(Bea served in the Waves so she never went overseas but she was
in uniform), we kept writing, back and forth, about what we
would do when this war was over. We would go to Provincetown
and spend a summer there.
CB: Does it say that in your letters?
NM: Yes. Early in ���46, in June of ���46, we took the boat from
Boston over to here. We rented bikes. I forget what we did with
our luggage. I do remember getting on bikes and looking for a
place. For some odd, stupid reason (looking back on it maybe
it was a lucky reason), we bicycled clear out of town to the East
End and went down 6A ��� I don���t think Route 6 was even in
existence then. We ended up at a place called the Crow���s Nest,
which is still there. It���s over on the North Truro line. I always
thought I was in Provincetown that summer, but in fact I was in
North Truro, maybe a half mile from the line. Now the Crow���s
Nest is altogether different ��� it���s one long building with rooms
for rent, housekeeping apartments. In those days, it was separate
little bungalows.
CB: Right on the beach?
NM: Right on the beach, in two rows. Some bungalows were right
on the water; some were one step back. We were one step back.
We spent the summer there and would bicycle to Provincetown
just about every day for food, bring it back in our bike baskets,
and we���d write. We���d write. Sometimes we���d write in the morning,
sometimes in the afternoon. I forget how long we���d write. But in
the course of a couple of months there I must have written the
first 200 pages of The Naked and the Dead. It was either good
HYLAND
7
