MARGARET KNIGHT

508-627-8894

(margaret02539@yahoo.com)

Last week was a quiet one on Chappaquiddick as school vacationers headed north for snow or south to the beach. The Enos and Filley families joined three other Edgartown families on a trip to the Florida island of Captiva where they enjoyed themselves, including a kayak trip in a nearby nature preserve. The kids all had someone about their age to hang out with, which takes the pressure off the parents. But as I said to Bob, there’s no such thing as a family vacation — those two words don’t go together. Vacations are when you don’t have to do anything for anyone and can focus on doing whatever you want. 

Sidney and I waited until our kids were grown to take our winter vacation in the south. We spent last week on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas visiting with former Chappaquiddickers Bruce and Sarah Lowther. Eleuthera is like a tropical Chappaquiddick. It has small sandy roads except for a few tar roads, which, unlike ours, are mostly a series of potholes connected by ancient pavement and limestone bedrock — except for the main route that runs the length of the one-hundred-mile island. There are no painted lines on the road, and they drive on the wrong side, too, but luckily not really fast.    

Eleuthera bushes and trees grow low and scrubby, with palmettos and coconut palms instead of scrub oak and pine. The beaches are beautiful and uncrowded, with white sand so fine that it barely roughs up the edges of the sea glass.

Like here, the towns are small and have a strong sense of community. Instead of one little store like our Chappy store, the residential part of a town might have a store like that the distance of every couple of blocks. Since there aren’t many cars, people don’t have to go far to buy their groceries.

Our library-in-exile has expanded its hours. It’s now open Monday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday from 12 to 5 p.m. The town hall telephone number is 508-627-6189.

In the campaign news department, Bob Fynbo’s political signs and bumper stickers are appearing around Chappy and in town. Bumper stickers and brochures are available at Edgartown Hardware or through Bob’s Web site, bobfynbo.com.

Bob has plans to visit all the town boards during March, and will be scheduling some “meet-the-candidate coffee gatherings” on Chappy and in Edgartown. Look for times and locations in future columns.

A recent Island Theatre Workshop newsletter, edited by Liz Villard, announces the second annual one-act play festival beginning on Friday, March 14 at Katharine Cornell Theatre with four plays, “all of which look at life with both humor and sadness.” The plays will run for two weekends.

Coming back to Chappy in March after being somewhere warm and green can be kind of a shock, but this winter’s warmer temperatures here make the transition easier. With the flocks of robins appearing and the birds singing, it feels as if spring isn’t far off.

Chilmark poet Margaret Freydberg, a longtime friend of mine, turned 100 years old yesterday. This in itself seems a tremendous feat, but then added to that is her still strong enjoyment of life’s beauties and pleasures. In a poem about her ninetieth birthday party, expressing her enjoyment of friends who brought companionship and delicious food rather than unwanted presents, she wrote, “I felt a melting innovation, on this day of turning ninety, and was fortified by possibilities. Oh, to dance without grass skirts, and make no sound of dancing!” At 100, the possibilities must be unlimited!