After a long preseason, high school sports began in earnest last week. This weekend football and boys’ soccer play at home, with football taking on Brighton at 1 p.m. on Saturday, and boys’ soccer playing a home rematch against Nauset Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
Football

Playing before a large home crowd at the Daniel McCarthy Field, the Vineyarders took a 21-0 loss to visiting Bedford during last Saturday’s season opener.

Greta is a great dog. That is the consensus of the staff and volunteers at the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard. She is a medium-sized bundle of love with a grizzled but soft coat, a tail that starts thumping when you speak to her, and big brown eyes. Her intelligence shows in her expression and in her eagerness to please She is crazy about people, including the small ones, is indifferent to cats, and would prefer to be the only dog in the household.

It was a bright, late summer day as the fleet sailed north from Vineyard Haven on an 18.7-mile course that would take the boats across the sound then off to the east to Wreck Shoal where they would continue on southward and westward legs that would test each skipper’s ability to cope with differing winds and tides. - See more at: http://mvgazette.com/news/2013/09/12/fast-and-flawless-sail-wins-moffet-race#sthash.heOGm8du.dpuf

The gray-shingled shack that sits in front of the
Edgartown Yacht Club in the harbor goes unnoticed by most visitors to the Vineyard, but during the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby it comes to life for four short weeks when fishermen bring their fish in for the morning and evening weigh-ins. Twice each day they come to the derby headquarters and get their fish recorded in the official database.

The Rotary Club of Martha’s Vineyard is completing its 24th year of service to Vineyard communities and residents. This has been an extremely busy and positive year for the Rotary Club. Beginning in June, new officers were selected at the annual induction ceremony held at Martha’s Vineyard Sailing Camp. The officers are Rolfe Wenner, president; Dan Larkosh, president elect; Paul Watts, vice president; Adam Wilson, treasurer; Christine Baker, secretary; Mark Luce, sergeant at arms.

Last summer, my mother came across this photograph of the painter and longtime seasonal Vineyard resident Thomas Hart Benton while rummaging in her house on Menemsha Pond. It was taken in the summer of 1960 by my father, Wally Scheuer (who died in 2004), on his motorboat, either on Menemsha Pond or the Vineyard Sound.

My parents and paternal grandparents were friends and neighbors of the Bentons, with adjoining properties straddling the then-Chilmark-Gay Head town line just east of Herring Creek.

I pick what’s left

off a wave’s last edge:

blue wood bullet,

two white eyes

and brass rings.

Hooks gone.

Pop, it’s one

you could have used

and lost

like we lost you.

Something in deep

grabbed hold

would not let go —

then the line snapped

and you were gone.

— Warren Woessner

It was almost Labor Day and we were hoping to get through the summer without too much drama at least until we got to the annual I’m Sorry I Called You What I Called You on Broadway in July but I Was Stressed Out dinner, which would come right after. But that was not to be.
Every year we launch 92-year-old Jack Farnsworth’s little wooden skiff and tie it up to the dock so that he can sit down there and look at it and perhaps tell the summer tourists a few lies about his adventures in it some years ago.

True story. It’s early on a Saturday
morning in late August on Main street in Vineyard Haven. The sun is shining down on at least a dozen adults and children taking coffee and munchies back to their boats. They are heading toward Owen Park. The first squawk sounds low and short. Then it starts up and raises its pitch. More like a keen than a commentary. Squawk. Squaaawk. Squaaawkkkk!

Where is it coming from? Up in the trees? On someone’s roof? Concern riffles through the group. An animal is in trouble! A turkey is stuck somewhere!

The “Season” is closing fast. Labor Day brought thousands of people to Oak Bluffs and it is surprising how quickly they were absorbed and became a part of the community. There were large crowds at the Tivoli, the two theaters, the skating rink, the bowling alleys and the band concerts. The churches were well filled on Sunday. The bathing beaches were crowded with bathers on Sunday as well as on Monday by those who came from cities for the weekend and Labor Day vacations.