Friday, May 23, 2008

The Start of the Season

It's 50 and drizzly in L.A. tonight and snowing in the mountains above which is very late and odd but even though the weather is off I still get the old urges this weekend because it's the start of the summer season on Cape Cod.Spending five of the best summers working there well 4 since 1980 I was at my Northeastern Co-Op job working for the New England Press Association but I still made it to North Truro just about every weekend and worked at Babes the week before Labor Day to keep my streak intact.The summer of 77 I worked at a campground in North Truro for a month before moving over to Babes.Babes was the best job I ever had bar none.It was like senior year in highschool as it wound down.You wanted to be there.We were having fun and getting paid for it.In fact it was the perfect life.We only cared about the Red Sox scores and hanging out.Venturing south of Wellfleet was an event.It helped that the crew at Babes was together for those five summers give or take one of us and a few new girls each summer.For the guys in the kitchen we became very good friends and are to this day.The three of us lived together for some of the summers and the last summer in 81 it was three guys and three girls together with four of us at Babes and the other two good friends.In the kitchen Jimmy was the cook,Tom the toast man and myself the dishwasher.Babes was a breakfast and lunch place and Jimmy always kept track of folks served each day so there was a chart to compare it to his past years.So every three days we each got a start and if we beat the previous years total we got a win.We even had E.B.A.'S or earned breakfast average.The first couple of years Jimmys sister and girlfriend were waitresses with us.The dynamic of working and living together gave rise to some tension on occasion especially when we dated a waitress but we really were a team.The owners were great and some days the kitchen guys wound up playing Bocce Ball with Pierre after work out in the side yard but mostly we went to Cold Storage Beach on the bayside of North Truro after work and slept for a few hours which gave us all great tans.Then back to the campground or house we rented for showers and cocktails and other things and after that the night in Provincetown or sometimes Wellfleet till closing time and after and then back to Babes at 6:45 the next morning.There were trips over to ocean side for surfing also and I still recall the Ice Water showers at Head of the Meadow seashore beach at 6:30.a.m. if it was a really rough night which would revivify anyone.Let the Summer begin!

2 comments:

Susan said...

I'll keep an eye on the outer cape and make sure all's going according to plan while you're away.

JAbel said...

Well Babes is leased out to some dude who does it as a Tapas type dinner place,The Surf Club is a restaurant instead of the best dive bar on the east coast and even the rotary onto the Cape is gone but there is still a lot of good left.