Winnetka's inclusive secret society

My summer job at the Winnetka boat launch (Lloyd beach), started up memorial day weekend.  If you're not down at the beach helping people launch, you're up by the road checking boats in, which involves turning away anybody else who doesn't have one.  Anyone with a boat can use the Lloyd beach boat launch, but if you don't live in Winnetka, then prices are doubled.  Welcome to being a boat owner, a secret society inside the already exclusive secret society of the north shore.  Even after paying your taxes, there's still a fee to use the boat launch, $35 for a resident and $70 for a non-resident each day you bring a boat out.  A season pass for a resident with unlimited launch is a modest $325 dollars, but if you live outside of Winnetka's boundaries, you pay $650 for a season pass with unlimited launches.  The most interesting thing about the boat launch is the crowd it attracts, it turns out Lloyd beach is the only boat launch in the north shore you can launch from if you don't have a pass, but also the easiest boat launch to get a pass for.  The inclusiveness of this beach attracts a very wide group of people, people from Wisconsin down to Tennessee (yes, they had a Tennessee license plate), to people from the deep depths of Chicago who don't speak a lick of English.  Everyone gets sent to the next beach over that don't own a boat to launch, which made me think all about The Great Gatsby and the secret society Gatsby is trying to work his way into by making his way up in the world.  The difference between Gatsby and the boat launch; however, is that all you have to do is pay twice the fee once you own a boat to take part as a Winnetka boater- in other words money can buy your way into this secret society.  While you may never own a house in the north shore, everyone still has the ability to have a taste of the north shore lifestyle through Winnetka's inclusive boater society.