Providencetown

One of the things that happened every summer at Babes or coming out of Dutras Market in North Truro was someone asking how to get to Providencetown or where the car ferry to Boston docked.The questions about Providencetown half the time were where the tatoo parlors were.Providencetown though is a mythical place since these poor misguided tourists were confusing Providence R.I. with Provincetown.MA.As for the tatoo parlors R.I. had a lot of coast guard and some navy at the time so we assumed the tatoo parlors were south also.In 78 we had people coming into Babes asking how to get to Providencetown so often one day after work Tom the toastman and myself went out front with Jimmy the cook and Jim's camera.Tom had a scarf around his head a dark blue apron over his body plus shirt and pants underneath and a large umbrella over his head.He looked like an East German peasant woman.I had one of those large white mopheads as a large white dreadlock wig a small straw hat on top of the wig and a huge fake joint in my mouth.We were holding a cardboard handwritten sign that said"Providencetown" and we stood in front of Babes hitchiking towards Provincetown.At least five cars went by before Jimmy snapped the pic and in it there is a car going by in the background.A few cars slowed down pointing and laughing but the others were clueless.I still have copies and the positive instead of a negative also someplace as it was a polaroid.An old girlfriend in L.A. several years later did the positive when she worked for my friend Henry at EMI records as art director and in a twist of irony the photo work was billed to a Peter Wolf album after he left J.Geils.As for the car ferry we weren't sure where that info came from as there was always just a passenger ferry from Provincetown to Boston.One day though this very loud annoying man at Babes who stiffed the waitress on a tip asked us where the car ferry was and Jimmy sent him down Pond Road in North Truro to Cold Storage Beach and told him the ferry came in there.Not sure how long he waited but like Charley neath the streets of Boston he never returned.