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Plane ditching mars
'banner ' day, warns of
dire possibilities
. CTJ
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CORNER
By Paul Gauvin
pgauvin@barnstablepatriot.com
The
last thing you expect to find
when you pull into the beach
parking lot on a pleasant summer
Saturday is the ominous sign of six local
and state police cruisers and emergency
vehicles parked together in a helter-skel-
ter clump.
"Oh, oh," you think. "Did somebody
drown? Was somebody seriously hurt?"
Like a dark cloud, it's a damper to an oth-
erwise delightful beach day.
One Barnstable police officer is walk-
ing nearby talking on a cell phone and
you ask what happened. She says "one of
those small planes went down" and, as she
keeps walking briskly away, she perhaps
senses one's concern and considerately
adds that nobody has been hurt.
Hovering over the water at some dis-
tance is a helicopter, too far and high to
distinguish its markings. It's too small
and dark for Coast Guard. Maybe state
police or news agency?
Judging by the distance of the helicop-
ter, you assume, since nobody was hurt ,
the plane ditched safely a mile or so off
shore rather than violently crash. What
did the officer mean by "small plane?"
Was it one of those one-man contraptions
built in one's garage, like the one that
crashed off Barnstable Harbor some years
ago? A private, single-engine affair? Cer-
tainly not a Cape Air taxi!
Friends are waiting on the beach so you
scurry off in the secure knowledge that
death or maiming has not ruined the day
and that the daily paper has a reporter
and a photographer on the scene readying
information for the next day's publication.
An hour or so later, Barbara Flinn of
Hyannis, a member of the village 's civic
association , walks by and asks if you've
been to the scene of the "crash." It's right
off the beach, she says, and walks off for
a looksee by the Kalmus jetty bordering
the narrow cnannel linking the inner and
outer harbors.
Sometime later in the parking lot as
you're leaving, Flinn happens by again
and says the harbormaster boat is tow-
ing the plane ashore. Still later, Olga
Zabludoff of Ocean Street says the plane
was carried on a flatbed truck zig-zagging
along Ocean Street as though it were in a
Memorial Day parade , going very slowly,
the tips of the plane 's wings watched by
police escorts so they don't strike any-
thing.
You learn from the Cape Cod Times sto-
ry on Page 1 the next day that the landing
scared the bejeebeers out of beachgoers
and several people on the jetty who feared
being struck as the plane dropped the
banner it was dragging and hit the water
about 100 yards off shore, nearly striking
a kayak and sport fishing boat.
So the speculation arises: While police
credit the pilot for good sense in avoid-
ing the crowded beach , the possibilities
are that it could have struck the beach
and bathers , or the kayak, or the people
on the jetty or the sports fishing boat and
exploded.
And you wonder if this type of fuel-
wasting advertising with a disaster poten-
tial is worth the effort. Comments on the
beach indicated that some see the flying
ads as a nuisance and noise pollution;
others say the planes are so common now
they usually can't or don't read what's on
the banners , while others just shrug and
don 't really care one way or the other. The
incident also tied up emergency personnel
for quite a few hours.
From this corner, Barnstable beaches
can do without flying billboards.
•••
It must be disheartening for town of-
ficials, volunteers and businesses that go
all out to provide , promote and advertise
all sorts of activities to read of an 18-year-
old Harwich girl who tells the press she
hangs around the embattled Kendrick's
lounge on North Street in Hyannis five
nights a week because "...there 's nothing
else to do on Cape Cod." Oh well, don't
give up the ship.
•••
A man told his friends he was going for
a swim last week and drowned. Why did
the press accord him one final indignity
by describing him as "homeless?" If he
wasn't homeless, would he have been
described as "homeowner" or "apartment
renter?" Advocates now have another
reason to pick at the community 's collec-
tive guilty conscience because a swimmer
without a permanent home drowned.
BY ELLEN C. CHAHEY
The
moving van pulled away, the pa-
pers had been passed , and the next
day I'd be driving our friend to the
train. A new opportunity beckoned , and
that was cause for celebration , and yet it
was also true that our friend would never
live on Cape again.
What to do with this bittersweet evening?
We tossed around the names of some
restaurants that we had enjoyed over many
years of friendship. One place sounded
good , but we had forgotten that this was
high dinner hour on a beautiful night in
July. There was already a wait - and a large
group had gotten there just before us.
I had another idea , and we headed west
on Main Street in Hyannis, through the
tourist scene. I recounted to my friend my
memories of my first trip down this street.
I was a junior high school kid visiting
from Connecticut with my mother and a
friend of hers. Somewhere right in the part
of the street where we were walking in the
present , the 12-year-old me had sat down
to have a pastel portrait drawn by an artist.
I fantasized about what that young girl
would have thought if someone had sat down
next to her and said, "Some day you're going
to be one of the ministers of that big church
down the street. And you'll write in a column
for the town newspaper that you were once a
young girl who sat for a portrait on your first
trip to Main Street, Hyannis."
When I cleaned out my mother 's apart-
ment after she died last summer, I thought
I'd find that solemn portrait of myself in re-
ally short hair and a white sweatshirt. But
it had vanished.
My friend and I returned to present mat-
ters. Soon we passed a sandwich board on
the sidewalk inviting us into a Brazilian
restaurant. We looked at each other and
agreed , "Why not?" Maybe we subcon-
sciously understood that this was a chance
to make a new memory in a new place as
our friendship evolved into a new stage.
There was plenty of room to choose a
table. We drank a toast to friendship and
the future. We carried our plates around
the buffet , filling them with everything from
cold salads to roasts and sausages hot off
the grill.
We soaked in the ambiance: Brazilian TV
on a big screen in the corner; the bustle
of the well-orchestrated team who ran the
eatery ; lovely and completely bilingual
children.
And the boisterously happy big group
that were celebrating something with food
and wine and laughter and photographs
and lots of hugs.
After a while, my friend and I figured out
that it was a birthday party for one of the
women in the group. She was of the "red
hot mama" variety - a fireplug of a figure , an
infectious laugh, an obvious love of all the
people who were sitting around the big table
that the staff had put together for them.
We did not need to understand their
words to bask in and take comfort from
their happiness.
After a while, someone brought in the
most delicious-looking birthday cake I
have ever seen (and I am not a cake eater) .
Round and white , it was covered with a
thick snow of coconut and garnished with
green grapes. The group sang "Happy
Birthday " and some additional verses that
caused a lot of laughs. (My friend guessed ,
"Probably every line gets bawdier and
bawdier.")
The song ended with such enthusiastic
applause that I couldn't resist putting my
hands together, too. Then I turned back to
my dinner companion and our own conver-
sation.
A few minutes later, the "birthday girl"
arrived at our table , with two slices of cake.
CONTINUED ON PAGE A:8
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Page A:8
LETTERS
The following is excerpted from a longer history of
the Custom House prepared by Francis I.Broadhurst
for the Coast Guard Heritage Museum at the Trayser.
The Museum celebrates its one-year anniversary this
week,which coincides with the 216th anniversary of
the Coast Guard itself,which started as the Revenue
Cutter Service on Aug. 4, 1790. The museum is open to
the public on Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.
to 3 p.m. Admission for children 10 and under is free.
Active Duty Coast Guardsmen are also admitted free.
Admission for all others is $3.
By Francis I. Broadhurst
FIBcape@aol.com
C
ape Cod history is too often lost
on new generations who don't
ask how or why things came to
pass. For example, when people drive by
the 19th
Century Italianate building on
Cobb's Hill in Barnstable each day do
they wonder why it is there? It has been
here since 1856, but why? Nothing in the
present gives any clue as to why such an
important edifice was built in that loca-
tion.
Today people look to Barnstable Har-
bor, Cape Cod Bay and the other waters
around Cape Cod purely for recreation
and a limited amount of fishing.
The Port of Barnstable is a pictur-
esque post card village considered
"quaint" to be "kept as it always has
been." Those who think this don't know
their history.
The quiet residential nature of this vil-
lage belies its history as one of the most
important ports on the East Coast from
colonial times until the early 1900s.
The U.S. Custom House and Post
Office atop Cobb's Hill in Barnstable
recorded much of the history of this
once thriving industrial and commercial
and remains one of Cape Cod's greatest
treasures.
One researcher described the building
as having been designed in an "elegant
Renaissance style." It is totally unique
among Cape Cod's buildings. In fact ,
it is one of only two such structures in
Massachusetts. Cape Cod has one; the
fishing port of Gloucester has the other.
This building was erected in 1856 when
CONTINUED ON PAGE A:11
Barnstable Custom House:
A Cape Cod Treasure
A CitizenViewstheU.S.Constitution
By Hillard Welch
1776@netscape.com
This series is written by a private citizen
in Centerville with an abiding interest in
U.S. history and particularly its founding
documents: The Declaration of Independence
and The Constitution.
***
"... Congress shall have Power... To
coin Money, regulate the Value thereof,
and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard
of Weights and Measures... " Art. I, Sec. 8.
Since Congress alone has the power
to "coin money" and "regulate the value
thereof,"is it any wonder that the autho-
rization for the Federal Reserve System is
questioned? According to historical pre-
cedence, Congress cannot delegate this
power nor refuse to function in the afore-
mentioned capacity. As a consequence,
the entire Federal Reserve System
becomes suspect even though Congress
passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913.
So far as this writer has been able to
ascertain, there has never been a chal-
lenge to the constitutionality of the Act
itself nor an independent audit (such as
publicly traded businesses are required
to do annually) of the Federal Reserve
System.
In 1933 President Roosevelt took the
country off the gold standard and "a
congressional joint resolution prohibited
the enforcement of gold clauses in both
contracts between the government and
individuals and in private contracts ,
thereby making Federal Reserve Notes
the exclusive legal tender.
The Supreme Court held the resolu-
tion constitutional in The Gold Clause
Cases (1935)." (The Heritage Guide to
the Constitution, 2005, p. 99) It was
at that time that President Roosevelt
threatened to "pack the Supreme Court"
in order to gain approval of his pro -
grams.
Not being a lawyer, I do not presume
CONTINUED ON PAGE A:11
How long can the Federal
Reserve issue fiat money*?
RETROSPECTIVES FROM THE ARCHIVES
A SOCIAL PARTY IN CENTERVILLE - With this week full of
CentervilleOldHomeWeek events(andthey're notoveryet;see
TownNotes) this dance card is a reminder that Centervillians
havegatheredtogetherfor years,centuries even.HowardHalt,
located onthesiteof the present library on Centerville's Main
Street, was a popular gathering spot. The card is undated,
but other dated material inthe same collection isfrom about
1885. Howard Hallwas town down in 1944, having suffered
severely from that year's major hurricane.
ACROSS TIME 6 PLACE