JANE N. SLATER

508-645-3378

(slaterjn@comcast.net)

Chilmark is slipping into something more comfortable . . . fall. Fall is always a most comfortable time of year and everything seems easier than it has for several months. Certainly driving and shopping have become less stressful. The lights are going out all over town . . . many of the homes that glowed with light and activity are now dark and silent. The migration has reversed itself and many of our neighbors have left us for their off-Island lives. And, because my granddaughter is studying Spanish, I will say, vaya con dios.

The weather has been grand, except for the winds that have frustrated the fishermen. The second annual fishing derby-within-a-derby, the American Heroes Saltwater Challenge, gave eleven veterans a chance to enjoy sunny days of fishing around the Island. Bob and Sarah Nixon of Beach Plum Inn offered total hospitality to the wounded veterans . . . at the original suggestion of their nine-year-old son, Jack. They certainly have earned the praise of the veterans and of all of us. There are also many volunteers who deserve thanks and praise for stepping up. I haven’t heard the fishing results yet but they will be reported elsewhere in the Gazette. Cheers to the Nixons and to our veterans.

The Bite will close for the season after business on Saturday. Don’t miss your last chance to eat the legendary fried clams.

Please remember that Monday next is the special town meeting at the Chilmark Community Center at 7:30 p.m.

We all send best wishes to Ethel Whitman who is now at St. Elizabeth’s Manor, 1 Dawn Hill, Bristol, R.I. 02809 and will enjoy hearing from her friends. She was transferred to St. Elizabeth’s from Mass. General Hospital where she spent last weekend. We hope she is feeling better and on the mend.

The Chilmark Community Church has returned to the weekly pizza nights on Tuesdays. All are welcome.

The Martha’s Vineyard Cultural Council will hold a meeting at the Howes House in West Tisbury on Sept. 29 at 6 p.m. to review the grant application process. Anyone interested in applying for the grants is welcome to attend.

The Fisher Poet Capt. David Densmore of the West Coast will be the speaker at the Wednesday program at the Chilmark library on Sept. 29 at 5:30 p.m. He is a well-known poet who finds inspiration in his work as a commercial fisherman.

The needlework and fiber arts group will begin meeting at the library on Thursday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m. The group is open to any who are at any level of their art in quilting, knitting, crochet, weaving and other fiber crafts. Please call Susan Murphy for details at 508-645-3360.

Congratulations to the Chilmark Free Public Library! The Hennen’s American Public Library Ratings include the Chilmark library on the list of the top 100 libraries in the country with a population of less than 1,000. Only three other Massachusetts libraries made the list. Cheers to a hard working staff and many valued patrons who made it possible.

I was poking thru a copy of Cape Cod and the Offshore Islands, written in 1970 by Walter Teller, a longtime seasonal resident of Chilmark, now deceased. I enjoyed some of his Chilmark recollections chatting with the late Donald LeMar Poole and his wife, Dorothy. There are lots of reminders of how things used to be in Chilmark, and really, not that long ago. And I also read that the expression saying that the goose hangs high is really a weather prophecy. It is said that geese fly high when the weather’s good. Have you heard that bit of folklore?