What makes Provincetown so special? I don’t think I realized exactly what ‘it’ was, until I went away for a few days to visit friends.

None of the passengers on the bus ride to Logan airport talked to each other. A sign over the driver’s seat discourages conversation. It is a distraction, I presume.

My friends picked me up at the airport but they didn’t say much during the ride to their home. They were busy listening to the on board Navigator.  Did they really need a Navigator to get to their own home?

Their teenage son didn’t greet me; because he had an iPod stuck in his ear. In fact I don’t even know if the kid can speak.

We didn’t eat at their house. I was treated to a gourmet meal at a famous Chicago restaurant. However, conversation was minimal because my hosts were busy checking their Blackberries and taking pictures of our dinner on their cell phones. Making deals during dinner, it seems, is a part of our lives now that we are so accessible due to electronics.

The balance of the evening was spent watching American Idol and then “texting” our votes into the show.  God, forbid we shouldn’t vote for our favorite vocalist. Where would our economy be if the phone companies didn’t make their $.90 per call?

Do the math!

Cell phones, Blackberries, GPS Navigational systems, iPods and other electronics have dispensed with the need for ‘face to face’ communication.

Hold on, I have an email.....

I returned to Provincetown just in time for our Annual Town Meeting.

Thank God!

Say what you will about our little Hamlet by the sea, but we talk to each other!
We talk about each other, to each other and at each other.
Yet, we communicate!

And, the communication is always interesting, articulate and thought provoking.
We may not agree, but we can ‘agree to disagree’ and that is a good thing. Isn’t it?
We look each other in the eye.
We say what is on our mind.
We TALK to each other.

Coming out of Adams Pharmacy, someone I hardily know smiled and said,
“Good Morning. Welcome back!”

I almost dropped my .35 cent Styrofoam small coffee.

After a few days ‘off Cape’ I had forgotten how friendly we are in Provincetown. I was home.

Can’t you see the Easter Bonnets now?

Since we’ve had over 1,300 same sex couples get married in Town, we are the perfect location for the 2007 Family Egg Roll Outing! Just a thought. We could use the tourism in April. We certainly would have a more colorful Easter Bonnet Parade than stuffy Republican Washington D.C. Where are the Hat Sisters, during Easter week? Girls we need you!

The whales are back. Local papers are warning boaters (who has their boat in the water this time of year?) to be careful and stay away from the feeding whales.  I’ll do that. Since I don’t own a boat, it will be easy to obey.

Businesses are getting ready for the coming season. I love this time of year. Everyone is hopeful and anxious t to greet the thousands of guests we hope are planning to spend more than one afternoon in our tourism driven resort, seaside community.

I hope the $70,000 fire works for the July 4th celebration are worth the extra money! Since the fireworks usually cost about $17,000 the additional money is suppose to come from private donations. 
No one has asked me for a donation, yet. Let’s do the math. If we have 3,500 people in town and need to raise an additional $53,000, then each of us needs to fork over about $15.00 and change.  Let’s start with the Selectmen.

It’s almost time for free ice cream day, and sitting on the benches in front of Town Hall waiting for ‘ Miss Ellie’ to entertain us ( after 5 PM, of course) with her Sinatra Karaoke tunes and little red wagon theater. A girl’s got to earn a living!

Happy Spring.
Czarina

Rainbow flags fly high;"Dorothy" walks the length of commercial Street, miniture red high heel shoes sparkle in store windows. And, the is even a ‘good witch” and a bad “witch”... well ,maybe more than one or two.

The Board of Selectmen is the only all gay board in the country and some of the Town Hall employees are cross dressers and proud of it!

Could there be a better location for :freedon, fun and frivolity?

For over a hundred years members of the Gay and Lesbian community have found refuge in this tiny hamlet jutting out into the Atlantic.  Maybe there really is an “Oz” at the end of the Rainbow.

‘PTown’ , as it is affectionately called by the locals, thrives. Tourists flock to our quaint fishing village every summer to unwind, play, sunbathe in the nude, buy local art, listen to the music pouring out of the clubs along the main ‘drag’ ( no pun intended), eat lobster, savor home made fish chowder, ride their bikes into the dunes… and party.

In the past, the local Police looked the other way when crowds of gay men met at Spiritus Pizza after the bars closed to have a slice and find a partner to follow them to the ever popular “Dick Dock” (” If you spend an evening and you’ll want to stay” ... from the song that seems to describe all that is good about Old Cape Cod.

I have witnessed people stepping off the local Plymouth & Brocton bus, with a back pack and a dream. they might sleep under a boat on the beach for a few nights before they land a job “barking” a drag show or waiting on tables at an outdoor cafe’. And, I’ve also watched as Cape Air lands on a tiny runway in the dunes and the Rich & Famous or Hollywood star steps off the plane for a quiet ‘get away”.

Star or Waitron, everyone mingles on Commercial Street. Where else can you see John Waters ( Hair Spray fame) sitting on a bench drinking his morning coffee or riding his bike around town? Kevin Bacon slips into to town in the winter months to buy art and hunker down for a meal in a dark bar. Rosie O’Donnell and her wife Kelli brought the kids one summer and happen to land here in the middle of Gay Family week.... they steal the idea and start a Family Cruises… shame on you Rosie for pinching someone elses idea and going comercial on us…

Well, that WAS the “OZ” of a few years ago.... and then the Bad witch and the Wizard put their heads together and decided to change OZ into a Lesbian Nantucket!!!

No one was looking when they were plotting. the men were partying and the women were working their political careers and hoping to run for larger office… no body was watching as they began to crack down on the wild sex life and the parties............ first the “Dick Dock” was declare “unsafe” and might collapse. Therefore, police were allowed to bring search lights and dogs and clear out the area! Imagine having a flashlight in your face in the middle of having .... an intimate encounter? Then the police were allowed to arrest drag queens if ‘someone ‘ suggested that their outfits might be too revealing ( isn’t that the idea?) or the summer police would stand with their arms crossed and arrest people for WALKING HOME DRUNK!! what is the Wizard thinking? He is dressed in a straw hat, bow tie and resale shop clothes… why is the Wizard allowed to change our Town?

And, just because the “Bad Witch” is rumored to have a lot of power and money… is she allowed to fly her broom stick all over our sky… Heee Heee Heee my little Pretties… I’ll stop all the fun and build a cultural town with white picket fences and gardeners ( isn’t that economic development??) and my women friends will come for power luncheons and I will RUN THIS TOWN>>>

And, if the Wizard ( who might be afraid of the “Bad Witch” ) and the green faced witch in black have their way… the freedoms at the end of the Rainbow will soon be gone.

Will we go from “Where happy little blue birds fly… to “Quaint little villages here and there”?

As for me, I believe people come to Ptown for the sex and maybe stay to buy a piece of art.... NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

Czarina