The scenic rural roadway hugs the long stretch of bluff jutting into Nantucket Sound beyond the Oak Bluffs harbor before falling sharply to sea level as it curves around Crystal Lake, eventually reconnecting with Eastville avenue.

My sister Nancy who died on Oct. 10 at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford had been cared for by the state of Massachusetts most of her 77 years.

When Lou Reed arrived at WMVY in the early morning of Oct. 12, 1997 for an interview, there was a rooster in the tree next to the front door.

The same week the 68th annual Vineyard derby came to a close, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources announced results of its 58th annual young of the year survey of striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay.

The fuel assistance program is accepting applications. Applicants under 60 years of age can schedule an appointment at the Oak Bluffs Council on Aging by calling 508-693-4509. Seniors may apply at the local councils on aging: Edgartown, 508-627-4368; Oak Bluffs, 508-693-4509; Tisbury, 508-696-4205; Up-Island, 508-693-2896, and Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, 508-645-9265. Applications will be taken through April 30, 2014.

After I wrote about the nasty accumulation of boxes in my basement, several readers stopped me on the street, not to chastise me for having so many but to inquire why I had so few. “You only have two dozen boxes? Is your house big enough to absorb everything you moved there?” one said.

From the Nov. 2, 1945 Gazette:

About 50 children and nearly as many adults attended the Hallowe’en party held Wednesday evening in Agricultural Hall by the West Tisbury Grange, and if noise was any indication of a good time the party was certainly a howling success.

Is the Island school’s strings program inessential to educating our children, as Tisbury All-Island School Committee representative Colleen McAndrews claims? (Public School Budget Soars, Oct. 25.)

Only if critical skills such as persistence, collaboration, creativity, discipline, confidence, communication, a sense of beauty and the ability to listen are inessential.

There is a sign at First Bridge on the Beach Road that says no jumping or diving. The sign, of course, is a joke. You can’t drive past the bridge in the summer without seeing 20 or 30 kids standing on the bridge railing preparing to jump.