One can believe a five-mile backup on the Mid-Cape Highway

Sandwich, Mass., Town Hall (1834) and Congregational Church (1848).

“One can believe anything on the Cape, a blessed relief from the doubts and uncertainties of the present-day turmoil of the outer world.’’

— Thornton Burgess (1874-1965), American conservationist and children’s book author in Now I Remember (1960). He was a native of Sandwich, on the north side of The Cape.

Sandwich was long famed for its glass-making industry, including the beauty of many of its products.

Under a guttering sun

Old Harbor Life Saving Station, in the Cape Cod National Seashore

“We drive to the Cape. I cultivate

myself where the sun gutters from the sky,

where the sea swings in like an iron gate

and we touch. In another country people die.’’

— From “The Truth the Dead Know,’’ by Anne Sexton (1928-74)