Growing Up on the Water Near Gull Island

11 Jan 2023 · 2 min

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1:51

In this first‑person monologue, the speaker recounts growing up on a waterfront property just one lot away from the public beach in Northport, Massachusetts. He describes his family’s connection to the local bread distributor business—his father worked for Pepper’s Farm and the family often received stale, near‑expired bread. When the speaker was about 12‑13 and his older brother 15‑16, they decided to feed the surplus stale bread to the gulls on nearby Gull Island rather than waste it. The feeding attracted an overwhelming swarm of gulls, likened to the Hitchcock film The Birds, creating a chaotic and frightening experience. The story blends nostalgic reflections on childhood independence with a vivid, humorous recounting of the gull incident.

Chapters

I'm out on Gull Island and, you know, I grew up on the water and just our waterfront property was actually one lot removed from the public beach in Northport. And, you know, back then in the old days, you know, kids were a little bit more independent and society was a little bit different. Used to come out here on the boat all the time as a kid and explore. And one particular story that is personal to me is that, you know, back then my dad, when I was about 12, 13 years old, my older brother would've been 15 or 16. My dad was a bread distributor for Pepper's Farm. And, you know, we used to get a lot of out-of-date bread that we'd have to eat before it went bad. One of the sayings that my mom used to say is, "Eat this before it goes bad." So then my brother would say, "You mean it's almost rotten, so we should eat it. Come on." But anyway, we had the stale bread. My brother had this great idea, you know, instead of— we can't eat all of it, it was a lot— why don't we take it out to the gulls on Gull Island? Why let it go to waste, right? So we came out here and let me tell you, it was absolutely overwhelming. The gulls just— it was like the scene out of The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock. Sander Scott all over us, and I had to tell my brother, "Kidda, get me out of here." It was absolutely awful, but that's my story of Gull Island.