From the Nov. 14, 1958 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

November half gone. What a feeling that is for those who live in the country and see the decline of the year and the still-luminous quality of all outdoors during the shortening days. What happens in these weeks, as enchanted in their way as the almost forgotten paradise of summer, is more withdrawal than retreat.

There are many who look forward resignedly and not joyfully to colder weather, yet who are under no illusion that we of the Vineyard and of New England could possibly do without it. Anyone who can do without cold weather, without afternoon darkness and chilly dawn and all the rest, is not a New Englander; though we know not a few fellow citizens who, in their prime, fled south to avoid winter, and, in later years, are standing their ground, even with anticipation. They have learned the value of a completed cycle for the inward character as well as for outward nature.

November half gone. Some things die, some withdraw, some suspend, some do business as usual pending the final settlement of frost. Damp fields are all aglow, even in November rain; clover is in blossom; redwings and song sparrows sing; garden roses that began blooming with the spring iris are still blooming with the November chrysanthemums; the sea has its days of calm, lying in pale blue streaks, more perfect than those of summer.

The woods are scented with lonesome, aromatic essences and traveled ways have fallen leaves for children to scuffle through as did their grandparents when other Novembers were half gone. Hilltops, houses, boulders, and bare trees loom in newly opened vistas.

Transition makes this one of the beloved times of the year, for now the process of change is held back, it delays, it makes excuses, in all possible ways it prolongs what must last a little longer; all opposite it is the reluctant transition of spring which advances so unwillingly and grudgingly, almost all lure and little reality.

The scallop beds of the town of Gay Head were opened Monday, with the normal number of commercial licenses issued. Despite predictions, the set is far better than was anticipated, and the scallops of the finest quality and size. By the measure, as regulated in Gay Head which permits a heaped basket, the scallops opened better than a gallon to the bushel on Tuesday. The daily limit per person is four bushels.

The market, however, is a keen disappointment, these unusually fine scallops bringing but $5.25 per gallon at the caplog on Tuesday, with prospects that the price may yet drop another quarter within a few days.

This year, for the first time recalled, the beds are heavily covered with grass, which is good breeding ground for the scallops but which makes the fishing highly difficult.

Chilmark, which owns the eastern half of Menemsha Pond, will open its beds on Tuesday next. Exploratory expeditions on the Chilmark beds disclose, as the fishermen say, that the scallops on this side of the inter-town line are not as large as those in Gay Head. But the prediction is that Chilmark will have two months fishing before the supply is exhausted.

Various Island towns were rocked by a series of heavy explosions on Wednesday evening when windows rattled, doors likewise, and even large houses shuddered from the shock. One light and two very heavy explosions were noted at the time which was approximately 8:30, and the telephones got busy at once as inquiries were made as to the cause. Some people believed their furnaces had blown up.

The Gazette, supposed to know the inside story about everything, was besieged by phone calls, which were passed on to the state police, with the result that it was pretty well established that the explosions were caused by jet-planes breaking the sound-barrier.

It was discovered in the course of the investigation that Yarmouth and other Cape towns also felt the shock and that, as on the Vineyard, it was at first believed that something had blown up nearby. But finding no evidence of such an explosion and receiving no reports of such occurrence, search spread to Otis Field.

Although the authorities at Otis would not admit that their planes were responsible, neither was the suggestion denied, and it was established that some new aircraft have arrived at Otis, of a faster and presumably more powerful type than those hitherto employed. It was further learned that these new planes have been under test this week, and therefore it was concluded by the state police that man-made thunder claps caused the noise and shock. As another, perhaps not quite as heavy, was felt yesterday morning, all law-enforcement authorities were satisfied with the explanation.

No damage was reported on the Island, but Sgt. James Bowler of the state police, himself a jet-pilot, agreed that the large picture windows of the Island might be shattered by such blasts. Hundreds of window panes were broken on the mainland, the radio reported. Compiled by Hilary Wallcox library@vineyardgazette.com