Beach Glass

My first beach glass adventure last summer was actually beach china. We spent a week after a Boston wedding at the bride's parents house in Dennisport, which is approximately mid-Cape. Our friends chose Dennisport because they can choose between Nantucket Sound beaches and those on the inner claw of the Cape. Because they are homeowners, they can purchase a season sticket for their car to use the beach parking lots. Nonresidents have to pay about $15/day to park, a tax collected by the young people of the town who monitor the parking lots.

So we piled in the car and drove to the south part of the town, to a long narrow beach with a long narrow parking lot. The advantage of this beach, our hosts explained, was the proximity of one's car to the water, especially advantageous when carrying beach umbrellas and picnic baskets.

This beach was shallow and had gentle swells rather than waves, perfect for strolling in ankle deep water. Not many shells, either on the beach or in the clear water. Certainly no beach glass, those shards polished and sanded over many years in the water. But then I found it. A rim of a plate, blue spongeware on cream, almost the size of my palm. It looked old, very old.

I took it to my friends, and said "The lifeguard told me that this is from a wreck that went down in the 1820's. Pieces have been washing ashore every few years since then." They believed me, for a moment.