Rifkin's Reflections
Born 66 years ago and not a day too soonFamily owned and operated company serving the Cape Cod area. We service all makes of residential and commercial air conditioning and warm air heating, as well as commercial refrigeration for our HVAC clients. 24 hour emergency service. (Hyannis)
An architecturally inspired design build collaborative of an architect, a builder, and a landscaper which offers an all-in-one solution to your home design needs. (Yarmouth)
Directory of more than 200 wedding professionals with contacts and cost information. (Dennis)
A fun music school in Hyannis offering private lessons for guitar, bass, drums, piano, voice, theory and audio engineering, as well as rock band class, where kids get to rehearse and play in a band which does public performances around the Cape. (Hyannis)
Christmas joy came early to Cotuit this year
Christmas in Cotuit was a great success Saturday

Santa arrived at the Cotuit Town Landing by boat to the delight of the waiting crowd.

Magician Peter Boie makes a peace dove appear at the Cotuit Public Library before the arrival of Santa.

Face painting, a magic show and soon Santa--what kid wouldn't have wanted to be in Cotuit Saturday?

You can tell by the kids' expressions that Peter Boie must be on heck of a magician!

The kids weren't the only onese waiting for Santa. Here, Nicholas waits for St. Nick!

Who doesn't love a candy cane, especially when it comes from Santa!
The 2008 Sandwich Turkey Day Trot
Santa and 1,500 runners raced through our oldest town this morning

The adults start off (don't use that crosswalk for a bit), and below is the start of the "Kid's Dash."
The Thanksgiving We Gather Together 5K Walk/Run is now a Cape tradition
Text and photos by Paul Rifkin

It wasn't all sweat and shin splits, Santa greeted the non-runners as well.

Runner #89 sported a "Turkey Hat" for the occasion.
About 1,500 runners ran this morning in the eighth annual Thanksgiving We Gather Together 5K Walk/Run.
The race started at 8AM. It was proceeded by the "Kidz Dash", a quarter-mile race for children under 12.
The registration fee for the race is $10 plus a bag of at least 10 non-perishable grocery items. The groceries are delivered to the Sandwich Food Pantry and pantries in Falmouth, Bourne and Hyannis.
The 3.1-mile route takes in the Historic Sandwich Village winding it's way past Heritage Museums and Gardens, Shawme Pond and along Main Street. Time Out Productions Executive Director Rich Havens introduced the new route last year and moved the starting location from the Stop & Shop Plaza to the Wing School.
“We feel that our new 5K running and walking route takes in much more of the historic part of Sandwich by going through Shawme Pond and up by Heritage and down through Main Street,” he said.

The "Kid's Dash" started a little later, and a grand time was had by all visiting Shawme Pond, Heritage Museums & Gardens and strolling along Main Street of the Cape's oldest town.
A peaceful promenade through the Mashpee Indian Meeting House Cemetery
“There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!”
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Wild turkeys wander around the Mashpee Indian Meeting House Cemetery.
The Old Indian Meeting House was built in 1684 on Santuit Pond by Deacon John Hinckley and was moved to its present location on Route 28 in 1717.
It is the oldest church building on Cape Cod and was used by the Mashpee Wampanoag at the time as a Christian church. It was also used as a school. The meeting house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
The Mashpee tribe still uses this site for worship, meetings, and social activities.
The Old Indian Meeting House, at 410 Meetinghouse Road in Mashpee, is currently undergoing renovations.
A walk around the burial grounds revealed the following interesting headstones:

Russell Peters' headstone

Aikens headstone
A mighty tree's final fall in Cotuit
Rifkin and other residents weep for the willow
On August 25, 2008, a fierce nor'easter tried to topple the mighty weeping willow tree that has adorned the corner of School and Main Street (the very center of the village) for over a century.
After the storm, that evening, things didn't look good:

But at first light, August 26, 2008, it was evident that the robust willow wasn't going down that easily:

But alas, on November 24, 2008, man accomplished what nature could not. The tree was on the property of Archi-Tech Associates, Inc., at 6 School Street. In spite of precautionary bracing and extensive limb pruning there were instances of branches breaking off and landing in the street, on vehicles or on the building.
The owners of Archi-Tech decided that safety concerns outweighed the aesthetics of the village landscape and natural history.
And so...


There was no turning back...

And now, Rifkin and many other Cotuit residents weep for the fallen willow.

"Stuff the Bus -- Feed the Hungry"

Difficult financial time lead Fred Schneider to donate the use of his bus to help raise money and food donations for the hungry.
Fred is a congregant of Our Savior Lutheran Church at 14 Cape Drive in Mashpee. The church is spearheading the
"Stuff the Bus- Feed the Hungry" project.
Fred's bus was parked in the Mashpee Stop & Shop parking lot on Sunday.
If you want to help, contact the Reverend Randall Bessett at 508-477-4966 or ro412@aol.com.
A final gesture for peace

Eve D. Casey of Mashpee died in Mashpee on October 30, 2008 at the age of 93 1/2.
Several days before her passing this sweet lady, the mother of a friend of mine, Jim Casey, a Mashpee builder and carpenter, wanted to make a final statement and asked her son to take a picture of her with a "Stand for Peace" button.
Jim tells me his mom was a promoter of peace her entire life.
-- Paul Rifkin
The ineffable humor of Cape Codders
That's a shell of a tree on Long Beach in Centerville

Cape Codders are a wry people, and much of our humor is ineffable and charming. How many gentle folk have contributed a chambered nautilus to the bare branch's of this bush we may never know, but the effect is pure Yankee humor.
And this chair, which I call "Summer is over - Long Beach loneliness" may simply be a beach chair forgotten on the strand.
But these bouys left, on the Cotuit Dock before sunrise, become art all by themselves without any help from a photographer... except he was there at that improbable time to shoot it.
A little morning row in Cotuit

While most of Cape Cod was still snuggled beneath down comforters, the Cotuit and Cape Cod Rowing Clubs went out for a morning row at sunrise today.

The rowers from the Cape Cod Rowing Club (Centerville) gather with members of the of the Cotuit Rowing Club at sunrise Sunday for the morning scull shown above.
The Colors of Cotuit
The Colors of Cotuit
As August comes to an end, it appears to be another glorious week in Cotuit. Particularly in the morning when all is quiet and a little corner of the world called Cape Cod is just waking up.

Katie White of Ashton Mass., gets coffee and watches the sunrise at Ropes Beach in Cotuit before her kids wake up.

Steve Redgate, of Bar Harbor, Maine (which is also drop-dead beautiful) captures Cotuit in the morning.

Bob Blackwell and Bailey set out on their sailyak in Cotuit Harbor.

And they're off (with Bob doing most of the work).
About This Blog
Paul Rifkin was born 66 years ago and not a day too soon. Socialist Jewish blood flows through his arteries and veins - his capillaries are getting clogged with the righteous indignation directed toward our fellow citizen's complicity with the immorality of our government.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., first kiss at the age of 14 at Pottstown (PA) Community Camp, U.S. Army (1960-1962) honorably discharged but barely, graduated from George Washington University (1965), San Francisco hippie (1965-1972), Zen Buddhist monk (1972-1974), world traveler, hedonist and womanizer (1974-1979), ran Boston Marathon (1982) but barely, settled down with Ellen Mycock (1988) and stopped womanizing, co-owner of Moonakis Cafe in Waquoit, Falmouth (1989-present), photographer (1948-present), professional videographer (1994-present) peace activist (seemingly forever), hot-tempered but good-hearted (from birth).
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Archives
- Peace
- Christmas joy came early to Cotuit this year
- The 2008 Sandwich Turkey Day Trot
- A peaceful promenade through the Mashpee Indian Meeting House Cemetery
- A mighty tree's final fall in Cotuit
- "Stuff the Bus -- Feed the Hungry"
- A final gesture for peace
- The ineffable humor of Cape Codders
- A little morning row in Cotuit
- The Colors of Cotuit
- The early photographer catches bird
- Cotuit Mosquito Yacht Club and two dawns
- Chatham mussels and horseshoe crabs at Cotuit Town Landing
- Cotuit Fourth of July Parade
- A Vermeer-like morning opens into a Buddha beautiful day
- Cape Cod Dog Days
- Cicada Stew and Osprey's Breakfast
- When a turtle has to mail a letter...
- Helping to re-elect a great State Rep
- Saving a Cygnet
- Welcome to Paul's world
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