CLARK KENT lives in 'SCONSET

Here's a business idea... a phone booth that takes quarters in Siasconset (Sconset to the locals) and a small change purse embroidered with a whale to hold a handful of quarters. Four decades ago, we lived in Jamaica, the island, and on a daily basis, the electricity went out, the phones did not work, and the grocery ran out of flour, sugar, coffee, toilet paper, whatever.

Here we are, almost half a century later, and I live on an island again. We could not land on Nantucket when we first attempted to arrive because of fog and the instrument-landing thingamajig at the airport "went down." I was shopping at the Marine Home Center last week and had to pay cash because their computers and everyone else's in that area were out of service for a while. And the phones... God bless ATT. Everyone I know has an iPhone and two days ago we were dead in the water, telephonically speaking, when we could not call one another for about 8 hours. And these are not isolated incidents... this is a REAL island with real island resignation to the fact that sometimes stuff does not work.

There is an upside to this. Let's say you want a little piece and quiet and want to be "alone" for a while. Just drive the ten minutes to Sconset. Not only is it a beautiful town, but, like at the Wauwinnet, nobody can reach you there on the cell phone. So if someone says to you "I tried to call you. " You just say " I was in Sconset." They will understand.

This whole phone thing is a mystery. There is a tower in the middle of the island big enough to be seen from space. It is almost as big as the water tower that looks like the mothership from "V" or the windmill at Bartlett's farm that the people of Nantucket are glad "broke." I don't get that, especially since recycling has been elevated to a religion here, why wouldn't they want wind power? Anyway, I am off to make a phone call...now where are those quarters?