MARGARET KNIGHT

508-627-8894

(margaret02539@yahoo.com)

At the beginning of last week I was at the community center when I heard some “helloing” echo around the big room. I hadn’t been working there in a week, and the only people who had come by during the couple of weeks before (besides the occasional porch WiFi-er) had been a stray bicyclist or two looking for a bathroom. The community center had been basically closed for nearly two months, and I was in winter mode, holed up in the office doing paper work. Since it sounded like Annie Heywood, I figured she’d find me in there. When it started sounded like a few Annies, and they weren’t stopping, I went out to see what they wanted.

It was four middle-aged women, dressed up for somewhere besides Chappaquiddick, who wanted to know where the stores and restaurants were and what there was to do. I’m used to those kinds of questions from people who come over on the ferry in the summer to see the bridge, but it turned out these women, six altogether, had rented a house on Chappy for the week. They’d traveled and arrived in the three-day rainy, cold northeaster, and they were from Georgia, North Carolina and New Jersey. They had never been to the Vineyard. Chappy seemed like such an unlikely place for them to vacation that I found myself asking — not meaning to sound offensive — “What are you doing here?!”

It turned out that one of them, Faye Adams-Taylor, who liked to get her friends together for fun vacations, had found the house on the Internet. The five others were friends of hers from childhood and college. And while they knew they were going to an island, they didn’t know what kind of island it was. I let them know the hard, cold facts of life on Chappy in the winter, where the bridge was, et cetera and invited them to the community center potluck on Wednesday.

They did come to the potluck, so we got to talk a little more. By then, they’d been to the shops in Oak Bluffs and Edgartown. They described trying to find the Dike bridge, and how they’d gone over a little wooden bridge but there was sand on the other side, and they couldn’t go any farther. I told them, “That was the bridge!” which surprised them. It seemed that, while enjoying themselves and appreciating the beauty of Chappy, they’d found themselves asking that same question, “What are we doing here?” several times during the week. It sounded as if some of them would definitely want to visit again — but maybe not stay on Chappy.

Thanks to Donna Kelly and Robin for hosting the potluck last week. We had four tables full, and it was nice to have a bunch of kids there, getting to know each other and enjoying themselves. The next community center potluck is on Wednesday, Nov. 4, starting at 6 p.m. Sunny and Alan Wilson will be the hosts, and all are welcome.

The original musical, An Island of Women, written and directed by Liz Villard, went on the road off-Island in the beginning of October. The musical is about the lives of women on the Vineyard around 1850, when most of the men were off whaling. It had been well received on the Island when it ran here this spring. In Fall River the show raised money for the Coalition for Social Justice, a local organization that does grassroots organizing on public policies to benefit working families. They also played in Woods Hole and Fairhaven. The original cast included Chappy’s James DiMattia, Gabby MacElhinney-Wilbur and Abigail Southard. Short term Chappaquiddicker Nicole Carey was new to the cast for the off-Island shows.

Nicole is Ben Knight’s partner, and the two of them have moved to the city — well, Vineyard Haven — for the winter. They are enjoying their house and life in town, while preparing for their baby due in March.

The community center’s annual calendar for 2010 is at the publishers. This is the fourth year for this fundraiser that features stunning photos of Chappaquiddick, chosen from those that were hung earlier this summer in the community center photo contest. The first place winner in the adult category, a double rainbow by Tim Leland, is on the cover, and the first place in the children’s category, of cormorants on a pier, taken by Emily Clark, adorns the back cover. If you didn’t get an order form in the mail, you can download one from the Web site, chappycommunitycenter.org, or call 508-627-8222 and request one. Calendars can be mailed to you or picked up at the open house on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Order early to be sure to reserve your copy.