Those with time on their hands waiting for winter to wend its way out and bring spring will want to waste some time with Google Earth where various levels of magnification will reveal several rocks just offshore around the Island and our tributaries. Like the now hidden Lover’s Rock at the Inkwell, these majestic leave behinds (the original washashores) left by the glacier 10,000 years ago are huge glacial boulders called erratic’s.

I’m not totally sure how some get their names but a guess is that those submerged, like Rhode Island Rock off of East Chop along the ferry route, may have been accidentally discovered by ships traveling above them. Plausibly, then, maybe there was a ship called ‘Rhode Island’ that sacrificed its name in a mishap.

A notable Oak Bluffs townsman from years past was the iconic Shipwrecked Tallman, a peanut seller who arrived (almost on our shores) in 1866 when he was stranded as the only survivor in the rigging of the schooner Christina, wrecked off of Chappaquiddick for the better part of a week. It took four days to save Charles S. Tallman during which frostbite took most of his fingers and left his hands and legs mutilated. Weather caused that tragedy, not a rock like the one that beached the QE2 near the Island on August 7, 1992.

Ours used to be a major waterway before the Cape Cod Canal was built, and dangerous enough for shipping to be called the “graveyard of the Atlantic” a theme on exhibit at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum from April 14 through Dec. 23, 2017.

The owners of the Island Theatre are clearly unconcerned with it or the town taxpayer’s opinion. At town meeting the will of the people was made fundamentally clear—no one is pleased with either the theatre or the town leadership’s lack of plans to correct an embarrassing situation. A $200,000 temporary fix and an amendment to raze the building were both soundly defeated. Leadership attempted to frame the amorphous $200,000 amelioration disingenuously as some type of leverage against the family’s future interests. If true why wasn’t the concept disseminated earlier? Was there some hidden intelligence greater than the public could comprehend? If so, why was that strategy not made available before the meeting for proper consideration? It would seem the board of selectmen and the planning board would immediately join together and present three to four concrete alternatives in a soon to be held emergency town meeting that would address the urgency of this debacle.

On Saturday, April 15 from 10 to 11:30 a.m., the Oak Bluffs Public Library folks are showing youngsters how to turn recyclables into new creations. All that is required is to show up with kids who know how to use scissors and glue and your imagination.

The Island Food Pantry announces it will remain open to continue to provide groceries for those in need on Wednesdays from 3 to 6 p.m. Your contributions to the Purple Boxes in libraries, grocery stores and places of worship are needed and welcome.

Pequot avenue’s Anne Cummings was first to notice that weather had ended the life of Hartford Park’s Consecrated Tree back in October. Its remains saved, Rich Combra and Amy Billings of the Highway and Parks Department are making plans for a replacement. Thanks to approval at Town Meeting, renovations will begin a block over on Pennacook park.

If you’d like to try something different and special, the year’s first Caribbean night is Saturday, April 15 at the Edgartown Diner at 65 Main street, beneath the movie theatre. Relatively new Jamaican owner Ralston Francis and family invite all to a fun evening of food and partying.

Keep your foot on a rock.

Send Oak Bluffs news to sfinley@mvgazette.com.