Provincetown Digs Out After Historic Blizzard of 2015

Cape Cod took a real pounding by the tremendous "winter hurricane" that swept the New England
shoreline. This Wellfleet photo by Eric Williams, Cape Cod Times, depicts a "mother-in-law rescue."
It tells the story of towns all over the cape, dealing with extreme drifts, and mounds of plowed snow.

With the tremendous drifts of four and five feet and more around town, it's pretty hard to say how much snow we really got. The Ice House condos, on the edge of the harbor, at Howland Street, had no snow at all in their parking lot, with the crushed shell surface clearly visible. That's because all the snow blew up onto the patios and formed chest-high drifts, while the same thing inexplicably happened on the street side of the building as well, leaving residents unable to open the front or back doors to the building. They had to wait for someone to come and shovel them out, as did thousands cape wide.
In the meantime, they were waiting for the power to come back on, along with about 97% of Provincetown residents whose electricity had gone out during the storm. Nantucket also lost power all across the island, and outages were reported in other towns as well. Provincetown's power began coming back on within about 11 hours, and most of the town's electricity seemed to have been restored relatively quickly, given the severe winds of this very powerful storm, which may turn out to be one for the books.
I've been all over the internet trying to find an exact snow total for Provincetown in the "Blizzard of 2015," but "total unavailable" is all I can find. We do know that snowfall from this fierce storm broke a record or two in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with Worcester reaching its all-time deepest at 34.5 inches, although Auburn beat them with a depth of 36 inches, which was less than a record for them.
Blowing and drifting snows in the coastal areas are much harder to measure than depths in towns farther inland. Most people in Provincetown seem to be estimating up to two feet or so, which was the official overall total registered on most of Cape Cod. The devil is in the tremendous drifts whipped up by winds that officially gusted to 69 miles per hour here at the Cape's tip. I spoke to a dispatcher at the Provincetown Police Department who gave the opinion of a foot-and-a-half, but even at that, many of us are still digging out through several feet of drifted snow.

Elsewhere around the state…
• The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth ceased operations when their main transmission lines went out, with no damage to the facility, so safety wasn't an issue.
• At least two "blizzard babies" were born during the storm. One was in Loeminster, where State Police rescued a woman whose car had become disabled just as she went into labor. The other was a baby born under lights powered by generators when power went out at Nantucket Cottage Hospital, as it did all over the island.
• Scituate, on the shoreline between Plymouth and Boston, suffered severe flooding, as evidenced by an 80 foot section of seawall that washed away during the storm, and photos of countless cars under water there.

Please be careful, and pace yourself if you're shoveling out, which is a very strenuous activity. If you are not able to do your own shoveling, don't be afraid to call a neighbor for help. And if you've shoveled your own walk, you might continue a bit farther, and help out someone not as hardy. That's what life in Provincetown is all about.
Be sure to shovel snow away from your tail pipe if you are digging out your car, to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning when you fire it up. Exhaust vents from your home heating system may need to be dug out as well, for the same reason. And if you live near a fire hydrant, and are able, please shovel out the hydrant.
It will likely take a few days to plow all the streets, and police are asking folks who don't need to be outside to stay indoors, so town crews and others can plow streets and lots more easily and safely. If you are still without power or have another serious situation, you can call the Provincetown Police Department for help or advice.
If you have a story to tell about your blizzard experience, click the comments link at the bottom of this article to share your tale, or e-mail theyearrounder@wildglobe.com with stories and photos from the storm, and I'll happily post them.

Winter Brings PTown Lunch Specials

"Bubbles" fish fry is likely to sell out, so get there early.

"Bubbles" fish fry is the lunch special served every Friday of the winter at the Governor Bradford. It's quite a generous serving of fish, with lemon, tartar sauce,
a little coleslaw and very good fries, and it comes with a soft drink. This lunch will set you back a mere $7.50, just like all their lunch specials, offered Monday through Friday all winter long.
You'll want to get there early for the fish fry, or on days when some of the other Townie Favorites are on the menu, which changes frequently, except for Fridays. That's always fish fry day, routinely selling out, as do some of the others. When I called recently to see what that day's lunch special was, the roast pork had already sold out, which was even more disappointing for me since it's one of my favorites, and I haven't seen it roll around on the menu for a while.
Look for the sign in the window for the weekly menu, which changes often. It recently included a Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich on a Monday, and their meatloaf with potatoes and vegetables on Thursday that week. Last week they offered a chicken enchilada, and their lasagna is always very popular. But even when the special has sold out, their regular lunch menu is still being served. They make a decent burger, for example, always cooked just the way I ordered it, and again, the fries are very good.
So watch the sign for changing daily specials and see what strikes you, or go early for the fish on a Friday for a great lunch bargain. The Governor Bradford is open for lunch year-round, found at the corner of Commercial and Standish Streets.

1940 Provincetown Chamber of Commerce Brochure

Provincetown Chamber of
Commerce pamphlet, c. 1940

Provincetown has had more than 15 Town Criers in all, beginning at least by 1854, with some of them "crying" the news of the day for 20 years or more. This brochure showing a town crier in action was a promotion put out by the Provincetown Chamber of Commerce around 75 years ago. The fellow on this brochure, in his "colonial" costume, looks like Frank Andrews, a well-known and experienced actor who lasted only one season in the job, that being the summer of 1940. That is most likely the year this bit of advertising was published.
Besides luring visitors to meet our Town Crier, this folksy pamphlet featured a brief story about the oldest house in town. It also had a page advertising food and lodging at the Provincetown Inn, as well as one promoting sailing on The Boston Belle, a luxury liner with deck chairs, and room for some 3,000 passengers, with daily voyages to Provincetown in the summertime.
The early "criers" strolled along Provincetown's streets ringing a handheld bell, proclaiming the news of the day and announcing upcoming events. They all wore clothing of their day as well, rather than the "pilgrim" garb shown here. (You know, the pilgrims didn't actually wear clothes like this, either, but then that's a story for another day…)
Town Criers of the 1800s and the early 1900s typically wore a jacket with a hat and a tie, except for George W. Ready, who sported his own well-worn clothing and hat, and a neckerchief tied snappily beneath his chin. It wasn't until the 1930s that these criers were outfitted in knee breeches and capes, with buckled belts, hats and shoes, and were then expected to act more as performers for summer visitors rather than as the disseminators of actual news for the town.
"Professor" G. W. Ready, by the way, was one of the most colorful among decades of Town Criers, holding his office for many years. Watch for articles I'll be writing about him, and a number of these lively characters, in upcoming posts.

DON'T Feed the Animals?

This sign, on the way into Herring Cove Beach, asks us not to feed the wild animals we might meet there, which runs contrary to the way we might think.
We're especially inclined to want to look after some of Mother Nature's creatures in the wintertime, and our recent spate of bitter cold weather has made us even more conscious of our furred and feathered friends. But we're asked not to feed the animals for good reason…
It's best for the animals, and for us, that they maintain their natural fear of humans. When animals begin to lose their fears and get used to approaching humans for something to eat, they can grow dependent on that source of food, even when their natural sources of nourishment might be abundant. And there goes the balance of nature.
Are there any of us who haven't heard a coyote howling at the end of the road, or noticed a tremendous increase in the number of fox wandering the streets of Provincetown at night? These sounds and sightings used to be rare, and then they began to be fairly common in the middle of the night. Next, these animals began regularly appearing in our neighborhoods earlier, around the time we might be letting pets out one last time before going to bed. And soon it became common the see a fox, for example, looking for food, trotting from one yard to the next in the hours just after dark.
A couple of months ago, driving the short distance down Alden Street, I stopped to watch a fox casually crossing the road just ahead of me. He was sort of strolling from one yard to the next, in no hurry to get out of sight as he crossed in front of my headlights. Not 30 seconds later, just a few houses down, I was astonished to see a pair of fox amble across the road, again just ahead of me, and again unafraid of myself, nor the oncoming car.
What the fox!?!
Last week, in broad daylight, I stopped for a huge blonde fox crossing Bradford Street near Harbor Hill condos around 3 PM. He sauntered up a little hill to a small deck where he reared up on his hind legs and stuck his head between the bannisters surrounding that little porch near the doorway rather than walking up onto it, and began lapping up something he found there. I couldn't quite see what it was, but it seemed like perhaps a bowl of food or water that had been set out for him. He was there for several minutes, helping himself, and it seemed like this particular spot might be a regular stop on his daily route around the town.
A couple of days later, and just a couple of blocks from this spot, I stopped for a pair of fox meandering across Bradford Street near Winthrop, again unconcerned about being spotted or accosted by humans, and again around 3 PM, well before dark. They seemed fearless, with no qualms about being easily seen by humans, and no compunction about gobbling up food meant for pets, if that's what they were up to. Or are people now leaving out food for wild animals? That could prove disastrous for both them and us.
When wild animals get used to feeding at the hands of humans and lose their natural fears, they can become ever bolder, and eventually downright aggressive. We've already lost a number of pets to coyotes, certainly, and maybe to a few fox as well. And these animals can bring fleas, ticks and a number of diseases into town with them, which will eventually affect our pets. We can't invite wildlife to become citizens of PTown.
It's illegal to feed the animals in the Cape Cod National Seashore, for good reason, and we shouldn't feed them in town, either. Animals that become a threat must be euthanized, and no one wants that. If you're feeding wild animals, please stop. They will live their best lives if they live in that gorgeous, natural world that surrounds Provincetown, eating their own, natural foods.

Warm Weather for the Holidays Brought Lots of Folks to Herring Cove Beach

Peering over the asphalt embankment along Herring Cove,
I found many on the beach for a bit of recreation this day.

The warmest holiday season in recent memory brought visitors and Townies in great numbers to PTown beaches. Herring Cove seemed quite busy despite a persistent breeze on those unusually warm, sunny days between Christmas, New Year's, and the following weekend.
The temperature on the day after Christmas was in the mid-forties, with a fairly constant westerly breeze occasionally gusting to about 20 miles an hour. So the feeling was a bit brisk, but not daunting. That day was so lovely that there was a steady stream of people coming out to the beach all afternoon, enjoying this rare, warm, glorious weather.
In this photo some folks are simply strolling the northern end of Herring Cove, some are taking photos, some are climbing the tiny hillocks that ring the shoreline, while others are actively looking for treasures washed up onto the beach by that day's considerable surf and swash.
My personal favorites this day are right in the center of this photo: the terrier in mid air, jumping for the Frisbee, as his companion prepares, yet again, to fling it down the beach.

Enjoy Pilgrim Monument Holiday Lights Before They're Gone

Holiday lights on the Pilgrim Monument take on a
pinkish glow as the last of the sunset fades into twilight.

Folks say that on a good, clear night, you can see the lights of the Pilgrim Monument all the way from Boston, about 54 miles across open water, clear across Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay.
I can't swear to it, because I've never been on the shoreline of Boston for the holiday season. Maybe a reader in Boston could tell me. I do know that many people have said it is so, and it seems plausible…
We've got just a couple of days left to enjoy the sight of the Monument in strings of lights for the holidays, with more than 3,100 white lights glowing bright each night until Tuesday, the 6th of January. That's when these luminous strands will be turned off for the season, and a spotlight will once again light the Monument from below.

Here are a few of my favorite spots for a great view or photo of the Monument:
•Near the southwest corner of Commercial and Ryder Streets, in just the right spot, you can capture the view without the power lines in your way.
•On Commercial Street, between The Red Store, The Canteen, and Seamens Bank, again, step around just a bit till you find the right spot to avoid having all of those power lines in your photo. You'll have the top of the Monument, the clock tower on Town Hall and the bell tower on the U.U. Church in your view.
•On Jerome Smith Road, just east of Winslow Street.
•Next to the little chapel at the top of the big hill in the cemetery.
•About halfway down Cemetery Road, all the power lines and wires disappear.
•On the far, far east end of Commercial Street (Route 6A) near Snail Road. The view from just in front of Bay Colony condos shows the lights of the Monument reflecting on Provincetown Harbor on a calm night.
•On Beach Point, in North Truro. The beachfront at condos and motels along Shore Road (Rout 6A) gives a nice, distant view of the Monument across Provincetown Harbor. Days' Cottages, for example, are closed for the winter, and at this time of year you can get away with parking there for a few minutes and stepping between the cottages for the view of Provincetown's shoreline.
Find yourself a spot and take a few moments to enjoy this Provincetown holiday tradition before it disappears for the season.

TheYearRounder Reaches 100,000th Page View on New Year's Day, 2015!

This photo captures my mood today, showing the fireworks
bursting above that red moon rising over Provincetown Harbor
during the Fourth of July, 2012 celebration.

Early this morning the pages of this blog got their 100,000th viewing. Someone, somewhere in the world, clicked onto one of these pages to check out my blog, and kicked my number of page views into six figures, and by 2:35 PM, the number has reached 100,174!
I want to thank all of you, especially those who read my blog frequently, for taking the time to view these pages and see what I think is so special about Provincetown.
This year it will be 27 years since I moved to this remarkable, absolutely amazing little corner of the world, and I am still dumbstruck several times each week as I look around myself and see the beauty that unfolds here every single day, and feel the warmth of a community where the people genuinely do care for one another.
Wherever you might be, we all share a certain delight in all of the things that go to make Provincetown the unique place that it is for each one of us. I can't imagine living anywhere else in the world.
I wish you all joy, good fortune and the best of health as we venture into the New Year, and the time to spend basking in this gorgeous, wondrous place we all love so much.
May we each be happy as the proverbial clam in 2015!

Ilona Shines in 'Advanced Style'

Ilona Royce Smithkin, a Provincetown treasure, appears in Advanced Style, a delightful documentary
about fashion, style and spirit among women who are turning heads even as they are turning older.

Provincetown's own Ilona Royce Smithkin, at the age of 94, charms the audience as she shares the screen with a number of other stunning women of a certain age, each creating their own fabulous look and sense of style, despite their advancing years. This upbeat documentary is the feature film debut of Lina Plioplyte, who one day discovered the blog Advanced Style by fashion enthusiast Ari Seth Cohen, and she became intrigued by the attitudes of the women she found in Cohen's photographs. The film debuted this past September and was screened in PTown several times during Women's Week.
Cohen's blog had taken shape when he began noticing stylishly dressed older women on the streets of New York City, and began photographing their spirited use of colors, hats, shapes and all sorts of accessories, each one creating an absolutely unique style for herself. He wanted to share his photos and show the individuality and self-confidence these women were exhibiting as they dressed exactly as they pleased, regardless of anyone else's opinions, and as he asked permission to take their photos, friendships began to form with a number of these very independent doyennes of style.
One of these women is Ilona, who divides her time between her Provincetown and New York apartments, spending her summers swimming in Provincetown Harbor and enjoying the view and the sea breeze from the balcony of her third floor, water front Commercial Street apartment in the East End, in the heart of Provincetown's Gallery District. Ilona's distinctive paintings and drawings can be found in the Karilon Gallery, at 441 Commercial Street, on her website Ilona and Friends, in the permanent collection of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, and in a number of important private collections. Her work has included landscapes, nudes, still lifes, and portraits of Tennessee Williams, Ayn Rand and a host of other famous subjects.
A renowned artist, teacher, and in the last few years, a chanteuse, Ilona now performs in Eyelash Cabaret, the wildly popular annual PAAM fundraiser, sharing the stage with singer, songwriter and "band in a body" musician Zoe Lewis, who met Ilona many years ago, and wrote a song about her unique eyelashes.
Click this link to find "90 Is The New 40," a Huffington Post article on Ilona written by Ari Cohen in 2011, as Ilona was turning 90, and watch the four-minute video you'll find there. If you don't already know Ilona, you'll fall in love with her on the spot. You'll find out the story behind those eyelashes, too. See more of Ilona, and other strong, stylish women, when you watch Advanced Style, streaming on Netflix, and watch for the DVD to be released at a future date.

PTown Holiday Displays

Provincetown's Christmas Tree made of lobster traps is built around the giant anchor at Lopes Square.

For a number of years now, the Popko family has been building, and lighting, the "Lobster Pot Christmas Tree" in the heart of Provincetown, on Lopes Square. The now-traditional annual lighting of this huge, festive holiday decoration draws more people every year. This "tree" even has its own Facebook page, and you can watch a video on the building and lighting of the Lobster Pot Tree. Related merchandise is available online, such as the Lobster Trap Pillow, as well as a Provincetown Holiday Photo featuring the "tree," and now there's even an illustrated children's book about it available on the Internet. 
This massive work of art is built around the giant anchor that sits in the center of Lopes Square, using 112 lobster traps, 120 red bows and 46 plastic lobsters. The "tree topper" is made from 58 different lobster buoys, each representing a different lobsterman. All of this is illuminated with some 3400 lights, bringing to life this annual holiday tradition and artistic endeavor that celebrates our seafaring heritage while it reminds us all just how unique Provincetown really is.
There are some wonderful lighting displays found around town as well. You'll want to take a spin down Commercial Street, of course, for all the shop decorations and the moving reindeer display at Seamens Bank, and there are some pretty extravagant spectacles of light to be found in yards on a number of side streets, as well. You'll want to visit Standish Street above Bradford Street, for example, with thousands of lights and over a dozen animated characters. Folks on Conwell Street have really gotten into the holiday spirit with their tremendous lighting displays this year, and a trip through the town will show you a number of others.
The weather tonight and over the next couple of days should be fair, warm and not too windy, so get out and enjoy these festive displays. Happy Holidays!

Holiday Shopping in PTown

Himalayan Handicrafts, a bit off the beaten path, offers lovely handmade items,
as do a number of unique Provincetown workshops, emporiums and boutiques. 

I thought I'd take a quick spin through Provincetown and see how many shops were open for holiday customers, expecting to find a couple of dozen or so. There were 74!
The actual number is probably well over 80, because even as I'm writing this, I can think of a number of others that I hadn't added to the count. For example, I didn't number every shop and artisan's studio in the Whalers Wharf, where you'll find photography, jewelry and all kinds of fetching items handcrafted by local folks, along with a fun assortment of curios, knickknacks and tchotchkes.
There are also many places in town where you can find a lovely gift in a shop that isn't exactly a boutique, like the Provincetown Fudge Factory. Besides their amazing fudge in about a dozen varieties, they also have beautiful handmade chocolates and treats. The Purple Feather comes to mind as well, and what about PAAM? The Provincetown Art Association and Museum has a wonderful array of prints, calendars, books and other things relating to PTown's rich artistic heritage. Great (and certainly unusual) gifts can be found at local thrift stores, like Ruthie's Boutique at 14 Center Street (actually on Bradford Street) or at the Methodist Church on Shank Painter Road, and don't forget all the shops that aren't right on Commercial Street...
A number of Provincetown addresses are confusing, if not downright confounding, like Himalayan Handicrafts, officially listed at 277 Commercial Street, which is one long building on the corner across from Town Hall, stretching all the way down what ought to be called Ryder Street, toward Fisherman's Wharf. Every shop in the building, from the photographer on the corner to the kite shop on the beach, shares that same Commercial Street address. So to find the ever-changing variety of beautiful imported clothing, masks, antiques, musical instruments, jewelry, prayer wells, meditation singing bowls and other treasures at Himalayan Handicrafts, you'll have to walk around the corner, and about halfway down the length of the building, near Cafe Maria, which also shares the address "277 Commercial Street."
The new Artist-Loft, listed at 135 Bradford Street, Unit F, filled with a huge assortment of artist supplies and tools at very reasonable prices, is actually found by walking around the corner, onto Standish Street, and then up the stairs on the far end of the building, to the floor above the dentist's office. Another wacky PTown address.
Just down the street is Recovering Hearts, to feed your more spiritual side, with beautiful gifts, incense, books, art and a lot more, at 4 Standish Street, despite the fact that they share the building with the ice cream shop and the T-shirt store, which each have separate addresses though they are in the same building, while Recovering Hearts shares the 4 Standish Street address with Art's Dune Tours, which is actually found in a separate building up the street, shared with a tiny convenience store. So that pretty much throws all the "rules" about PTown street addresses right out the window.
Anyway, look for terrific shops and boutiques that might be just around any corner, and especially for the ones in little alleyways, or on side streets, footpaths, or boardwalks, or maybe up or down a few stairs, just off Commercial Street. You'll find some wonderful treasures, unusual gifts and holiday delights, along with a number of sales. Be quick, since a few shops do stay open all winter, but many are open just Friday through Sunday at this time of the year. That leaves just enough time for a quick dash around the town to pick up some unique, last minute gifts. Happy Holidays!

Family Entertainment in PTown

Lewis Carroll's famous tale of a curious young girl called Alice, a Cheshire Cat, the Queen of Hearts, a houkah-smoking caterpillar and a waistcoat-wearing rabbit with a pocket watch comes alive on the stage of the Provincetown Theater in Alice in Wonderland, delighting families and audiences of all ages.
The story, adapted for the stage by Bragan Thomas and directed by Provincetown's own Anthony Jackman, follows Alice down the proverbial rabbit hole into a fantastical world of flamboyant characters who are at once outrageous and whimsical, both threatening and enchanting, leading her into a series of adventures becoming "curiouser and curiouser" as Alice chases after that white rabbit.
This terrific play features wonderful local actors, joined by Atte Kekkonen, who has come all the way from Finland to play the part of The Dutchess. Director Anthony Jackman, who's been involved in every aspect of theater production in Provincetown over the last 30 years or so, calls this production "pure community theater at its best." Jackman said "These are local actors, and we've involved as many children as possible. We're teaching children theater as we go."

Kevin Shenk, Paul Halley, Atte Kekkonen, Charlie Roye, Emma Fillion as Alice. Photo by Lynda Sturner.

There's a Sunday matinee today at 3 PM, and another on December 21st as well, with evening performances at 7:30 PM this Thursday through Saturday, the 18th through the 20th of December, 2014. Get tickets online, ranging from $15 (kids) to $25, or at the box office, open from 1 PM till showtime on any show day. A family of at least four people gets a considerable discount, with kids and adults alike admitted for just $12.50 each if you get your family tickets at the box office, at 238 Bradford Street.
Whatever your age might be, pick up your tickets early so you won't miss this great bit of entertainment, and help support family theater in Provincetown.

Outer Cape Chorale 2014 Holiday Season Concerts to be Held Dec 12th thru 14th

The Outer Cape Chorale's 2014 holiday season concert features music from and inspired by Africa.

The Outer Cape Chorale, conducted by Jon Arterton, will perform what I can safely say will be an exciting, amazing holiday concert in Provincetown and Orleans, December 12th through 14th, because this stellar 150 voice choir has never given a performance that wasn't both exciting and amazing! They've tackled musical genres ranging from classical to Broadway, from sacred to singer/songwriter, from Gilbert & Sullivan to the Beatles, and have delighted us at every turn.

Starting out basically as a small choir of friends in 2002, the group has grown to roughly 150 members who travel from all over Cape Cod to sing together and perform to packed houses who eagerly look forward to the Chorale's concerts, performed a few times each year, and tackling a different sort of music with each set of concerts. 

The music, rythms and stories of Africa, accompanied by percussion and keyboards,

will be featured at 7 PM on Friday, December 12th and Saturday, December 13th at Provincetown Town Hall, and at 3 PM on Sunday, December 14th at Nauset Middle School in Orleans. 

Outer Cape Chorale performing at Provincetown Town Hall. Photo by John Gullett, from OCC website.

One of the most remarkable things about these concerts is that each performance is free of charge. To make their music available to absolutely anyone who would like to hear it, the Chorale charges no admission fee, and everyone is welcome to attend. A good will donation will be taken, and part of the proceeds will benefit the Ebola projects of UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders.
Make plans to attend at least one of these three performances, guaranteed to fill your heart and feed your soul.