When I was a little kid, on May Day my mother would send me out with little baskets of flowers for each of the neighbor ladies. We made the baskets out of purple construction paper and filled them with pansies and johnny-jump-ups. The ladies were so delighted that I was convinced at a very early age that you really can’t go wrong with flowers. I still enjoy bringing home a big bouquet of roses.

The character of the colorful town of Oak Bluffs lends itself to characters. One colorful character of note was Eben D. Bodfish, one of the more aggressive real estate brokers on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1920s. Born in Yarmouth in 1870, Eben was educated at Bridgewater State Normal School in the class of 1887 where he studied teaching, and he evidently taught for a time on the Cape.

A Farm to Faith Shabbat will be held Friday, April 26, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Hebrew Center, 130 Center street in Vineyard Haven.

Admission is free to the live and silent auctions held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, May 31, at the Agricultural Hall, Panhandle Road, West Tisbury, but bring your pocketbook anyway because auction proceeds benefit the recreation department at Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Oak Bluffs.

138 Tellette Street in Oak Bluffs sold for $340,000 on April 17.

39 Fuller Street in Edgartown sold for $1,675,000 on April 17.

95 Litchfield Road in Edgartown sold for $850,000 on April 16.

23 Majors Cove Lane in Edgartown sold for $1,390,000 on April 16.

26 State Road in Aquinnah sold for $435,000 on April 17.

My father and I went to the Turkish baths in the East Village of Manhattan this past February, our first time together in a city that has influenced my life almost as much as he has. The sun was shining brightly, the temperature hovered in the high thirties while the wind blew briskly down city blocks and flung itself around corners, stopping us occasionally in our tracks as we meandered south after exiting the subway. A short flight of marble stairs led us into the baths.