What My Retirement Should Look Like

I often wonder what the next phase of my life will look like. I'm familiar with childhood, teen years/high school, college-into-young-adulthood, marriage, and divorce-hood. Through most of these phases, I worked, worked hard, worked multiple jobs simultaneously, and was loyal to my employers. Retirement looms in front of me now as the next big phase, but it is a ways away (a decade) and I'll have to pay off some debt (I'm looking at you, student loan!) before I get there. What do I want retirement to look like? The following fanciful constellation of jobs has been compiled from positions I've actually seen advertised this spring.

I'll be living at the New Jersey shore, Cape May specifically. That's a given, because that is where my heart is and that is where I feel most at home. The Cape May Light is my icon for this part of the universe, and recently I saw that Cape May MAC, the organization that administers the property, was advertising for Lighthouse Keepers. A dream of mine! These keepers would not have to tend to the light to keep mariners safe because that is automated. These contemporary keepers would not have to lug heavy barrels of oil up the circular wrought iron steps, either. (Have you seen the 2019 movie, The Lighthouse? It wouldn't be like that, I don't think.) These new lighthouse keepers mainly corral the many visitors and tell stories and facts to keep them occupied. One of the previous keepers offered short, illustrated lectures in the Nature Center on weekends. I could do all of this and then go for a two-mile walk in my beloved Cape May Point State Park afterwards. I don't think there's a uniform, but I seem to recall a navy blue polo shirt with the keeper's name and "Lighthouse Keeper" embroidered underneath. I would also want an authentic, retro-looking lighthouse keeper hat.

On a different day of the week, I'd schedule myself to drive over to Wildwood in my black-and-fuschia lady pirate uniform in order to portray the enemy of the Dark Star Pirate Cruise ship. This job would require captaining a small motorized vessel, shooting a powerful but harmless water cannon in the general direction of the tourists, and creating a colorful (and humorous) lady-pirate-villain costume. A pirate hat would be required. From my landlubber desk where I currently write, non of these job requirements seem prohibitive, but in rare moments of introspection I suspect I might feel a twinge of imposter syndrome. I'll snap out of it. My name would be either Lighthouse Lil (combining my first two job personas), or Maritime Margie (to preserve my 'MM' initials). I imagine that on my days of portraying the villain, I would fly big, bright, black-lace-trimmed, fuschia bloomers from the mast instead of, or in addition to, the Lighthouse Lil flag and the skull and crossbones. I will be refreshing my pirate talk fluency. 

The Robert Shackleton Theater

When I'm not guiding tourists up and down the 199 lighthouse steps, or shooting water jets at unsuspecting pirate cruisers, I predict that I will be creating and sewing costumes for one of the classy theater groups in Cape May, Cape May Stage. (I've seen lots of their plays in their little church-turned theater.) They really are, as I write, looking for a Costumer. The job description included other required skills including working with the public and lifting fifty pounds. I can lift fifty pounds, but do I have to then carry it? I can sew. I've made costumes, mostly Halloween and Colonial. Once, whe I took a career aptitude test along with my students, my result was Costumer for Opera. That result seemed outrageously specific, but it has launched me into many a daydream. Have I missed my calling? There is still time.

I will need to generate income during my retirement, and I haven't yet crunched the numbers to see if this trio of gigs will sustain me. I imagine they won't if I want to still buy books and travel. I will have to supplement this income with royalties from my award-winning, best-selling author career which is about to take off with the publication of my collection of grown-up travel essays, Nerd Traveler (published by Read Furiously, July 2021). 

July 6 from Read Furiously!!!

I've been waiting a long time to bust out of the hum-drum, the quotidienne, the quietly anonymous. In retirement, I'll have the opportunity to be a character...or four.

A To-Do List has been created:

Cape May's Secret Garden Tour

 My usual sidekick couldn't make it to the garden tour because of an illness in her family. Pneumonia scares me, so I actually encouraged her to stay home even though this would mean I'd have to navigate the tour and the lunch following at the Chalfont Hotel by myself.

Or would I? I stopped at the Washington Street Information Booth to pick up my tour packet and I was aware of a name-tagged garden tour official giving a big welcome to a pair of women who had arrived just after me. Before I claimed my tickets and packet, I realized that one of the women was Janice Wilson Stridick, who is a second-generation celebrity in Cape May. She wrote a stunning book called Light, Particularly about her mother, painter Alice Steer Wilson, and Alice's watercolors of Cape May. If you love Cape May, gardens, or watercolor paintings, you should probably have this book. If you love all three, you should definitely have it.

Janice and I run into each other periodically in Cape May. I offered her my extra ticket and we were off to visit the ten gardens with Janice's niece, Kim. The houses were in parts of Cape May that I don't frequent often--outside of the touristy beach and historic areas. I'd seen some of the homes from the front and admired their public, front-facing gardens, but being allowed in the private back gardens was a treat. These are the outside places where residents enjoy their homes in privacy.

All ten gardens were gorgeous: "One more beautiful than the next," as my mother would have said. There were begonias, ferns, magnolias (I bragged about the giant magnolia my father planted here), geraniums, and hydrangeas, all of which love the Cape May climate and sandy soil. I learned from Janice about lobelia, a plant featuring small blue flowers that grows very well in Cape May and looks great in blower boxes and planters.

lobelia

Janice also pointed out the Japanese ferns and mentioned that they are quite hardy. At the Aurorean Cottage on Corgie Street, we learned about the pair of Harry Lauder Walking Stick trees in the front. The branches of these trees are twisty as you can see from the picture.

Harry Lauder Walking Stick Tree

In-between gardens, Janice and I caught up. I met her when she was teaching English Composition at Bucks County Community College because being a librarian there, I work with that faculty often. She's not teaching college courses anymore but filled me in on what she is doing, besides touring for the book about her mother. Click on her name in the first paragraph to see what she's cooking up. Kim and Janice were both very interested in Cape May's Sherlock Holmes Weekend which I have participated in a few times. No, I assured them, you do not have to wear a costume. I blogged about that experience here.

Many of the gardens included on this tour featured garden "rooms." Under an arbor covered with old, hardy wisteria might be a lounge chair and end table for reading,

That's some 'established' wisteria!

but tucked away in a corner might be a sunnier bistro area. If you keep looking you might find a hammock among the ferns, hosta, and elephant ears. One garden featured a waist-high raised bed which seemed to be growing all of the ingredients for salad.

Really raised bed

The ornaments! Gardeners seem to love whimsy judging by how they decorate their gardens. I saw frogs, a frog fountain, a patchwork pig, mesmerizing artistic whirligigs catching the sea breezes, and antique statuary. There were gazing balls and stepping stones. Did I mention there were flowers everywhere?

Each garden also boasted a painting of the garden in which it was displayed by a local artist. These paintings were being silent-auctioned off. These were marvelous and showed how much thought and planning went into this day! Most of the artists were around to greet admirers, and how lucky am I: Janice knew almost all of them and the garden hosts, too!

After we visited the ten secret gardens, we were to report to the Chalfont Hotel for lunch. I was looking forwardto seeing the inside of the Chalfont Hotel,

and I did, sort of. The luncheon in the Magnolia Room was mobbed. On the one hand, this shows how popular the Garden Tour was, and it was good to see how many people turned up for it. Proceeds were to benefit a good cause--the Cape May Forum--and it is satisfying to see cultural Cape May celebrating itself. On the other hand, I was wondering how I was still standing after all that walking in increasingly sweltering heat when I hadn't been properly hydrating. I didn't want to be impolite, but it was going to be a while before we got to the buffet table...so I said good bye to Janice...and ghosted out...

As luck would have it, right near the stitchery store (where I picked up some DMC 3345 for a current project), I discovered Cione Gelato. According to the woman who scooped my Stracciatella and Chocolate, they have been there eight years. HOW have I not noticed that shop before, especially when it is sandwiched between the stitchery store and the gourmet shop which makes its own fresh pasta? Maybe it was a mirage, but I'm pretty sure that gelato (or the idea of it) saved my life!

So here's a round-up of Saturday's discoveries:

• LOBELIA
• JAPANESE FERNS are hardy
•  HARRY LAUDER WALKING STICK TREES
• GARDEN "ROOMS"
• WAIST-HIGH RAISED BEDS
• CIONE GELATO 
• STRACCIATELLA means chocolate chip

I'm inspired!

Celebrating My Dad's 100th Birthday in Authentic Cape May

Opposing traffic in the Delaware Bay on a hazy July day

It's hard not to think about him in this house that he modified and added to, and furnished with woodworked objects he made while at sea. The fig tree (it had a rough time this winter) and the magnolia he planted are still thriving outside in the yard, but his vegetable garden is gone. Today would have been my Dad's hundredth birthday, and as he wasn't around to celebrate, I tried to imagine what he might like to do.

Albert Montet, ca. 1966

He liked ships and boats having been a career US Coast Guard guy, so I figured I should spend time on some kind of vessel. I selected the Cape May-Lewes Ferry because he liked that particular fleet of ships. He lived in Cape May before the ferry came in 1964, and enjoyed cruising on it once it started running. It was more like a bus on water then, and I think he'd be amused by the newer, more comfortable ferries that run now.

The ferry waits for me to board. (From the Skywalk)

I brought my camera because Dad liked to shoot photos (SLR) and so do I (DSLR). He'd have liked these Osprey chicks I caught at the Lewes (Delaware) Terminal--he was a nature guy, too.

4 chicks

The dolphins were out today, but not exactly posing for photographs.

Dolphins frolicking near the ferry.

One thing I wasn't able to do is swim in the Cape May Canal. Dad used to love to do this, and I remember going with him and the rest of the family. It used to be a big-deal, right-of-passage to swim across and back, but I never did that. At some point in the 1970s they widened and deepened the canal (built during World War II) and there was no more beach and no more swimming. There's way too much boat traffic anyway.

Canal traffic

It just so happened that Dad's 100th birthday fell on a full moon, and even better, a SUPER moon! The Friends of the Cape May Lighthouse (and I am one) open the lighthouse on summer evening with a full moon so that visitors can climb to the top to take in the moonlit view. I think Dad would have liked this because it's an authentic nautical Cape May thing combined with a natural phenomenon. He would not have liked the crowd, and neither did I except that two-way traffic on those narrow spiral wrought-iron stairs slows traffic down a bit, and it would have been impossible to "run" up and down as I posted (tongue-in-cheek) on Facebook. Anyhoo, without a tripod and with all of the other folks, it was difficult to shoot clever photos. I resorted to some quick iPhone snaps.

7-12-14 Super Moon over the Atlantic Ocean with the CM Lighthouse beam

Cape May Lighthouse

I think Dad would approve of his birthday festivities. In just under eight years, it will be Mom's turn: shopping and ice cream, I think (also in Cape May).

The Quilt Show at Historic Cold Spring Village

I visit Historic Cold Spring Village at least once a year or so, usually for one of their weekly (in the summertime) special events. I blogged about the place back in 2011 right here, but today I'm focusing on the Quilt and Fiber Arts Show. We walked among the authentic Cape May County buildings brought to this location to form this little village and visited various vendors of fabric and fibers along the way. We saved the Country Store and its old-timey and handmade merchandise for last.

The Country Store is housed in the James Hathorn House (c. 1722/1780)

The Ice Cream Parlor was doing a brisk business this day...

The Ice Cream Parlor is located in the Ewing-Douglass House (c. 1850)

...and the Bakery offered some tempting treats.

The Ezra Norton House from Dias Creek (c. 1850) houses the Village Bakery

But we're here for fabrics and fibers, remember? Over at the Spicer-Leaming House (c.1817), a costumed interpreter was showing a visitor how the spinning wheel works. We watched.

Across the road at the Corson-Hand House (c. 1837), experts were demonstrating wool carding, and down around the corner my friends from Jersey Shore Alpacas had a tent set up where they were selling luxurious alpaca yarns and gorgeous soft things made from these fibers. This farm is right around the corner from Cold Spring, and Tish and Jim welcome visitors to their farm to visit the alpacas and browse through their store full of soft alpaca things. (Check the link above first, though.) They even offer workshops!

I like the crocheting and knitting, but quilting is my true medium of expression. The first bunch of quilts on display were hung in the 1894 Welcome Center. Visitors got to vote on their favorites on Saturday, and we got to see the winners in various categories when we were there on Sunday. As a person who has entered quilts in shows, I think they're all winners. It's not easy to put your creation out there for all to see and judge! Here are some samples:

There were quilt supply vendors at the Walter P. Taylor Octagon House (c. 1880 and formerly a chicken coop), and at the Dennisville Inn (c. 1836) where I got some red cotton velveteen for a crazy quilt I plan to tackle soon. I never seem to have enough cash for all the things I would like to buy (four or five hundred would be a good start), but that is just as well since I wouldn't have the time to actually stitch the stuff. Maybe this year I'll finish something and enter it in next year's show...but for now...more inspiration...

There were more quilts displayed by the Gazebo (see them at the top of this post) and that was also the site of the QUILT QUIZZO trivia game. Visitors were formed into groups by organizer Merry May, a respected and accomplished quilter from Tuckahoe, NJ. We answered questions on quilt history, quilting innovations, and famous quilters, for example, and after two rounds our Team C had pulled away from the pack. This was a good thing, as Round Three was all about anagrams, my Achilles Heel and my Waterloo. The scrambled words were names of classic quilt blocks, but it doesn't matter because my brain is missing the anagram figurer-outer synapse. But Oh Happy Day! We won!

Margie and Janet show off their Quilt Quizzo medals of fine gold plastic.

Views from the Promenade (Cape May, New Jersey, USA)

Go to Cape May, take a camera, take a walk, and shoot. I used my iPhone which was also keeping track of our distance (5 miles total!) and calories burned through my pedometer app. Here's a sample of the photos you're likely to take away from the 1.4-mile Promenade...

Autumn Baywalk

Gladys the Sheltie wanted me to show you what we saw on our walk this afternoon at the Delaware Bay. It was low tide, so the beach looked like this:

and we saw lots  of things washed-up on the sand.

Coral

A claw

And, of course, shells

There was a recently-deceased or napping horseshoe (I'm told not to call them crabs because they are more like spiders, actually),

and a gull looking for lunch hiding just under the sand.

Since it was super-low tide, I got some close-up shots of this jetty which is usually under the water. Who knew so many critters lived under there?!

The Cape May-Lewes Ferry made an appearance after the HOOOOOONNNNNK HONK HONK HONK warning signal.

The ferry is leaving the canal.

 Gladys had had enough by now,

...so we headed home to rest while our crepe myrtle tree is doing this because it is autumn!