More Memories Of Hull

The last time I was at my grandparents' house at Hull, MA was exactly eight years ago (that's not entirely factual-- I did make a brief stop there while attending my grandfather's funeral a few years ago but that was just a few hours and eight years ago was my last long visit). July 4, 2000. It was the summer after my junior year of college and I had accepted an internship at IBM's research facility in San Jose, CA in polymer chemistry but it didn't start until later in the summer and I had several weeks free before I was scheduled to leave the East coast. So I spent some time at my grandparents with my childhood friend J. I remember it as being one of the more euphoric times in my life. I had just finished a small, intensive photography class in which I was introduced to the work of Nan Goldin, who heavily influenced me. (As it turns out, spring semester of my junior year was one of my best semesters in college-- I also took my favorite college class, physical chemistry/thermodynamics, and did an independent research project on GFP, green fluorescent protein, that failed miserably but provided many nights of entertainment in the lab).

I remember taking my dad's Nikkormat (my all-time favorite camera) with me everywhere and J also taking her camera everywhere. I took pictures of everyone. My grandmother cooking in the kitchen, focused and appearing outwardly a bit gruff. J on the beach at sunset, her smile so beautiful I can recall the exact snapshot even though it is in a box in California. I took so many pictures of her on the beach that night that she eventually protested and asked me to stop, which I did. But I was trying to capture that moment, our last carefree summer before college graduation, her beauty at 21, sunset, the evanescence of it all was overwhelming for me even then, but I never guessed it would be the last time I visited both my grandparents at the beach.

The days were languorous. Long days at the beach, lounging around my grandparents' house. Reading. July 4 I remember clearly because J and I went to the beach at Hull and there were amazing fireworks (a tradition that has since died I found out this year). We had both turned 21 that year and we stopped by a convenience store and bought some alcohol, which we hid in a brown paper bag since it wasn't allowed on the beach (back then that seemed like a clever idea, now it seems obvious). I got tipsy for one of the first times in my life and fell off the wall over the beach onto the sand below. I remember that at the time it all seemed incredibly hilarious. Even I had my half-drunken moments. I think we rode on the Paragon park carousel near the beach that night too. When we got back to my grandparents' house it was so hot with just the windows open that we both slept naked in the back room, perfectly comfortable with each other. I wondered later if my grandmother might have made anything of this as we shared a bed, but since there was never anything more than friendship between J and I doubt it crossed my grandmother's mind.

It is a sweet memory, one I will always savor. If I could go back in time it is one of the few times in my early twenties that I would re-visit in a heartbeat. Later that summer, in San Jose, I met the man with whom I would try unsuccessfully to build a life. It would take me years to get back to that feeling of freedom and limitless possibilities that I shared with J that summer of 2000. Luckily for me, she is one of the few people from that time in my life who has remained a part of my life through all its twists and turns (the Indigo Girls lyrics come to mind here: [mine] "was a twisted blind-sided highway no matter which road you took then"). These days she is competing in sprint triathlons on the West coast, enjoying her new career as an attorney and spending time with her new beau. Here's to my memories of that summer, missing my grandparents, and my oldest friend, J.