As August turns to September, we find ourselves looking both forward and back. Behind us is the season which seems to pass with a speed more dizzying each year; ahead is the month whose crisp days have already been presaged by the lovely weather of this final week of departing August.

No public events or parades mark the Labor Day holiday on the Vineyard, unless you count as parades the long lines that form at the Steamship Authority wharves in Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs. This weekend brings a holiday whose intended meaning is largely swept away by the tide of the Island's changing seasons. If Labor Day means anything particular on the Vineyard, it is all about squeezing a few more sweet hours on the beach.