Greetings from the Snug Harbour Inn, Cape Cod, MA

A post-mortem on summer (yes, from the guy who wrote about "how's your summer"). I know I said I don't relish summer and all my best memories came from when I was a child but there is one memory or group of memories as a young adult that I do cherish which, because of seeing many of the people involved recently, has been in the forefront of my mind recently

From summer of 89' through summer of 94' (or there abouts) we spent all 3 summer long weekends down the Cape. You know, beaches, sand dunes, boating...nah, we stayed in the dumpiest, cheapest, crappiest motels we could find crushing 4 people to a room. These were motels with names like the Snug Harbor Inn and The American Host. So we chose these for their proximity to the beaches, right? Nope, we chose them for their proximity to the Mill Hill Club or the Improper Bostonian, the Cape's most prolific happy hours (OK, and because they were dirt cheap). For me it started with my post college friends and in Dennis then eventually, through a coupling within the groups, merged with one of my sister's group and moved on to Hyannis then eventually went on to include 2 of my other sisters and their friends. By the peak of craziness it seemed one giant, if dysfunctional, family. The days mostly consisted of drinking poolside all day, then hitting happy hour, then, if you could manage it, out to the clubs at night. It was a badge of honor to make it out but there was no shame if you didn't. This was how it went year after year. No beaches, no nice eateries, no family fun just lots of drinking and laughing. It was an eclectic group but the dynamic worked as there were few if any fights. I could go on for hours about some of the highlights but frankly, that would be telling. I'd have to change the names to protect the not so innocent.

The summer I remember most was following what was the worst event in my life. It was a tragedy as bad as you can imagine (think about bad then multiply it by 1000). We were worn to a frazzle, had no more tears to shed and frankly needed to smile some. The last thing on anyone’s mind was going away but with the encouragement of a couple of very courageous people, my parents, we rounded up the troops and headed to the Cape. We didn't laugh quite as much, cried a little and the mood was certainly more introspective then it had been previously. But, it worked. It helped. It started the healing process for friends and family. I'll never forget that summer and those people for as long as I live

It really was the time of our lives as we were forever young, indestructible, and were going to be like this forever. Well, as with most things, all things come to an end. That summer was kind of the end of the innocence and we were thrust into adulthood. We grew up (or grew old) and had families and the like. But there is still never an occasion when some or all of us are together where summers on the Cape and the Snug Harbour Inn doesn't come up. Do you remember, do you remember the times of your life??