From a Feb. 25, 1972 column by Joseph Chase Allen: Town meeting season is at hand and it is a good time to recollect that the annual town meeting is an institution that has been in operation for 303 years, according to available records.

The next Chappy Community Center potluck supper will be on Wednesday, April 17 and is hosted by Tom Osborn. I hope that Tom will bring a pot of South Dakota mashed potatoes. Once you have a taste you will never be satisfied with any other. Tom’s signature is in the form of a depression on the top in the exact size and shape of a whole stick of butter that soaked into the potatoes as it melted.

This is a tale of two cities and a tale of two sons. This is a tale of two mothers, both named Nancy. This is a tale of two very different parenting strategies. One mother lived in New England and had a son challenged by autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The other lived in Florida and her son was also challenged by ASD.

Today begins a long holiday weekend in the commonwealth. Monday is Patriots Day and the 117th running of the Boston marathon. Town offices will be closed.

Chilmark has slipped cheerily into the temperate weather pattern that arrived this week, after the usual blasts of April winds. All of us seem to thrive in this in-between temperature range and the town is showing signs of being out and about and busy at the usual spring errands.

The Aquinnah Public Library continues to provide special programs nearly every day the library is open. Stop by to find the latest in books, movies and CD’s. One of the latest CD’s to watch is Searching for Sugarman. It may take a while to figure out the beginning of the movie but halfway through it you are totally engrossed.

When news spread quickly on the Internet that legendary Boston crime boss James (Whitey) Bulger had been captured in Santa Monica on June 22, 2011 after 16 years on the lam, it was fitting that Dick Lehr found out the old-fashioned way. He read about it in the Boston Globe, delivered to the doorstep of his Belmont home the next morning.

The Martha’s Vineyard Democrats will host a session Saturday morning with spokesmen for Cong. Stephen Lynch and Cong. Ed Markey, candidates for the Massachusetts Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. The event will be from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at Howes House in West Tisbury. All are welcome. The state primary is April 30.

Lucy Patterson Cox and Leslie J. Stark have been named to the board of directors for Vineyard House, the Island’s only sober living environment for those in early recovery.

An old wooden powerboat from Chilmark named Souvenir is being rebuilt this winter at Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway. Souvenir is a 32-foot wooden Brownell powerboat with a diesel engine that was built in Mattapoissett in 1962. She is getting a whole new bottom: a new keel, below the waterline planks and ribs and a fuel tank. She is powered by a five-year-old 225-horsepower Cummins diesel.