I know I know I haven't been around for a bit. I am still continuing my "spring cleaning". That has taken up much of my time. I also found it therapeutic to get away from my computer. Not to say that I haven't used it. I have but mostly as a resource and to respond to the odd email. Last Sunday was a beautiful day and I did not want to spend it indoors. The weather around here has been fairly dismal though we do need the rain, and we're getting it. Back to last Sunday. We headed out to Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester Ma. Yes that Gloucester of the Gloucester Fisherman fame. Gloucester is a working town. It's very rustic with a long history. It's really two places. The lower middle class working town and then there's the very wealthy community who's homes line the seashore. My friends parent used to own a cottage about one street away from the beach. I spent a very good part of the 1970's at Good Harbor beach. My favorite beach. The cottage was very deceptive from the front. It appeared to be a one story building but in reality, built on a hill, it could house three separate families and was really 3 floors. The basement was a complete unit with a kitchen and bed rooms. The same with the first and second floor. It was quite remarkable. My friends family would spend their summers there while renting out the other units. I stupidly didn't take a picture of it when I was there last week. What was I thinking or perhaps I just wasn't thinking at all. I did get shots of the beach though. The first and second shots are of either end of the beach. There were people there with their kids or dogs or both just enjoying the beautiful day. You can also see a couple of homes on either end of the beach right on the water. One can only imagine the cost of these places. The island you see just off shore is called Turtle Island because it looks like a big turtle. It's really just a huge rock. I have never been there. I have many fond memories of that beach and cottage. Oddly enough the cottage, built on the side of a hill only afforded one view of the ocean and that was from the bathroom while one was sitting on the toilet seat. Still not a bad summer place to have. It all ended sadly though as my friend's mother sold the place, much to the regret and ire of her 4 children who, wanted to buy it and keep it in the family. At the time it was all very ugly. I had never heard of Good Harbor until the 70's. Up until then I had only been to more local beaches. The closest being Revere Beach about 7 miles away. Revere used to be quite the hot spot, with kiddie rides, roller coaster, all kinds of shooting galleries, games, nightclubs and maybe a few hotels. When I used to go there as a child and a teenager and it was in decline then and the Blizzard of'78 finished it off. The ocean broke the sea wall and destroyed most everything. It's all condos and apartment buildings now with a few clubs and bars. Still it was a fun place pretty close to home and it has the distinction of being the first public beach in the U.S. Why it's named after Paul Revere I don't know. Shame on me for not knowing. I will find out though. In the meantime here are a few shots of Good Harbor from Sunday May 6.
Below is a moving version of the above pictures.
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In the meantime I have been, of course, working. I have taken up another task. I have a rather large comic book collection both from childhood and from my mid twenties when I realized that those 10 and 12 cent magazines I had boxed in the attic were worth money. For the next 10 or so years I bought them again with investing on my mind. I stopped again when a single issue cost 75 cents. It was just getting too expensive. Leap forward about 22 years and I have decided to find out just how well some these mags appreciated. Armed with a new price guide I am tearing, well perhaps tearing is not the right word. I am carefully going the the lot separating the winners from the losers. It's a huge undertaking at least in my little world. I'm not really sure how many I have. I have about half of them with me while the other half is still in that same attic at the old family home. In total there are about 5000 to 6000 books. I would like to dump off all the losers to a local comic shop in bulk for whatever I can get. The rest I will separate into lots of $10 to $100 for single issues and the rest are long runs of individual books such as Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and so on. I want to get the good books professionally graded and re-bagged for sale as a complete group at an auction. This may take a year and will cost some money but when you see prices like Fantastic Four #1 in near mint condition going for $80,000 it makes you wonder. I have that issue not in near mint condition, hey I was 9 when I got it. Still that one 10 cent investment in 1960 could bring anywhere from $2500 to $5000. Not a bad return on a 10 cent investment even with inflation.
I used to joke about this as part of my retirement portfolio. I have gone through about 800 so far. Well when all is said and done iin a year or so.
So that's what's going on at my end, so to speak. I have piles of comics around me. It's a beautiful Sunday, as was last Sunday, but today, as the kids say or maybe used to say, I'm chillin'.
Go Celtics!
I'm outta here.
