From Winnesquam to Cohasset

 ... rocks at Cohasset

Margery Carter

And so summer was over. Our two camps were all shuttered up. No one could break into them after we went back to Melrose. We were to stay only for the week and then to A A's first summer house in Cohasset until Christmas. It was rented summers. My mother liked Lake Winnisquam better. She was afraid of sailboats and with one son and maybe another one coming (Whitney was four). The boys as they got older, might like sailing and land up in Spain. Even though they thought I was too young to understand, I sure understood! It was talked about to all her friends and remember, I had good hearing! I was happy about Lake Winnisquam! Anyway, the house in Cohasset was located on a hill overlooking a view of the ocean and Boston Harbor. At high tide the surf was beautiful as most of the shore was. Did I tell you that my folks called this place the "Beach house." I can remember getting up nerve enough to ask my mother, "How come it's called a beach house since there was no beach or sand?" I got dirty looks for asking such dumb questions. I didn't think it was so dumb! I was six and smart. Now it was a regular Cohasset house with heat year round, coal, and then switched to oil heat. It was hot air heat. The first two weeks in September A A  had a contractor put in two fireplaces. One was put in the dining room and another one in the living room. "Supposed to give the cozy touch," A A said. Well they smoked and had to be done over and what a mess our first weekend was! Now I haven't mentioned from New Hampshire to Melrose and repacking for just the weekend and off we went from Melrose to Cohasset in two cars, but our first stop was going to be Quincy. I had my face squashed against the side window as we took the road that went by Mayor Curley's house. I always hoped he would come out so I could see what he looked like. I was sure he had horns coming out of his head. According to gossip the protesters hated him, and I heard lots of talk at dinner parties about him. I was hiding in another room listening. Well anyway, no Curley. Our first destination was Quincy and this bank that had a cafeteria across the back. It was a new idea and you selected what you wanted to eat. It was very inexpensive. I loved the dessert! And the 28 flavors of ice cream was home made. Of course I found out later that the man that started all this was Howard Johnson. This was his first venture. Someone must have invested in him, because Howard Johnson ice cream stands were square with orange roofs and were popping up all over the place. Still later they had food too. My grandfather thought they were the "Cats meow." Well, we left the bank cafeteria in Quincy and were on out way to Cohasset. A A said no guests were coming for two weekends, but some house cleaners were going to show up. "The place need a good scrubbing", A A said. Well my big ears took it all in. Anyway I went down to my friend's house beside our place and gave them the dope. I asked them to play hide and seek out doors on Sunday since I would be seeing them every weekend until Christmas. They could be a lot of fun and I wasn't bored with them. We decided next weekend we would collect sea glass at low tide and play hide and seek in the caves. Sea glass is when people in their private yachts dump their empty bottles overboard. It must take a lot of breaking up being smoothed out into small pieces and then being worn down. No raw edges and such pretty colors and shapes. Unless you know what it was, it was unusual to strangers and they thought the pieces were made up. And so the fall started. We had to leave Sunday about 8 o'clock. I was in school now, so I was hustled back to Melrose into a bath and then bed.

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