The Torrents of Spring:Seacoast New Hampshire

Exeter, New Hampshire

It rained throughout the seacoast today, a heavy driving rain which washed out my baseball game in the first inning. I thought we could have played through, but I was out voted.  Hasn't rained for weeks, but it came  Sunday, just in time for the game. 

Could have been worse:  It could have rained Saturday, which would have washed out the Hampton Democrats' annual garage sale, an  important fund raiser and bonding event.  

Boar's Head, Hampton, NH

Put out a bunch of picture frames, golf balls, tarnished silver, china place settings, rocking chairs, lawn ornaments and you draw a crowd in Hampton.  You get to meet the citizenry, and it's an education. 

Exeter Road (Rte 27) Hampton, NH

I have deplorably little experience in the world of commerce. Really, I'm completely at sea when it comes to selling things, but I had my instructions. The deal at the sale was you are given a plastic shopping bag and you can fill it with whatever you find on the tables for $5.  A forty something woman picked through the treasures and filled her bag carefully and I suggested she match her plates and cups with the matching salt and pepper shakers, which she had overlooked and she locked onto my eyes with a look of real gratitude.  "You are a caring man," she said. "I think you are a man who knows where his salvation comes from."

I know even less about my own salvation than I do about retail, and I sputtered something about how I supposed I would find out about all that when I died.  This seemed to disappoint the shopper, but it greatly amused my good friend and fellow traveler, who floated by just as I was being almost saved. My friend looked at me with her blue eyed beamers, an expression of delighted anticipation and she said nothing, just enjoying the moment.  The shopper left with her $5 bag. "Well, that was fun," my friend said with a look.  She handed me a cold drink from an ice chest she had wheeled in to keep the help hydrated.  

This same woman had spent a morning planting Vinca outside the town library.  Some people still do that sort of thing in small town New England.

The sky was cloudless and cobalt blue and the air dry and clean. 

We talked about Fred Rice, a local Republican legislator who prevented a portable toilet from being installed at Plaice Cove beach.  He had argued you could walk over to the bathrooms at North Hampton if you needed to go. "Oh, that's a great help, if you have a five year old in distress," said one of our group. "For that matter, I've had to go into the ocean, in a pinch. North Hampton! Like that's a solution." 

I pointed out Mr. Rice has his own distinctive point of view about most things: He also believes paving over the unused railroad line and building a new motorway would decrease air pollution on the seacoast, better than say, a bicycle path might do. 

We agreed Mr. Rice is a good reason to be a Democrat. It was a bonding sort of day.