Nantucket-style Pizza

Only in Nantucket could I be handed ten stacked takeout boxes of piping hot pizza and no longer be anyone’s problem. I love this island, but rich summer people are entitled and everybody else is rightfully annoyed, so no one cuts anyone a break.

I went to pick up our pizza order for our family group of 15 with Micah. Since parking is impossible in downtown Nantucket, he let me out of the car to get it. I didn’t overthink the logistics of it, which maybe is on me, but as I stood at the counter absorbing the comical impossibility of the task ahead, I felt pressured by the overworked staff and everyone behind me in line to get my pizza and get the hell out. “Well, this is going to be a challenge,” I said, keeping my tone light, hoping one of the two dozen people within earshot might offer to help. Nope.

I shuffled my way to the door, the hot cardboard boxes piled so high I literally could not see. Nantucket is notorious for root-heaved brick sidewalks and ankle-twisting cobblestoned streets, but I had no choice. Then, a guy asked if I needed help. “That would be lovely,” I said, overcome with so much gratitude I almost started to cry. He held the door open for me and talked me down the uneven steps onto the pitched sidewalk.

“Careful,” he said, as the door was slamming shut behind me. “There’s a car coming,” but thankfully the car was mine, with Micah behind the wheel. He pulled alongside and immediately divested me of the box tower. It’s at times like this I believe in divine provenance, or maybe perfect timing, and definitely in the intuitive helpfulness of my last-born.

That night, I lay in bed and thought about how I have been handling Nantucket this trip: like a hermit burned once, twice shy, whose interactions with strangers are limited to tight smiles or eyerolls behind backs. Still. If I saw someone balancing ten hot pizza boxes, would I help? Absolutely. So maybe I’m the change that needs to happen here, but vacation is short and culture shift, glacial. I’ve got a family to adore and a beach to love. Also, the pizza wasn’t half bad.