JO-ANN TILGHMAN

508-627-7669

(tilghmanjb@aol.com)

We are constantly reminded that Chappy is a wild and beautiful place that we share with the animals that are found on land and in the waters surrounding our island.

Just such a reminder was sent to me by Chris Kennedy of The Trustees of Reservations in this report of the injured seal pup that was found on the Chappy side of Norton Point Beach on July 6. 

“A couple walking on the beach spotted a seal pup that had several deep lacerations on her tail flippers and notified one of the [Trustees] rangers,” the report states. “Apparently, this seal pup had been injured by a boat propeller. Photos of the seal pup were e-mailed to the New England Aquarium Marine Mammal Stranding Network in Boston. On Monday, [Trustees] rangers and biologists kept a large number of curious walkers and boaters away from the injured seal to prevent additional stress to the protected mammal until she could be captured. On Tuesday morning, a team from the New England Aquarium, local stranding network members and [Trustees] rangers captured the pup, placed her in a cage where she was transported to the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Conn. The New England Aquarium had no room for the 5-month-old pup so she was taken to the closest rescue center which had room for her. The Mystic staff have taken great care of this young gray seal. She was born this past winter and still has her spotted coat. Mystic Aquarium staff report she is now feeding on her own and is receiving antibiotics to ward off infection. However, the veterinarian staff at the aquarium have determined they will have to amputate part of her tail flipper due to the severity of her injuries. While the [Trustees] staff appreciate the concern of their visitors, they urge anyone who finds a seal on the beach to give it a wide berth. Chances are the seals are just sunning or resting and there is nothing out of the ordinary. If you’re concerned, please let one of the [Trustees] rangers know the location of the seal and they will investigate, but under no circumstances should anyone ever approach a seal on land. If the seal becomes startled or frightened they will bite and it will hurt. You are not doing the seal a favor.”

Lain and Robert Howarth of Columbus, Ohio, and Chappy delayed their summer arrival to the Vineyard this year in order to celebrate the wedding of their son, Clinton Howarth, to Danielle Golino of Milford, Conn. The couple were married by the bride’s uncle, Father Thomas Lynch, at the June 28 ceremony in Stratford, Conn. Clinton, a fifth-generation Chappy devotee, is a middle school teacher, coach, and dean at the River School in Weston, while Danielle is about to begin a new position with Hewlett-Packard. While the couple met in Boston, they could just as easily have met during one of the summers that Danielle worked at Mad Martha’s scooping ice cream. Also celebrating the occasion with Clinton and Danielle was Clinton’s sister, Macy and her husband, Bridger McGaw of Washington, D.C. They all hope to be back visiting Lain and Robert in August and September.

The Cooksville Wheelin’ Women’s bicycle group of Cooksville, Wisc., has been enjoying their first visit to Chappy while staying with club member Katie Ryan. The group of riders formed their bicycle club 20 years ago. Members include Ilene Axford, Cindy Johnson, Barbara Thunell, Mary Zimmerman, Christine Schelshkorm, Mary L. Halbert, Cathy Royer, Jennifer Ehle and Chappy resident Katie Ryan.

A memorial service will be held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Edgartown on Friday, July 25 at 11 a.m. for Henry A. Tilghman with a reception to follow in the parish hall.

This evening’s foreign film is 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama at 8 p.m. at the Chappaquiddick Community Center. While there have been several documentaries about the Dalai Lama, few have done a better job of packaging the Tibetan religious leader’s history and philosophy. This film shows us the humor, the scientific curiosity, and the lightheartedness of the person, not the legend. Mary Spencer, the foreign film coordinator, has also let me know that in addition to the new projector that was added last year, this year there is a new DVD player and speakers. No more sticking or skipping. The Monday children’s film at 7 p.m. will be the new Disney classic, Ratatouille.

Mary Beth Alger, who has organized the Summer Music Festival series for years, was contacted last fall by several New York city agents thus enabling her to present a new slate of hugely acclaimed musicians at the festival this summer. July 24 marks the beginning of the Music Festival with a performance by the Jupiter String Quartet. The quartet is about to enter the second year of a 3-year residency with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society and will be performing Hadyn, Beethoven and Britten. Tickets for the 8:00 p.m. concerts are $18 per concert or $50 for the entire festival. Ticket prices for seniors are $16 or $45 for the series.

The board of the Chappaquiddick Community Center has asked me to remind everyone that all calendar photo entries need to be submitted at the center by Friday, July 25 at noon for the 2009 Chappy calendar. The voting begins Monday, July 28. The calendar was the brainchild of Karen and Frank Gazarian, who worked tirelessly on the project the past two years. Unfortunately for the center, they are not able to continue this popular fund-raising project, so if anyone has printing contacts or would like to help in any way with this project, please get in touch with Margaret Knight at the center at 508-627-8222. The center would hate to have to discontinue this popular project.

Many memories were discussed this past Tuesday night at the center’s history panel presentation. Lindsay Allison, Lain Howarth, Trip Barnes and Tom Tilghman, along with members of the audience, discussed what Chappy was like during the 1950s. They spoke about the Point and the ferry as places to see people and get the news. They all recalled the three-digit party line phone service, no electricity, old roads and trails wandering all of Chappy, and the vistas before the trees grew up. Many fondly remembered the delicious food cooked by the Jeffers at Chappy’s only restaurant.

Trip also told one story about being on the island one fall when he and a friend went out to shoot ducks at Poucha Pond and found a dead body. Not much later the two, out looking for deer, found a missing man at the Cedars frozen into his canoe. The clincher to the story was that shortly after Trip delivered some groceries to a house on Chappy he opened the door, only to discover another man dead at the bottom of the stairs. For a while after finding three bodies on Chappy within one month, Trip took some ribbing as the “grim reaper.”