The world needs good stories now more than ever. The Gazette has turned to its archives to unearth some great reads from the newspaper and Martha’s Vineyard Magazine.

Sit back with a cup of coffee or tea or something stronger and journey back to when the world seemed to make more sense. Raise a glass with reporters Noah Asimow and Landry Harlan as they cheer with the crowds gathered at Coop de Ville in Oak Bluffs to watch the 2018 World Cup soccer match between Serbia and Brazil.

Or go much farther back, to 4000 BC and the dawn of the archipelago of Martha’s Vineyard, in a historical piece by Chris Baer that traces the Island’s geological roots.

The Charles W. Morgan whaleship first set sail in 1841. In 2014, after a massive restoration at Mystic Seaport, she returned to sea as a sailing museum touching down in ports around the word, including Martha’s Vineyard. Sara Brown brought to life her voyages, both past in present, in her story about the last American wooden whaling ship.

The career of mercurial playwright Lillian Hellman is revisited in James Dinneen’s piece for the magazine, An Unvarnished Woman.

And the Vineyard’s counterculture roots are explored in They Came, They Saw, They Moved in by Ivy Ashe.

And finally, buckle into your car seat with an essay about a father driving his daughter to her last day of preschool, fueled by the songs of Bruce Springsteen.

Enjoy the break.