Once upon a time on this Island that has managed to achieve peaceful coexistence without traffic lights, we had a little hoedown at the four-way stop on the Vineyard Haven-Edgartown Road. Cars would come down Barnes Road from the airport. Cars would come up Barnes Road from Featherstone. Cars would come from the high school. Cars would come from Cash & Carry. To cross the four-way intersection, it was a fairly basic doh-see-doh — first come, first served.

April was a cruel month for black people in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. So was May, and the months that followed, culminating in the explosion of a bomb in a church that September that killed four girls. Fifty years ago last week, on May 2, 1963, teenagers and children, some as young as six, marched in Birmingham to protest segregation. Many were arrested for parading without a permit, but the marchers came back the next day. They were viciously knocked down in the streets by torrents of water from fire hoses wielded by white policemen, were hit with batons or set upon by police dogs.

‘’Mom, can we….
way mih
Mom, this isn’t…
way mih
I don’t want ….
way mih
Wow, look at this….
waay miih
He won’t give me…

way mih…

way mih!’’

the way of

misgivings

the way of

minerva

the way of

minnie mouse

the way of the

minutiae of

tending to.

the mih

of the minutes has gone

the kids are no longer waiting

(there were, after all,

four of them).

time to fold my long,

trailing mantle

of harried motherhood,

plump it into a cushion

The cedar and white oak planks are new,
but the design is old. A 28-foot replica of a wooden whale boat that has been under construction at the Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway in Vineyard Haven through the winter months is now nearly complete. Fragrant cedar wood chips, sawdust and assortment of debris and tools that covered the floor beneath the boat are gone. The boat now sits like a museum piece on a clean floor, a boat from another time.

It seems like the Schifter project on Chappy is making its way to the pages of newspapers both on and off-Island. And yet in this epic battle of man versus nature, it is unclear who will end up the winner. Nature seemed to stage a strong first offensive, but by some armoring and then a historic move, it now appears nature has, at least temporarily, been evicted from the property. Maybe there isn’t a real winner.

Refusing to accept the verdict of the 2012 election, the Republicans have launched a campaign to nullify it, using their control of the House and cloture-proof filibusters in the Senate to block any Obama moves. Their most powerful ally is a “news” network, whose bias may be seen in these ways:

Passing by the Mill Pond, I am always struck by its beauty and the variety of wildlife that enjoy its waters all year round: the otters sliding on the ice or diving under water, the ducks and geese

The friend of the Tisbury Council on Aging wish to thank supporters who attended our springtime tea introducing Tisbury town administrator John (Jay) Grande to the senior community. Addressing questions on waterfront reconstruction, parking congestion and long-term planning, Mr. Grande outlined the direction proposed for Tisbury. The friends (508-696-4205) reconvene on Thursday, June 13, at 2 p.m. in the Tisbury Senior Center for their annual meeting.

It seems Chilmark needs a monstrosity law (as did Lower Manhattan for the World Trade towers and the Upper East Side for the Guggenheim Museum) in addition to limiting square footage of houses.

My 1937 Winston Simplified Dictionary defines monstrosity as the state or quality of being deformed or hideous (frightful) or extremely unusual; 2, anything huge, hideous, or deformed.

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of May, 1955: The project of the regional high school is now before the Island towns again. We believe it is still true that no authority in the field of education has recommended any other solution than this for the Vineyard’s high school problems. This does not mean that a regional school plan can ever represent perfection. It does mean that educators find here the conditions for which a regional school is most nearly ideal, and that such a school can offer better opportunities for Island children than any other.