Reads Poems

Family

I grew up in the midst of 50 or so first cousins dristributed between the families of my mother (Conlin) and father. Two of my mother's seven sisters became nuns the others married men named: Conlin women married men named Bennett, Crawford, Heintz, McCabe, and Walsh; my father's two sisters married men named Hall and Barry!

Marconi Station, Cape Cod National Seashore, August 2020

It was sixty years ago that I first saw the cliffs near Truro, in the time before the Cape Cod National Seashore was instituted. Marconi Station is a must see for anybody visiting Cape Cod. No crowds, mind-blowing vistas, dunes, birds, seals… It’s always good to think thrifty; there are 3 “Marconi” places – administration, beach, and station. Crowds of people headed for the beach @ $25/car! The station, where I saw 2-3 dozen visitors all afternoon, is free, and is 100-200 feet above the shore!

I have a recollection of descending the dunes in 1960 in five or six giant leaps and tumbles. This time, I went to the edge, saw where people do descend, but stayed put! In fact, I got the same feeling I’ve felt at Glacier Point in Yosemite, and at Wheeler Peak near Taos, and while walking the Brooklyn Bridge. Must be some sticky-memory hormone released by that feeling at the intersection of dare/fear.