Pretty Much Why I Moved Out Of Duxbury

Duxbury Beach Nor'Easter, January Something, 2005

"My s***'s more John Blaze than that!"

 

   That's not an ocean OR a lake pictured below down there... that's actually an upcoming condo development, from the haystacks to the houseboat in the distance... and the main road/only way out is behind the house.

   Behind the road behind the house, we have the Great Salt Marsh and the Cut River. The town is dead enough that you can hear the PA announcer at the Duxbury High (which is behind the trees in the far background) football games over the marsh.

   It freezes in a cold winter, and you can skate on salt water. It's bumpy, but it can host a half-fast hockey game. You know you live in New England when you've shot a hockey puck at a lobster pot.

   I'd probably avoid purchasing one of these condos, although taking a canoe across the flood zone to Duxbury High School would be a good Eccentric Teacher move if I ever got a job there.

   Once you get used to it, it's sort of fun- especially if you have a zealous insurance policy on your house. I used to have a cellar when I lived there, and it would flood 1-5 times a year. We'd try not to keep anything exceptionally valuable down there.

   I just may be the only person in the world who has thrown a dead shark (only 2 feet, a dogfish) out of their cellar before. A storm also- if it breaches the foundation- can put 4 feet of sand in your basement... which you then have to shovel out of the window.

 

 In slightly less angry storms, a good way to flirt with a fast end to your life is to try a "Death Run."

   "Death Runs" are when you wait for the waves to recede a bit, jump off that seawall onto the beach, and run as far as you can before grabbing onto the wall and pulling yourself up. If your timing sucks (and mine does), you  get smashed into a concrete seawall by a huge wave.

   I've seen a few people pay the price doing Death Runs. I saw a kid get bashed off the seawall once, and everybody I know has had at least one good soaking at the hands of Mother Atlantic.

   The seawall was built around 1954, and it needs work in a few spots. The US Army Corps Of Engineers built it. It's about a 6-12 foot drop to the beach,depending on how much beach has been eroded beneath it.

   To my knowledge, it hasn't had a "real" hurricane hit it yet. I think it went up right after Carol, and Duxbury took only glancing blows from Hurricanes Bob/Gloria/Belle etc... The worst wind I ever saw there (we had an anemometer... umm, wind speed thingy) was a 90 mph gust in the Perfect Storm in 1991.

   We usually get Nor'Easters, which are a mid-sized tropical storms that hang around for 6-10 tides. The Perfect Storm and the Blizzard of 1978 were both essentially hurricanes, and they inflicted catastrophic damage on this neighborhood.

   While neither was a Katrina, you don't want to be in an area that is having a 3 day tropical storm. The Perfect Storm hit on October 30th, and waves were still splashing my house on November 2nd.

   Just so you know that we're not totally stupid, most of these pictures were taken behind sliding glass doors, or from somewhat shielded positions on somebody's porch.

   Those waves kick up a lot of rocks, and you can get stoned like Chong if your luck runs out as a wave hits. In less serious matters, the waves tend to hit the seawall and spray water straight up (the seawall sort of curves towards the ocean suddenly near the top.

   Of course, the wind is coming in off the water at 25-70 mph, so all that spray is blown at you. You sort of get a feel for it after a few years, and you can watch rookies get soaked down while you are watching from behind a house.