It’s been noted that those who spend their summers on Martha’s Vineyard in later life develop a special passion for the Island. This certainly must be true for the entire Flynn family.

Judy Flynn Palmer recently published a book, Pohogonot: A Collection of Stories, telling of the summers she and her sister and their cousins spent at the family farm, Pohogonot, on the south shore in the rural perimeters of Edgartown.

She begins with the story of her grandfather George D. Flynn, who needed to recuperate from a train accident and was told that Martha’s Vineyard was the place to do it. He took the advice, and liked it so much that in 1898 he returned with his wife and their baby son. Little by little, he bought pieces of the farm, where he came every summer and raised a family of six.

Through the years those children raised children of their own until in 2013 a family gathering consisted of more than 200 people.

The book is a story of their wonderful childhoods, of horseback riding, helping with the farm work, tending sheep and cows, swimming, sailing, learning to drive the farm machinery, carpentry and shooting sharks that invaded the ponds. The summers were golden, filled with clambakes and Sunday picnics for all. The book even gives directions on how to dig clams and make a clambake and clam chowder.

Once or twice a summer there were all-day trips to visit Fish Hook where the Henry Hough family lived, and the Hough family would return the visits, all done by horse and wagon. Sooner or later airplanes and movie stars such as James Cagney all landed on the Vineyard — even a sitting President.

At Pohogonot houses grew as did the family, and there are many pictures past and present in the well-illustrated book, some taken with old plate cameras.

As well as being a family history, this is a history of Island living when the living was done at home and not thrashing about in an automobile. Readers will love it.