If it weren’t for the war.

Fifty years ago this winter, in February, 1958, I began my journalistic career as editor of a fledgling monthly newspaper, the Springdale News. I had just turned eleven.

A key ingredient to increasing readership is a crackerjack staff. We engaged correspondents from New York, California and Scotland. And that’s where this story starts.

How does one find a pen pal from Scotland?

EXCELLENT SUMMARY

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The story about the Edgartown Great Pond Estuaries Study was an excellent summary of a problem that has been (visibly) developing for years. Omitted, however, is the contribution of acid rain to nitrogen loading (see Wilcox Report to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission circa 1998?).

50 Years Ago:

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of November, 1957:

Hi, I am the editor for this week’s Sophomores Speak Out. Students have chosen to write about a variety of topics this week about events happening all over the world. We have written about international tragedies like Darfur and Richard McAuliffe has written a response to Eric Fletcher’s piece that appeared on Nov. 16 asking why should we help Darfur. School shootings in Germany, stun guns that kill and the aftermath of a cyclone that swept through Bangladesh are all covered as we considered the state of the world while giving thanks in our own lives.

T wo weeks ago a group of Vineyard farmers , selectmen, county commissioners and other Islanders interested in farming heard about the advantages of setting up an agricultural commission from a delegation of representatives involved in agricultural commisions elsewhere in the commonwealth. Vineyarders attending this workshop felt that there was enough merit in the idea to put together a proposal for how this could be done on the Vineyard.

Rarely does the genteel card game of bridge merit both a news story on the front page of the arts section and an editorial in The New York Times, but that’s what happened recently during a raging controversy over free expression.

Lorraine Parish has been an Island fashion presence for nearly three decades, but it was her personal spirit rather than her designer’s eye which last month put her in front of a film crew, shooting the pilot for a television series on baby boomers.

The hour-long Public Broadcasting System (PBS) show, yet untitled, is being edited for broadcast in Boston area. Laurie Donnelly, executive producer of the pilot and for lifestyle entertainment at Boston’s WGBH-TV, is teaming up with AARP magazine to chronicle the lives of boomers today.

Bank of Martha’s Vineyard, a division of Sovereign Bank, is pleased to announce the promotions of Kim Klaren to Chilmark community banking manager and Jim Irwin to Edgartown Four Corners community banking manager.

The kickoff workshop for the Island Plan built environment work group will be held on Monday, Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission office in the Olde Stone Building in Oak Bluffs. This is one of the second series of work groups being launched by the Island Plan steering committee.

For decades, the Vineyard’s exceptional natural environment has been the focus of considerable study and effort. Does our equally remarkable built environment merit an equivalent attention?

At night the Earth loses all its importance.

Then the Vineyard, surrounded by a black ocean, isn’t just any island — it’s an Island amid the stars. And it’s the best viewing stand.

When the light of twilight fades, the Milky Way, our galaxy, becomes the Island’s neighborhood. Star clusters, comets and nebulae become a part of the Vineyard’s vivid landscape and the skyline of Cape Cod slips farther away. Hyannis, New Bedford and the city lights in which they bathe don’t matter here.