Two teenage girls sat cross legged on a sidewalk in Edgartown the other day, their faces turned up to the sun. All around there were signs of the season. Pickup trucks loaded with lumber, flowering plants and landscaping materials whizzed by. Towering lilac bushes waved in the wind. Cherry trees loaded with pink blossoms sent showers of petals fluttering onto sidewalks and parked cars. The girls shook blossoms from their hair, fingers flying across the screens of cell phones.

Caught somewhere between winter and summer, spring suddenly arrived on the Vineyard this month. Yesterday Islanders were bundled to the chins, hunched against chilly winds and windswept rain that have been the main weather story so far. Today they have traded boots, polar fleece and slickers for light jackets, bare legs and laughter.

Foggy mornings burn off quickly to sunny lunchtimes. Late afternoon coffees have switched to the iced variety. Dinnertime has stretched to the sunset hour, when the sky is cast in shades of salmon and the light lingers above a darkening tree line.

The natural world too has suddenly caught up with the rhythms of spring. Open fields and meadows are splashed with buttercups and bells of Ireland, edged by great swaths of lily of the valley. High bush blueberries are covered with blossoms. Swamp honeysuckle is about to bloom. At Island farms lettuce, spinach and asparagus are in, soon to be followed by strawberries, peas and tiny new potatoes. At Wasque and State Beach the bluefish are running. In Katama Bay and Menemsha Pond oyster farmers — the new vanguard of inshore commercial fishing — are hauling their catch from clean, cold saltwater flats.

Summer friends are about to return. We’re not ready, Islanders say to each other — but truthfully that’s the refrain every year.

Memorial Day is Monday.

Islanders will join the rest of the country in celebrating the national holiday, established in 1868 to honor members of the armed forces who died while serving their country.

A parade steps off at the American Legion Post in Vineyard Haven at 10:30 a.m. At the Avenue of Flags at the Oak Grove Cemetery in Vineyard Haven, volunteers will be out in the early morning hours, placing hundreds of commemorative flags.

In another longstanding, unique Vineyard tradition, on Friday school children in Edgartown, Vineyard Haven and Chilmark will march to the water’s edge for ceremonies to remember those who were lost in maritime service to their country. There will be music, recitations and lilacs dropped into the sea.

Also by long tradition, on Monday the Tisbury town picnic will he held on the shores of Lake Tashmoo with open grills, music and rowboat races. The whole Island is invited to join the party, which gets under way at noon. So pack a lunch, bring the kids and house guests too. Because even more than a parade, everybody loves a picnic.

On the 150th anniversary of this holiday of remembrance, men and women are still dying in service to America as the war in Afghanistan grinds on for a seventeenth year. Yet even as we mourn their sacrifice, it is difficult not to think of other Americans who have lost their lives in equally tragic ways. Here the victims of the repeating horror of school shootings spring to mind, children whose memories should also be honored.

As the ever-brief spring flirts with summer, the Island feels like a sanctuary in a nation and world that seems more fraught than ever with conflict, intractable politics, violence and injustice. In the weeks ahead, politicians and thought leaders will meet quietly and publicly on the Island to discuss and debate what can and should be done.

Meanwhile, ready or not here it comes: another glorious, hectic, high-energy, sand-in-the-shoes, people and party-filled Vineyard summer.

Sending out best wishes to Gazette readers near and far for a happy Memorial Day. Please remember not to drink and drive.