On Feb. 17, 1880, Cottage City became the only town in the state of Massachusetts to secede — ironically due to taxation without representation, the same reason the new United States ended its relationship with Britain.

There are so many memorial benches lining the Inkwell and Pay beaches all the way down to the Steamship Authority that one loses count over such a distance.

The hyperbole journalists delighted in at the advent of Oak Bluffs placed it on a level with Paris or Rome, comparing the new town with paintings by Monet in the 1870s.

Alas, with the halls decked out for the holidays all around town, I’m chagrined that Circuit avenue’s historic next door neighbor, the Camp Ground isn’t too — imagine that fairyland festooned with lights!