When A Holiday Looks A Little Different Than Normal
From the desks of: Amy Goldberg
Memorial Day weekend – typically the kick-off to summer as well as, of course a time to celebrate the heroes that we have lost. In 2020, it feels a bit different. Not only are there many types of heroes to celebrate, the start to summer may mimic our recent weather patterns… some high highs and some occasional and unusual low, lows.
Perhaps it’s the ever present “event planner” in me (my family actually refers to me as Amy Plan-berg rather than Amy Goldberg), but no matter the circumstance, I am always looking to roll into action to gather with those that we can, to have something to look forward to, and an experience with lasting memories.
Last year, I was fortunate to have been invited by friends to Nantucket during the long holiday weekend. We had a “crew” of 9 staying at a beautiful waterfront property in Wauwinet, a bit outside of the wild downtown scene for the Figawi races, but still many in the house woke up early on Saturday morning to return to Hyannis to climb aboard a boat and race back to Nantucket sound that afternoon.
For our crew…who was a bit north of the “wild-side” age group, the weekend was packed with beach walks with the chocolate and yellow labs, the inaugural deep clean of the countless windows (both inside and out) of the house (an appropriate task for all us free-loaders), poking into shops and lunches out and about around town and homemade feasts back at the home front for dinner…including a dinner party for 25 with silly jokes and jabs about what place the gentlemen finished in the race!
It was one of those weekends when everything was just perfect, just the way it was supposed to be. The weather cooperated beautifully, wind when needed to sail, and still when you wanted to set the table for dinner outside with a water view. The group of people, nearly all strangers to me upon arrival, with the exception of course of our hosts, I would call brand new friends yearning for more memories to make together as we boarded the boat home.
In 2020, as much as I am a gal of tradition, especially when you’ve had such a magical experience the prior year, I had hoped of again returning to Wauwinet for the holiday weekend, but the universe had other plans…for all of us!
To me, it said…full steam ahead in pooling your creative juices to celebrate and create new memories, memories unique to this year and these circumstances. Actually, besides everyone being on this side of the sound, we were highly successful in getting the “band back together” so to speak. Of course there were socially distant cookouts around the firepit, and walks with the dogs on the beach (a different but equally beautiful, and sadly more crowded beach), zoom chats with those that were not close by…the best parts were the lawn Olympics which included the dizzy waiter, water balloon catch and no-handed donut on a string contest,
But also, the Figawi race reenactment!
Picture…the boys with their toys!! We actually managed to set up a regatta style race for them…but with remote control sail boats – which, to be honest, might have given them better odds to place well in the 2021 race!
All in all, a fantastic holiday weekend…filled with laughter and great memories. The moral of the story here…why would we want to do exactly what we did in the past…it’s amazing what fun is to be had thinking about things in a new and different way.