The weekend weather was absolutely delightful — bright and sunny with beaches the top priority. It seems that everyone is entertaining house guests. It seems the traffic has been a nightmare everywhere you go; in fact it has been flat out awful. On top of that, the days are getting shorter and the mornings cooler. Illumination Night is on Wednesday, the Agricultural Fair begins on Thursday and the Oak Bluff’s fireworks are next Friday as the summer is winding down mighty fast. Mary Blake who bakes all of the pies for her gazebo in North Tisbury has been laboring to meet the demand in the past two weeks. Last Saturday she baked over 125 pies and her husband Gary Ellis put them out for sale and by early afternoon they were sold out!

College students, summer visitors and their children have begun filling the boats every day, but this time going in the opposite direction. Many public schools in western Massachusetts and other states will open before the end of the month. It will be evident next weekend that the seasonal exodus will be well underway with long lines of people and cars leaving the Steamship Authority docks. We are again reminded of the late Howard Andrews’ famous bumper sticker, Pray for September.

The 153rd annual Agricultural Fair begins Thursday and runs until Sunday evening. Eleanor Neubert, fair manager, wants to remind each exhibitor of the policy regarding entry forms. All forms must be submitted by Monday at 5 p.m. and delivered to the hall by Wednesday between noon and 5 p.m. She also reports that Marian Cushing of LMC amusements will return again as they have for over 35 years. Friday night they will offer a pay one price for all rides from 6 to 10 p.m. A complete schedule of events is published online and in the fair booklet.

The Vineyard Transit Authority for the twentieth consecutive year will extend bus service to include the fair on Routes 2, 4, and 6. The 8 bus will run express service from Edgartown to the fair. If you choose to bring your automobile, there will be two parking lots available: one operated by the firemen and the Ag Society and the other by the Whiting family.

This weekend the sales tax holidays will be in effect on many household products and back to school items — a great way to save some money as the kids get ready to head back to school.

Tara Whiting, town clerk, reports that absentee ballots are available for the Sept. 9 primary. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., but if you are going to be off-Island and want to vote in the primary, stop by and vote via absentee ballot. Call Tara at 508-696-0148 for more information.

Jill Carlton and husband Pete Karman of State Road are celebrating Pete’s 75th birthday with a weeklong trip to high country in Utah and Colorado. Their son Alex, currently visiting friends and family in San Francisco, will be joining them on the trip.

Denise Mount and her husband Don Evon of Canton, Conn., returned home on Tuesday after their yearly visit with us. Tom Majeski came along with them and we had a visit from Richard and Vicki Galler over the weekend. They all enjoyed the wonderful weather and the beach.

The First Congregational Church will host its fifth annual Peach Festival tomorrow from 12 to 4 p.m. They will be serving fresh peaches, smoothies, minted ice tea and lemonade, peaches with ice cream and peach shortcake. This year they will be adding peach pies and blueberry-peach cobblers to take home. Courtesy of Jardin Mahoney, they also have a White Lady peach tree to raffle off.

If you witnessed an unusual number of motorcycles of all shapes and sizes last weekend around town your eyesight is just fine. John Powers reports that bikers came to visit from near and far. This month is also the 112th birthday of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Happy birthday to Bill Hoff, Katelynn Rawson and William Glover today; Katherine Long, Kimberly Baumhofer, Ketty Saunier and Madeline Webster tomorrow; Sarah Murphy, Karin Stanley, Michele Meyers and Michelle Saulnier on Sunday; Bill Clinton, Gerry DeBlois and Christine Napolitan on Monday; Joseph Ulva, Eli Berlow and Jennifer Sepanara on Tuesday; Debra Polucci, Robert Francis, Tom Burke, Tim Gregory, Susan Millett Boaas and Amelia Kauffman on Wednesday, and Jen Zern and Charles Watson on Thursday. Belated birthday wishes to Colleen Morris and Rosemarie Doane. On Thursday Dick and Diana Reische celebrate their 52nd wedding anniversary and on Saturday, Dan and Elaine Pace celebrated their 46th.

Well, that is all of the social news for this week’s edition. Our trivia question will be 73 years old tomorrow: National League umpire Jocko Conlan ejected Pittsburgh Pirates manager Frankie Frisch for coming out on the field holding an umbrella to protest the soggy playing conditions during the second game of a doubleheader with the Dodgers at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field. The argument was later the subject of a painting by what famous artist?

If you have any news, please call or email me. Have a great week.

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