Welcome to summer and all the people it brings along with it. Traffic is heavy everywhere, even over at the landfill. Just about every building in town is now occupied. Joe Sollitto, down in Edgartown, will organize this year’s parade. The parade is the highlight of the Fourth of July.

The annual Independence Day parade in downtown Edgartown steps off promptly at 5 p.m. Do yourself and your family a big favor and make getting to the parade and fireworks a whole lot easier by taking the bus to Edgartown. You will avoid traffic gridlock. Main street will be closed down to all automobile traffic at 3 p.m., but the busses will be diverted to a convenient location near Cannonball Park until 7 p.m., when they will return to their scheduled stop on Church street. Call 508-693-9440 for more information.

Also on July 4th, the folks over at Renaissance House will present a reading of Frederick Douglass’s speech, What Does The Fourth of July Mean to A Negro? It will be held at the Inkwell Beach at 1 p.m. with a potluck lunch to follow.

The annual Tisbury Street Fair is on Tuesday and begins at 6:30 p.m.

David McCullough and his wife Rosalee are in residence at their Music street home. They are expecting visits from several family members.

Charlie Kernick of Edgartown Road was down at the boat with flowers in his hand when his wife arrived for summer on Monday. He tells me the annual Athearn Fourth of July cookout will be held over at Harry’s house in Lambert’s Cove and Brian will be the chef.

Susan Stone Levine reports that her husband Roger finally realized his dream of getting his private pilot’s license this year. He is celebrating his 20th year of coming to the Island, and it was always his dream to fly from New Haven to the Island. They now can make it here in an hour with a good tailwind. Even more important to them is that their son Andrew Downs, who has spent all his summers on the Island, was sworn in last week as a Chilmark intermittent police officer. It is a dream he has always had. Susan says that his grandfather Charlie would have been immensely proud of him and the stories he would be telling all of us. The Levines will be in residence until July 21. Congratulations!

Susan and Andy Boass of Hopkinton, were at their summer home last weekend. Andy is a beekeeper and sells his product from a card table on the edge of Middle Road. His wife Susan, one of the famous Glimmerglass Girls, is busy preparing for house guests.

Bob Ganz of North Road will attend the Fourth of July Parade in Edgartown and will proudly march in his Army uniform along with many other veterans. He reports that his investment in okra seeds has paid off and his garden has a healthy bunch growing. He looks forward to a bumper crop and is seeking recipes. Perhaps Malcolm Hall has some, since he is from the southwest and his wife Judy is a great cook.

The Sierputoski family is pleased that their daughter Hartley will be attending Wheelock College in the fall.

Lynne Demond of Natick, was vacationing here last weekend. She reports doing some geology work in Alaska recently. She is the daughter of Jane Konicki, a frequent visitor from Webster.

Dede Gadd and John Bower of Newington, Conn., are visiting with her sister Emily for the Fourth of July. Emily is busy getting her garden started.

Paul Karasik reports that the Martha’s Vineyard Charter School held a groundbreaking ceremony for their new addition on Tuesday. This past spring, they received a $200,000 grant for new science lab equipment from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. Two new science labs will be built this summer at the schoolhouse in North Tisbury. In addition, a new community basketball court will also be constructed.

Marian Irving reports that the First Congregational Church will hold its second annual blueberry festival on Saturday, July 19, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. She says that blueberry specialties such as blueberry-peach cobbler with whipped cream, freshly baked pies, scones, muffins, coffee cakes, fruit parfaits and yogurt, blueberry pomegranate smoothies, blueberry iced tea and ice cream will be available. Everyone is invited to sit in the shade and enjoy a blueberry treat.

Lambert’s Cove beach stickers are being sold at the shed over at the town tennis courts daily from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and in addition, on weekends extra hours were added from 4 to 7 p.m.

Tom Dresser and co-authors Herb Foster and Jay Schofield, who spoke at the library last week, will be at the Howes House on Tuesday from 9:30 to 11 a.m. to talk about their new book, Martha’s Vineyard in World War II. It is filled with a generous amount of history, and tells you about the effort Vineyard people contributed to the war. They will be hosted by the weekly discussion group.

Happy birthday to Pat Goodell, Jill Placzek, David Bouck and Jane Hawkes today; Peter Luskin, Shawn Barber, Danny Whiting, Diane Abbot, Cherrilla Brown and Abigail Bailey tomorrow; Tony Silva, Terry Cutler, Jennifer Tseng, Amelia Esparini, Zachary Magid and Tracey Grady on Sunday; David McCullough, Michael Lima, Sarah Pallatroni, Mathew Galvin, Adam Bresnick and Deanna Cote on Monday; Jack Mayhew, John Karalekas on Tuesday; Marianne Tsikitas, Sarah Cottle and Deborah Raymond on Wednesday, and to Skip Manter, Laurie Turney, Jason Neago and Devin Church on Thursday.

Happy 51st anniversary to Bob and Barbara Levine who celebrated on Monday.

Frank Polagruto reports that Spam became available at your local grocery store 77 years ago today. It is the kind you eat, not the useless material in your email.

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July, and see you at the parade.

Well, that is all of the social news for this week’s column. If you have any news, please call or email me.

Send your West Tisbury news to: alleys@vineyard.net.