EASTHAM — The 400 Commemoration Committee isn’t waiting until 2020 to start the celebrations; the first of its events, in partnership with the Eastham Public Library, takes place this Sunday, Sept. 15, at the Salt Pond Visitors Center. Kathleen Bragdon, an ethnographer and author of Native People of Southern New England 1500-1650 will present a lecture titled “First Encounters Before the First Encounter,” about early visitors to North America and their interactions with the native communities of the Outer Cape before the Mayflower’s arrival. The program begins at 2 p.m.
At the committee’s meeting on Aug. 29 Chair Jim Russo gave updates on the progress of several other efforts. The website celebrating the 400th anniversary of the fabled “first encounter” between Native Americans and the Mayflower Pilgrims was approved and is now live at easthamthefirstencounter.org. A 24-inch propane-fueled “fire bowl” was confirmed as a suitable alternative to the beach bonfire nixed by the town fire marshal. And the Patmos Gallery is donating space for an interfaith exhibit, currently a work-in-progress, in its location at Rock Harbor.
Unfortunately, the shallop Elizabeth Tilley has not found a berth there. The committee sees the vessel as a major component in next year’s celebrations, and the ship’s owners have agreed to loan it to the town free of charge, but the Eastham side of Rock Harbor can accommodate ships up to only 33 feet long — five feet short of the Tilley’s length.
The 400 Commemoration Committee will make a public presentation at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15 at the Centers for Culture & History, 3 River Road in Orleans.
Select board masters time travel
The Eastham Select Board met on Monday, Sept. 9 after a three-week hiatus — a busy period that encompassed the housing lottery [see separate story] and Windmill Weekend. More than a bit of board business had piled up in its absence. The backlog precipitated an unusual suggestion by Selectman Alexander Cestaro: “I make a motion to go back in time and grant the license.”
He was referring to an application by Arnold’s Restaurant for a one-day liquor license for a fundraising event that had already taken place, three days earlier, on Sept. 6.
Despite the clear violation of Einstein’s theory of relativity, Select Board Chair Amy Eckman assured her colleagues that this was not the first time such an approval had been issued retroactively. The motion passed unanimously.
