JANE N. SLATER

508-645-3378

slaterjn@comcast.net

Chilmark seems anchored, although we have been buffeted by strong winds for what seems like weeks but is really only days of this past week. The crane operators hard at work on the projects in Menemsha Basin continued through most of the blustery days, with extra care applied. As I write on Wednesday, the winds are still blowing with gusts over 30 but now the skies are bluewill it last?

This is the weekend that Sue Larsen and her daughter, Brigida, walk in Boston in the Avon Walk for Cancer. We hope they have good walking weather and that all goes well for them.and, just maybe, they will raise enough money to cure breast cancer. It is a dream worth working for. If you haven’t, you may still mail Sue a donation made out to Avon Walk for Cancer and mail it to her home at 108 Hammett Lane, Chilmark 02535.

We send best wishes to Ethel Sherman, who is recovering at her home following a fall that necessitated a trip to Boston for hip surgery. We all wish her well and hope to see her out and about soon.

It is hard to top last week with the detonation by the bomb squad of the old aircraft ordnance brought up by a fisherman followed by a busy day of speculation about the dead whale and the white shark off our shore. Menemsha can’t seem to pace itself. What will this week bring?

There are lots of events going on in other towns that might interest Chilmarkers and a couple of local events for you to make note of.

In Chilmark we have the opening of the Chilmark Store on May 12. Jennifer LoRusso and her husband, Joel Glickman, are running the store this year and they plan to expand on all that is good about that emporium. New special blend coffees and pastries begin the day and there will be pizza, sandwiches and many prepared foods for the rest of the day. The hours will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Drop in and wish them well.

The Chilmark Library program for Wednesday, May 18, will be a presentation by Chilmark shellfish constable, Isaiah Scheffer. He will update us on the town’s efforts to improve the stocks of bay scallops and quahogs in town waters. The program begins at 5:30 p.m. and is free to all.

The Martha’s Vineyard Museum will host a reception for the veterans of World War II that were featured in the book, Those Who Serve: Martha’s Vineyard Veterans and World War II. Tom Hale, Ted Morgan, Nelson Smith and others will speak and the book will be available for autographs and purchase. It will be tomorrow, Saturday, May 11, at 3 p.m. at the museum.

A fund-raising dinner will be held on May 26 for the Martha’s Vineyard Museum at the restaurant, Atria, on Main Street in Edgartown. The dinner starts at 6 p.m. Please call 508-627-4441, extension 121 for more information.

The May meeting of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club will be May 17 at 1 p.m. at the Wakeman Center off Lambert’s Cove Road in Vineyard Haven. The guest speaker will be Philip Kyle. More information is available at the Garden Club hotline, 508-693-5334.

May 4 was officially Local Government Day and the Chilmark School and the town hall folks celebrated in style. The town offices hosted the second and third-grade students and their teachers, Jack Regan and Celeste Drouin. The students divided into teams called the Paint Mill Pals, the Kephigan Gang, the Brickyard Band and the Menemsha School Squad. Then they conducted an information scavenger hunt throughout town hall, meeting with many of the town employees. They learned much about town government and how it runs in Chilmark. The students each received a certificate with a gold seal for their efforts. Cronig’s grocery store generously donated lunch in honor of Local Government Day.

The Martha’s Vineyard Center for Living will host a luncheon meeting on May 21 at the Grill on Main in Edgartown from noon to 2 p.m. The luncheon will honor the whaling wives of Martha’s Vineyard and the speaker will be popular Island writer, Cynthia Riggs. Please call 508-939-9440 for more information.

The Chilmark Community Church will hold their annual yard and plant sale on Saturday May 28 at the church from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. They will be selling vegetable and herb seedlings, perennial plants and there will be flea market items, collectibles and household items.

Plans continue for the opening of the annual Chilmark Church flea market on June 23 at the Jenkinson Field on North Road. I have been reminded that the field is technically not across from the Jenkinson’s home so much as across from the old Kephigan schoolhouse, one of Chilmark’s early schools. Today, it is often referred to as Cape Higgon, as it sounds like that! The original name is thought to have been an Algonquian word, kobjog. The schoolhouse has been owned and lovingly cared for by the family of Sandy and Joan Newman for many years. It is now owned by their daughter, Jodi, and her husband, Marty Rosenthal. They, and their children, will be in residence for the warm weather months. We look forward to welcoming them back.