Radio Play Auditions

The Vineyard Playhouse is holding open auditions today, Friday, Nov. 21 from 4 to 6 p.m. for the supporting roles in Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life–The Radio Play by Philip Grecian. Auditions are at the playhouse, 24 Church street in Vineyard Haven, for older teens, men and women, plus children ages 11-14. The show runs two weekends from Dec. 12 to 21. For details, call 508-693-6450, extension 18.

The annual Oak Bluffs tree lighting ceremony will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 3, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The community is invited to this free event, beginning with caroling at 6:30 p.m. at Post Office Square. The Vineyard Classic Brass Ensemble will perform a medley of traditional holiday carols and board of selectmen chairman Ron DiOrio will officially light the town tree.

Peacecraft holiday craft sale will be located at 9 Beach Road in Vineyard Haven this year, opening the day after Thanksgiving and running through Dec. 24. Organizers hope to recruit enough volunteers to be open daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

In this year-long serialized novel set on the Vineyard in real time, a native Islander (“Call me Becca”) returns home after two decades to help her eccentric Uncle Abe keep his landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. Abe has a paranoid hatred of Richard Moby, the chief executive of an off-Island wholesale nursery, Broadway. Convinced that Moby wants to destroy Abe personally, and all Island-based landscaping/nursery businesses generally, Abe is obsessed with “taking down” Moby.

November is an unusual time to open an art gallery on Martha’s Vineyard. The summer crowds, with their disposable incomes and endless leisure time, have been replaced by the year-round residents with their bills and 40-hour work weeks. And in this economic climate, with art markets large and small starting to feel the trickle-down effect from the crisis on Wall Street, artists and dealers alike might find themselves seeking shelter from the storm with other pursuits, or even abandoning ship all together.

Temperature: Precip.

Day Max. Min. Inches.

Fº Fº

Nov. 7 68 53 .08

Nov. 8 59 58 .03

Nov. 9 60 55 .32

Nov. 10 59 38 Trace

Nov. 11 57 35 .00

Nov. 12 50 33 .00

The Presidential election has been a huge issue in the sophomore class and students have followed every step of the way. This week many of our writers are reflecting on what happens now that we have a new president.

There is an overwhelming sense of hope and excitement among the students expressed best on our class bulletin board entitled Yes We Can! We are facing the future feeling part of this new world and a sense that we have seen real history made mixed with a little fear for our new president.

— Elaine Weintraub, advisor

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On Veterans Day we rouse ourselves to an unusual patriotic fervor, waving flags, watching the marchers, perhaps even laying a wreath at the grave of a veteran — known or unknown — to give our thanks. Then we go home and resume our daily chores without looking back.

What can we do to really honor those that have served for their country in war? I wondered last Tuesday. The answer was not long in coming — reinstate the draft, make service to our country obligatory for every citizen.

Sovereign Nation

From Gazette editions of November, 1983:

NOT QUITE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette: