I knew a girl named July. She was 12. I was 10. She wore paisley bell bottoms. She had chain link bracelets. Her eyes hinted at some events that I had yet to witness. She rode motorbikes. She was so cool. This July, our July, is nothing like her. Chill out seventh month!

The Chappy Community Center has been the real hub of activity on Chappy for the past weeks. I drop my granddaughters off there two mornings a week for sailing. I have to bribe them with boxes of little tiny explosive “party snaps.” When I was a kid these were sold by the Curio Shop on Circuit avenue under the name of “pearl bombs.”

There haven’t been many rainy days on Chappy this summer. Some sprinkles, but frugally distributed like a greedy ice cream vendor. I suspect most are okay with this paltry precipitation, and I like the sunshine as much as the next guy, but I need my rainy days. Firstly, my grass children tend to thrive when their home is wet, and I love my green kids, so I am happy when they’re happy. Secondly, and moreover, I need the excuse to go dark, to hunker down with a book — held captive by the forbidding closeness of nature.

 The Chappy Community Center will host the first lobster roll dinner of the season on Wednesday, July 15. Place your order by noon on Tuesday and pick up between 5 and 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The $17 price includes a lobster roll made according to Marion Harding’s original recipe plus a bag of chips and a drink of choice. Eat in or take home. Stop in at Slip Away for veggies to counteract the chips.

Dropped shells

before Peter Wells’

truck

stuck

in the ceaseless pause of summer demand

Summer activities get into full swing at the Chappaquiddick Community Center this week. Check the website or bulletin boards for details. They really do offer something for everyone.

Apparently no one got the memo regarding taking one’s shoes off before stepping on the new Chappy Point pavement—it’s presently all scuffed up and has lost its luster. The seagulls, noticing our disregard, renewed their shell droppings too. Just can’t have anything nice here.

The rhododendron and lilacs appear to have relished the extra cold and snow of the winter. This is the blossomiest spring in my memory. Mytoi garden is particularly dazzling. The little bit of rain we had last week unfortunately didn’t really end the drought. However, I was sorry to see that it did encourage my lawn to grow.

Writing the Chappy column is an exercise in recollection — what the heck happened this week? And the exercise continues as one then tries to then make interesting those recollections.

Whew! Memorial Day weekend—sudden, overwhelming, exhausting! I’d call it a four-day weekend. It felt and looked like summer for all four of those days. There was not a parking space to be had in all of downtown Edgartown but you could surely get a T-shirt and an ice cream cone.