I love rainy days — why, you may ask. Because when I was young, my mother and I spent our summers at my grandmother Dexter’s house in Edgartown. On rainy days I was allowed to stay in. Mother and I stayed upstairs in the attic. It wasn’t really an attic, but consisted of three rooms. It smelled of old wood and in the mornings the smell of oatmeal that drifted up the staircase from the kitchen below.

The middle room held a cache of wonderful things that included an RCA Victor phonograph that when the doors in front were opened the glorious voice of Enrico Caruso flooded the room like moonbeams from heaven.

The best thing of all were my mother’s toys that I was allowed to play with provided that I put them away neatly after I had had my fill. There was a tiny sewing machine that really worked, a stove that was made of iron and came equipped with pots and a frying pan. Best of all was a baby doll with a bisque face and eyes that opened and shut. I wondered where all of these wonderful things had come from, for my grandfather supported his family by cutting hair and shaving men at Dexter’s Barber Shop at the beginning of North Water street. I later learned that my grandfather had a sister who had married well but was childless and it was she who sent these to my mother.

I should tell you that my grandfather had a secret passion. In his spare time he painted. In the very room where I played with my mother’s toys were paintings done by grandfather, mostly ducks hanging by a string and along one wall was an oil painting of fruit. Even I, as young as I was, knew that it was magnificent.

I should also tell you that I never knew my grandfather. In fact, I had never even seen a picture of him until a few years ago when a gentleman who did an article about him for another newspaper sent me the article.

His real name was Clarence (Cad) Dexter and he was 20 years older than my grandmother, Ella Mayhew. They were married for about 20 years. She was widowed at age 39 and remained a widow until her death 40 years later.

A former resident of the Vineyard, Marcia Bickford Torrey lives in Jupiter, Fla.