Time Machine Terms
December 10, 1976
Gay Head Voters Authorize Transfer of Common Lands
By one vote short of a two-thirds majority, Gay Head voters last night ordered their selectmen to move forward toward turning the town Common Lands over to the Tribal Council.
The matter is far from an end, still. Ahead lie negotiation, General Court legislation, more town meeting votes, and possibly, countersuits.
But once the common land is transferred, the pending suit by the Wampanoag Tribal Council of Gay Head against the Town of Gay Head will be mooted.
September 24, 1976
Islands Trust Bill Dies in House Subcommittee
The Nantucket Sound Islands Trust bill died in Congress Thursday after more than four years of divisive and often bitter debate over proposed federal legislation to protect fragile coastal areas of the Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands.
The legislation, passed by the Senate last December, evaporated in the House subcommittee on national parks and recreation during a morning hearing to prepare the Trust Bill for consideration by the full House committee on interior and insular affairs.
September 21, 1976
Mr. Shorter Addresses the Faculty
Those of us who aspire to teach must never cease to learn, and I would hope each of us will work constantly to improve our craft.
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.
