Well, the Thanksgiving weather turned brisk and cold with a howling wind that forced many boat cancellations that afternoon. We had our first snow/rain event of the season Sunday night through Tuesday accompanied by a howling wind causing early Monday morning boat cancellations.

Santa Claus will be stopping at fire station number two at 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, and the West Tisbury Holiday party is on Friday, Dec. 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Agricultural Hall.

Anna and Sam Alley returned home from their Thanksgiving holiday ahead of the storm, Sam on Saturday evening and Anna on Sunday. Both report having a good time with the family.

A hearty welcome to Michael Patti and Nicole Lamy and their three children, the new owners of the Craven house located on Music street.

Pam and Ernie Thomas of Lambert’s Cove Road hosted family and a few neighbors for Thanksgiving, while Harry Athearn and his wife Debby went over to her brother’s house for the holiday.

Olivia Gately, over at the library, reports that tomorrow from 3:30 to 5 p.m. the library will host an art reception featuring the work of Ed Schulman. Ed’s paintings will be on display throughout the month of December. The library’s holiday party is Monday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. And on Thursday at 4:30 p.m., author Michael Blanchard will present his newly released book, Through a Sober Lens: A Photographer’s Journey.

It was quiet and chilly on Dec. 7 1941 in this town. Frank Adams, on Music street, had fired up his coal furnace for the first time since March, Donaldson’s Garage was about to receive its monthly shipment of gasoline from the Mobil Oil terminal in Vineyard Haven on Monday morning. Ole Borgen’s monthly supply of Texaco gas was delivered on Friday. Antone Alley was about to celebrate his 70th birthday and his daughter Lillian was busy baking him a cake. S.M. Mayhew Co. had closed at noon and Charlie Turner and my father went home for dinner. Daughter Phyllis prepared the dinner for her Dad and brothers as he would later drive down to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and visit his wife Mary and newborn son John. The Grange was going to hold its twice monthly meeting in the Agricultural Hall on Monday so the stove was lit upstairs by the janitor to take the chill out of the meeting space. Antone Campbell, Harry Athearn and Johnson Whiting were preparing to milk their cows at about 4 p.m. in the afternoon. Most folks in town had returned home from church services and had eaten their Sunday dinner. Many families had already cut a proper Christmas tree and had prepared their parlors to receive guests that afternoon. The most popular song of the day was Glenn Miller’s Chattanooga Choo Choo. It was just 24 days till Christmas and the Sears and the Roebuck Christmas book in every home had seen some serious use. The Pearl Harbor surprise attack was announced over CBS radio by John Charles Daley at about 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon. as evening fell people kept their radios on to learn more news from Pearl Harbor. Plans were made for the President to address Congress the next day shortly after noontime to declare war on Japan.

One of the popular Monday night programs on the air was the Fred Allen Show sponsored by Texaco gasoline which featured a siren and clanging bell much like a fire truck of the day would sound before the lead into the program. The announcer, Harry Von Zell, broke in to say you would not be hearing that sound again during the war to avoid any unnecessary confusion.

Happy birthday to Bonnie Steere and Bonnie Jackson Dec. 6; Elias Wortmann, Robert Hennesey, Sarah Vail and Elizabeth Dowd Dec. 7; Dan Cooney, Dan Rizzo and Bricque Gaeber Dec. 8; Judy Sutel, Karen Colaneri, Ellen Pesch, Emily Smith, Mary Morgan Dec. 9; Virginia Bardwell Jones, Professor Ellen Weiss, Dana Rezendes and Kansas Brew Dec. 10; John Sonia, Keith Johnson and Kristina Fletcher Dec. 11; Frank Sinatra, Alan Reekie, John Thurber, Lauren Withers and Jan Schulze Dec. 12. Belated birthday greetings to Roy Riley.

Well that is all of the news for this week’s column. If you have any news please call or e-mail me. Have a great week and start your shopping now.