Augusta

About Augusta

In January the Cape Cod Canal breathes, sea smoke lifting off the water toward the Sagamore end while the town is still dark. Augusta works that hour — plowing driveways, clearing walkways, laying sand and salt on the ice that reforms overnight in the shaded curves. By April those same routes have gone green and the job becomes mowing and edging, plus the long patient cleanup after a winter's worth of grit. There is something worth staying up for in finishing a route just as the sky turns gray-blue over the bay and the first headlights come along the road. Two halves of the year, one set of streets, learned by heart.