From the Nov. 24, 1989 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:
The holiday season opened on the Vineyard with a rare and heavy snowfall early Thanksgiving morning. By sunrise the first snowstorm of late autumn measured six inches and it was still coming.
The freak storm, which dumped more than eight inches on the Island before it was over, became a memorable backdrop to many family celebrations, and added interest for people who had to work this Thanksgiving Day.
It was like Christmas morning. The gray light peculiar to a sea borne blizzard made home fires seem warmer and brighter, and the gale force winds and blowing snow added drama to many Vineyard journeys.
John Gilpin of Tisbury runs a snowplow for the state Department of Public Works. His phone rang at 3:30 on Thanksgiving morn.
“When it rang I said to myself, ‘Okay, here we go.’”
By 11:30 a.m. Mr. Gilpin had been back and forth between West Tisbury and Gay Head twice, and there was no end in sight. His wife and 11-month-old baby were at home, but he had no idea when he would be able to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner.
“I’ve got to work until the roads become passable,” he said.
At noon driving conditions were still dicey; the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road was sanded; County Road was packed snow; State Road out to Gay Head was sanded and plowed; and most town roads were sloppy and slippery.
Not too many Islanders can remember a first major snowfall this early. “It’s the first time I can remember snow on Thanksgiving in my lifetime,” said William Vanderhoop of Gay Head. “We’re usually lucky if we get snow for Christmas.” He dubbed the storm a “hurrah dingle.”
Tom DeGregorio, a National Weather Service meteorologist at Logan Airport in Boston, said the large northeaster formed in the Cape Hatteras area of eastern North Carolina on Wednesday and sped northward along the coast.
A line of snow yesterday extended from New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania up to Concord, N.H. He said Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and the Cape received the full brunt of the storm as it headed northeast toward Newfoundland.
At noon yesterday, the storm center was 130 miles east of the New Jersey coast and still dropping snow. The storm formed as frigid air from the north collided with warmer ocean air.
It is a rare storm to come on Thanksgiving day, Mr. DeGregorio said. “Today’s snowfall marks the fifth time in 65 years that measurable snow fell on gobble-gobble day. It is the heaviest snow for the day on record since 1925. In Boston in 1985, a storm produced one and a half inches of snow on Thanksgiving Day.” Travelers up and down the northeastern seaboard had to contend with blizzard weather as well as the Thanksgiving Day crowds.
The Martha’s Vineyard Airport was closed most of the day, but ferry service was running close to schedule. People weren’t daunted by the weather — there were still standbys in Woods Hole and bound for the Vineyard at 3 p.m. Theresa King was on duty at the Vineyard Haven Steamship Authority terminal at 5:30 Thursday morning. She said the six o’clock boat had a wild ride, but the captain decided to keep her into the wind. At 11:30 a.m. the snow was letting up, and Rob Gatchell was directing car unloading from the Islander. As he spoke a snow squall line passed the harbor breakwater and the wind picked up again.
Beverly Simpson and her daughter Elizabeth Stone were among the crowd streaming off the ferry. Mrs. Simpson carried a plastic bag full of fresh bread and vegetables. They said the road from Boston was slow and packed with holiday travelers. “My brother will be glad we made it,” Mrs. Simpson said. “I’ve got part of our Thanksgiving dinner right here.”
The King family was all together in their warm house in Tisbury. A turkey with corn bread stuffing was in the oven and socks were drying on the radiator. Outside, a huge snow woman was serenaded by a snow man with guitar. Alan and Marsha Wood, their daughters Becki and Terri and Terri’s boyfriend Jay Kuss, worked up an appetite, and got their feet wet building the snow couple.
Scores of Thanksgiving dinners were cooking over at the Scottish Bakehouse in Tisbury. Isabella White has been cooking holiday meals for Islanders for more than a quarter century. More recently she began preparing special meals for the elderly shut-ins across the Island. Volunteers from the Island councils on aging began arriving just after 10 a.m. to deliver the meals.
In the kitchen Maxwell White and Gesela White were hard at work. Mrs. White’s son in law Gerald Ramey, visiting from Nova Scotia, pulled another bird from the oven and the smell of turkey and chestnut dressing filled the kitchen. There were 10 people working, some of them volunteers. But Mrs. White led the show. She was cooking past midnight, and up again at 4:30 a.m.
“We just keep going on,” she said in her clipped Scottish accent.
Outside, the snow continued to fall.
Compiled by Hilary Wallcox
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