Don’t forget that on the Fourth of July, the Chappy Ferry does not carry vehicles during the parade and fireworks.

The parade route blocks vehicle access to and from the ferry. The parade leaves the school grounds at 5 p.m., so starting at 4:15 p.m. the ferry stops carrying vehicles. Foot passengers are carried during the parade. When the tail end of the procession passes the top of Daggett street the folks from Chappy pour down the street to line up for the ferry. The ferry carries 48 passengers per trip and there have been as many as 500 parade watchers. It may take up to an hour to get them all across and clear Daggett street so that vehicles can safely pass. Figure that will be roughly 6:30 p.m.

The fireworks begin sometime between 9 and 9:15 p.m. The ferry stops carrying cars a half hour (8:45 p.m.) before that because Dock street becomes clogged with fireworks watchers. Foot passengers will continue to be carried except when the fireworks display is actually happening. After the fireworks finale, the folks that went over to Chappy to watch will line up in the parking lot to get back to town. Dock street will still be clogged with people. Therefore, the ferry concentrates on just foot passengers for at least until 10:15 p.m. when vehicles will again be carried.

A couple of weeks ago the Misses and I were headed up to Harwich. Right after we cleared the Mashpee rotary we head a buzzing sort of whining sound. We turned to each other, disappointment in our expressions. The car wasn’t that old and already the water pump has bit the dust? We tried various ways to make sure that it was our vehicle that was emitting the noise. Problem was that it didn’t seem to be related to engine speed or to vehicle speed. I suggested that perhaps it was the beat-up work van behind us. I suggested when we turned off onto the Marstons Mills Road that we could pull over and check under the hood. By the time we reached a good spot to pull over, the noise had stopped. Lucky day for us.

A week later we were once again going through the Mashpee rotary when the buzzing sort of whining sound started again. It was much louder this time and really didn’t seem to be coming from us. I was reminded of the PAVE-PAWS radar that terrorized the Cape Cod citizenry back in the ‘60s. I thought that perhaps someone was grinding pavement nearby, but if it was that they had many machines working many miles of roadway.

After our appointment, we stopped in at my brother’s house in eastern Mashpee. We were overwhelmed by the noise when we got out of the car. I asked how could they bear that racket? And what was making it? Over the din, he shouted, “17-year cicadas!” He showed us the shed exoskeletons clinging to the side of the house and big healthy cicadas roaming over the shrubbery. The bare ground under the bushes was pock-marked with half-inch round holes — a couple dozen cicadas in every square foot from which the critters had emerged days before.

We sat outside for a while, experiencing the wondrous dominance of nature. They had decided to be fascinated with the event rather than be irritated by it. However, a few days later we got a humorous text from them: “We’re headed back to Maine. The cicadas are starting to drown out the voices in Chris’s head!”

Clearly the fascination had worn off. It’s black fly season in Maine and yet they were willing to make the trade.