Time Machine Terms
August 10, 1976
Furious Hurricane Belle Blows in; the Vineyard Battens Down
High winds, high tides, and heavy rains battered the Island last night as hurricane Belle swept destruction across New England.
Packing winds 100 miles per hour or better and rainfall in excess of five inches, and traveling at 25 miles per hour, the hurricane was a powerhouse, even if it was little - only 75 miles across.
July 2, 1976
Gen. Charles Grey Brings Revolution to the Island
Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote, “It doesn’t matter that it can’t last, that we don’t find it more often. To know that there has been such perfection - it is worth living for. It exists. It has been - it is. One can contemplate it and feel a complete peace.”
We reach into the past to uncover characters, words or deeds that may reaffirm our belief in the principles of our nation or the lifestyle of our Island. We try to create an idyllic past - the ‘perfection’ of which Mrs. Lindbergh wrote - so that we may strive toward an idyllic future.
June 4, 1976
Opening of New Cronig’s Market Planned in July
The Cronig brothers are expanding again. Robert and David Cronig, who inherited their father’s grocery business in Vineyard Haven’s center in 1956, have enlarged their Main street market twice. And now they are building an even larger market outside of town on State Road.
May 14, 1976
The School Superintendent: Man of Questions and Humor
His education began in the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania, in small towns like Shepton and Port Carbon.
He had come to the smoky mining areas of the state as a young lad from Front Royal, Va., his birthplace, a small resort community nestled in the Blue Ridge mountains. His father was a successful auto mechanic after long military service in the army.
November 7, 1975
Funds Are Sought for Saving Effort
The trustees of the two-year-old Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Society have begun a campaign - low-key, by mail - for funds and something besides.
“At the moment we are preparing a federal tax exemption application requesting tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service,” says a letter signed by trustees Paul R. Anderson and C. Stuart Avery. “In making this request we are anxious to show the Internal Revenue Service that what started out as an interest of a group of people does have public support and is likely to continue to do so.”
November 7, 1975
Dial Phones Come to Cuttyhunk - or You Get It Alpheus
Cuttyhunk now has the latest in telephone equipment. Islanders may even be listed in the directory next year, but at least one of its telephone problems isn’t yet solved. Getting ahold of town government takes a little luck and a lot of time.
A year ago, if a resident here wanted to call out, he had only to walk to the nearest of the seven pay stations, and, if that one of the two Island circuits wasn’t busy, crank the ringer handle to tell the operator in New Bedford he wanted to make a call.
June 27, 1975
Steamer Nobska Baltimore Bound
As the steamer Nobska slipped past the Chops on the ebbing tide late yesterday afternoon, there was none of the celebration that greeted her arrival in these waters just about 50 years ago.
Her decks were empty, her boilers cold. When she left Nantucket slip yesterday she didn’t sound one long blast on the steam whistle people hereabouts have come to know as hers just by the sound - she was on the end of a Coastline Towing Company hawser.
June 27, 1975
A Night for Celebration — JAWS Begins at Its Beginnings
It was a night for celebrating. The sky was clear, and the waxing moon was in competition with the stars of the sky, the stars of the screen, and the stars of the Island, and into this perfect setting (or set) went Islanders in best bib and tucker to see the premiere of their very own movie, Jaws.
It had to be a benefit, (these big things always turn into benefits) and it had to be for the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital because that needs more money than other Island organizations.
June 13, 1975
Dr. Sidney N. Riggs, Artist, Dies at 83
Dr. Sidney Noyes Riggs, educator, writer and artist, died at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital Sunday after a long period of failing health. He was 83 years old. His place in Island life for many years had been one of manifold useful activity and wide friendships.
May 23, 1975
Copter Is Saved: Rescue Craft Itself Is Rescued Thanks to the Harbormaster
This time on purpose, United States Coast Guard officers came to Martha’s Vineyard Wednesday night, to say a fervent thank-you to an Island harbormaster.
He is John M. Edwards of Edgartown, and he earned the citation presented to him at a ceremony in the board room of the Co-operative Bank by delivering a Coast Guard helicopter to safety from a forced landing at night on the rip-swept open sea off the Katama beach.
