Nantucket Voices

Nantucket surfcasting story
An Island Point of View, Nantucket Voices

“Bad Luck Billy”

“I don’t do a lot of beach fishing. I’m a boat fisherman. And I never fish at night. You guys do this all the time.” My brother Billy seemed a bit nervous as I drove him and Dale Gary to Pocomo Point to fish the incoming tide in mid-September of 2020. Night fishing does require a different skill set, no doubt. It’s important to fish by feel. Generally, the targeted species is striped bass, the most nocturnal of the fish hanging around Nantucket. And yes, Dale and I do fish a lot at night together. Quite a bit. Both of us could pretty much cast and retrieve while blindfolded.

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Nantucket Essays, Nantucket Voices

Where Legends Are Born

I bet you all remember where you were the evening of Sunday, February 5, 2017. Our beloved New England Patriots were once again playing in the Super Bowl, this time facing a juggernaut Atlanta Falcons team. And the Patriots were getting worked—down 28 to 3 in the fourth quarter. Everyone on the Atlanta team box was ready to pop the champagne corks. Everyone except for one guy, that is: Scott Pioli (now a Nantucket resident) was the Assistant General Manager of the Falcons at that time. He had been a significant cog in the development of the New England Patriots dynasty, serving in the player personnel department from 2000-2008. Thus, he knew all about a guy named Tom Brady. Pioli was quoted by Mike Kadlick of WEEI – Boston as he remembered that game: “All the folks I’m working with, they’re high-fiving. It’s, you know, out of control. But I was a mess. I felt this nervousness.”

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One Crazy Summer…
Nantucket Essays, Nantucket Voices

One Crazy Summer

Wow, what a week. What an absolutely crazy, bizarre week. Truth be told, this entire summer has been a lot of crazy. Wind turbine blades, beach closures, seals snapping fishing rods, astounding traffic congestion, supermarket refrigeration failures, supermarket deli meat recalls, supermarket payment system snafus, supermarket prices, gas prices…yeah, a wonderful conflagration burning up the Nantucket summer. Could it be that we’ve almost survived (oh, I hate myself a little for what’s about to happen here) One Crazy Summer?

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Nantucket Essays, Nantucket Voices

Revenge of the Goonies

It seems that Hollywood is incapable of an original thought these days. A quick review of the new movies out in theaters right now shows that the majority of new releases are, well, recycled. For example, a new Aliens movie has just been released. The original came out in 1979, the year I graduated high school. Aside from the fact that the once perky Sigourney Weaver would now most likely be using a walker to escape from the slimy alien, I’m thinking that 45 or so years would have been plenty of time to conjure up some new concepts.

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An Island Point of View, Nantucket Essays, Nantucket Voices

The Regulars

They said that they were never coming back.

Again.

For thirty-eight years running.

They had their reasons. They weren’t rich. They told everyone that. They brought air mattresses for the kids, five frozen meals in a cooler, and a full tank of gas. The bikes were tied onto the car, the sleeping bags stored in roof carrier, and everything else packed around the kids. (Tim, your feet are going to be on the Hibachi).

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Nantucket Voices

The “Cheese Touch”

One of my favorite books to read with my daughters way back in once upon a time land was Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Greg Heffley. The Wimpy Kid books are laugh-out-loud funny and completely relatable. The first book in the series introduced me to the dreaded “Cheese Touch,” a curse of sorts that is to be avoided at all costs. I fully understood that the cheese touch exists in reality. Sometimes the dice go cold. Sometimes they simply freeze up, even in a hot August on our beautiful island of Nantucket.

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Nantucket Voices

British Invasion

Now don’t let the history books fool you: the real British Invasion happened in the early 1960s, and there was nary a Redcoat to be found. The American music scene had been floating along with mediocre pop music for quite long enough, thank you. Exactly how much Fabian and Bobby Vinton can one nation stand, right? So the stars were aligned for a quantum shift. And here came the Beatles, just in time to fill that vacuum which nature abhors. The flood gates opened, the American population went gaga for everything British, and things were never the same.

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