Say Yes, And Figure It Out Later: An Unexpectedly Wonderful Event

Say yes, and figure it out later. That is a phrase I have heard a lot over the years when it comes to opportunities in life. Typically it refers to a job, but for me it refers to a speaking event.

This week I was part of an event that could have easily gone sideways, and in the back of my mind I figured it would. The Cape Cod Maritime Museum in Hyannis reached out to me last week on Tuesday. They had an event scheduled for Thursday, August 13th. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, their speakers dropped out. One even said something like, ‘I’m old, I just can’t.’ That’s a great way to honor your commitments.

I received an email asking if I could step in on short notice. I wouldn’t be giving the same presentation as the people who bailed, though. I was asked to create something.

I hesitated, but when they said that Don Wilding, who I consider the gold standard of Cape Cod history, recommended me, I was in. I didn’t want to disappoint him, the maritime museum, or the people who had already spent money to buy tickets for the event that night.

So I said yes, but that left me with an issue: I had one week to craft a totally new presentation. They gave me a bit of leeway. The only parameters were that it needed to fit into the Roaring Twenties motif of their lectures during the summer of 2026.

Luckily, a few years ago I had crafted a video about what it was like to have a summer vacation on Cape Cod a century ago. That was for 1923, but it was not that much of a leap to change things up for 1926.

Although I had the subject, I still needed to do a lot of research and spend hours putting together a suitable presentation and copious notes. I needed to make sure the talk included details about specific Cape Cod places from back then, like restaurants, hotels, and events of the time. By the time I was done, I had forty slides in the presentation and 3,000 words worth of notes.

Despite being really happy with my work, I knew that there could still be issues. I felt good about what I would be speaking about, but would it matter? People had ordered tickets for a certain event. Now that it had been changed to something totally different, what if they didn’t want to keep their tickets to see me? What if sales of tickets for my presentation were terrible?

I have written ten books. I have spoken at many dozens of events over the years. Even at my highest of highs, I still get imposter syndrome. It’s that voice in the back of my head that tells me that I don’t deserve good things, or success, or love, or happiness, or whatever. It’s a fear of being found out or exposed even though it's usually totally unfounded.

It was too late by the time August 13th rolled around. I had committed to the event and done the work of creating the presentation. I would not bail like the other people had. I remained cautiously optimistic but still kept hearing in the back of my mind that it might not be as good as I’d hoped.

The drive to the Cape Cod Maritime Museum was a wash of summer traffic and a passing severe thunderstorm. Would the weather play a factor in turnout?

I arrive at my events forty-five minutes early. There was an event at the Cotuit Library years ago where I got stuck in traffic on the way and arrived five minutes before my start time. I walked in, and the people were waiting. It already looked bush league.

Then, on top of being nearly late, the cables to connect my laptop to the projector were malfunctioning. It was a nightmare. In the end, I believe I started speaking fifteen minutes late. I vowed to never let that happen again, and it hasn’t.

The staff at the museum were so grateful to me for stepping up. I had never been inside, so I loved getting a behind the scenes tour. Anybody who enjoys boats, sailing, maritime history, anything like that, I highly recommend visiting.

Naturally, because I was so early, everything was set up in record time with no hiccups. My cautious optimism turned to overjoyed excitement when I got the news. Not only were the pre-sale ticket people coming, but the entire lot of seats was sold out. On top of that, there was a standby list of people waiting just in case seats opened up. That’s right, my event had a waiting list. It was a first-ever for me.

I set up my books on a table and gathered my notes on a clear hard-plastic podium. One by one, staff members came up and thanked me for being there. I admit I felt a little pressure, wanting to be worthy of all of the praise.

Once the setup was done and all of the pleasantries exchanged, all I had to do was wait. The Maritime Museum holds events in a really neat, rustic downstairs library overlooking the harbor. It was so packed with chairs that I was wedged in a corner behind the podium.

While awaiting the people, I looked around. In an interesting twist, the very first book I spotted was one about Gurnet Point in Plymouth. It’s meaningful because my buddy Steve’s family has had a cottage out there for a century. I snapped a photo to send to him later.

That was another interesting shift. I tend to take a few photos or videos before the event to share on social media. On this day I didn’t have time. People began coming down the stairs, and it was showtime.

This was a History on Tap event, so Cape Cod Beer donated some drinks for people to enjoy. I had a nice lemon seltzer. August 13th was my 2,162nd day alcohol-free, with my 6th ‘Soberversary’ coming September 12th.

People filed in with their plastic cups of beer or wine and stared at the title slide for the event. Not wanting to just stand there, I engaged with people sitting nearby. Slowly the seats filled, and voices echoed off the old wooden floors and walls.

I was mic’d up, but only for the recording of the event for the museum and not to be heard over the crowd. Having come up in the restaurant industry, I had learned how to project my voice, so being heard has never been an issue.

As we began, there might have been an empty seat or two, but it was a nearly full house of somewhere between fifty and sixty people. So they had shown up. Now it was up to me to be worthy of their time and money.

Yes, I might have needed to basically read my notes like a script, but I spoke of Olde Cape Cod for forty-five minutes. I loved hearing the sounds people made at each new slide. Some featured old photos and postcards of places they either remembered or had heard about.

When I finished my talk and asked for questions, the applause echoed off the walls. It had gone better than I could have hoped for. The Imposter Syndrome retreated, at least temporarily. I also realized that saying yes to something a bit out of your comfort zone is good. While it is good to keep the worst-case scenario in mind, it also rarely ends up happening.

I answered questions for another twenty minutes, never wanting it to end. After the event unofficially ended, people came up to buy books, thank me for stepping in, and overall wish me well. I felt validated.

I have always been an introvert. Writing books forced my hand into becoming a public speaker. People are usually shocked when I tell them that after an event. Now I have confidence while speaking; it tends to be everything else surrounding the event that gets into my head.

The guests made their way upstairs, or into the next room to see some genuine boat building going on. Soon it was just the three remaining staff members and me. The event had not only drawn in regulars, but it had brought in people they said they’d never seen come to a lecture. I will stay grounded and say it was the interesting topic rather than the interesting speaker.

As things began getting put away, the staff at the museum asked if I’d want to come back and do another presentation. Of course I said yes.

The plan now is to do an event in January. It is likely going to be a return to the Lady of the Dunes murder case that was such a huge part of my life a few years ago. For that one, I will not need to create a whole new presentation.

In the end, the event turned out to be one of the best I’ve ever been a part of. I left the museum feeling grateful, validated, and a bit overwhelmed at the support I got.

Driving along the busy Route 28 as the sun began going down on a warm summer night, I felt the urge to stop somewhere. I chose Englewood Beach in West Yarmouth. It was, and in many ways still is, the spot I most associate with my Nana.

I felt like being in that setting, reveling in such a successful event, and in a small way sharing the good vibes with my Nana. Sure, the stress and worry felt a bit pointless after the fact, but you never assume anything until it’s over.

That’s a little look at what ended up being one of my favorite events of my writing career. It shows that sometimes you just need to say yes and figure it all out after. It also gives me growing confidence that if I do say yes, things will turn out as good as or better than you might expect.

John Morgan and Pufferbellies: In Their Footsteps - Cape Cod History

c. Kings of Cape Cod

    One of the last true nightclubs that remained from Cape Cod’s Golden Age of the 1970s and 1980s, Pufferbellies’ story began in the waning years of the 19th century as part of the height of the railroad era in the United States.  

    The 12,000-square-foot brick building which would a century later house a legendary and sometimes infamous club, started its life in 1895 as a railroad roundhouse owned by the Penn Central company. The double-thick brick walls, which were installed to soften the sounds of the old-school railroad engines that would enter the roundhouse, would come in handy when the argument for turning the building into a nightclub came into play.

    Penn Central filed for bankruptcy in 1970 with many of its properties on Cape Cod going into limbo.  Much of the rail line east of Dennis would eventually become the route for the Cape Cod Rail Trail.  The twelve acres of land located between Iyannough Road and Center Street was seen as a prime location for a revitalization of Downtown Hyannis.  In the Summer of 1978 Leonard Healy, then-owner of the nearby Velvet Hammer nightclub, had attempted to purchase the land and had his offer rejected.  The property went back on the auction block.

    It was around this same time that a burgeoning Cape Cod legend was looking for a spot of his own.  John Morgan had been supplying locals with countless hours of fun with his ‘John Morgan Happy Hours’ for over a decade by the time of Healy’s failed bid for the former Penn Central property.  

    Morgan had debuted on the Cape at the Chuck Wagon in Harwich in 1965 when just out of college. He moved on to the Improper Bostonian/Your Father’s Mustache in Dennis Port before leasing the Sandy Pond Club in 1971 for three years and calling it The Groggery at Sandy Pond. Morgan played to crowds dotted all across New England, and these people became devotees. 

    On Cape Cod, after leaving the Sandy Pond Club he settled in as a regular performer at Dick Doherty’s Crystal Palace in Hyannis where Morgan remained for seven years. Eventually, Morgan had visions of his own nightclub and even offered to buy the Crystal Palace, but Doherty was not ready to sell.  So Morgan was on the lookout, which brought him to the former Penn Central property in downtown Hyannis.

    In late 1980, Morgan purchased the former railroad roundhouse from the Eldredge and Bourne Moving Company for $100,000 ($385,520 in 2025).  In early 1981, he made a pitch for a new nightclub, a place where the younger generation, locals and visitors alike, could congregate.  His plan was a 700-seat restaurant and club to be named Pufferbellies, another name for a steam locomotive.  The new nightclub was approved and from its opening on May 8, 1981, it became an immediate hit.

    “We knew it would be a home run,” Morgan said, “but it turned out to be a Grand Slam.”

    The 12,500-square-foot brick roundhouse could hold 1,500 people with a stage, three bars, and even an outdoor volleyball area. Although seen as mainly a nightclub and bar Morgan did receive an outside dining permit in 1983 so that if anybody did choose to eat they had the option of enjoying fresh air.  

Pufferbellies in 2013(Wikimedia Commons)

    Of course Morgan continued to draw in the crowds to his Happy Hours, so popular were they that special drinks and specials like two-for-one were not necessary to bring in the masses.  They came to see John Morgan, sing along with him, and be a part of the crowd. Musical acts from Boston-based The Freeze to nationally known ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic would come down to the Cape to take the stage at Pufferbellies early on.  In later years bands like Blue Oyster Cult, Sevendust, and Powerman 5000 would grace the stage.  The new nightclub was a hit.

    One big reason for the routinely packed Pufferbellies was the advertising campaign. The brainchild of Morgan and local radio DJ Gary Titus. Morgan bought "a thousand ads" to play on popular Cape Cod radio stations 106 WCOD and Cape 104.7 WKPE.  Titus put them together, and they hit the airways, making sure that twice an hour, people heard an ad for Pufferbellies.  The campaign worked. 

    Morgan had a staff of one hundred employees at his club dressed in button-down Oxford shirts with his nightclub’s name embroidered on them.  This was a stark contrast to some night spots at the time which simply dressed their employees in t-shirts.  Morgan’s care and attention to detail paid off.  

    After five seasons of running Pufferbellies Morgan was getting burned out. For example, Morgan stocked his club with only Budweiser beer. To keep up with demand, Morgan bought an entire tractor trailer worth of beer at a time. That adds up to a staggering 2,300 cases of beer.

    “It took a lot of work to have 1,500 people come in for the afternoon,” Morgan said, “and then have to get them out, clean up, and bring in another 1,500 for the night.”

    All of this added up to Morgan selling his nightclub in 1986 to Peter and Jeanne White, who owned the Boston Fish House, for $3.1 million($9 million in 2025).  He still performed his Happy Hours, but as far as he was concerned, his nightclub-owning days were over.  

The iconic sign and entrance in 2014(Google Maps)

    Within a few years though, Morgan had bought back his nightclub, however, the place was not the same. Without Morgan at the helm, Pufferbellies had suffered. More than that the times were changing in the late 1980s into the early 1990s.

    The liquor liability laws affected business. Harsher drunk-driving penalties made patrons think twice about heading out to clubs. These were a few of the things that led to Morgan shortening the club’s schedule. For the majority of the 1990s, Pufferbellies was only open two days a week, with Morgan saying in 2001 that business was only "a twentieth of what it was in the 1980s." He had wanted to use the brick roundhouse building for other purposes such as conventions, weddings, or other functions, but it never came to be. The changes eating away at the club continued until 2015 Morgan happily sold the property once and for all to the HyLine Ferry for $1.96 million.

Pufferbellies' website in 1999.(Archive.org)

    At its peak Pufferbellies was the place to go for fun and entertainment on Cape Cod. Morgan remembered how in the days before cell phones everybody had to make plans to meet out somewhere and there were fewer options, the drinking age was eighteen, plus the large Baby Boomer generation was in their prime.  

    Now there is an overload of options, the drinking laws are different with the age being twenty-one, and the Baby Boomers are becoming senior citizens. Times have changed but Morgan fondly remarked: “We had a lot of fun.”

    Pufferbellies was the last of the giants of the Golden Age to fade away. However, John Morgan didn’t miss it once it was gone. He kept himself busy performing his Happy Hours and drawing in big crowds even as his health began to suffer. Right up until the end, John Morgan remained one of the Kings of Cape Cod.  

    John Morgan passed away on August 27, 2024, at the age of eighty. He was a major driving force behind what made the Golden Age of Cape Cod nightlife so special.

    I’d like to share a few personal John Morgan memories to close out this blog.

    When working on the book Cape Cod Nights in 2017 and 2018 I had a dream list of people to interview. At the top of the list was John Morgan. He was friends with my Uncle Bob but I tried not to use that as an in-road. I wanted my book to be reason enough for him to give me some of his time.

    I was thrilled by how accommodating he was. Friendly, warm, and very forthcoming with any information I needed to make my Pufferbellies chapter of the book the best it could be. I referred to him either as ‘Sir’ or ‘Mr. Morgan,’ although I think he would have preferred I simply call him John. To me it was showing respect to a man of his stature.

    All of the quotes attributed to John Morgan above are from my interview with him in 2018.

    I was honored that he came out to the launch of my Cape Cod Nights book. I made sure to acknowledge him to the audience so that he could get the rousing cheers he deserved. This became a fun running gag as my Uncle Bob, seated next to him, would raise his hand several times during my event so that he could again announce that John Morgan was there.

    It was through following the Kings of Cape Cod group on Facebook that I learned of John Morgan’s health issues in 2023. He hosted his final legendary Happy Hour on June 12, 2024, at Jake Rooney’s in Harwich. I could not attend, but little did I know that I’d get a special parting gift from the man himself.

    I got a message on Facebook from John Morgan on June 8th. He told me that his daughter had played my podcast episode where I recounted the story of Pufferbellies. He told me it was great and thanked me for capturing those memories.

    John Morgan thanked me. I responded how thrilled I was that he enjoyed it. I also thanked him again for being a part of my Cape Cod Nights book. I finished it off by thanking him for all of the good times he gave to so many Cape Codders. Yes, I also called him Mr. Morgan again.

    His response was a simple ‘crying tears of joy’ emoji. John Morgan passed away only two months after that message. I am so honored that he took the time in his declining health to thank me, me, for capturing memories of the Golden Age. John Morgan created those memories, all I did was write them down.

    Thank you, Mr. Morgan, for everything. Cape Cod was a better place for decades because of you.

    For those interested a memorial bench has been created in the memory of John Morgan. It is being dedicated on April 26, 2025, at the Hyannis Transportation Center at 209 Iyannough Road in Hyannis. If you are reading this after that date, the bench is there for you to visit.

c. Kings of Cape Cod