Barnstable Life in 2007

I have spent many years in Barnstable and I like it. I like Sandy Neck and the Trayser Museum and Freedom Hall and Barnstable Harbor. I like Bismore Park and Sunset Hill and Rt. 6A and shellfishing. I like the Sheriff's Ranch and the Airfield in Marstons Mills and I like Craigville Beach and Four Seas Ice Cream. Barnstable is a great place to grow up and a great place to grow old.

Barnstable is also a town with a history of personalities. Ken Shaunessy and Charlie Leonard and Ben Thompson started talking about the Downtown decades ago. The voices of Ruth Rusher, Bob Hayden, Dexter Leen, Eugenia Fortes and Eric Vendt still echo in the minds of many who enjoyed each waxing philosophical on Town Meeting floor. Every one of them is gone now to a better place, but Barnstable is still a great place for those of us who remain. Barnstable is a great place to raise a family, to go to church, to play golf and tennis, to swim at the beach, to enjoy a book at the library, to stroll the Mall, to catch a fish, to take a sail or to do nothing on a lazy afternoon.

Barnstable does have its problems. It grew too fast. The cost of living is too high. We have people struggling with homelessness, mental illness, chronic illness and lonliness. Our taxes are high, income is low and people work too much. Travel to Boston, New York or D.C. for work or pleasure is time-consuming and expensive. But we make a choice to live on Cape Cod. We decide to stay here or move here because on balance, it's a great place to live.

I am going to write about life in Barnstable and on Cape Cod in this blog. And I invite others to submit their thoughts and experiences about why you choose to live here. I am not a basher or a shock-jock. Unfortunately, someone decided that Blogs are supposed to be imitations of the bash and trash columns in some of our newspapers or on radio. If that is what you're looking for, go elsewhere, my son!

Let's have some fun. Let's share our expiences and talk about the serious and the humorous side of our town, our home, a place we call Barnstable.