Early Evening in Provincetown

Last summer, on an afternoon walk down Commercial Street, I sat down on a bench in front of Town Hall. Soon, I was joined by a group of white-haired Portugese-American ladies in summer sweaters and light-colored shoes who took seats smoothing their skirts and chatting with each other. "Here she comes," the woman next to me said. Up walked a lady of similar age but with decidedly different style. She was tanned with brown hair and despite a cool sea breeze, wore a mini-skirt and sleeveless blouse. She set up a karioke-style sound system and began singing the kind of American standards written by fast-talking men in unairconditioned Broadway offices six decades ago. Now the words – sophisticated, curved and soft, bobbed along the harbor gusts and landed on the benches near the ladies, who had come to be serenaded at the end of the day. As I listened, the singer began handing out leaflets on which was written the story of her life. Until recently, she had lived as a man. She had married three times and had been a conservative Christian minister until she reached the age of 70, whereupon she left her wife and moved to Provincetown to do what she had wanted to do all her life: live as a woman and sing love songs. The ladies around me clapped at the end of "I’ve Got a Crush on You."

I wanted to stay for another number but I was late getting to the restaurant a few doors down that served real fishcakes made from saltcod.