1st day in Rhode Island - what to do? Silly question: go to the beach, which in Rhode Island is Narragansett Beach. Oh, there are other beaches in Rhode Island but none like Narragansett. We’ve seen it in all seasons and each one has its charms but today it’s above 80, sunny, the school is out and we’re on our way.
But first we wanted to correct an oversight from 42 years old - we lived 1 mile from the Gilbert Stuart birthplace and never went there. Well, we were too busy living out lives. Gary had just gotten out of the Navy and, on the GI Bill, was attending the University of Rhode Island and studying like mad. I was working in Providence, 45 minutes away, for the Girl Scouts of Rhode Island and spent a bit of time in travel. Visit the Gilbert Stuart birthplace? Geez Louise - we’ve got better things to do - like grocery shopping and laundry. Today, we’re going to stop and glad we did. Not only did we learn about Gilbert Stuart and get to see quite a few original Gilbert Stuart’s in the museum attached to the house and then we also got to see how a grist mill and a snuff mill worked.
Our tour guide was - get this - an retired engineer from Boeing in Seattle who moved here 3 years ago to be near his kids. But he whipped us through the house, the snuff mill and the grist mill, showing us how they worked. Pretty cool. Did I get any pictures - nope - pictures weren’t allowed. So I have nothing to show you except pictures of the outside of the home and mills. Except I took some from online. Here is his first painting, full length to show what he could do. (Note that the hands are hidden, Stuart hasn’t learned how to do hands yet.)
We got to see some copies of very early Stuart pictures. We saw one picture of two dogs he painted at the age of 5. At the age of 19 he painted a friend and his wife and child - very good but some proportions and colors were a bit off and he didn’t do hands - too difficult. But the friend saw so much potential that he sponsored Stuart’s travel to England to study under Benjamin West, a pre-eminent portrait painter. The difference in his art when he returned to the US is amazing. The proportions, the colors, the likenesses were much better and now he could do hands. No wonder he was hired to do the 1st 6 US Presidents and George Washington several times. In the museum, his paintings are next to other portrait painters and the difference is one even I can see.
Hey, look at the hands.
There was a 1-mile trail out side the home to an overlook over Cook Pond and an old gravesite. Ironic - when Gary and lived in RI back in 1972, we got a map from the state listing all the cemeteries in the state and where they were. We found quite a few and here we were still on the lookout for old cemeteries.
Then to a home we lived in for about 6 months. Nice small home and it was fun finding it again. Here we are moving out of it (for some reason, our friend, Les, brought a small semi to help us load up a few boxes, clothing and maybe 2 pieces of furniture. A bit of overkill.) Les is on the right, his wife, Eileen is in the white coat by the boxes, my studly husband is in the van.
And, here it is then and now. Somehow, we remembered the driveway as much longer (especially since we were shovelling snow with a teeny tiny shovel) and the yard as much bigger (to mow and to rake).
Now for the beach. We drove by it noting the $10 fee for parking, thought we could park away from the actual beach and walk to it - this is for our daily walk, isn’t it? We parked, walked 1/2 mile to the beach and then noted that it was $8.00 just to get onto the beach. We hesitated, talked it over - do we want to pay $8.00 just to walk a beach? Then a very perceptive young woman who was ‘guarding’ the entryway to the beach told us that we could just go without a wrist band. She looked at us dressed for walking: no beach chairs, no beach umbrella, no tote bag, no swim suits, no towels, just walking clothes and let us through. Thanks.
Beautiful walk along a marvelous sandy beach - although it’s hard to see the beach - there are so many people on it. But, we enjoyed our walk.
Narragansett has had its ups and downs. In the late 19th Century it was the playground of the wealthy and considered a very fashionable resort. There was a large casino which was very popular until 1900 when a fire destroyed it and many of the luxury hotels leaving only these stone towers that are now the icon of Narragansett.
Rolling dice have given way to rolling waves and, though the local surfers are out in force today, they only are getting a short run of about 10’. Great for learners but not for real surfers.
We last walked this beach in the early 70’s when we lived in Rhode Island. At that point it was a bit seedy with ‘dives’ along the beach: a pizza joint, a convenience store, peeling paint, grass in the sidewalks - a far cry from the glory days of the late 1890’s. Today, these ‘dives’ have been replaced by are condos lining the beach with gift shoppes, restaurants with white table cloths and, oh, yeah, a Dunkin Donuts.
But the beach, ah, what says ‘Rhode Island’ better than a day on Narragansett Beach?
‘We'll all be gone for the summer, We're on safari to stay, Tell the teacher we're surfin, Surfin' U. S. A.’
Beach Boys
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