My wife’s paternal grandparents started coming to Cape Cod in the 1930s. They camped at Popponesset Beach, Mashpee. As seen in the above post card, the camping area had “all modern conveniences,” by which they meant a water pump and an outhouse!

By 1940 my wife’s family had purchased a twenty-five-foot-wide lot designed for tenting on Wilson’s Grove, Popponesset. Her father built a one-room cottage, but further development along the shore in this part of the Cape was delayed by World War II. This family history is why we still come to Mashpee today.

My wife collects Cape Cod material, especially of course items relating to Mashpee. Mashpee, until 1870, was called the Marshpee District, the area reserved for the Wampanoag Indians living on the Cape. As a result, Mashpee did not become a tourist area like other areas of the Cape and there are relatively fewer items than for the other parts of the Cape. One thing you can find are items and especially post cards of Camp Farley, the local camp that is still operating today.

One of the prizes of her Mashpee collection is a 1938 Camp Farley brochure.

One of the reasons we love coming to the Cape in the summer is to get out of the Texas heat and enjoy the relatively mild climate. While the Cape is lovely in the summer, one statement in the Camp Farley “What to Bring” list jumped out at us.

Do you see it? “Bedding – Four heavy wool blankets or their equivalent and a small pillow. The nights are often cold.” Okay. Then underlined for emphasis “Three blankets are not enough.” Over the years this has stuck with us and we have commented to each other “Three blankets are not enough!” Obviously there has been some change in the weather when you need four wool blankets in the heart of the summer. Recall the camp was only open June 26 to August 7th.

Here things stood until a few weeks ago, when I came across a Camp Farley post card. It was a fairly common example, but I nonetheless pointed it out to my wife. She noticed what I had not.

Written in July 1942, a camper is asking for – wait for it – another blanket! “If & when Auntie comes down, will you send down another blanket. It is awful cold down here.” How could this not become part of the collection? It is a cautionary tale; when they say “three wool blankets are not enough” you should believe them. I hope the camper got her blanket!

This little Cape Cod story to my mind perfectly illustrates some of the joys of collecting – making connections, learning something (here about climate change) and having fun. I hope all of you have some similar experiences in your endeavors.