The King and Us

From Gazette editions of June, 1985:

The Queen Elizabeth 2, one of the largest cruise ships in the world, dropped anchor a mile off East Chop Tuesday. She carried 1,700 passengers and a crew of nearly 1,000. She came with four restaurants, seven bars, 1,350 telephones, 180 clocks, four swimming pools, seven shops (including Harrod’s), two discos, a casino, a computer learning center, a bank and a theatre with 525 seats.

She held 1,000 bottles of champagne, 1,200 bottles of wine, l,200 bottles of whiskey, 4,000 cigars, 25,000 packs of cigarettes, 1,500 pounds of lobster, 50,000 tea bags, 3,000 pounds of duck and 600 jars of baby food. She brought a librarian, an orchestra steward, a teen counselor, two kennel maids, three florists, six dancers, 15 wine stewards, two chief bartenders, 10 assistant bartenders, 69 mechanics and 162 waiters.

A score of Island dignitaries and invited guests from Oak Bluffs boarded one of the launches and puttered right up beside her great hull and gasped. “She really is a floating skyscraper!” The executive cruise director led the group upstairs to exchange mementoes. So Linda Marinelli, chairman of the Oak Bluffs selectmen, presented Capt. Lawrence Portet with copies of the Oak Bluffs town report and a collection of Oak Bluffs centennial coins. Captain Portet gave Mrs. Marinelli a crystal decanter and framed photo of the liner at sea. “If I’m not re-elected next year, I think I’ll take a cruise,” Mrs. Marinelli told the captain.

Interest rates remained the highest in the country this week for money market and certificate of deposit accounts at both the Edgartown National Bank and the Martha’s Vineyard National Bank. The high interest rates brought a wild rush of depositors to the Island banks from all over the nation, and by Monday morning both banks closed CDs to all off-Island interests. The public clamor continued; financial publications and a wide range of regional and national media carried the news.

But closer to home elements of tension are now apparent between the Vineyard’s two national banks. And the top executive officers at both banks admitted that beneath the scrambling for a piece of the high interest action lies a rate war. “It has not calmed down,” said Melvin MacKay, chief executive officer at the Edgartown National Bank. “To me it is unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

But Robert Wheeler, president of the Martha’s Vineyard National Bank, offered a different view. “I think it’s a tempest in a teapot. We’re still getting calls, but things have calmed down a bit.” Many believe national attention over the high interest rate was sparked first by an aggressive advertising campaign begun a month ago by the Martha’s Vineyard National Bank.

As of Friday Edgartown National Bank was paying 9.5 per cent on money market accounts. The Martha’s Vineyard National Bank was paying 10.5 per cent on money market accounts. By comparison the Bank of Boston was paying 7.5 per cent on money market accounts.

It was news here the other day when King Hussein of Jordan and his family visited the Vineyard, and this was duly reported by the local newspapers. After all, kings don’t drop by every week. What’s interesting is why Hussein and his American wife should come here for a rest from the turmoil of the Middle East.

One guess, not to be too boastful, is that the Island has come to respect the privacy of people. The more famous they are, the more we leave them alone. Old secretaries of state and defense, former attorney generals, prominent newspaper columnists, publishers, editors all come here. And manage to get lost. After they arrive nobody bothers them, not even the press, which is probably why in June they begin to slip in for the privacy that eludes them most of the year.

For stretches of land in the State Forest, the oaks are as bare as the dead of winter. The trees appear stripped. Says Manuel Correllus, supervisor at the State Forest, “It’s as if these areas were hit by a fire.” Bottom frost is what Mr. Correllus calls it, when weather like winter invades the low-lying areas of the Vineyard, even in the heat of early summer. Temperatures can plummet to 29 degrees. The hardest hit are the scrub oak trees which grow close to the ground.

George Magnuson Sr. of West Tisbury knows bottom frost too. Mr. Magnuson lives near the West Tisbury youth hostel and he’s seen frosts come and wipe out entire gardens. “We had a heavy frost two weeks ago. I lost 50 tomato plants.” But on the night of the bottom frost, Mr. Magnuson says, “I did cover my squash and cucumbers with Vineyard Gazettes. I took three and four weeks of Gazettes and that’s what saved those plants. The Gazette isn’t just nice reading; it saved my plants.”

Compiled by Cynthia Meisner

library@mvgazette.com