NATIONAL PARK SERVICE -RANGER BOB POTVIN 1964

Knowing how to get anything in life requires a certain skill and determination. This is how I obtained a Ranger position at the Cape Cod National Seashore!

• My college professor gave us the rules: Know somebody!
• Let these somebodies know of your desires.
• Put it in writing.
• Don't give up.
• Remain optimistic
• Voila!

It's hard to explain what my life working at Cape Cod was like. I wore a uniform...wore a Smokey Bear hat..and lived in a small colony of Lifeguards and other Rangers in the tiny Cape town of North Truro, Mass.

We were young and sure to have our way. The summer proved to be surreal.

Visitors from all over the world came to Cape Cod as they do today. We were public servants.. helping people. The duties were quasi military. The Department of the Interior was our boss.

More than 50 years have passed since Cape Cod National Seashore became a reality. With an Executive Order President John F. Kennedy made it official. JFK's love of all of the Cape insured passage.

Quaint in every regard, The Outer Cape is heaven for me. The Pounding surf at Nauset or Longnook Beaches are a rhapsody  and sometimes a roar. The sandunes whisper with their shifting sands. Digging your own steamer clams is fun. Walking hand in hand is for lovers. Forget Virginia!

So man books have been written about the Cape and Mrs. Connie Richardson tipped me off years ago in reading 'THE Outermost house  by JAMES Beston. Get it at your library and enjoy the vicarious moment in the storm. I did.. and will call for it again from "Holly-Librarian!"

Cape Cod truly begins with summer. It happens!

Donald ST. Cyr