I am fortunate to spend much of the summer on the bay side of Cape Cod in the historic section of Brewster, where sand covered dead end roads converge on a small, friendly neighborhood beach.
At high tide, two large jetties reach into the water like a pair of arms, protecting the swimmers who float between them. At low tide their Goliath sized boulders serve as muscular shoulders upon which small children can sit as they hunt for crabs in the crevices between the rocks.
There are only about 20 families in the neighborhood. Empty nesters and young couples with babies. Retirees from San Diego. Financiers from London. Four families have summered here for three generations. Some are here for the very first time.
We share one thing in common: the beach is our living room. Some of us use it as a base to walk the miles of flats or as a place to tether our boats. Others to swim and kayak. For many it’s the evening’s entertainment as we uncork wine, line up beach chairs and watch the sun dip into the ocean.
Tonight the entire neighborhood gathered in the sand to celebrate Fourth. We dragged gas grills over the path that cut through the dune, dug a pit and prepared a bonfire, and lined portable tables with baked beans, potato salad, and red, white and blue frosted cupcakes.
We swam, ate, drank, and tried not to drop too many marshmallows into the fire as we made S’mores beneath a black sky lit up with our illegal fireworks.
No one checked in or posted an update. Instead we had conversations with people who were in the same place, at the same time, the way folks once did at town hearths, general stores and local pubs.
We live in an age where social media plays the role that neighborhoods once played. Facebook and Twitter bring us together. But once in a while, it’s fun to go back to the old ways of connecting. In person. Around a campfire. Sans wifi. We may not want to live there anymore. But now and then it’s a nice place to visit.
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About the author: Edward Boches blogs at Creativity_Unbound.The creator of Brandbowl and the thenextgreatgeneration.com, he was one of four original partners at Mullen where after 27 years he still holds a day job as the chief creative officer.
