About a year ago I was channel surfing, and I came across a familiar voice. Anne Carmichael Lemenager was broadcasting a girls field hockey game. I was impressed. She was really good.
Niantic Park is one of 54 named parks in Oak Bluffs and one of the nine original parks in Robert Copeland’s first plan of Oak Bluffs in 1866–1867. The others were Hartford, Hiawatha, Nashawena, Naushon, Ocean, Pennacook, Petaluma and Waban.
The life of Emma Carmichael was celebrated at the East Chop Tennis Club on Sunday, July 26. The Reverend Cathlin Baker presided over the service. The clubhouse was packed.
Oak Bluffs’ legacy as a religious retreat may have started when Jeremiah Pease helped found our city in the woods in 1835 for the Methodists, but the religious tolerance and freedom we enjoy has a typically ironic legacy. In 1641 King Charles’ conflicting religious antics had caused many of his subjects to flee, some of whom landed at Great Harbor (the town we know today as Edgartown).
Saturday July 18 was an exciting day at the East Chop Tennis Club. Between sets in the men’s singles finals (Mark Willis eventually defeated Zach Wooster 6-3, 6-4), Court one was dedicated to J. Bushnell Richardson Jr.
Ogkeshkuppe, the original name of Oak Bluffs, has always been a religious place, a highlight of which is a historic rock — Pulpit Rock — located near Pecoy Point. Much evidence supports it being located down Pulpit Rock Road, on the left amid a stand of trees on the way to the point.
What a first date! In 1981 Skip Ivison took his future wife Leigh to a small restaurant in Chadds Ford, Pa. On the way home from the restaurant, Skip asked Leigh what she would like to do next. “Let’s drive to Martha’s Vineyard,” Leigh replied.
I have come to think of it as our Amherst connection. It began 15 or 20 years ago when our nephew Wes Dripps was a geology major at Amherst College. Craig and Betsy Dripps, Wes’s parents, became friends with one of Wes’s professors, Dr. Anna Martini, a hydrologist. She was looking for a field trip for her students, and Craig had the perfect project. Crystal Lake.
The Loft at Dreamland, one of Oak Bluffs’ newly renovated treasures, has had a long history of entertainment. Today it’s an adult lounge/game room following a time as an event/concert hall. It had lain fallow after the old Game Room was resurrected on Circuit avenue as Ryan’s Amusements.
