Thanksgiving season stirs memories of bygone traditions, like the Thanksgiving horse race, a home-grown Island event if ever there was one.

Here is another memory: An old painted inscription hung on the front of the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury for many years with the message: "Honor the Lord with Thy Substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase, so thy barns shall be filled with plenty."

The inscription is gone now, and so are many of the old Vineyard barns. But Thanksgiving is still a season that grows out of the fields and the soil of the Vineyard.