Beth Kehoe, a lively 86 year old, lives in the Oak Bluffs house built by her late husband. She relies on a variety of local services to assist her each day, from Meals on Wheels lunches to the Vineyard Village volunteers who bring her grocery shopping and to the YMCA, where she swims laps in the pool. Her backstroke is the envy of far younger swimmers.
The first time I was told I had to play a game in order to get my Christmas presents I was annoyed. Isn’t it enough that I was good (well, mostly) for the entire year? Isn’t life the game you play to get the prize of Christmas presents? Now I had to figure out clues to determine which of the anonymously wrapped gifts under the tree was mine. How unfair.
If there was one word to describe the change of seasons, as we leave the long days of summer behind and settle into the darker days of fall, it might be “warmth.” Thick sweaters, blazing fires and turning back the clocks go hand in hand with all things cozy . . . including cocktails.
More than eighty years ago, two Island women knitted six red stockings, filled and distributed them to needy local children, and the Red Stocking Fund was born. Today the fund is still very much a grassroots organization run by volunteers. Every year the Red Stocking Fund provides gifts and warm clothing for 300 to 400 children ages newborn to eighth grade.
Peter Boak, music director of the Island Community Chorus, now in its 21st season, is well known to Islanders who delight in the three concerts he and his singers perform annually. Lisa Varno, artistic director of the Martha’s Vineyard Children’s Chorus, is a newcomer to year-round living, though her family has deep Island roots. This year they are joining forces for the annual holiday concert at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown on December 3 and 4.
Over forty years ago, the Vineyard Gazette fashioned its very first holiday gift guide. An honest-to-goodness mail-order catalogue, the inaugural publication served as a way for Island vendors to advertise special sales and promotions, and connected local goods and services with off-Island consumers leading up to the holiday season. Here we present you with the talents and energies of our Island community in 2016.
When I went from seasonal to full-time Island dweller I thought it was temporary and then eight years later, when I left, I figured that was temporary, too. The Vineyard had become my home but in 2013, I was newly engaged and before my guy and I took the marital plunge we wanted to try living somewhere new.
Down a long, bumpy, Chilmark road Truman French and Tucker Pforzheimer are at work on a small-scale, massively ambitious venture to cultivate, harvest, sell and promote one of the world’s healthiest foods.
It took 24 years for John Murphy to find his calling on Martha’s Vineyard; but find it he did when he opened Tracker Home Décor in Edgartown, with partner Helen Koch back in 2010. Tracker Home Décor now has 8 year-round employees and this past summer opened a second shop in downtown Edgartown. We wondered how John viewed modern Vineyard style.
