JOHN S. ALLEY
508-693-2950
The weekend weather was a bit more than seasonably warm, providing for lots of yard work. A new person is taking advantage of the Agricultural Hall field — not the golfer who practices his swing, but a man flying a model airplane. The town tennis courts were busy, and the first baseball practices took place.
Today is the beginning of a long holiday weekend in the commonwealth. Monday is Patriots Day and it is also the beginning of spring break at the schools. Trout fishing in the Mill Pond continues to increase each day and should really pick up next week. Monday all town buildings will be closed to observe the state holiday and this week is the 40th annual Earth Day nationwide, with the 18th annual beach cleanups on the Vineyard. The state-run street sweeper was busy early in the week clearing many of the roads in town of tons of sand and salt spread on them this winter. Sunday morning fire trucks and assorted personnel raced through the center of town headed for a mutual aid call in Chilmark. The house was nearly consumed by the fire before the trucks were able to get to it down in Quenames. The NSTAR crews have been busy all week setting new power poles in North Tisbury near the North Road intersection and stringing new wire to connect all of them back to Brandy Brow.
The new $48 million, two story Martha’s Vineyard Hospital was opened to the public last Sunday morning with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. A large crowd of people had gathered to witness the historic event. No doubt about it, the hospital is an impressive structure and very well designed, with new state of the art medical equipment. All the patient rooms are private and equal that of a five-star hotel in quality, not to mention the view of the water. All of the money was raised by donations big and small, and most all of the donors’ names are displayed on two large sign boards in the lobby for all to see.
The annual town meeting was held Tuesday night, and it was well attended. Muriel Bye, election warden, wants to thank each and every voter for participating in the annual election yesterday. Muriel reported that now that the town election is over for this year she can devote attention to her gardens.
Alex Karman, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and his parents Jill Carlton and her husband, Pete, of New Haven, Conn.. spent the weekend at her house on State Road recently. Alex turned on the utilities, turned over the garden, planted peas and raked the lawn.
Dick and Diana Reische, of Wilton, Conn., and State Road returned home last Tuesday. They were here opening up their summer retreat for the summer. Dick reports that it was good to visit old friends and he is looking forward to the summer.
Bob and Dale Julier, of Stoney Hill Lane, report that their daughter, Insley, a 2000 graduate of the regional high school, just completed her second year of a three-year double masters program for library science and archival studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She had a nice “reading” break, as they shut down classes while the Olympics were going on and she was able to do some catch-up work. It is beautiful out there, so her mom is joining her this summer for a train trip through the Canadian Rockies and a visit to Vancouver Island.
George Hartman, of Panhandle Road, reports that he took another epic trip in his ’35 Ford pickup to Pittsboro, N.C., to visit his daughter Ellen and her husband, Miller. His son Eric, whom he had not seen in a few years, flew in from Eugene, Ore., and George picked him up at the Raleigh-Durham airport on his way down. Since they had not seen each other for a few years, the joke was that George would be the guy with the white hair and beard; Eric replied that he would be the guy losing his hair! They had a great little family reunion.
On his way down he also stopped in Cos Cob, Conn., and visited his mother’s best friend. His parents were born in Russia and had fled as kids after the 1917 revolution. His mother’s friend, at age 96, is the last of his parents’ friends to have been born in Russia before the revolution.
The drive in the old truck was relatively uneventful, with only one breakdown and the fact that he came back the day after the great floods in Rhode Island. George reports that he was smart enough to give Providence a wide berth and missed all the major traffic jams due to the closure of I-95. “Nevertheless, I have decided that the old truck will be strictly a New England truck from now on,” he writes. He feels that he is pushing his luck to go long distances.
The Vineyard Conservation Society reports that tomorrow will mark the annual Earth Day beach cleanup sponsored by the society. Volunteers are asked to go to one of the supervised beaches between 10 a.m. and noon. It might come in handy if you bring your recycled dog food and birdseed bags and gardening gloves. For more information call 508-693-9588.
Meg Higgins, office administrator over at the church, reports that tonight there will be a Jimmy Buffett Night fund-raising event for Brenda Lehman at the Portuguese American Club in Oak Bluffs starting at 6 p.m. Tickets will be sold at the door.
Colleen Morris, over at the library, reports that tomorrow at 4 p.m. Joanne Scott will present an introduction to basic meditation techniques. April is Stress Awareness Month; what with income taxes, town meeting and elections, it is appropriately named.
The library, like other government buildings, will be closed on Monday.
“On the evening of March 19, 1971 the newly opened and popular Black Dog Tavern, operated by Allan Miller, of Christiantown, and located at the rear of the old Dukes County Garage in Vineyard Haven, held a festive Mardis Gras party. Those present from this town were Travis and Merrily Tuck, Janet and Ed Cuetara, Mary Jane Case, Gerald Kelley, John Alley, Fran Crane, Jack Mayhew, Bill Prokoff and Lucia Evans. The guests all wore costumes and prizes were given in several categories, most delightful, most disgusting and most phantasmagorical. One of the prizes won by former West Tisburyite Brandon Wight, dapper as a cavalry officer, was the honor of cutting the seven foot long cake, fashioned as a dragon, complete with green icing. The cake was made by Paul Hardman and Steve Plummer.”
Happy birthday to Janet Bank, Linda Vadasz, Nancy Clair, Michael Watson and John Burrows today; Maggie Schwartz, Anne Maley, Tom Wetherall and Britney Stone tomorrow; Norman Lobb, Lynne Whiting, Mary Fischer, Gretchen MacArthur and Marina Sharkovitz on Sunday; Mary Dinitto, Diane and Lucas Emin, Lee Revere, Martha Flanders and Lorraine Eldridge on Monday; Ralph Jones, Kathleen Stevenson, Jeremy Berlin and Rebecca Ward on Tuesday; Joyce Maxner, Danny Segal, Elizabeth Greene and Robert Herman on Wednesday; Nelson and Jeffrey Bryant, Brent Taylor, Gary Rome, Dorothy Whiting, Chantale Legare, Marshall Segall, Bud Moskow, Gary Rome and Sharon Gamsby on Thursday. Belated birthday wishes to Diane Nolan.
Well, that is all of the social news for this week’s edition. If you have any news please call or e-mail me. Have a great week.
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