Margaret Knight
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This is one of my favorite weeks on the Island. Anywhere you want to park, there’s a space. Roads are uncrowded; if you need to get somewhere at 3 p.m., you won’t find yourself stuck behind 20 cars and a school bus. Just don’t try to get any business done, because half the Island is away on school vacation.
February, one of my favorite months, has drawn to a close much too soon. I haven’t ordered seeds yet, and I’m certainly not ready to start thinking about spring chores. Even though I can’t find a record of it, this must have been one of the sunniest, most pleasant Februaries ever recorded – a long one, too. March is appropriately coming in like a lion. After a winter such as this, you have to wonder what’s coming for spring and summer.
The Island does feel more springlike now, with birds starting to sing in the morning. My chickens have begun laying eggs again. I hadn’t realized they were laying until I found their nest in the leaves right next to the side door, with about 20 eggs in it. They know the art of hiding in plain sight – even the skunks hadn’t found the eggs.
Thanks to Peter Wells for filling in for me while I was away. Twelve of my family members gathered on Pine Island in Florida for a vacation week, coming from New England and the West Coast. Dorothy Knight was glad to take a break from winter in Leominster, and while she was there, she visited Helen Van Duzer in Cape Coral. Helen used to live in Edgartown and work for the Gazette, as did Dorothy, writing the Chappy column. In the airport in Fort Myers, we ran into one of the Chappy Bobs. Bob Gurnitz was waiting for his grandson to arrive. They were heading off to an astronomy conference.
We heard about Pine Island from Steve and Claudia Ewing who have gone there for years. It’s less popular than nearby Sanibel Island, and there is a reason. Pine Island is in Charlotte Harbor, a large, shallow bay, and its edges are mangrove swamps instead of white sand beaches. We liked it better than Sanibel, though.
There were so many birds everywhere, and the ones that are rare and hard to get close to here are plentiful there. They seem to have a relaxed standard for personal space, too. One great blue heron was standing a few feet behind a man fishing, and another let us get within a few feet for a portrait. There were loads of pelicans flying in formation low over the water, egrets and herons in the mangroves, and once I saw a flock of white ibis cleaning up a vacant lot in a canal neighborhood. The long dock near where some of us stayed was covered with hundreds of birds each day: terns, gulls, black skimmers, each in their family groupings, with pelicans interspersed, and all standing much closer to each other than I ever see birds stand in New England. Every now and then something would scare one type of bird, and the group would swirl around in the sky and land again with much squawking.
While I was away, Tim Leland had an e-mail conversation with his brother, Steve, and Chris Kennedy of The Trustees regarding the spelling of Poucha Pond. In an e-mail to Chris, Tim wrote, “All the references in my family’s association with the pond are to ‘Poucha,’ a spelling that Steve and I believe is the proper historical name and much prefer. Our sense is that over the years the ‘Pocha’ spelling has crept in as an easier phonetic rendering, if far less elegant.”
Chris wrote that TTOR’s Land Use History of Cape Pogue and Wasque spells it “Poucha” but that “the 1795 map of Chappaquiddick held at the MV Museum calls it Washqua Pond, which appears to be the original Wampanoag name for the pond. The 1830 Henry Crapo map calls it ‘Wasque Pond,’ and the 1858 map shows the pond’s name as Pocha Pond. So, who’s right?” He also pointed out that the assessors’ maps show the pond as “Poucha” but the road as “Pocha.”
Steve wrote: “The big leap seems to have been from ‘Wasque Pond’ or similar before the 1830s to ‘Pocha’ or ‘Poucha’ after mid century. I guess we need a research librarian to tell us why the change. For those of us who live on the pond, ‘Poucha’ it has been for nearly a century. Curtis Nye Smith purchased property fronting the shore about the time of WWI, and this spelling was always used subsequently by those of us living on his original property. I kind of like a return to ‘Wasque’ Pond, but I guess that is even less likely than agreement on the present spelling.”
To refresh his memory about the Poucha Pond Fishing and Meadow Company, Chris reread the Land Use History book. He found: “Historically known as Wassaechtaak, the name Pocha was derived from the word ‘Pok-sha-muk’, an Algonquin word meaning, ‘where there is a breaking in’. The ‘breaking in’ refers to the formation of Pocah Pond by the inrush of the Atlantic Ocean through Cape Poge Bay. As Cape Poge was once separate from Chappaquiddick, Pocha Pond may at one time have been connected to Katama Bay.” We’ll take up the spelling of Cape Pogue at another time!
The community center’s potluck on March 7 will be hosted by Sue and Will Geresy. The potluck starts at 6 p.m. and all are welcome.
The MV Hebrew Center has a 2012 Arts Festival!—with presentations each month from February through May. On March 4 at 4 p.m., the group with whom I dance, What’s Written Within, will be performing, mostly improvisations. There will also be a slide show of dance photos taken by Sally Cohn.
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