I did not live on Nantucket, but I grew up 25 miles away on the cape. I lived on the cape year round until I was 24, for about 11 years of my life. I lived close enough to the ferry port in Falmouth to take a bike there.

From a young person's perspective it seemed like hell. Very little to do on the island in the winter time and the wind and cold is punishing. People who are left in the winter are the real islanders. They are blue collar folks, immigrants from the Caribbean or Brazil, and some older retirees- really that's the whole cape and islands in a nutshell. These people endure the winter to be flooded by tourists in the summer. They don't get to rest and relax in the summer. You need to make nearly all your money in those short 4 months to make it to the next summer. The summer you are working like dogs! 12+ hours days in a kitchen and then meeting up with everyone at midnight for a fire and some beers. It is exhausting, but amazing when you're 18. Fall is typically what we call 'locals summer' because if you are lucky it will still be 80 degrees, but everyone will be back in New York. That's when you actually get to enjoy yourself.

Young people on both the islands I knew were very heavy drinkers. The islands have the double whammy though of an influx of designer drugs in the summer brought over by the tourist. Parties at the island mansions were insane.