Barsanti ~ When the nail gun starts next door at seven in the morning, my boon companion starts barking. The workers bang six nails into the dawn, and he barks them out as best he can. Standing in my underwear at the kitchen sink, I scratch […]

Nantucket Essays

Leaving the Crowds Behind

~ by Robert P. Barsanti ~ I think we forget how little land Nantucket actually has. If you nibble the sandy, pointy ends off, the island stretches barely fifteen miles across and four miles. Further, the island’s streets, sidewalks, and stores aren’t designed for the 60,000 people that move into […]

Nantucket Essays

Better Angels

~ by Robert P. Barsanti ~ A friend of mine was pawing through the bike rack at Jetties Beach. Her son’s bike (a black and silver Trek) had been taken from the rack a few evenings previous and she was searching the racks in the hopes that it had been […]

Nantucket Essays

It’s a Small Island

~ by Robert P. Barsanti ~ The ocean has bestowed some special gifts on Fisherman’s Beach this summer. Sometime over the spring, the currents off shore shifted and built up a flat, gently sloping beach. So, in July, you can walk out thirty yards into the water and still be […]

Strawberry Shortcake
Nantucket Essays

In the Age of Strawberries

by Robert P. Barsanti We celebrated the beginning of summer with picking two quarts of strawberries. Two quarts of strawberries, bought at the market, have a certain capitalistic balance. Someone measured how many strawberries could go into the box so that you could feel like you were getting a good […]

Nantucket Essays

Golf in the Kingdom

-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 […]