Cottage Industry

"Timonium Tape"

Ryan rolls out a strip of Duck Tape.

The rose pen!

My brand new wallet!


Paige models a Duck Tape hair accessory.

Continuity is one of the great joys of returning to a summer colony year after year. It is difficult to differentiate one season from the next on Mere Point, yet we have grown to know and love three generations of our neighbors in this place. It is really the children who mark the passing of time, although their activities are much the same. They still plunge fearlessly into ice cold water to swim for hours on end, forts are constructed from odd bits of wood (always available!), they turn their faces to the wind in boats, play whiffle ball in the meadow, invent games on rainy days and apply their boundless ingenuity earning a little money to buy Judy's penny candy at the marina.

Blackberries are sold by the side of the road and rocks and shells are painted in bright colors. Beads are strung into bracelets and necklaces more precious than gold. Our cottage dresser drawers are full of these treasures. Sometimes when I hold a small glittering object in my hand, I wonder which year, whose child made this, before replacing the small fragment of history back in its small box, knowing, full well, I'll never be able to "simplify."

Young Paige (10) and Ryan (13) launched "Timonious Tape" this summer creating a rainbow of wondrous accessories made from humble Duck Tape. I was utterly entranced by the business-like brother and sister team and their considerable inventory. Together, they have produced wallets, purses, and whimsically decorated pens which sell briskly, although the entrepreneurs told me the profits are mostly rolled back into the business. I was an eager customer, I always am!

Ryan told me there is an additional benefit working with Duck Tape. It is an excellent way to remove warts!


Duck Tape applied as first aid!

Today's link from "You Must Remember This."