If you are superstitious sprinkle a little salt over your left shoulder before reading today’s column. The holiday weekend weather was not the best, plenty muggy with showers for this time of the year. On Saturday the Grill on Main had a brief waiting line if you had no reservation. There were yard sales everywhere. Sunset, regrettably, is now taking place just around 6 p.m. and is dropping faster each day. Daylight saving time ends and standard time begins on Nov. 5.

Two schedule changes: the Farmers’ Market will begin operation at the Agricultural Hall tomorrow and ferry service will enter the fall season with the closing of the Oak Bluffs port.

Pumpkins and Halloween decorations now grace many front lawns around town and it is about time to shut off the outside water taps and put any garden hose away for the winter. The leaves have already begun to turn but not with brilliant colors, as we have seen in past years, more than likely because it was so dry this summer and the salt spray from the storms.

Congratulations to all the winners in the 72nd bass and bluefish derby that ends Sunday.

Joel Coslov and his wife Lynda enjoyed the holiday weekend at their place on Town Cove.

The all-Island flu clinic will be held tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the regional high school cafeteria. Please bring insurance information. Registration forms are available online at the library, town hall and drug stores.

I joined Anna, Nicole, Arsen and the grandchildren on Saturday in South Yarmouth where we celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary. We stayed near the seafood festival event that the grandchildren enjoyed immensely. The Cape seemed busy and the Yarmouth House, where I took her to dinner, was mobbed. Our waiter estimated they would serve 100 dinners that night. The boats in either direction were packed all weekend.

Paul Karasik, nationally known cartoonist, has another gem about summer in the latest issue of the Martha’s Vineyard magazine.

The MV Dems will meet tomorrow morning from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at Howes House. The guest speaker will be state Sen. Julian Cyr.

Olivia Larsen over at the library, reports on some of upcoming events. Tomorrow at 5 p.m., to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, the library will be hosting a concert featuring Rumbarroco showcasing the musical connection between Spanish and Latin American music. On Sunday at 3:30 p.m., the Quartet San Francisco, Jeremy Cohen and Andres Vera, will perform a variety of duets for violin and cello. This event is presented by the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society. On Monday at 7 p.m., the library will host its monthly Writers Read evening featuring people reading short original prose. Both fiction and nonfiction readings are welcome. Sign up to read in advance by calling 508-693-4307. On Wednesday at 5 p.m., Helene Barr will give a presentation on her recent

trip to Tuscany, Granada and Barcelona. Also the library is now open on Sundays.

With Halloween is nearly upon us, let me remind you of the biggest Halloween spoof accidentally played on the public. It was a live broadcast, on Oct. 30, 1938, with Orson Welles’s dramatization of H.G. Wells’ tale War of the Worlds on Mercury Theatre of the Air. It aired nationwide on the CBS radio network. The invasion from Mars was covered by realistic live reports interrupting the regularly scheduled program. If that Sunday evening you were listening to the program that was broadcast opposite it on NBC, you knew nothing about the invasion. What was the name of the weekly comedy program — it starred a small man in a top hat and was sponsored by Chase and Sanborn coffee.

Happy birthday to: Steve Atwood, Carly Look and David Finkelstein today; Jeanne Borggaard, Enos Ray, Samantha Gibson, Hayley Plante and Shelia Rayyan tomorrow; Geoff Borr, Jon Nelson 3rd, Denise Page, Sarah Alexander and Steven Barbee on Sunday; Edmund Mossey, John Washbrook, Jennifer Jones and Charles Everett on Monday; Robert Phillips, Richard Reinhardsen, Polly Bassett, Kate Hubbell and Karen Francis on Tuesday; Joseph Turney, Alene Sibley and Gail Tipton on Wednesday; Bob Levine, Sara Dexter, John Early and Paul Galligan on Thursday. Belated birthday wishes to Lisa Lillibridge.

That is all the social news for this week’s edition. If you have any news please call or e-mail me. Have a great week.

Send West Tisbury news to alleys@vineyard.net.