JANE N. SLATER

508-645-3378

(slaterjn@comcast.net)

Fall may officially arrive Sunday but travelers are still visiting Chilmark . . . this time the Monarch butterflies. Have you noticed that they are increasing in number as they gather for their annual trip south?

Congratulations to Bob and Carol Merry who greeted a new grandson, Charles Tomas Koenig, born on Sept. 10 in Duxbury. Charles weighed in at 9 pounds, 10 ounces. He is the first child of Jessica Merry and Matt Koenig.

Bob and Carol Merry are enjoying a visit this week from their good friends, Drew and Ross Lee of Coral Gables, Fla.

Mitch and Clarissa are happy to have Deborah Genge Dick visiting the Allen Farm this week with her children Alex, Cameron and Gavin and their families.

Charles and Marjorie Phillips are back at their Larsen Lane home after a visit to family in Verona Island and Union, Me.

Plans are in the works for the fourth annual Justin L.C. Coleman memorial hike on October 6. The walk will begin at 150 South Road at noon. For more information about the walk, please call 508-645-2261.

The Chilmark Library has several announcements. Emily Levett has begun her new job at the library and will be happy to meet you all. The Friends of the Library hosted a farewell reception for Kimberly Schlesinger who is leaving the Island this month. Good luck to both.

Dr. Elizabeth A. Fairchild, who is a director at the University of New Hampshire’s Atlantic Marine Aquaculture Center, will discuss the potential for a winter flounder stock enhancement program in Vineyard waters at the library on Sept. 25 at 5 p.m.

Alan Brigish of West Tisbury will present a slide show entitled Eye Contact — Faces from Around the World on Wednesday, Sept. 26 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. There is also an exhibit of his photographs hanging in the library meeting room this month.

Can’t let September go by without reminding you of some of the activities of a Chilmark September in 1955. The Woman’s Community Club (now defunct, but once a powerful fund raising group for good causes in town) presented Chilmark Follies of 1955 on September 3 at the Chilmark Tavern (now the Dukes County Bank branch among other things.) The program tells us that stage manager John Gude and his assistant, Roger Pratt, gave the audience 10 performances by willing and talented folks. The opening was a song, Menemsha Light, words and music written for the occasion by James Thurber and sung by a group calling themselves The Girls. They were Margaret Goldsmith, Elizabeth Gude, Eileen McMullen, Vera Pratt, Ann Scott and Sally Scott. The program tells us Stephen McGhee was accompanied by Leopold Mannes in a musical number and E.Y. Harburg and Charles Close were accompanied by Rees Mason in their presentation.

What a distinguished list of names and all for the Chilmark they loved. I, of course, was too young to have been there. How many are still in Chilmark and remember this wonderful event?