Ten Things About Where I Grew Up

1) I grew up on Cape Cod. In a small village called Osterville, with the ocean all around us. It was a great place to grow up.

2) Osterville is known for having very well-off residents, and most of my friends were really rich. I used to be so embarrassed to say I lived in Osterville because I didn't want people to think I was rich, so I used to say we lived in the bad part of town. Ha! There is no bad part of town :)

3) My parents owned and ran a homemade ice cream shop on the Cape for 20 years, called Maggie's (named after my mom). It opened when I was 6, and I was serving customers by age 12. By the ripe old age of 16, I was a manager. All 6 of us kids had to work in the shop in order to make money for college. Having a family business really instills a great work ethic in kids.

4) When I went to Ohio for college (FUS is the best!), I used to tell people I was from Boston because I didn't think they would know where Cape Cod was. Turns out I was wrong, and everybody seems to know about Cape Cod!

5) In the summers on the Cape, the traffic is horrible due to all the tourists. Having an ice cream shop, we valued the tourists...they were our bread and butter.

Even still, my favorite Cape Cod bumper sticker has to be:

6) Wait, maybe my favorite Cape bumper sticker is: It makes all the tourists think there's a special tunnel to get onto the Cape, when there's really only 2 bridges to get on/off the Cape.

7) Speaking of the bridges, they get very backed up in the summer. Especially on Friday nights for people coming on Cape, Saturday mornings for the weekly renters coming on and leaving the Cape, and Sunday afternoon for all the weekend visitors leaving the Cape. It's really a pain for the Cape residents because we have to plan our off-Cape excursions around the summer traffic.

8) Around the time I was in high school, Cape Cod Bracelets became all the rage. I never wanted one then because they were too expensive and trendy, but now that I can appreciate their simple beauty, I sort of want one. If anybody watches the Bachelorette, Chris from the Cape just gave Ali one. Not that I would ever watch that trash ;)

9) Even though there have always been lots of beaches around, I am not a great swimmer. And I do not swim in the ocean if I can help it. I have a great respect for the ocean, and I don't like stepping into an environment with fish and crabs and jelly fish and sharks. Sharks do come around the Cape every once in a while, like now for example. And the jelly fish come out when the water is hot. So, I bring my kids to the beach a lot, and let them swim, but I stay on the shore. I'm such a dud!

10) I now live off Cape, about 25 minutes from the bridge. But I still work on the Cape, and Phil and I hope to continue the tradition of running an ice cream store some day in our future. And since we have a daughter named Maggie, we could still call it Maggie's Ice Cream :)

OK, your turn. Blog about your hometown, and paste the link in the comments section so I can read more about you!!