Chilmark is neck-deep in August. Everyone is doing their thing and I don’t remember an August when there was so many things to do! No wonder everyone is moving so fast, too much to do and too little time to do them all. The good weather days offer the beaches and fishing and the rainy days offer the shopping tours.
All of Chilmark joins the Allen Farm in celebrating the arrival of Tavira Mirai. She was born to Nathaniel and Kaila Allen-Posin on July 31 on the farm and weighed in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces. Her delighted grandparents are Mitchell Posin and Clarissa Allen and Marci Klapper and Lawrence Binny, all of Martha’s Vineyard. She is the first baby actually born on the farm in a good hundred years. Congratulations to all!
Tom and Barbara Rivers have enjoyed visits to their Tea Lane home from daughter Diane and her son James who came from Sarasota. The Rivers’ second grandson, James Rivers of New York city is back from a summer visit to Israel and has made an August visit with his grandparents. The Rivers also were happy to have their annual visit from Tom Haynes and his wife Lani and their two children, all of Atlanta. Tom is a Fox news anchor there.
Chilmark sends many happy birthday wishes to Fran Flanders who celebrated a significant birthday this weekend past with a festive party at the Captain Flanders House hosted by her family. Cheers from us all!
Several of my neighbors are undergoing treatment for a variety of tick bites. We hope they will soon feel better, but it is depressing for them to spend vacation time taking antibiotics. Stanley Startzell of Larsen Lane is battling two different tick illnesses at the same time. We send best wishes to all who are suffering.
Norman and Diana Freed are enjoying August visits from their son Andy and his wife Melissa, and their sons Orion and Calvin. All are here from West Lafayette, Ind. Their daughter Deborah and her children Miriam and Jonah are also visiting. Older daughter Shoshana is at Peace Camp in Vermont, where she is in the company of young people her age from America, Israel and Muslim countries. There were concerns this year that some of the campers could not make the trip due to the troubles in their countries, but she reports that most are together and the contacts are beneficial to all.
Speaking of difficulties in countries, don’t you think this is a summer of bad news? Sorry to remind you, but doesn’t hurt to look out the window and count your blessings.
This is the month of the Elisa Bruckner Annual Poetry Contest at the Chilmark library. Teens and tweens are reminded to enter their original poems on August 11. There is a $200 prize awarded each year in Elisa’s memory. Please call the library at 508-645-3360 or go to chilmarklibrary.org for more information.
The Chilmark Historical Commission and the Chilmark library invite us all to the Wednesday program on August 13. Art historian professor Henry Adams will talk about artist Thomas Hart Benton and the connections to Martha’s Vineyard of the Regionalist art movement. He is the author of the definitive biography of Thomas Hart Benton and several other books about Benton. The program is from 5 to 6 p.m. at the library.
Steve and Susan McGhee are home after a July visit to Shutesbury, Mass., where they were guests of friend and frequent Chilmark visitor Bob Groves.
Christopher Neumann has arrived from Ireland for an August vacation with his parents, Conrad and Jane Neumann. His son, 4-year-old Auden, accompanied him and they will be joined next week by Lesley and sons Evan and Corin.
The author lectures continue at the community center. On August 10, Sunday evening at 7:30 Lucinda Franks and Alan Dershowitz will converse on their books, Timeless: Love, Morgenthau, and Me by Ms. Franks and Taking the Stand by Mr. Dershowitz. On Thursday, August 14, at 7:30 p.m. Richard North Patterson will discuss his book Eden in Winter. His book series is set in Chilmark and Menemsha.
June Manning, my tireless neighboring town columnist, asks us all to support the Martha’s Vineyard Center for Living fundraiser coming up on August 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center. A performance by the Island Theater Workshop of Peter Pan will benefit the many programs of the Center for Living. Please call 508-939-9440 or email mm02568@aol.com for more information.
I am hoping that by the time you read this we have shared a successful evening with the volunteer firemen at their annual Backyard Bash at the community center set for Wednesday evening. You can also support the firemen’s efforts by purchasing T-shirts offered for sale from the fire trucks on some evenings at the Menemsha Beach parking lot.
Finally, I ask your forgiveness for taking advantage of this column, I invite you all to OverSouth Antiques on Basin Road to view a selection of the early black and white ink washes, drawings and lithographs of Adolf Dehn done in Chilmark and Menemsha in the early 1930s. It is interesting to see how our beaches, especially Squibnocket Beach, looked in those days. The show is open from ll a.m to 5 p.m.
Send your Chilmark news to: slaterjn@comcast.net.
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