Sunday June 17. 2001

little pink houses

We had spent the first part of the day in Wellfleet Center, having breakfast at a little place called The Lighthouse. John showed me all the sights, as limited as they were. Wellfleet Center is one or two blocks of little restaurants, ice cream and candy shops, a library and interesting little stores with outrageously expensive merchandise. One of them had dozens of beautiful kimonos. I've really wanted a kimono for a long time, but these were upwards of three hundred bucks. I've always loved eastern and oriental styled clothing. It makes me really wish I could make my own clothes.

We started driving around again, taking the side roads and just enjoying John's David Bowie mixed tape. We were mostly silent, both of us lost in our own thoughts as we watched the scenery go by. On a whim we decided to take Route 6 up to Provincetown.

I really think Provincetown was my favorite place on the Cape. After our first visit, I commented to John about the irony of a town established by a group of Puritanical Pilgrims was now densely populated with flamboyant gay men and butchy lesbians.

We decided to take the little trolley ride that goes around Ptown, which starts in front of the town hall. As we were getting into the trolley, we spotted a couple guys dressed as nuns. We asked about this, and as it turned out, there was a "Sing Along Sound of Music" going on in the town hall. In case you haven't heard of this, it's become a sort of Rocky Horror Picture Show type thing - people dress up as the characters, and the lyrics to the songs appear on the screen, and everyone sings along. I want to attend one someday just for the surreal experience.

There was also a drag queen wandering around. Six foot five, in knee high black vinyl boots. She actually wasn't a very good drag queen (as drag queens go), her breasts looked fake and her wig looked too much like a wig. But I am so fascinated with drag queens because, to me, they just seem to live their lives so much more honestly than most of us. She willingly posed and vamped for all the tourists and seemed to enjoy making a spectacle of herself.

The trolley ride was entertaining and very informative. Provincetown has a really interesting history. The Pilgrims first settled on Long Point, which is the very very tip of Cape Cod. But when they found the soil to be too sandy, they took their already built houses, put them on barges and floated them across the bay and founded Provincetown where it is today. The houses that were floated across the bay nearly 400 years ago are marked by a small blue ceramic tile with a symbol of a house over little waves.

The main street of Ptown is Commercial Street, and this is where most everything, including shops, a movie theatre, and restaurants, are located. It is open to cars, but it's nearly impossible to get through by car because the street is filled with people walking, people on bikes and people walking dogs. The town is awash with color, from the rainbow pride flags hung virtually everywhere to neon signs to the rows of Portuguese flags strung across the street. The houses and shops are painted flat, vibrant pastel colors. It was so incredible that when I returned later that week, I bought some color film.