Before the rollicking promenade of floats and the bursting of fireworks across Edgartown Harbor, Vineyard Haven will be ringing in the Fourth in a gentler fashion.

At 2 p.m. tomorrow, folks up and down Main Street will ring hand bells, cowbells, tea bells, sleigh bells or whatever bell is handy to celebrate Independence Day. The gesture represents an attempt to resurrect a tradition begun in accordance with the U.S. Senate Concurrent Resolution 25 passed by Congress in June 1963.

Visitors are filling Island beaches, men on ladders are cleaning street lanterns along Main street Edgartown and an endless line of cars waits behind the stop sign at the Triangle — all indicators that it’s July Fourth week. Tomorrow is the national holiday. This will be Edgartown’s 43rd consecutive year hosting its annual Independence Day parade. A crowd of thousands of Islanders and visitors will line Main street to witness another year’s string of marchers and floats.

Boatbuilders Honored

Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway was honored on Saturday in a tribute dinner at the 21st annual wooden boat show in Mystic Seaport. Nat Benjamin, Ross Gannon and Brad Abbott earned high praise from Jon Wilson, founder and editor in chief of Wooden Boat magazine, who said the boatbuilders “. . . embarked on an enterprise and a way of life that has brought them — for more than 30 years — peerless reputation and world renown. The Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway became much more than a small business.”

Follow the light thud of a bass drum and the trill of a trumpet and you can fall in step with the annual Fourth of July parade in Edgartown. For outgoing parade grand marshal Fred B. (Ted) Morgan Jr., a marching band is the heartbeat of any parade.

“Without a band we’re lost,” Mr. Morgan said.

Battle of the Islands

Which island is better? In the interest of unbiased reporting, we’ll let the fish do the talking.

This weekend the Martha’s Vineyard Surfcasters soundly defeated the Nantucket Anglers’ Club in the fifth annual Island Cup fishing contest, held June 22 through 24 on Martha’s Vineyard. The catch and release surf casting contest is designed to build friendships and foster friendly competition between the islands. (And what’s better than friendly competition when you win?)

Our country celebrates its two hundred and thirty-sixth birthday tomorrow and the national holiday will be marked by colorful parades, fireworks displays and picnics from sea to shining sea, including here on the Vineyard where bells will ring and Islanders of every stripe will pause to commemorate the founding of our country.

From the Vineyard Gazette edition of July 6, 1962:

More than seventy-five fun-loving tots and forty-five interested adults were lined up along an Edgartown dock early one afternoon this week. Each squirmed to get on the Bonnie Jean, of fond memory for her service during the boatline strike two summers ago. She handled most of the transportation to and from the U.S.S. Glennon, the destroyer here for the Fourth of July activities.

Polly Hill was well known for her love of stewartia trees. They are greatly admired by our visitors and represent years of hard work. Through Polly’s efforts and our continued devotion to these trees, we now have a recognized national collection. What does that mean exactly? The primary objective for the development of a national collection is to assemble the most comprehensive collection of plants within a particular genus.

While marching in this year’s Fourth of July parade, fellow campers and I, along with our fun-loving counselors, will be all thinking about Helen Lamb. The founder of Camp Jabberwocky died peacefully in her summer cottage in Oak Bluffs last August at the age of 97. Sadness engulfed us when we learned of her passing. This summer Camp Jabberwocky will remember, and celebrate, her life.

An eight to ten-foot blue shark was spotted meandering the shallow waters of Dogfish Bar in Aquinnah on Saturday afternoon.

Benny Syslo, 20 of Chilmark, was out fishing for striped bass and bluefish with longtime friend Cam Alexander of Vineyard Haven in Mr. Syslo’s 21-foot Carolina Skiff on Saturday. At about 3 p.m., Mr. Syslo spotted the shark swimming close to the surface. The fish came into water as shallow as three feet, he said. They followed it for about a half hour.