Chappy Town Column: July 12
Brad Woodger

I’ve been up very early these past few days but I still can’t beat the birds to the punch. Must be many worms to be had. I moved my coffee maker to our version of a clubhouse with the hope being that I might be dissuaded from consuming my first cup of cups before 5 a.m. I’m too smart to trick myself so I’ve taken to sitting on the small deck overlooking Cape Pogue’s tidal marsh, a fresh brew in hand, watching the air gain color and listening to the competing conversations of crows, robins and other feathery chit-chatters.

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Chappy Town Column: July 5

By the time you read this the Schifter’s house will be hovering in its new location. All that remains is to fill the space between the ground and the house with concrete blocks, then remove all of the steel beams and wheels that provided the levitation. Then the dirt goes back around the house and by Christmas you won’t know anything ever happened there. Don’t miss the book signing at Slip Away Farm on Sunday, July 7 from 4 to 6 p.m. for Melinda Fager’s new book Living Off the Sea on the Island of Chappaquiddick.

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Chappy Town Column: June 28
Brad Woodger

I have a new friend. He is a turtle. I think we get along because we see ourselves in each other. Like me, he is a procrastinator. Without fail he begins his trek across the ninth fairway of my golf course only after he hears the oncoming hum of my mower. I imagine him at home with best intentions to “this time” begin his journey to the swamp before the advent of my intrusive mowing, but each time finds himself only heading out the door once it is a bit too late. He crosses the hundred or so yards that bisect my back and forth mowing in about 30 minutes; his top speed is slower than most others’ lower gears (again, a reminder of myself).

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Chappy Town Column: June 21

Chappaquiddick will be sending two high school graduates out into the world to pursue their dreams. Sarah Gruner will be attending Massachusetts College of Art and Design, known as MassArt, where she will further her photographic art interests. Caleb Enos will enter Cape Cod Community College, 4-Cs for short, to study all of the many aspects of filmmaking. Over the next three years more Chappaquiddickers will graduate from high school; three in 2014, two in 2015 and four in 2016.

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Chappy Town Column: June 14

They say that all good things come to those who wait. I’m not certain who they are, but they are correct when the waiting applies to returning columnists. Good things abound whilst I am at the keyboard writing about all things Chappy. I feel bad for Thursdays and Fridays. They are sorely neglected by the Gazette town columns. Columns are written before Thursday or Friday transpire, and after the limits of memory. They are passed over like towns between exits off the pike.

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Chappy Town Column: June 7
Peter Wells

The Trustees of Reservations have been providing tours to the Cape Pogue Lighthouse for many of the Vineyard’s first and second grade school children. I have had the pleasure of bringing several of these groups over on the ferry. Clearly a lot of preparation went into these outings as the kids were appropriately dressed and had their knapsacks.

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Chappy Town Column: May 31
Margaret Knight

With all the cold and rainy weather it’s as if the seasons have been trying to go backwards. No doubt we’ll be complaining about the heat before long, though. Memorial Day weekend seemed quiet, but since I mostly stayed home, I can’t be sure about that. I was surprised at how many people were still around on Tuesday. Usually there is a lull after the long weekend, but unlike the weather, there is no going backwards as far as the influx of summer.

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Chappy Town Column: May 24

Chappaquiddick was well represented at the Lesley University Graduate School commencement last Saturday in Boston. Both Jenna Zadeh and Katherine Villard-Howe received master’s degrees.

Jenna studied for a dual master’s degree in special education and elementary education while interning at the Maria L. Baldwin School in Cambridge. Her parents, Harold and Patty, her brother, Lari, and her fiancé, Matthew, were there to share in her delight.

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Chappy Town Column: May 17
Margaret Knight

In this typically tardy Vineyard spring, the Chappaquiddick trees are finally decked out in all their finery — delicate leaves, dangling catkins, and frilly blossoms that entice the bees to do their job while we shiver in the morning, refusing to get the stove going because it’s the middle of May, for God’s sake!

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Chappy Town Column: May 10

Adeline Mae Chandler took her first breath at noon on Friday, May 3, to the great delight of her parents Abigail and Curtis along with grandmother Sharlee, who arose very early that morning to be by her daughter’s side for the birth of her first granddaughter. Adeline weighed in at 7 pounds, 2 ounces and measured 19 and a half inches long.

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