Margaret Knight>

508-627-8894

(margaret02539@yahoo.com)

I was on the other island last weekend, and got an excellent view of both Nantucket and the Vineyard from the air on the way home. As we came in over the Vineyard, the morning sun sparkled off all the ponds along the south shore. I usually just think of the Edgartown and Tisbury Great Ponds, but the south coast is filled with small ponds in between them. I like Nantucket a lot, but seeing the Vineyard that morning, I felt lucky to live on what is surely the prettier Island.

Flying over Chappaquiddick, I saw the most recent changes at Norton Point, after the northeaster of last weekend. The second breach on the Chappy side was well established as a wide channel. The sand island beyond that (the rest of our side of Norton Point) curved way into Katama Bay and looked particularly vulnerable to being washed away. However, it may just continue to curve inward and make a new “swan pond” as the Edgartown side grows across to Chappy.

The lay of the land on Nantucket is similar to Wasque, with lots of moors and scrub lands, and no big hills and few rocks. My friend and I took a walk on a land preserve which people there call Serengeti because the view from the road looks out over extensive moors that have been mowed or burned, with here and there a scrub oak sticking up, so that it looks very much like the African grasslands. Someone had even put a painted lion and a giraffe out on the moors.

On Sunday, the day I was going to fly back, the fog rolled in. I called the airport several times to see if the planes were flying, and each time they said the flights were delayed. The plane was just coming from Hyannis, so I wondered about the word “delayed” — did it mean the plane was flying slower than usual? On further questioning, I found out “delayed” means “not flying now but might fly later.” The Vineyard flight was delayed right up until takeoff time, at which point it was canceled.

When I flew back on Monday, I arrived at the Chappy ferry about 9:30 a.m. and saw that the ferry line was all the way up Daggett street and part way up Simpson’s Lane. I decided to park my car and hitch a ride home since I had to come over again later. I met Melissa Kagan in the ferry line who gave me a ride up the road and, since she was going back to town at the same time I needed to go, she picked me up a few hours later. At the ferry I noticed the sign Peter posted when he took the On Time III to Vineyard Haven: Expect Delays. We may just have one ferry now, and it may be small, but at least if you wait long enough, you can get across.

In fact, the return of the III may be delayed (read: definitely still coming but maybe later than the projected Thanksgiving date). Peter says it’s been difficult getting materials, and they’re making improvements to make the boat more reliable. They’re also installing larger cooling tubes on the bottom in preparation for a new engine in the spring. With the cooling tubes installed now, the boat won’t have to be taken out of the water then. He said the bottom is now painted a nice green. It should look festive when it gets back with the blue-bottomed II.

On one of my rides with Melissa, I found out she’s running the Plum Hill School annual Elves Faire on Dec. 12 at the Edgartown Federated Church. She showed me the herb pillows she’s making to sell there. That’s during Christmas in Edgartown weekend. I’ve seen store windows already decorated for the holidays, which seems odd since it was summer just a month ago. Well, maybe it was a few months, but the cosmos and marigolds are still blooming, and looking better than ever. For planning ahead, the community center’s annual holiday tea will be Sunday, Dec. 20.

Next Saturday, Nov. 28, the Chappaquiddick Community Center will hold its open house from 3 to 5 p.m. The 2010 Chappy photo calendars will be available for pickup. There are extras to buy, too. They look fantastic this year — lots of great shots of Chappaquiddick in all its glory during the four seasons. There will be some items for sale by Chappy crafters, too. (If anyone is interested in a table to sell their crafts, call or e-mail me.) The fire will be blazing, and hot cider and cookies will be served. It’s a great time to meet old and new friends and neighbors.

Luke McCracken enjoyed being the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz play put on by the Edgartown School a couple of weekends ago. Lucy Enos was in the play as a munchkin in the beginning, a citizen of Oz and, also, one of the witch’s guards. Everyone worked very hard to get the play together with only six and a half weeks of rehearsal. An orchestra was used this year, and the kids did a great job timing the lines and songs with the orchestra.

Daggett street should have a different look by the time you’re reading this. The telephone and electric line poles are being taken down. They were removed last week beyond the library on North Water street. The lines were prepared to be put underground when the water mains were replaced in 2007. Without them, it looks like another era.

Edo Potter remembers when electric poles first went up on Chappy, in the late 1930s. She doesn’t remember anyone complaining about how they looked; she just remembers how glad she was (at age nine) to be getting electricity at her house because then they got an inside toilet.

In a picture Edo has of the 1938 hurricane, the water at Caleb’s Pond is nearly to the tops of the electric poles. But the first poles were much shorter. She said every year they would extend the electric line a few more poles, and the poles were all very visible because the vegetation was still low growing, except near Dick and Daryl Knight’s house where there were some trees. Edo remembers biking up from the Point and finding some shade there.

When she was a selectman, Edo tried to get the lines put underground on Main street but the cost was huge, and the town didn’t vote to pay for it. Later she tried to get the poles along the Gardner property near the Point put underground, but the cost was prohibitive, and the electric company said it would be harder to repair them after a hurricane. It’d look nice to have no poles there, though.