JANE N. SLATER

508-645-3378

(slaterjn@comcast.net)

Something very nice is happening in Chilmark this coming week. And, as so often happens, it was the musings of a child that prompted it all. Bob Nixon, who, among other things, is the owner of the Menemsha Inn and Cottages and the Beach Plum Inn, heard his son, Jack, already a winning fisherman, suggest, after seeing a newspaper picture of recent war veterans, that the veterans might like to fish the Derby. Thus, the events planned for this coming week began to take shape. The Beach Plum Inn and the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby will present the American Heroes Saltwater Challenge and Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. will help facilitate the event. Wounded American veterans will gather at the Beach Plum Inn with their support teams. The Menemsha charter fishermen and the Island fish guides have volunteered their boats and skills to take them fishing. The event begins Monday, Sept. 21 and continues through Thursday, Sept. 24. So much is being donated and there are many to thank. The Beach Plum Inn is providing meals on and off-site and the Larsens are doing a clambake on Menemsha Beach. Please call Dorianna Klumick, Beach Plum assistant general manager, at 508-645-2521 for more information or to offer your time or talent. We wish you all tight lines and a good time with all these nice folks.

My mother always warned me to watch for things happening in threes. Silly thought, except for the number of Chilmarkers suffering falls this month. I am happy to report that Chuck Hodgkinson is back at his Chilmark town hall desk after his nasty fall reported last week. Now Andy Goldman is reporting that he is making a speedy recovery from his bad fall on Labor Day aboard his boat. His ribs are mending, just don’t make him laugh, please. Katie Carroll is hard to hold back, even after falling and injuring her leg. We do wish them all well and we are happy that all are on the mend.

Carl and Peggy Desch were happy to welcome their new grandson, James William Dionisio, for his first Vineyard visit this month. James was born in February to Audrey and Rick Dionisio and his is the seventh generation of family to visit Chilmark. His Blackwell ancestors were the first Chilmark summer visitors and seasonal residents, first coming in 1864.

Phil and Lynn Lillienthal were proud to tell us that their granddaughter, Ella Deutchman, won prizes at the Ag Fair for her handwork.

Jack and Nina Huberman came from Santa Fe, N.M. with guests for a fall vacation at their Menemsha home.

Please note that there will be a program at the Chilmark library on Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 1:30 p.m. The subject is the Flu and You: what to expect from the upcoming flu season, with Nicole Barlett and Marina Lent. For details, call 508-645-3360.

The Chilmark library’s Wednesday program will be a talk by John Hough about his new book, See The Glory, about two brothers who go to the Civil War from Martha’s Vineyard. This work of fiction has been widely enjoyed.

The Chilmark Community Church will offer pizza nights beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 22. Families are welcome for free food and fun from 6 to 8 p.m. at the church hall.

Applications are available for the affordable homesite lots at Middle Line Road. Please call Todd Christy at 508-645-2104 for more information.

I said goodbye to many of my seasonal friends who have headed back to their winter homes but one couple left without ceremony and I didn’t get to say so long. They were the busy pair of goldfinches that make their summer home in the beach plum bush within my daily sight line. I have enjoyed watching them for several years now and sort of miss that spot of color in my day. Missing them makes me realize that they will travel much farther from that beach plum bush this year than I will!

The film made here a year or so ago about our stone walls is available at the library. The documentary is called Passages of Time: The Story Behind New England’s Stone Walls. There is much about Chilmark walls and interviews with Chilmark people. Check it out.

Also seen on Basin Road, a middle aged couple were sedately riding Segways up and down the road. I couldn’t resist asking them if they had come down D.H.’s Hill; they came by car to the beach parking lot and then traveled around Menemsha by Segway. Why not?