This past weekend automobile traffic seemed to increase most everywhere and it is busy all around town. The weather was toasty warm most days. Eileen Blake’s pies are no more here as they have gone out of business on the Island. In fact, the house has been torn down!

Sig Van Raan of Music Street reports that he and his wife Susan Dickler celebrated their wedding anniversary last week. He took out Susan to dinner at the Outermost Inn to celebrate the special occasion.

Catha Carlson, daughter of Bob and Barbara Day of Willow Tree Hollow, hosted a party for her sister Elizabeth Churchill and her three children, Freddy, Bobby and Lucy. Her brother Matthew and his wife Tracy and their three children, Jackson, Garrett and Caroline and about 50 other invited guests of all ages attended. Bob and Catha will soon celebrate birthdays and that was acknowledged with a delicious cake. Everyone had a swell time at the garden party.

It has been busy up at the Blue Barque on South Road. Maggie and Steve Pace and their children Kendal and Callum visited Dan Leventritt and Jen Wool last week. The Paces were first time visitors to the Island. Kendal, however, knew the ropes. The bright Island light and scrub oak reminded the Paces of home in Vermont. Callum spent hours in the surf at Hancock Beach in his waterproof cast. Maggie, sporting a gloved boot for a broken foot, still managed to take a look at the cliffs in Aquinnah, walk to beach everyday and hop in the Camp Ground. The family explored Menemsha and tried a little bit of everything from every menu in town. They especially loved the ginger bread cottages and a lost fawn that bonded with Jen’s car. Repeat visitors Lisa Lillibridge and Jeff Govoni and their daughters Willa and Lucy joined the crew and explored Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven. Sydney Francois, a Barque veteran, joined the fun along with Christie Gamp and Sophie from Sandwich. The gang wished Dan farewell as he suited up for a trip on his motorcycle to the Blue Ridge country.

Barbara Scherlis turned 90 on July 15 at her home on Old House Pond, which she delights in now as much as she has in the last half century. She was joined there on her birthday by her son Dan and his partner, Kate Elliott Smith, Kate’s son, Adam Smith, and Dan’s son, Adam Scherlis, who just graduated from Brown University and is soon to be pursuing a Ph.D. in physics at Stanford. His birthday on July 13 has for almost 22 years allowed for a joint celebration regularly featuring Black Dog chocolate cake, which this year followed a fine meal at the Lambert’s Cove Inn. John Scherlis of Washington D.C., came to the Island for the event. Barbara’s son Bill and his family visited earlier, from Pittsburgh, and will return next month. Barbara enjoyed an extended visit with a larger contingent of family in early June on a long-anticipated cruise off the southern Alaskan coast in a small ship, going as far north as Glacier Bay. She kayaked in the frigid waters, hiked by bear tracks, saw mountain goats, brown bears, whales, and calving glaciers from a distance, and orcas at no more than 10 yards. John reports that’s what it took for her to give up one June week on the Vineyard.

The movie Very Semi Serious will be screened tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center in Oak Bluffs. A discussion will follow the film with New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff and New Yorker cartoonists and Vineyard residents Paul Karasik and Mick Stevens.

Geoff Currier reports that on July 28, Tuesdays at Twilight at the Grange Hall will present Spotlight on Youth, a concert showcasing the Vineyard’s best new musical talent. The concert is sponsored by the West Tisbury Library Foundation. All proceeds go toward supporting the library. The performers for Spotlight on Youth range from fifth grade through high school and have been chosen by their music teachers as the most advanced, talented and hardworking young singers and instrumentalists on the Island. Doors will open at 7 p.m. and the concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets may be purchased in advance at the library and at Tisberry on Main street in Vineyard Haven. Tickets are $15 for adults and half price for kids 12 and under, a limit of six tickets per person. The Art Cliff food truck will serve dinner from 6 to 8 p.m.

Eleanor Neubert reports that this will be her 31st year as manager of the Agricultural fair. Premium books will soon be available and workers, volunteers, and entrants can sign up at the Ag Hall starting August 3, Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and noon.

Suellen Lazarus reports that next Friday at 5:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Community Center is the opening event of the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival, featuring a dialogue between two high-profile journalists: Ta-Nehisi Coates, national correspondent for The Atlantic, and Michele Norris, National Public Radio host and founder of The Race Card Project. Tickets for the event sponsored by Vineyard Gazette are quickly selling out and can be purchased at www.bookfest.bpt.me. On Saturday, August 1, the festival moves to the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown where authors will be speaking in panel discussions running from 9:30 a.m to 3:30 p.m.

The Marie-Louise Rouff studio gallery at 150 Field View Lane is open Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. The entrance is across the street from Ghost Island Farm. Many of her paintings are also on display at the library this month.

On July 24, 1929 nearly 2,000 people gathered in the Woods Meadow for the first, and apparently the last, home grown circus event ever held in town. It featured prancing horses, gymkhana, tumbling clowns, and a dignified ringmaster. Hundreds of cars parked in neat rows around a big cleared circle in the center while their occupants occupied ringside seats on the grass. The show was a benefit for the hospital and was held only a few rods from the old race track just up the road. Johnson Whiting was the ringmaster and presided in the ring with skill while his wife Emma, who organized the entire event, added the appropriate atmosphere in an old time costume.

Happy birthday to: Jean Francis, Primo Lombardi, Matthew Garfinkle, and Mike Hull Friday, Bob Ogden, Darah Schwartz, Spencer Thurlow, Kristin Kew and Gregory Small Saturday, Fran Bradley, Cynthia Mitchell, Jeff Smith, Hannah Elias and Charles Morgan on Sunday, Doug Reid, Mariko Kawaguchi, Max Decker and Mary Folin on Monday, Stacy Haden, Greg Orcutt, Beth Serusa, Robin Perschel and Allen Whiting on Tuesday, Julie Humphreys, Bob Day, Dan Rossi and Amanda Lobb on Wednesday, Pat Lynch, Perry Garfinkel, Mark Mazer, Jesse Oliver, Julia Trees and Diane Hartman on Thursday. Belated birthday wishes to Minor Knight and Margaret Rose Hoff. Also belated anniversary wishes to Dee Schmal and Mike McFadden.

Well that is all of the social news for this week’s column. If you have any news please call or e-mail me. Have a great week.

Send West Tisbury news to alleys@vineyard.net.