The Wife And I Go Walking - June 1950s

Just a little walk up the street can sometimes brush the work-a-day cobwebs out of your hair and set you straight for another week at the pressure bench. From School Street in Rockport, the wife and her chosen turned down High Street bound for the Headlands on a bright afternoon.

High Street represents New England at its quaint yet modern best. Here was a spacious and beautiful lawn of a guest house. An olden tall thin anchor set amidst a bower of flowers indicated the name. Parasol-shaded tables invited guests to dine outdoors. A barn of the past limned with gaily colored lobster buoys emphasized the nautical.

It was a fine example of Yankee ingenuity in putting the best foot forward for the benefit of the tourist.

We had no trouble sensing the old town was bogged down by cars, for there was one solid mass of them on both sides of the streets as well as in the off-street parking lots. Looks as though another year, they just gotta stack 'em for at least four to five stories.

Across the street we again enjoyed the grandeur of what could be the biggest rhododendron in Rockport, yes, on all Cape Ann. It is in Colbey Davis' yard and is worth a jaunt to see what such a bush can grow into, given a chance.

George Dinckel's art studio and gallery is a High Street highlight. It's the old blacksmith shop without the smithy, but instead a conversion that brings happiness to the artist as well as to the sentimentalist. His art reflects understanding.

Then down by the park made possible by George Harvey's beneficence. Too few people today remember how much that George Harvey meant to Rockport. The Harvey development should be a lasting monument to him. Instead, folks ask who is he? Well, right here in the town center is a peaceful spot that reflects his town planning talents. And profiting by its presence is the First Baptist Church, whose front stoop is practically smack dab in the park.

On Mount Pleasant Street, the missus observed a window of 24 glass panes in a home of the past. May the fates preserve it, and prevent its being spoiled by some modern tomfoolery.

Everyone knows about No. 10 Downing Street, home of Great Britain's prime ministers. Fewer know of No. 10 Atlantic Avenue, Rockport. Within its lengthy porticoed frontage dwells summer-times the man who gave birth to Peter Cottontail, Brer Fox and other charming characters of the brush that continue to thrill young America. We are talking about Harrison Cady.

As a parent, that man through his drawings, and Thornton Burgess through his writings gave us the grand opportunity of being a hero to our young'uns by reading those stories and showing those drawings with gusto to first our son, and later our daughter. Why shouldn't we tip our hats to that shrine of childhood's reward!

Along this street we are walking in the past, Caleb Norwood's barn of 1775 is across the way. Charles Gordon Marston has it now for an art studio. The Cable House, which in the past century housed the beehive of transatlantic cable activity is now catering to folks from everywhere. ZIV found it a welcome haven a year ago.

The Gifford Beals were ones to improve the glories of the town they adopted. Along this shore property, where their tower studio stands supreme, is a shore garden in red, white and blue, a bowery buffer to the sea's onslaughts.

A humble little studio that squired artistic genius is that of the late Tucker Margeson. Out of it came some of the finest marines that ever hit America. We remember him as hardly more than a messenger boy for the Gloucester Electric, but for the fact that even then we knew his genius would carry his name beyond death.

From there to the path to the Headlands, but to our amazement we found that someone had actually hot-topped a path to the vagrant boulders of the knoll that overlooks the sweep of Sandy Bay. And in our dotage we thank every mother's son of them that voted this modern cushioning.

We again saw what a vantage point this is to thrill to the yacht races, watch the small fry boating. Our predecessors in town meeting sure had foresight to buy this land that it might not fall into hands that would bar the public from the shore.

Yes, it was a short walk the wife and I took -- but sometimes the shortest can be the sweetest. Mayhaps you have found that out along the way.

J.P.C., Jr.

NOTE: ZIV refers to a television production company that produced the alas short-lived TV series, Harbormaster, starring Barry Sullivan, shot in Rockport.
Now in Harvey Park there is a stone commemorating another much-beloved Rockporter, Signe Burnham, who produced, directed, and acted in many shows in Rockport over her long life, including some roles in Harbormaster. Her shows not only entertained the town, but often included half the town!