Diary 42 – 8.7.11 - Fireworks – parades and the beautiful Provincetown –crystal garden walls and the 12 tribes… ghosts in the house….
We have now based ourselves in Hyannis for a weeks exploration of Cape Cod. We have been here before in Hyannis but did not get much time to explore then, only to have a meal in the evening. So it is great to be able to get better acquainted with the town. As we had missed the parade and fireworks in Cape Ann due to weather and seasickness.. we were glad to be able to catch the 4th July Independence Day parade on Hyannis Main Street. We were extremely outnumbered as the token Brits and as Steve kept telling people we were there to take back our country I was a bit uneasy to say the least!! Patriotic fervour was definitely the order of the day and to emphasise this, flags were given out for the British, which were one inch square!! We kept one as a souvenir. However it was all great fun and the floats were quite quirky and obviously a lot of time and effort had gone into the whole thing. Families were out on the street with their deckchairs and cold hot dogs – a contradiction in terms I know and huge cool boxes with food, food and more food. (I do get the impression that the American people have a fear of going too long in-between meals).
The floats had people on them who threw candies out for the children on the sidewalk and you would have thought these children had never had candy before in the scramble and skirmishes, which took place as they tried to grab them. I thought another war might break out over Candy-Grabbing. Steve had a lollipop land fair and square in his hand and although I said he should hand it over to the two children in front he refused and popped it straight in his mouth, much to the disgust of the little girl who thought it was going to come her way. Kids eh.. big ones as well as the little ones!! He did offer it to her once he had licked it, his favourite ploy when he doesn’t want to share sweets or biscuits with me or anyone else come to that!
The firework display that night was from a barge out in the bay, but we didn't know this until later. We took up a spot on the beach and just waited. Firstly a few fireworks went off the end of the quay and I felt quite disappointed in the quality. I thought maybe they looked pretty naff because we were quite a way away from the origin of the fireworks. But then I felt that people around us were also underimpressed with the show so far but regardless they all still had their chairs pointed out to face the ocean and seemed to be waiting for something else to happen.
(It reminded me of the folk waiting by the roadside for the ET craft to come back round the roadside in Close Encounters!)
As this was Steve’s first Firework display he was saying he thought it was a bit of a waste of time. However, I said I did not think it had started yet.
Finally a huge firework went off out to sea and everyone cheered and then the most incredible display took place. I so love fireworks and will travel miles to see a display and I love to see new fireworks as most firework shapes I now recognise. So the fact that there were smiley faces in the fireworks and actual star shapes was just delightful. Such new innovative creations and so well worth the wait. I’ll never understand how fireworks are made. Again it’s one of those things we take for granted without appreciating the creativity and skill of the firework-makers. I applaud them…
Yesterday we drove all the way up the picturesque 6A route up to the tip of Cape Cod – Provincetown. Another beautiful little town, which has such character. We spent the day walking the streets and looking for a house we saw when we were here before. This house had the most incredible garden full of wonderfully strange and creative sculptures in it. The thing that drew us was that the wall surrounding the house had really large lumps of all kinds of different crystals buried within its construction and crystal balls, shells etc. The front door has a mosaic snake crawling up the wall and when I peeped through the railing the snake’s body formed a wonderful border for the flowerbeds. The body and snakes head were made up of brightly coloured glass fragments. The house itself was exquisite in design also, and immaculate. There were Buddha’s and Ganeshas and all sorts of different animals hidden in the foliage.. and a huge man/flying/lion/hybrid creature made out of gold wire on a big pedestal. I just wanted the guys who own the house to come out and invite us in… I felt that all the crystals embedded in the walls gave the whole place a surreal and yet very vibrant energy and I am so glad we have our camera as we were able to record it all.
Restroom stories.
Been a bit thin on the ground just lately but like buses you wait for one and then suddenly three turn up at once.
The first one took place in the refined atmosphere of Boston. I was getting my regular infusion of Starbucks latte and although I did not need to use the bathroom, where the sugar stand was situated, was right next to the door to the hallway to the restrooms. Starbucks always plays great music and this morning it was exceptionally funky being old 50’s and 60’s songs like Chubby Checkers.. ‘Do the Twist’ I must confess my little feet were tapping in time to the music, but I was not prepared for the door to burst open and a Boston policeman to come out in full ‘Twisting mode’ He was very good, for a youngster who was probably not even born when Chubby Checker first invited us to “Come on baby let’s do the twist” He was not at all put off by my jaw hitting the floor and me starting to giggle, nor was he put off by the very disapproving frown of his partner who was standing next to me, stirring his coffee. I went back to Steve sitting outside and relayed what I had just seen. When the two policemen came out looking very authorative and solemn.. Steve piped up “O.K. guys which one of you was dancing?”
The one who did not dance replied… “Well, it was NOT me” .. and the other one just smiled. It looked to me like this might have been a regular daily workout that he did when he went in to get his coffee… Great stuff.
The next took place in a little restaurant where we were getting some brunch. We sat opposite the restroom doors and I watched with amusement, as the little old Chinese cleaning lady seemed to pounce and go in between each patron’s visit and clean up. It made for a lot of queuing and irritation. So much so that she went on back into the gents and a man followed her in. I said to Steve “Surely that man won’t go to the toilet with her in there?” But after a minute he came out looking very happy, so maybe he didn’t mind and perhaps she had seen it all before ...many times. Maybe it was the highlight of her day, who knows? I ate my brunch and didn’t pay much attention until the door of the Gents opened up again and out stepped a pretty elderly…. Lady… pushing a pushchair. Odd that she was elderly and she had a pushchair and that she had gone into the gents, but the oddest thing was that in the pushchair was a miniature dog, wrapped in a blanket which was quivering so badly I thought it would shake itself out of the chair.
God knows what it had seen in there!!
The final episode took place yesterday. Steve and I, again looking for our brunch, were cruising up Main Street in Hyannis. We have come to realize that we have an innate sense of what will be a good eaterie if we take our time, trust our instincts, don’t go in the first place we encounter and let the universe guide us to the right place. This place looked very dark from the outside looking in, in fact Steve peeped through the window and actually couldn’t see anything. So I said we should go in and have a look. He went in first and I followed with my sun glasses still on which made it so dark that I couldn’t see a thing and I bumped into him as he had stood still just inside to get his bearings. I took my glasses off and we seemed to be in what looked like an authentic Irish pub. Not a good start I thought. The clientele were interesting to say the least and there was quite a few ZZtop type beards going on including our waiters. The whole place was lined in seasoned old wood, which was what was giving it the gloomy appearance but we were led upstairs into a really cute little area with an upstairs bar. Our ‘table’ was a solid slice across a tree and in a big crack, which ran across it someone had carefully placed pretty shells and then laquered over the whole thing. Lovely. The food was outstanding and as usual we had been guided to find the organic energy of the food. I think it calls out to us….Finding organic food is so rare here that when we realize we have ‘sniffed it out,’ so to speak, it is always a great joy to us. We know that for the rest of the day we have had something nutritional inside us instead of plastic, cardboardy, rubbish with huge amounts of hidden sugars and fats and addictive substances added to boot.
Anyway, as always I avidly read all as I sit making my food choices, the back of the menu had a whole page about the ethos of the place and that it was run by an organistation of the 12 Tribes. It’s doctrine could have been written in part by Steve and if I didn’t know better with the menu being so old and Steve’s book being so new I would have suspected they had lifted some of their information directly from it. The page spoke about our need to accept that we are all from the same family and that we need to help each other, to be kind to each other and to generally try to uplift our consciousness by accepting that we are all here on the Planet as one unit and not be at war with each other. However, my understanding of the 12 tribes was that they were the original Hebrew races that Moses took into the desert and bought out again. Manly P. Hall, that great historian, says they were the original version of the upgraded humans that the ET’s had ‘doctored’ the genetic coding of, and this is why they considered themselves the chosen ones. Others say that they are the original Aryan race, so that makes a mockery of all that Hitler was saying - if they were Jewish - doesn’t it?. But in this bumff I was reading it said that they were followers of Yeshua. So I was a bit confused as I thought the Hebrew nations did not believe in the Yeshua history.
We had a lovely brunch and whilst Steve paid the bill, I popped into the loo.
Never pass one when you see one, is my motto.
Imagine to my delight an entire room covered with newspaper articles from the paper this organization print up. I picked up a copy on the way out to look at it all further. So floor to ceiling was wallpaper of sepia coloured articles taken from old back issues going back quite a long way. It made perfect sense to me to have something to read whilst tinkling. To make it easier there was also a really heavy wrought iron garden chair in the corner of the room. So once you had finished if no-one else needed to come in you could just take a seat and read to your hearts content. This I am sure I would have done, but I only had time to read about 3 articles and someone was trying to get in, so I had to sadly abandon my desire to read all.
Wallpapering the wall with newspaper articles is such a better idea than just having the odd book on the bathroom/restroom windowsill to look at. (An idea which I had always found strange as I just pop in and out as quickly as I can and have no desire usually to linger in a toilet)
America has changed all that for me now!!
I’d have to say in looking at their website that they are a very strictly organized religious group of people and I am not in agreement with many of their practices, organized religion being the first one of course. But it sounds as if they are a bit like the Amish people and have found a way to live that works for them and includes them taking good care of each other and their livestock and land, so who am I to judge that? It always interests me when I find a group of people trying to make things work for themselves in a way, which might be at odds with the rest of society. Most people would label them cultist. But I think it is a desire to live with like-minded people who want to take care of each other and I find that very attractive as things become harder and harder for everyone, just to try to survive now. I am completely unsure about taking the ‘switch’ to their children though, which is their way to handle discipline of their children. How do they get away with that? In England the children would report you to the Child Abuse agency and you would be carted off to jail.
The one thing that I greatly admire and think should be compulsory for all children is that their children are NOT allowed to be considered members of the organization until they reach their 18th birthday when they can then make their own decision. I think that there should be no religion taught to children at all until children reach the age of 16 and then they should be taught about all religions and then left to make up their own minds if they wish to belong to any. To see tiny tots indoctrinated into a belief that others not like themselves are ‘Infidels’ and need to be killed in Holy Wars… is a very sad thing in my eyes. How many billions of people have been killed on this planet so far in the name of religion? All their children are home schooled as they are against a school system which states that every child is the same and has to be taught exactly the same thing in the same way... So good for them.
Anyway, off that soapbox again Annie… The 12 Tribes members who work in Hyannis certainly know how to make a mean tuna melt sandwich and have great ideas about décor in restrooms.
(Clip from the website)
“Our Culture
We live together in households, clans, and tribes, sharing our possessions in common. We strongly support marriage, and we teach our children at home. We dress modestly, eat wholesome food, work hard, pray together, and celebrate our life in music and dance…”
Amazingly given that I have never heard of these people, when we went into a health food shop in Plymouth being attracted to its energy as perhaps a place to get a sandwich, it too is run by members of the 12 tribes...
……..
Yesterday we took the Ducktour of the harbour and town and I usually just love these amphibious vehicles, which are remnants of vehicles from both the second world war and also the Vietnam war. I love the way that one minute you are on land and the next you are in the water. But we had the most dreadful narrator and the whole thing was completely spoiled for us. He was a young guy who obviously wanted an alternate career as a comedian but had definitely not really taken good advice on this, as he was useless. Living my life with a real comic genius whose incredibly sharp brain and sense of timing is impeccable, made this young lads lack of both, more abysmal. On top of that at the end of each sentence he made a clicking sound, which I spotted after his first sentence and then couldn’t ignore. Steve and I were just wincing and no-one at all was laughing. On top of that he really slurred his words so that I could not understand what he was saying, even if I had been interested! At once time he spoke about dis.. gus… sean… and after about 30 seconds I realized he was talking about concussion. Who was concussed I had no idea. I actually wished it was me so that I could have ignored his narration. I just wanted the facts without the humour. Our tour guide on the Trolley Tour in Salem was brilliant. Fact after fact interspersed with gentle humour, which was so subtle and not in-your-face. We were so glad to get off the Ducktour finally and I was very disappointed. The only one on the trip who seemed to be really enjoying himself was the little guy in the seat next to ours, but he was about 4 years old and totally oblivious to the dialogue going on. His Dad just kept groaning and so I knew he was going through the same discomfort as us…
I suppose this is one of those cases where you should complain, but it seemed really mean to complain about the fact that the tour guide was such a useless comedian! As he kept on saying he was doing this so that he could put monies into his College Funds, I just hoped it was for a Science Degree and not the Performing Arts University.
We came on out and popped into the JFK museum next door and spent a quiet hour looking at the family photos and watching a video of the Kennedys at play at the compound here in Hyannis. All the Kennedys had grown up playing in their beach houses in Hyannis every summer holiday and again I feel such an attraction to the idea of all your family living closely.. still in their own houses but all on the same compound. There were so many children ultimately, I think I counted at least 15 running around and playing and throwing themselves into the arms of Jack, or Bobby or Ted… It might have been superficial and maybe not at all what it seemed, but they did all look like they were very happy to be here in Hyannis and very happy to be part of such a huge family network. When we got in last night Steve channel-hopped as usual trying to find something other than adverts to watch and found a history programme on exactly the stuff we had seen during the day in the Museum so that was lovely to watch too. A very poignant statue was in the room in the Museum dedicated to the late John Kennedy junior who tragically died in a plane accident. ( What an incredibly handsome young man he was)..
The statue was of him and his Dad as men they might have become had they both lived.. an older version of each of them with Dad with his arm around his son ...walking on the beach. So sad…
Steve and I spoke about how impossible it is to believe that Jack could have been killed and then the secret service police made it possible for someone to just walk up to Bobby and shoot him such a short time after that. We also said how now we could never believe one family of men could have held such high positions of power. Can you imagine 3 Blair brothers? Brrrr sends shivers down your spine….
I wonder what would have become of them all if they had been allowed to live?
Back to the house in Boston and the supposed ghosts..
The House comes complete with it’s own two ghosts. I offered to ‘Space Clear’ the house and ask them to leave but the owners are very happy for the Ghosts to remain, they feel that they help out. One of the ghosts is very attached to the young child who lives in the ground floor area of the house. She actually has picked the child up and once caught her when Mum tripped down the stairs. Mum watched in horror then amazement as her daughter appeared to just float down to the floor. However, the ghost likes to rearrange all the child’s toys and the child wakes up in the night to see the toys floating in the air. They have now taken to stating that some toys can be moved around but the rest have to be left alone. The Ghost is believed to be a woman who lost a child so this activity and attachment would make sense if that was the case.
I think the child is extraordinarily sensitive as are her Mum and Grandma and so they can see these things. I however could see nothing.. only sense a very strong and heavy energy in the lower rooms. Also in the stairwell leading down to the lower areas there was a pulling sensation like a heavy magnet pulling you as you walked past the stairwell… not at all pleasant, but not scary in any way.
The other Ghost is believed to be the man who built the house who doesn’t like to accept I think, that other people now live in it!! He seems to hang around checking everyone out. We will be here on and off until we go on to Newport so maybe we might get to see them. I would love to see an actual apparition. I can only sense them, even though I am accurate in that, it’s not the same as seeing them.
Lots of love
Annie
Fish and chip shop!!
Spankys Clam Shack and Seaside saloon
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