JANE N. SLATER
508-645-3378
Chilmark is making a seamless slide into August this week. The extreme heat seems to have left with July and August is beginning in fine summer style. There are many new, exciting offerings coming up to keep us out and about. This spectacular issue of the Gazette should provide you with all the details of upcoming events.
Don’t forget to take your guests to the Chilmark flea market on North Road on Wednesdays and Saturdays and to pick up your lobster rolls at the Chilmark Community Church hall on Tuesdays from 4:30 to 7 p.m. There is also softball at the Flanders Field on Middle Road on Sunday mornings. Just buzzing the bite (driving down to Menemsha) will please the eye and lead to an ice cream for sure.
This Sunday, August 4, the Chilmark Community Center will host the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. There will be many author talks and books signings. Please go to the mvbookfestival.com website for the schedule of events. Food and beverages will be available throughout the day.
The Chilmark selectmen and the Town Affairs Council will hold a joint meeting at the Community Center at 7 p.m. on August 6. This annual meeting is held for the benefit of our seasonal residents who aren’t here to attend our town meetings in other months. All Chilmark residents are invited to attend and to make their issues known to the selectmen.
The Yard is having a wonderful season with sold-out programs all week. Please check out their website, dancetheyard.org or call them as I don’t have this coming week’s programs. There was great interest in the Tap the Yard programs, which continue. They have many things going on that include the whole family, so please call them at 508-645-9662 and get in on the fun. The Yard is located on Middle Road near the town hall.
The Chilmark Library’s Wednesday evening program is on August 7 at 5 p.m. Carol Brown Goldberg will show and discuss a short film entitled The Color of Time. It is a collaboration between Ms. Goldberg and filmmaker Anthony Szule, and it was the winner of the Award for Excellence at the Best Short Competition in La Jolla, Calif. Carol is a Chilmark seasonal resident and an internationally acclaimed artist. The Chilmark Library is proud to have a work by Carol on display at the library. The public is invited at no cost to this hour-long program.
The annual Firefighter’s Backyard Bash is scheduled for August 7 from 5 p.m. to sunset with food and music and general merriment. It is a fun way to enjoy the firemen’s good cooking and the pleasure of the company of just about everyone you know. Not to be missed.
Bill and Raine Kirkland have arrived for the month of August at their home on DH’s Hill. They missed their annual visit last summer due to health problems, so their friends are happy to see them. They travel up from Panama for this time in Chilmark.
Perry Mehrling and Judy Banker Mehrling are looking forward to a visit from their grandchildren, Sam Banker and Lula Bereford-Banker and their friends, Sam Flavin and Arnutha Muthukumar. The annual visit will include sailing and surfing and enjoying seafood at the family home, Boulder View.
We all send best wishes to Zee Gamson as she recovers from a bad fall in early July. We know the visits from daughter Jenny and her husband, Steve Seckler, and two of the teenage grandchildren, Maya and Ari, are helping Zee to mend. Gilad, the third teen, is at camp in Great Barrington. Bill and Zee are happy to welcome their son, Josh, and their son in law, Richard from Oakland, Calif., with their daughters, Maddy and Reba, also here for the reunion. Bill’s sister, Mary Gamson, will join them soon. Doug and Karen Goldsmith are happy to tell us that their daughter, Marjolaine, has been appearing as Lady Percy and the Earl of Douglas in the production of Henry the IV in Vineyard Haven this month. She is a senior at Oberlin College and has recently returned from a semester in London. Marjolaine has grown up spending her summers in Chilmark and enjoying the Community Center. The family’s home is off Tea Lane.
Adam Moore will speak on August 14 at the Chilmark Library at 5 p.m. He will tell us about the restoration going on at the Hancock Mayhew Mitchell house on the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation’s grounds at Quansoo. Some evidence indicates that the house may be the oldest in Chilmark. Adam will lead a tour of the house on Thursday, August 6, for those interested in seeing the work in progress. This two-part program is sponsored by the Chilmark Historical Commission. Everyone is welcome at no cost.
Andy Anderson and Cola Parker are happy to have two of their three children joining them at their South Road home for the rest of the summer. Willy has completed a 30-day backpacking trip in the Tallkeeta Mountains of Alaska. The grizzly bear wandering through their campground was one highlight of the adventure. Willy is now looking forward to the Chilmark Road Race. Lucy has returned from a month at Camp Treetops in Lake Placid where she was the 28th person in her family to be a camper. She enjoyed the hikes and climbed her first two 4,000 footers. She is happy to be back with her friends at the Chilmark Community Center for the rest of the season.
Lots of people send me emails and sometimes they have little sayings and quotes attached. This week, Andy Anderson’s email concluded with this quote: Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. Henry James. Surely, these words were meant for an August in Chilmark. Thanks, Andy.
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