Mucking Around
From Gazette editions of March, 1961:
Although it seems sometimes that the minutist of details of President Kennedy’s life in the White House are covered with great gusto in the national press, one important detail just might be overlooked, and since it is surely contributing to the wellbeing of the First Family, it is duly reported here: Cape Pogue scallops have found their way to the White House dining room. Scallops taken at Cape Pogue by Oscar C. Pease and purchased by Gordon F. Shurtleff were shipped to Boston, including a select order of bay scallops destined for the presidential table, the second such order.
The Edgartown selectmen’s interest in the acquisition of Collins beach is being held in abeyance while the legal aspects of the whole matter are looked into by the town counsel. It had been the selectmen’s intention to wait until after the legal investigation had been completed before announcing any of the details of the plan other than the fact that an offer to sell the town the waterfront property of the late Helen E. Collins had been made by the present owners, W. Stuart Fuller and his sister, Catherine F. Gay. The town has been offered the chance to buy the entire tract which, besides approximately 100 feet of shore, includes frontage on South Water street and Commercial street. On the property are two houses, one of them large and dating from one of the Island’s most gracious architectural periods, the other smaller and built in a style nowadays considered not quite as felicitous. Before the board proceeds to find out, at a special town meeting, whether or not the town wants to buy the property, one of the selectmen, C. P. R. Dube, thought it would be desirable to ascertain definitely the present ownership of the beach portion of the property. For years there has existed a school of thought which held that the beach already belonged to the town or, at least, that the townspeople had legal access to it.
On a springlike Palm Sunday, J. Barry Keenan found his attention attracted by a tumult in his goat yard. The Keenan premises, port of call for much interesting wildlife, are just outside Edgartown on the Vineyard Haven Road. Investigating, Colonel Keenan discovered a lively but incapacitated Canada goose, unable to take off into real flight. The humane thing to do was to catch the goose and take it to the Foote memorial shelter of the S.P.C.A.
“I really got a work-out,” Colonel Keenan reported the next day. He couldn’t catch the goose, but he solved the problem by shooing the big bird down the road, keeping it out of traffic and into a field, opposite the shelter. Here George Jackson caught the goose by running along with it as it attempted to fly and tackling it as it landed. After examination, food, drink and rest at the shelter, the goose was liberated at Anthier’s as a patient ready for discharge and self help. It joined a flock in the pond and is expected to resume normal life.
Although much detail remained incomplete, Edward Pacheco, proprietor of the new Reliable Self-Service Market in Oak Bluffs, was hopeful he would be able to open his doors for business. This brand new market is one of the most impressive food stores on the Island. With floor space of 80 by 59 feet, the store has lent itself to the arrangement of “display islands” approved in the modern market. A prominent feature is the arrangement of the aisles designed to guide the shopper through the displays and to bring him around to the check-out counter in a convenient manner. In this market and the enlarged store of the Cronig Brothers of Vineyard Haven, the Island now has two of the largest independent grocery markets of its history.
Lillian Hellman, noted playwright and longtime summer resident, is the winner of the Creative Arts medal for this year. The award is made by Brandeis University in recognition of “a lifetime of outstanding achievement.” An honorarium of $1,500 goes with the medal to be presented at commencement exercises. “Everyone likes medals and money,” Miss Hellman said when she was asked about the award.
A woman left the table after a formal dinner and said to the lady who sat next to her, “Maybe you don’t know it, but you were eating my bread and butter all through the meal.” The woman, without a blush, replied: “I didn’t know it, but I’m not a bit surprised. It sounds just like me.” This honest, unabashed comment was made by Emily Post. The lady, for many years an Edgartown summer resident and whose very name came to mean Etiquette to America, was first and foremost an enemy of stuffiness. For this reason her work, despite its potentially pretentious subject matter, captured the country in a period of social change.
Compiled by Cynthia Meisner
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