Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/327657
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF MASSACHUSETTS OFFICE OF TRAVEL AND TOURISM (SANDFORD FARM); GENE MAHON (GALLEY BEACH); KATIE KAIZER (CISCO BREWERS) Cisco Brewers "There's just so much of the '70s there that it's ridiculous." 5 Bartlett Farm Road, 508-325-5929; ciscobrewers.com Pocomo Point "Every time I take that walk, I remember all the good times." Just west of the head of the harbor Sanford Farm "It's just a really beautiful walk. Anytime." 115 Madaket Road; nantucketconservation.org The Proprietors "I enjoy the restaurants where you're going to meet interesting people." 9 India St., 508-228-7477; proprietorsnantucket.com Lola 41 "Wherever you sit, you can see everybody else in the bar." 15 S. Beach St., 508-325-4001; lola41.com IN HIS GENES Gene Mahon shares the places that keep him connected. Mahon loves hiking at Sanford Farm (ABOVE), and often unwinds before a night taking party photos with a drink at Galley Beach (RIGHT). For a '70s flashback, he heads to Cisco Brewers (FAR RIGHT) for craft beer and a groovy attitude. crack a joke so that they're already laughing and smiling, and you've got the picture. The place that really helps me move between those two lives is GALLEY BEACH. It's right on the Nantucket Sound, so it's not ocean-type waves but quiet, lapping waves. Around six o'clock in the middle of the summer, you can find me sitting inside at the bar, staring out at the most amazing view, having a drink and thinking, OK, now I'm ready to go take pictures of people. "The place I go if I don't want to run into anyone at all is POCOMO POINT. I used to have a house on the beach there. It's about a two-mile walk from the beach to the house. That's a trip down memory lane; every time I take that walk I remember all the good times I had. Number two is the SANFORD FARM. It's got to be hundreds of acres. It's not exactly pristine—it would have a lot of sticker bushes and not a lot of places to walk—but all the vegetation is native. It's just a really great walk. Anytime. "I'm here because of the people. If the people weren't so creative and so passionate about the things they do, I would have left a long time ago. So I enjoy the restaurants where you're going to end up meeting interesting people. That's the real life of this island. I was talking to a woman the other night at THE PROPRIETORS who has worked in education for 25 years. She's retired now, but she is offering that experience to the island's public school system. I told her, as president of Nantucket Community Television, that we were about to set up a TV studio in the high school for students, and she had many ideas for that. That's a normal Friday night out. "LOLA 41 is probably the most social bar on the island. Wherever you sit, you can see everybody else in the bar. A few years ago, in early March, I sat down by a woman I didn't recognize. I asked her, 'What brought you to Nantucket?' She said that when she was younger, she had danced for the Eglevsky Ballet, which had a residency here for the summer, and she had dreamed of living here ever since. I said, 'Well, I have photographs of you,' as I had photographed the ballet. Her name was Lynne Bolton, and she told me of her involvement in theater production in New York and at Yale. A few months later, I ran into a friend who ran the island's Shakespeare company. She told me she needed someone to run the company, and I set her up with Lynne, who got the job. Lynne immersed herself in the local theater scene, and in 2012 she brought a new professional company here called White Heron Theatre. She tells me that without our chance meeting, the new theater company would not have happened." BC continued from page 50 52 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM NATIVE