Hull Haunting
“The ghosts are here,” I say to myself as I drive through the village of this typical New England beach town I grew up in. Then the truth comes: I am the ghost. I am the ghost haunting my past, as I slowly drive by where our family house used to be before it was taken by eminent domain and burned to the ground so that a sewage plant could take its place. I see the ghost of myself waiting at the school bus stop in winter and get a chill remembering how cold my feet were.
I know the way and all the old landmark nicknames fall back into place: the sluce way, the jetty, the nike site, the army houses, the gut. I’m haunting my past as I ride by the village playground, my old high school, an old girlfriend’s house, and St. Mary’s of the Bay where we used to go to church. Now it’s a private home with lawn chairs and lobster traps out front.
Down at the gut, the furthest tip of the peninsula where I used to go parking with my boyfriends when I was a teenager, a crescent moon is up over Peddocks Island. I recall the young neighborhood boy who tried to row over to the island and died when his boat capsized in the current. The island looks close enough to hit with a thrown stone and looks even eerier now that I have seen the thriller Shutter Island, filmed in part on Peddocks Island.
A boat bell rings and the sound of people singing on a booze cruise breaks the spooky spell. Lovers cuddle arm-in-arm and fishermen pause to watch the last of the sun fall down behind the Boston skyline. With one wink it’s gone.
June 20th, 2010 9:54 pm
Love these Superior Snaps…the sunset is the best!!!
June 21st, 2010 3:16 am
Reading all that was evoked in you as you drove around, I couldn’t help but think of the town I grew up in and what it felt like to go back and visit, especialy after my mother died and she no longer resided in our family home. I didn’t do it often, but whenever I did, it made me lonely, you know? Things looked very different in many ways and I didn’t like that—like your house being burned down to make way for something that had nothing to do with your memories….It is eerie and somewhat depressing—at least it was for me.
Some part of me wishes I could go back there with my camera, just once more–but in truth, I know that will never happen, and not just because I cannot travel anymore–it would not happen even if I could still travel. Too many ghosts that I bring with me.
But in another way, Colleen, seeing it all again and spending time in Hull, while your mother is still living there is slightly different, I think. When I visited my mother for an extended time during her long last illness it was somewhat different than after she was gone.
I loved seeing your pictures, my dear.
June 21st, 2010 6:02 am
I know this feeling! I’ve always summed it up with this little verse I wrote: “The time is gone, it isn’t there any more…the place it stays, different than before.”
June 21st, 2010 6:25 am
great haunting post! was it strange seeing your island in the movie? it sounds like you are stuck in the past, when are you going home?
June 21st, 2010 7:10 am
I’ll be here for another week, 2 all together. In the evenings after my mom has gone to bed I walk the beach and then drive down to the part of town where i grew up and watch the sunset. It feels a little like a Twilight Zone episode.
The scene of Peddocks Island is the first one in the movie Shutter Island. I love watching Dennis Lehane moview because they are all based in the ‘Boston area in places I know.
June 21st, 2010 7:14 am
You did an excellent job of recreating your memories by hitting the high points. It was very haunting and I knew exactly how you were feeling taking summary of your former life.
June 21st, 2010 7:35 am
Oh..this evokes such nostalgia and memories of childhood – no matter where it was that we grew up. So hauntingly beautiful!!!
June 21st, 2010 10:57 am
That red building is the original town hall in Hull Village. Now its a firestation and the town fills the field in with water in winter which freezes for iceskating!
June 21st, 2010 1:04 pm
Beautiful photos and I love the idea of us haunting our pasts.
June 21st, 2010 3:46 pm
i know what you mean when you say that you are haunting your old home. i do the same thing when i visit bluefield, wv. somehow, even though it is sad when i think of it, when i’m there, i am a happy ghost.
June 21st, 2010 8:36 pm
I’m a happy ghost too!
June 22nd, 2010 5:42 pm
beauty in simplicity sandy
August 31st, 2010 10:53 am
[…] while in Hull, a beach town peninsula, I saw the movie Shutter Island. When it was over, I drove a mile to the end […]