"Maybe I should get a life,"
Rite of passage
Cape Cod Times, Sept 7, 2004
https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/2004/09/07/rite-passage/50930969007/
FREDERICK MELO, STAFF WRITER
Annual Labor Day exodus proves calm
DENNIS - It was a sad sight at the Holiday Hill Miniature Golf course last night, where the last few holdouts of summer refused to admit their vacations were ending.
"We ate at a restaurant where we usually have to wait for a half-hour to an hour-and-a-half," said George Fliegelman, a retired paper wholesaler from Coventry, Conn., as his wife, granddaughter and her husband silently calculated strategy on the putting green.
"And tonight, we walked in and sat down. It's kind of sad to see a bit of a change, isn't it?"
The Labor Day holiday, observed on the first Monday in September, dates back more than 100 years and is meant to honor the social and economic achievements of American workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
On Cape Cod, however, the day has traditionally signaled the departure of thousands of tourists - the lifeblood of the Cape economy.
Following a lackluster summer marked by poor motel occupancy, a decline in automobile travel to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and relatively quiet cash registers, perhaps it should be of little surprise that even the Labor Day rush was more of a polite skitter.
Schoolchildren often see the holiday as the end of summer vacation - even though autumn doesn't officially arrive until Sept. 22.
But some residents and visitors suggested that Cape roads may also have been quieter, because many Bay State schools have already resumed classes.
"It's better than usual," said state Trooper Kris Bohnenberger, who reported a half-mile backup approaching the Sagamore Bridge at 8:45 last night.
In comparison, traffic backed up 35 miles from the Sagamore Bridge to the Orleans Rotary on Labor Day 1996, because Hurricane Edouard was approaching.
"I'm sad that the crowd is gone," said Carl Rosenberg, a retired Newton typesetter.
Now, Rosenberg splits his time between his winter getaway in Florida, his condo in Yarmouth, and Holiday Hill Miniature Golf, where he passes out putters.
"It's nice working in an environment like this," he said, already missing the pitter-patter of kids on the green.
The Cape's more than 220,000 year-round residents do, however, keep many other businesses open for 12 months, and the autumn "shoulder" season has become a popular time for many vacationers.
But some longtime residents still remember the days when most of the peninsula shuttered its doors in the off-season, bringing freedom from traffic and tourists.
"It sort of brings an end to the season," said Amalia Jacobucci, 78, of Centerville, who has been waving goodbye to drivers on Route 6 from the Route 149 overpass in West Barnstable every Labor Day since she moved to Cape Cod in 1961.
The tradition is intended to "wave the people away - I mean wave to them as they go," said Jacobucci, correcting herself with a chuckle.
"Sometimes they put up kind of nasty signs," Jacobucci said.
"'Goodbye, glad to see you're going.' Not horrible signs, but not nice signs. ... We're glad to see you go, in other words. I guess at the end of the summer, it's true."
She's seen attendance at the wave-a-thons rise and fall, and this year, it was downright pathetic, she said.
With few fellow well-wishers to urge traffic westward over the bridges, Jacobucci only stuck around 20 minutes.
"Maybe I should get a life," she joked.
(Published: September 7, 2004)